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Editor’s note: In Part 1 of this series, we looked at the life of Bernadette Soubirous, the 14-year-old girl to whom Our Lady appeared in Lourdes, France in 1858. We also looked at some of her virtues and struggles. In Part 2, we continue our overview of both her virtues and her struggles.

Sense of Humor
Bernadette had a quick wit and a merry, sometimes mischievous, personality. At the convent, she often entertained the other sisters during recreation with her amusing stories and talent for mimicry. But her wit was always good-natured, never malicious or hurtful.
Her sense of humor no doubt kept her from taking herself too seriously and becoming overwhelmed by the extremes of adulation and ridicule that came with being a public figure. People often used any excuse to make her touch objects so they could have a blessed relic. Knowing their intentions, she would quip, “And after I touch it, how much more will it be worth?”

Charity
Bernadette loved nursing the sick and excelled at it. “She always had the kind word that relaxed, reassured, and got them to take their medicine,” said one of her patients. In November 1872, she was made Head Infirmarian at Nevers, a position she held until October 1873. Friendly and affectionate, she was a compassionate and understanding listener who always had an encouraging word for the troubled or homesick novices her superiors often sent to her.
In the words of one of her fellow Sisters, “I never heard her say an unbecoming word, nor fail in charity.”

Prayer
Admittedly incapable of lengthy recitations, Bernadette often repeated short prayers throughout the day, such as, “My God, I believe in You, hope in You; I love You.”
She loved common prayer, but did not practice many private devotions except the ones she considered important: Mass, Communion, and the Stations of the Cross. She placed a strong emphasis on the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and had a profound respect for priests. “The priest at the altar is always Jesus on earth,” she often said. “If you encounter a priest and an angel, the priest should be acknowledged first.”
Deluged with endless prayer petitions, she always agreed on one condition. “I also need prayers. I don’t give something for nothing!” She was faithful to the Virgin’s message of prayer and penance given at Lourdes, and offered her prayers and sacrifices to Our Lord each day for the conversion of one sinner.
Although she had some initial difficulty learning the rosary, it remained a favorite devotion throughout her life. She often recommended it to others, saying, “You will never say it in vain. Go to sleep reciting it … like little children who fall asleep saying ‘Mama.’” She was also devoted to St. Joseph and her guardian angel, and told a novice, “When you pass the chapel and haven’t time to stop, tell your guardian angel to take your messages to Our Lord in the Tabernacle.”

Silence
Although vivacious and talkative by nature, when it came to spiritual matters Bernadette found God in the practice of recollection. She had difficulty with formal meditation, but loved the Congregation’s rule of silence during specified times and would only break it for the most urgent reasons.
“Silence was one of Bernadette’s fundamental traits,” said Bishop Forcade of Nevers. “Although people delight in attributing to her countless beautiful sayings that I, for my part, have never heard, I have always observed that she suffered, like everything else she did, simply and without words.”

Devotion to Mary
Bernadette never referred to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, except when giving an account of the apparition of March 25 in which the Lady identified herself by that title. When speaking of the Blessed Virgin, she usually called her “my Good Mother,” or “my Mother in heaven.” Ironically, Bernadette’s earthly mother, Louise, died on Dec. 8, 1866 — the feast of the Immaculate Conception! Of this Bernadette said, “The Blessed Virgin wanted it that way to show me that she would replace my mother, whom I had lost.”
Bernadette’s piety towards Mary was simple, trusting, daughterly, and like everything else about her, without ostentation. She always urged others to “love her very much,” exclaiming, “If you only knew how good the Blessed Virgin is!” When asked if the Virgin was beautiful, Bernadette replied, “So beautiful that when you’ve seen her once, you can’t wait to die to see her again. … When you’ve seen her, you can’t love this world anymore.”
Most of the time, however, Bernadette spoke of the Lady of Lourdes only when asked, and then her answers were brief, objective and reserved. Over time, Bernadette’s memory of the apparitions grew dimmer, and she could no longer see a clear image in her mind’s eye. But she didn’t need a picture, because it was forever engraved in her heart.

