The saint who won over the sceptics
This extract from Gerard Noel's new book recounts St Bernadette's struggle to convince the authorities of the truth of the apparitions
18 April 2008

Bernadette Soubirous sits for a portrait taken in Lourdes, France, shortly before she left for the convent in Nevers in 1866

Mgr Laurence [the local bishop at the time of the visions] is reported to have the view that Bernadette's case came under the jurisdiction of the doctors, the civil authorities, or the Church. Others expressed the same view, substantially, in different terms: they said that she suffered from hallucinations, or was playing the fool, or was the recipient of supernatural favours. Since it is clearly impossible for us here to give even a skeletal account of her life, and we are more concerned in any case with presenting her in the light of the new evidence, we shall confine ourselves to the consideration of the hypotheses mentioned above as explanations of her conduct, especially at the time of the apparitions.

But first we might take a look at the impressions which certain witnesses had formed of her character and qualities. [The Jesuit investigator] Cros, who was not an uncritical judge, saw her first in April l864, when she was 20 years of age, and was impressed by her unconstrained modesty, innocence and simplicity. He also noted her great patience in suffering. He thought that she was very sick and was soon to die. He saw her again in October 1865, and this time was surprised by how young she looked: at 21 she seemed hardly more than 13. Again he noted her simplicity, her natural modesty, and added, this time, her evident candour. There seemed to him to be in her an innocence altogether beyond what was human.

The same qualities were remarked in her by l'Abbé Pène [assistant priest of the parish of Lourdes], who was close to her (and encouraging) during the period of the apparitions. He too speaks of her air of innocence and limpid candour. She was, moreover, intelligent and could hold her own in a battle of wits and adapt her mood from the serious to the joyful and vice versa. L'Abbé Pène goes on to remark how peculiarly apt her comments could be - and this must be attributed to no schooling (for at that time she had had virtually none) but was spontaneous and native in her. Indeed, of religion itself she knew very little and outside of it hardly anything at all. She was not, as was later proved, a good pupil, either because of her poor health, which prevented her from applying herself, or because her schooling had started too late. In appearance she was small for her age, under-developed, affected by asthma, and had round regular features and blue eyes.

Innocence, intelligence and ignorance: these three qualities are frequently mentioned or implied by those who gave testimony about her. Her ignorance was beyond question - as also, it seemed, her slowness to learn. At 14 years of age she could neither read nor write. She did not even know some of the principal mysteries of her religion - such as the doctrine of the Trinity.

We may now, perhaps, face the hypotheses put forward by Mgr Laurence and others: Bernadette suffered from hallucinations, or was indulging in a fraud, or was truly the recipient of unusual favours.

Of these possibilities the second was and is the easiest to dismiss. One of the inestimable services which Jacomet [the police superintendent of Lourdes] and all the other civil authorities did to Lourdes was to enable us to rule this possibility out altogether in the case of Bernadette. It is inconceivable that if she were playing a part, she played so supremely well under such minute observation for so long. It is to be remembered that Jacomet commenced his observations on the hypothesis that the whole thing was a fraud exploited by the parents and aided by her hallucinations or her co-operation. He was quite unable, despite the terrible poverty of the Soubirous family, despite every trap that he laid for them, and despite every other means that had been available to him, to find the slightest evidence to support this view. The Prefect [at Tarbes], Jacomet, Dutour [the district attorney of Lourdes] - all had to abandon this theory in the end; the quarter- master of the gendarmerie declared that he supposed that Bernadette was an "idiot" rather than anything else. He admitted that he depended for this judgment mainly on the opinion of others. Moreover he thought that her appearance was very, very common. But never could he judge her capable of trickery.

