The Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora and the Diocese of Clonfert together with Bishop Michael Duignan will welcome relics of Little Bernadette, who had eighteen encounters with the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the West of Ireland.
Relics of little Bernadette of Lourdes will be welcomed to Loughrea Cathedral at 2pm on Saturday, September 7 and will remain there for veneration by the faithful until 4pm on Sunday, September 8.
Full details of the programme of liturgies and opportunities for prayer and confession are available at www.clonfertdiocese.ie In 1858, at the age of fourteen, Bernadette, who came from an impoverished but faith-filled family, was given the profound privilege of meeting and conversing with Mary, the Mother of God.
Between then and her early death at the early age of thirty-five, Bernadette lived a life of simplicity, prayer, and quiet devotion as a religious sister in Nevers. Always positive, always cheerful and always humble, despite continuous ill health.
Throughout these years and in subsequent decades, Lourdes has become a focus and destination for faith-filled pilgrims from across the world who come on pilgrimage there in numbers beyond counting seeking hope, healing, comfort, encouragement, forgiveness and understanding in the footsteps of Bernadette, at the feet of Mary.
On Easter Wednesday in 1879, having suffered great pain from tuberculosis in her bones and lungs, Bernadette gave up her spirit, her last words being “Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me”
She is laid to rest in the Nevers convent where she died.
