This stained-glass window at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Malverne, N.Y., depicts Mary appearing to St. Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France, as the Immaculate Conception in 1858. Catholics often pray to St. Bernadette for intercession in periods of sickness and difficult times, since she contracted cholera in the epidemic of 1854 and also suffered from asthma and other ailments throughout her life. (CNS photo/Gregory A. Shemitz) See SAINTS-INTERCESSION-PLAGUE April 2, 2020.
OFFICE FOR SOCIAL MINISTRY
“I love the poor. I love taking care of the sick … I want my whole life to be inspired by love … I shall spend every moment loving.” (St. Bernadette Soubirous)
Hopefully all our lives are blessed with experiences that inspire us to become like the saints we admire. During pilgrimages to Molokai, many visit the graves of Hawaii’s saints, Father Damien and Mother Marianne. Both were themselves migrant-pilgrims, who willingly said “yes” to dire circumstances and traveled long distances from Belgium and New York to serve the sick and dying outcasts here in Hawaii.
While reflecting on their lives and one’s own spiritual journey, some have noticed another saint prominently featured on the sacred grounds of Kalaupapa. Two stone grottos depicting images of St. Bernadette Soubirous praying to Our Lady of Lourdes are visible outside the main church and at a nearby field leading to Molokai’s topside. Why? Perhaps because these three saints share a common thread — to love, serve, and care for and with the sick, outcast, poor and marginalized in society.
While Sts. Marianne and Damien are well-known for their work with patients of Hansen’s disease in Hawaii, St. Bernadette is most widely known for her 1858 Marian apparitions in a rural village in southern France. But many may not be aware of her life story that also includes acts of love and service to the poor, sick and vulnerable — even as she herself suffered from poverty and sickness as a very vulnerable young person. Pilgrims to Lourdes are provided the opportunity to discover St. Bernadette’s inspiring story and learn more about this remarkable woman of faith and contemporary of Sts. Damien and Marianne.
St. Bernadette was born Jan. 7, 1844, in Lourdes, a small town in the scenic foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. During her short life, her family experienced both relative prosperity and deep adversity. After the French Revolution and during the time of major cholera plagues, her family fell into poverty, and by the age of 10, Bernadette found herself herding sheep and fetching wood to support her family. She was a small girl of short stature, battling chronic illnesses of asthma and cholera and later tuberculosis. In a way, her family were migrants moving from shelter to shelter, even living in a former prison cell just to stay off the streets.
Unable to attend school, Bernadette remained illiterate, spending her days at home, caring for her siblings, and battling her own health issues. After she witnessed the first apparition on Feb. 11, 1858, she faced public ridicule and threats of jail as well as jealousy, suspicion and rejection. However, she remained steadfast in her truth saying: “I have been asked to tell you about it, not to believe it.” She willingly accepted her crosses, quoting the Blessed Virgin: “I do not promise to make you happy in this life, but in the next.”
At the age of 22, she joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers because of the nuns’ dedication to caring for the sick, the elderly poor, and young girls from disadvantaged families. Even while coping with a knee tumor and lung tuberculosis, she still joyfully served as an assistant-nurse, nurse-in-charge of the infirmary, and sacristan, proclaiming: “I want my whole life to be inspired by love.” By doing ordinary acts of service in extraordinary ways, St. Bernadette has shown us simple ways of sharing God’s love to all. On April 16, 1879, Bernadette died at the age of 35. She was laid to rest in St. Joseph’s Chapel in the center of the convent garden.
On Dec. 8, 1933, Bernadette Soubirous was canonized a saint, a testament to the profound impact she had on the lives of those she served and inspired. Her devotion to the poor, the sick, and the marginalized continues to inspire people worldwide, as her life remains a shining example of love in action. Today, millions of pilgrims come from around the world to pray and drink of the spring water at the Lourdes grotto. St. Bernadette’s body remains naturally preserved in a glass casket at the Nevers convent where she died.
Saints Bernadette, Damien and Marianne’s focus on the poor continues today in many of the parish social ministries of our diocese, including St. Augustine Parish on Oahu. For more than 40 years, St. Augustine’s parishioners have been feeding the hungry through Carmen’s Kitchen, even during COVID when the ministry moved out to the street. Recently, they re-opened their feeding ministry on their parish parking lot to properly serve the vulnerable people who rely on their service. In the words of their pastor, Father Lane Akiona of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts, the same religious order as St. Damien, “The person and their well-being is our concern, hence building a relationship with them is very important. St. Augustine Parish has been doing ministry with the vulnerable for 169 years. Our purpose is to be Jesus for today in this place.”
The parish works with many community partners such as the Institute for Human Services and the John A. Burns School of Medicine, which come together every Thursday to transform the parish parking lot into a place of caring with agencies that assist the needy through mobile showers/toilets, laundry services, food, clothing, cell phone/media services, medical services, and even mobile court services for those who need legal assistance. These are ways in which the parish attempts to live their Gospel faith as Christ reminded, “Whatever you do with the least of your brothers and sisters, you do to me.”
Representatives from St. Augustine Parish will be joining other members of faith-based communities on Aug. 19 for a special in-person seminar on “Homelessness: An Effective Solution for Christians and Their Churches.” For more on St. Augustine Parish please go to their website at staugustinebythesea.com.
And for more on St. Bernadette please visit “Her story — Saint Bernadette — Sanctuary of Saint Bernadette Soubirous” (sainte-bernadette-soubirous-nevers.com).
Let us all strive to be more like these inspirational models of service and love. Although Mother Mary did not promise happiness on earth, St. Bernadette, a poor, sick, vulnerable migrant herself was able to find blessings and bliss in caring for the poor, sick and vulnerable.
Saints Damien, Marianne and Bernadette, pray for us. Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Mahalo,
Your friends at the Office for Social Ministry