One must turn then to the possibility that Bernadette suffered from hallucinations - at least temporarily. Here again, however, we are faced with as strong evidence as can be available to the contrary, again supplied at the intervention of the civil authorities, who hoped to find against Bernadette. The three medical men who examined her, Balencie, Lacrampe and Peyrus, saw her on March 27 but, despite some pressure from the anxious authorities, did not submit their report until March 31. They were disposed to oblige the Mayor and Prefect (whose favour was useful to them), but nevertheless concluded only that the girl could be the victim of hallucination. They judged that on the one hand Bernadette had not sought to impose upon the public, and on the other that medically there was no treatment which they could suggest. The authorities did all they could do to use this report in their favour (as it was provided they should) by stating roundly that Bernadette was the victim of hallucination, but belied their words by refraining from action. Indeed the Mayor himself when writing to the Prefect on the day before the report became available said that he was in a position to inform him that the doctors did not think that the girl was ill. Another hypothesis - as far as the medical science of the time and as represented in Lourdes could ascertain - had to be discarded.

In general the doctors found her delicate and of a "lymphatic and nervous temperament". She looked two years younger than her age, was pleasant to look upon, had a lively expression in her eyes, had a small, rather narrow but regular head, suffered no headaches or nervous crises, ate, drank and slept marvellously, but was not really as well as she thought. She clearly suffered from asthma - her breathing was troubled and whistling and at times this became more perceptible.

Bernadette's mother reported in 1859 that her daughter's health had been satisfactory up to about six years old when she began to have trouble with her stomach and spleen. A midwife had suggested some medicine which had given some relief. At 10 years of age she had got cholera and since then she had been more sickly and weak than before.

While it is but just to remark that if Bernadette had been examined by a team of mid-20th century psychoanalysts, she would have received a more subtly worded report and would almost certainly have also received some treatment, there is no certainty at all that the final judgment would differ substantially: she could be a victim of hallucination.

There is left the possibility - at least for those who believe in the supernatural - that Bernadette, hopelessly ignorant, fairly intelligent, and extraordinarily innocent as she was, did have genuine apparitions.

As the story of the apparitions unfolds, Bernadette gives ever-growing proof of her dominant quality: whether one calls it innocence or detachment or candour. She appeared to some to be an obedient, a "sweet" child; to others she seemed humble and good; to others gracious, joyful and strong in character. But all remarked on her extraordinary candour. She no more allowed her own words and deeds to be embellished in any direction than she permitted complaints against those who opposed her. On April 7, 1879, shortly before her death, she was heard to say: "The simpler the description the better. I am more touched when I hear the Passion read to me than when it is explained to me." About this time she also said: "In trying to embellish things, one merely destroys their nature." This economy she carefully observed herself, despite her reported fluency of expression. And if she did not embellish, neither did she distort. In his report to Falconnet [the procureur général at Pau] on April 14, Dutour said that she lied in denying that she had claimed to cure: but he was wrong. His own judgment on other occasions was nearer the truth: it was impossible, he said, to establish her bad faith or any culpable action.

This insistence upon exactitude (so neatly rivalled by Jacomet's) is well illustrated in her references to the apparition. Bernadette, according to Jacomet's scrupulous notes, did not identify the apparition as the Virgin. In the notes, made on February 21 at an interrogation, he first calls the apparition the "Virgin" and later a "girl dressed in white", until finally he reduces it to "Aquero" (she). Jacomet may well have been corrected on this point by Bernadette, or may have taken some time to adjust himself to her modesty in describing the apparition. Others may have jumped to conclusions - but Bernadette was much more prudent. Even as late as March 2, when she had seen the apparition more than a dozen times, she still referred to the apparition as merely "she".

As Lourdes grew in strength and fame, Bernadette was withdrawn more and more into obscurity and trial. She left Lourdes forever in 1866 and died away from it, having suffered terribly before her death. Her story is that of a little village girl, deprived of everything but innocence, simplicity and the desire to serve. To her, as to another village maiden, great things were done. She welcomed the penalties of such election. As her apparition had promised her: she did not have happiness in this life. But Bernadette was well content.

This is an edited version of chapter six of New Light on Lourdes, written by Odile de Montford and John O'Meara.

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