Catholics across the diocese — and beyond — flocked by the hundreds to St. Bernadette Church in Springfield Nov. 5-6 to venerate relics of the church’s namesake, St. Bernadette Soubirous.
The relics visited the Arlington diocese as part of the national “Journey of Grace” pilgrimage organized by the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France. The pilgrimage began in September and will conclude August 2027, and is the second U.S. pilgrimage of St. Bernadette’s relics.
The two-day celebration at the Springfield parish featured honorary Masses, a Nov. 5 candlelit Marian procession and abundant opportunities to venerate the relics.
Jennifer St. John, a former St. Bernadette parishioner, flew all the way from her home in Texas to venerate the relics. “Bernadette called, so I answered,” she said.
Wearing a black chapel veil embroidered with a golden image of St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes, St. John said that she has long fostered a devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes and the French saint. “St. Bernadette had asthma; I have asthma,” she said. She added that during asthma attacks, she often invokes St. Bernadette for her intercession.
Diocesan Catholics came out in droves to attend the Nov. 5 Mass and candlelit procession. “We were really excited that the relics of St. Bernadette were so close to our home,” said Elizabeth McShea. Her husband, Brendan, said that the festivities were a rare opportunity to experience Lourdes right at home. “We were stationed in Germany with the military, and Lourdes was a place we didn’t get to visit,” he said.
St. Bernadette came from very humble means, said Father Donald J. Rooney, pastor, in his homily. “She didn’t learn the alphabet until she was 14 years old. But was it because she was slow, or was it just because she was so poor and malnourished?” he said. “She was so poor she had to go live with her aunt because her dad had lost his job. They were the poorest of the poor.”
And yet, God chose St. Bernadette to carry Our Lady’s message — “I am the Immaculate Conception” — to the bishop of Lourdes, Father Rooney said. “God chose her suffering to be the instrument of his revelation.”
The Virgin Mary first appeared to Bernadette in a cave while she was gathering firewood, Feb. 11, 1858. She would go on to appear to Bernadette 17 more times, always dressed in white with a blue sash. Over the course of the apparitions, Bernadette faced criticism from her family and discrimination from others, even being threatened with imprisonment by a judge. The lady instructed Bernadette to perform certain actions, including drinking water from a spring at the cave. Bernadette dug in the ground, and a spring bubbled forth, still flowing today. At the 16th apparition, the lady revealed her name to Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” After the apparitions concluded, Bernadette went on to become a Sister of Charity, dying at age 35 April 16, 1879. Her body is incorrupt and is enshrined in a glass reliquary at the Convent of St. Gildard in Nevers, France.
Following Mass, two long lines formed to venerate the relics. At the front of the sanctuary, the relics stood on a pedestal, housed in a golden reliquary bearing an image of St. Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes. Before the pedestal, a low table bore two rocks from the Grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes, the site of the apparitions, as well as water from Lourdes.
Baths in Lourdes’ spring waters are attributed to thousands of healings of the sick and infirm, with the church deeming 72 as miraculous.
The faithful knelt before the relics, touching rosaries and prayer cards to the rocks before blessing themselves with the water.
A candlelit Marian procession followed Mass, with four ushers bearing a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, as the faithful prayed a rosary. In between the decades, all raised their candles in the air and sang, “Ave, ave, ave, Maria.”
Father Jonathan Smith, chaplain of Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Potomac Shores, attended the procession with one of the school’s families. “When I was in high school, I went to Lourdes on a little pilgrimage with my grandmother,” he recalled. “Having that connection with Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette, I wanted to come and see the relics and venerate the relics.”
Kelvin Herrera, a parishioner of Holy Family Church in Dale City, brought his brother Franklin, who is in the process of entering the church. “It’s a blessing to have the relic of a saint (visit),” he said.
Herrera added that St. Bernadette’s faithful example provides a blueprint for 21st-century Catholics. “Many of us might not be able to accomplish extraordinary things per se, but if we’re all able to do our small part in implanting a little goodness in this world, we can all become a great saint like St. Bernadette one day.”
Donofrio can be reached at anna.donofrio@catholicherald.com.
