The day I saw St. Bernadette in the flesh

MANILA, Philippines - My formative years were very Catholic. My room in our ancestral home in Bulacan was at the back of our mini chapel that included an ivory Virgin Mary, a variety of saints, holy relics and a 300-year-old life-size Jesus Christ that is the star attraction of the yearly Holy Friday procession in our town. I was reared religiously by a novena-devout grandmother and by the St. Paul’s sisters where I attended elementary school. From age seven until I was in high school, I was a sacristan in our hometown and in San Beda College where half of my 

high school years were spent. I failed two subjects in my sophomore year in San Beda and made the major decision of entering the seminary to pursue my secret desire to enter priesthood. Within the year I stayed at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Guiguinto, Bulacan, I was able to watch a black-and-white movie Song of Bernadette that made a profound impact on me and instilled a yearning to visit the place where it all happened.

Three decades later, my compadre-cum-travel buddy Joey de Leon and I visited Lourdes where the story of Bernadette happened in the mid-1800s. 

Lourdes, located in the southwestern region of France, is a 537-kilometer drive from Paris with a population of only 15,000. It plays host yearly 

to over five million devotees to Our Lady of Lourdes. It also has the distinction of having the most number of hotels (270) on a per kilometer basis, after Paris. We toured the sanctuary of Lourdes and visited the important spots like the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the five-domed St. Mary’s church, the dunking well where a lot of sick people were cured, the public tap area where miraculous water with healing properties flows and the grotto at Massabielle where a glowing lady appeared to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous and identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception.” Since that first apparition on Feb. 11, 1858, the Immaculate Conception appeared 18 times to Bernadette and performed miracles. To date, over 200 million Catholics have taken a pilgrimage to Lourdes. I’ve taken several pilgrimages to this holy place by myself or with others and would hand carry back gallons of the miraculous water from the grotto to give to my mother who swore it healed her of maladies. 

On my second pilgrimage to Lourdes, I wanted to pay homage to Bernadette and visit her grave since it was only fitting because she started the whole phenomenon. I found hundreds of effigies and statues of her. Her residence is now a museum but has no trace of where her remains are. I asked around and a waiter told me there was no grave because they took her out of it. I was dumbfounded with his statement. Upon research, I found out Bernadette disliked the attention she was getting from believers and detractors that she decided to enter a hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity Nevers for solitude but more importantly to serve in God’s name.

At 22, she traveled to Nevers (500 kilometers away from Lourdes) and joined the main Sisters of Charity headquarters and stayed there till she died of Tuberculosis of the bone at 35. She was buried on April 16, 1879, at the convent of St. Gildard in Nevers. Her body was first exhumed on Sept. 22, 1909, 30 years after her death, and was discovered to be uncorrupted. The crucifix and rosary on her hand were oxidized but her flesh was still supple and her body organs fresh. Her body was washed and reclothed and reburied in a new double casket.

On April 3, 1919, her body was exhumed for the second time. Her body was still intact and uncorrupted with patches of mildew. Because of this, she became a candidate for “Blessed” status. A third exhumation happened in 1925 to take relics as was a practice of the Catholic Church for “Blessed” persons on the road to sainthood. Doctor Comte who made the third exhumation published this report on the exhumation of Blessed Bernadette in the second issue of the Bulletin de I’Association medicale de Notre-Dame de Lourdes.

“I would have liked to open the left side of the thorax to take the ribs as relics and then remove the heart which I am certain must have survived. However, as the trunk was slightly supported on the left arm, it would have been rather difficult to try and get at the heart without doing too much noticeable damage. As the Mother Superior had expressed a desire for the Saint’s heart to be kept together with the whole body, and as Monsignor the Bishop did not insist, I gave up the idea of opening the left-hand side of the thorax and contented myself with removing the two right ribs which were more accessible.”

“What struck me during this examination, of course, was the state of perfect preservation of the skeleton, the fibrous tissues of the muscles (still supple and firm), of the ligaments, and of the skin, and above all the totally unexpected state of the liver after 46 years. One would have thought that this organ, which is basically soft and inclined to crumble, would have decomposed very rapidly or would have hardened to a chalky consistency. Yet, when it was cut it was soft and almost normal in consistency. I pointed this out to those present, remarking that this did not seem to be a natural phenomenon.”

Following the third exhumation, Bernadette was declared “Blessed” by Pope Pius X and her body was placed in a gold and crystal reliquary. Sainthood was finally bestowed on her by Pope Pius XI on Sept. 8, 1933. The movie Song of Bernadette that inspired me to do the pilgrimage was released in 1943 and the actress Jennifer Jones who portrayed Bernadette won an Oscar for Best Actress.

Some 248 kilometers south of Paris is the sleepy commune of Nevers. Also known as Noviodunum, Nevirnum and Nebirnum in ancient times during the reign of Julius Caesar, Nevers has a current population of around 50,000. It is the home of historical sites like the Cathedral of Saint Quiricus and Saint Julietta, Church of St. Etienne, Triumphal Arch commemorating the victory of Fontenoy and the Chapel of St. Bernadette within the church of St. Gildard.

On my first Nevers visit, I noticed the disparity in the number of devotees who come to Lourdes and Nevers. Where you have to queue for blocks to visit any religious site in Lourdes, there are none to view St. Bernadette and to think that she started it all. As I entered the dimly lit chapel, I was taken aback by the saintly glow that enveloped her body inside the gold and crystal reliquary. It was so magical that I almost shed tears. Her face which had a thin layer of paraffin appeared like she was only sleeping. After saying prayers, we visited the adjacent life-size replica of the grotto at Lourdes, the courtyard where Bernadette spent most of her afternoons and a mini-museum that featured some of Bernadette’s personal belongings. I swore to visit St. Bernadette if and when I returned to France.

When I got home, I planned to produce a Filipino version of St. Bernadette’s life with my compadre, producer Tony Tuviera for TV. Although the full script was written, it still remains to be shot. My second trip to Nevers happened 10 years later in the summer of 2005. I spent two days in Paris, first at Hotel California (could the Eagles have gotten their inspiration from this hotel?) near the Champs Elysees then left posthaste for Nevers. Because of the excitement, the two-hour plus drive to Nevers just went like a blur. I arrived at the chapel of St. Bernadette mid-afternoon and was once again mesmerized by her face; she seemed to be sleeping.

This visit was more delightful because I was allowed to take pictures of St. Bernadette. After saying a prayer and as I prepared to leave, I decided to make a little donation to the chapel. But I discovered that I left my wallet, passport, airline tickets and cash at the hotel. I got stressed and imagined all the troubles I would have to go through without money, passport, plane tickets and even my driver’s license. What if I got apprehended by the police on the expressway without any documents to show? I stared at St. Bernadette and mentally asked for her help before hitting the road. The two-hour drive back to Paris lasted like eternity filled with anxiety. I parked the car in front of the hotel and dashed to the front desk. The hotel manager greeted me with a smile and declared “Monsieur, I have all your money and documents.” I was relieved as I thanked St. Bernadette.