Our Lady’s Promise
Although Bernadette rarely spoke of the Virgin’s words, “I cannot promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next,” she accepted them fully as her own personal penance. She did not consider the second part of the promise to be a guarantee of heaven, but conditional upon her doing what was required. Throughout her life, she suffered illness, frustration, separation from her family, and every public reaction to her from veneration to curiosity to harassment and ridicule. “Oh, how tiresome this is,” she would sigh. “When will they stop treating me like a strange animal?”
A considerable amount has been written, much of it exaggerated, about the complex relationship between Bernadette and her superiors at Nevers, particularly Mother Marie-Therese Vauzou. It’s true, however, that this situation was one of Bernadette’s heaviest crosses.
Mother Vauzou, despite her initial excitement at having the visionary of Lourdes join the Order, was often cold and severe with Bernadette, subjecting her to frequent humiliation and testing her almost beyond endurance.
One likely explanation was the problem presented by the entrance of so extraordinary a figure as Bernadette into the Order. The Sisters recognized the challenge of trying to treat her like any ordinary novice. Her superiors were zealous to protect Bernadette’s soul as well as the dignity and integrity of the Congregation.
Another factor was the difference in personality between Mother Vauzou and Bernadette. Mother Vauzou wanted the sisters in her charge to openly confide in her, and hoped to be privy to the innermost thoughts and soul-stirrings of the chosen one of Mary.
Bernadette’s disinclination to analyze or verbalize about the spiritual life must have greatly frustrated and disappointed Mother Vauzou. Moreover, being somewhat of a snob regarding class distinctions, she was perhaps resentful and jealous of the graces and attention that had been showered upon Bernadette, a mere peasant girl.
For Bernadette’s part, although she felt somewhat reserved and uneasy around Mother Vauzou, she loved and admired her, and suffered greatly when she didn’t receive the same affection as the other nuns.
Whether a warmer relationship with her superiors would have jeopardized Bernadette’s sanctity is impossible to say, but she eventually attained a state of detachment that allowed her to endure such psychological suffering without complaining or harboring grudges.
During a retreat, she wrote in her notes, “Work on becoming indifferent to everything my superiors or companions say or think about me. … To live for God only, for God everywhere, for God always.”

Patience and Fortitude
From the age of 6, Bernadette was plagued with various physical illnesses, including stomach and spleen ailments and asthma. At Nevers, she developed tuberculosis of the bone. An enormous tumor on her right knee caused her excruciating pain, and she suffered attacks of coughing so severe they nearly choked her. Eventually disease ravaged her entire system. Agonizing sores erupted all over her body, including abscesses in her ears that affected her hearing.
In addition to physical afflictions, Bernadette experienced a “dark night of the soul,” during which she was tormented with demonic attacks and temptations of doubt and despair. She told her good friend Julie Garros in 1873: “It’s really painful not to be able to breathe, but it’s much worse to be tortured by interior distress. It’s terrifying.”
Sr. Marthe once found Bernadette crying and inquired if she was feeling sick. Bernadette replied, “If you only knew everything that’s going on inside me. … Pray for me!” At the heart of this inner torment were her deeply disturbing, though unwarranted, doubts about the apparitions and the fear that she “might have been mistaken” about them.
Throughout all her sufferings, Bernadette remained cheerful and patient. Her first thought was always for others rather than herself. Although she accepted her afflictions with tremendous grace and courage, she did not love suffering for its own sake or voluntarily seek it out. Despite her devotion to St. Bernard, her patron saint, she admitted, “I don’t imitate him very much. Saint Bernard loved suffering, while I avoid it as much as I can.”
During the final phase of her life, Bernadette’s spirituality evolved into a state of complete abandonment to God. She removed all the holy pictures with which she had surrounded her sickbed, keeping only the crucifix. When asked why, she said, “This is enough for me.” In the throes of her deepest agony, she would clutch it and say with resignation, “Now I am like Him.”
In a letter to the Pope, she wrote, “My weapons are prayer and sacrifice, which I will grip firmly till my dying breath. Only then will the weapon of sacrifice fall, but prayer will come along with me to heaven where it will be much more powerful.”

An ‘Exquisite Soul’
The essence of Bernadette’s sanctity is beautifully expressed in the words of Pope Pius XI, who called her “a simple miller’s daughter, who possessed no other wealth than the candor of her exquisite soul.” In his homily at Bernadette’s canonization Mass, he said: “When one considers Bernadette’s life … (it) can be summed up … Bernadette was faithful to her mission, she was humble in glory, she was valiant under trial.”

Gloria Pinsker is a freelancer and member of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Horsham. You can e-mail her at GRC918@aol.com.