St. Bernadette Soubirous Trivia Quiz

Answer: Maria

Bernadette was born Maria Bernada Sobirós, named after her mother's sister who was also her godmother. However, she was known by the nickname Bernadette all her life. She was born on the seventh of January 1844, and baptised two days later, on her parent's wedding anniversary.

Answer: Miller

Her mother was a laundress. Bernadette's mother gave birth to nine children, but only five survived babyhood and their early years. One more died at age 10. The family lived in a single room with no heating, so it isn't surprising that five children died early.

Answer: Asthma

Bernadette had cholera when she was very young, and suffered severe asthma for the rest of her life. It wasn't shocking that she contracted cholera; the Soubirous family lived in very cramped, unhygienic conditions, where diseases were common.

Answer: 14

On the 11th of February 1858, Bernadette, a friend and her sister went out gathering firewood. Bernadette lagged behind (because of her asthma) and stopped to rest for a minute. While she was doing this, she noticed a light coming from a nearby cave. Bernadette went to investigate, and there saw what she would later call the Immaculate Conception. That was the first of the apparitions.

Answer: Have a chapel built

Her local priest, Dominique Peyramale, did indeed have a chapel built for her. This gave rise to many more, and now Lourdes is filled with chapels and churches. The original one, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, is maybe the most popular. It was built three years after the visions ceased (in 1861).

Answer: 16th April

The 16th of April is also the feast day of St. Benedict Joseph Labre and St Drogo. It is Emancipation Day in Washington D.C as well. 2009 was declared 'The Year of Bernadette', because 2008 had been the 150th anniversary of the first apparition.

In France, she is honored on 18th February.

Answer: Blue

Bernadette said she saw 'a lady dressed in white with a blue girdle. She had a golden rose on each foot, and held a rosary of pearls'. On that occasion, the lady said nothing to her, but on Bernadette's next visit, the lady asked her to return every day for the next fifteen days, which she did.

Answer: A spring

The vision told Bernadette to drink from the spring. When she dug for it, she only found a muddy puddle, and tried to drink from it several times. This caused much derison from everyone watching, all of them thinking her insane. In the next few days, however, a spring began to flow from that muddy puddle, and it was reported to have healing properties.

Answer: Became a nun

Not liking all the attention, Bernadette joined a convent in 1866, when she was 22. She spent the rest of her short life there, first as an assistant in the infirmary, then embroidering altar cloths and vestments. She died of tuberculosis on the 16th of April 1879. She was only 35 years old.

Answer: 1933

She was made a saint on the 8th of December, 1933, by Pope Pius XI, 54 years after she died. Her body was exhumed three times before this, and she didn't appear to have aged or decayed at all. This probably influenced the Pope's decision.