St. Bernadette is coming to Colorado.
Later this month, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Denver will host relics of the beloved saint of Lourdes as part of their very first tour of the United States. The relics include fragments from one of St. Bernadette’s ribs and will be at the parish June 26-28. More information can be found here.
Over the course of those three days, several Masses with sprinkling of water from the miraculous spring in Lourdes, France will be offered, as will opportunities for veneration and prayer. There will also be a virtual pilgrimage experience offered on two of the days during which the faithful can receive a plenary indulgence after engaging in the experience.
St. Bernadette is one of the Catholic Church’s most revered saints, whom the Virgin Mary appeared to in multiple apparitions in 1858 at a grotto in Lourdes. During the apparitions, the once-dirty water in the grotto became clear and fresh, and that water has been attributed to countless miraculous healings ever since. The Sanctuary of Lourdes, which is traveling with the relics of St. Bernadette, will provide water from the miraculous grotto in Lourdes for use during the Masses.
This particular relic that is traveling around the U.S. was entrusted to the Sanctuary of Lourdes by Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception in 2018.
For most of her life, St. Bernadette was in fragile health due to her contracting cholera as a young child. Following the apparitions, St. Bernadette took the religious habit of a postulant and joined the Sisters of Charity at their motherhouse at Nevers, France, where she would remain for the rest of her short life. She spent her days working as an infirmary assistant, caring for those who were sick and suffering. She died at the age of 35 after being diagnosed with tuberculosis.
As the stories go, St. Bernadette passed while praying the rosary, and her dying words were: “Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me. A poor sinner, a poor sinner.” She exemplified a miraculous devotion to the Blessed Mother throughout her life; once, when asked about succumbing to temptations of pride after the Virgin appeared to her, she responded:”How can I? The Blessed Virgin chose me only because I was the most ignorant.”
Relics of St. Bernadette
June 26-28 Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Denver Full schedule and more details: lourdesdenver.org/relics