Resumo de The Song Of Bernadette

The Song of Bernadette

This book, suffused with the author Franz Werfel?s reverence, is not a fiction. Franz Werfel had vowed to sing the song of Bernadette if he escaped from the clutches of the enemies during the war in 1940. This book is a result of that vow.

Born to Francois Soubirous, Bernadette was frail in health. The Soubirous lived in penury in a condemned hovel, which had once been part of the town jail. It was no wonder that the cold dampness of the place brought on severe bouts of asthma in Bernadette.

When ordinary minds surround an extraordinary being, it is but natural that the person concerned is ?put in place?. Bernadette?s childlike simplicity was thought of as stupidity, her honesty was considered pertness and her exceptional calmness was taken as mulishness. Bernadette?s teacher, Sister Marie Vauzous, ignorant of Bernadette?s exquisite qualities, was moved to anger and resentment in the company of the girl, showering contempt and sarcasm on her. At school Bernadette was laughed at by smarter classmates for not knowing her catechism. Little could they imagine that this girl was indeed the chosen favorite of the Divine.

It was in the niche of the grotto of the cave on the river Gave that at the age of fourteen, Bernadette had her first vision of the blessed Virgin. When her sister Marie found her, Bernadette was in rapture, her breath completely stilled, her soul immersed in the effulgent radiance of the lady. Time stood still. Bernadette loved this lady with her body, mind and soul, her whole being electrified with jubilance over the lady?s graceful countenance. Thus began the chanting of the first decade of Aves at the grotto of the infamous Massabielle of Lourdes, and the relentless persecution of Bernadette Soubirous, who was to have many more visions through which the lady became a living presence to the believers.

Bernadette?s ?theatrics? disturbed the church, the law enforcers and the intellectuals alike. The Imperial Prosecutor, Vital Dutour and the Commissioner of Police, Jacomet threatened her, and at school Sister Vauzous ridiculed her.

In her penultimate visits, the lady disclosed her identity as the Immaculate Conception and bid Bernadette to drink of the water of the spring. Bernadette, not finding a spring, dug out a wet lump of earth in the grotto. Overnight, water started flowing from the hollow she had made. By next morning, people realized that it was indeed a spring. The church was greatly disturbed. Dean Peyramale called for an Episcopal commission of investigation into the happenings at Lourdes.

The first of the miracles took place when a stone man got his vision back in his right eye after applying the wet earth dug out by Bernadette, to his eye. The second miracle took place when a child took ill and the doctors declared that he wouldn?t survive. In desperation, his mother dipped him in the spring water and he was healed instantaneously.

During the last visit of the lady, Bernadette sank into the deepest of ecstasies she had undergone ever. Along with the fading lights, the lady gradually and airily withdrew so as not to cause too much pain to the blessed one kneeling at the grotto. At last Bernadette turned to the people and as though a great hand had dropped on her, sank into a swoon and collapsed. Bernadette, admitted in the hospital of Lourdes, was now hounded by psychiatrists who suspected her of insanity. But the ultimate victory of the lady was when the Emperor himself ordered the grotto, which had been sealed by the court, to be opened and the spring water to be made available to one and all.

Fifteen confirmed healings took place during this period, and hundreds recovered incomprehensively. Thousands poured into Lourdes, seeking health. Amidst all this, Bernadette, now sixteen, lived as if in a dream, not concerned with the world. Loving the most-beautiful, she ttoo had become very beautiful.

It was decided that a chapel would be built at the grotto, and having been chosen by heaven, Bernadette would have to renounce the world and take the veil. It was ironic that Reverend Mother Vauzous was now to be in charge of molding Bernadette?s soul henceforth. Scourged mercilessly by Mother Vauzous, Bernadette fell fatally ill, but recovered.

War broke out and the Sisters went to nurse the wounded soldiers at the hospitals. Day and night, the injured called out for Bernadette; such was the healing that flowed out of her. Mother Vauzous?s pride was vanquished at last when she saw Bernadette carrying the stigma of Christ, a massive tubercular tumor on her left knee. Bernadette was to suffer for seven long years.

At the age of thirty five, on Maundy Thursday, mortally ill and plagued by pain, Bernadette suddenly grew still and with astonishing force made one of those great and gleaming signs of the cross her lady had taught her. A great thrill possessed her and lifted her up and Bernadette cried out, ?I love??. As Bernadette went into her last ecstasy, all who surrounded her knew that the lady had come at last to receive her child.

After death, Bernadette?s body exhibited a state of incorruptibility. Fifty four years and many more miracles later, the canonization of Bernadette took place on the 8th of December 1933, the date of the Immaculate Conception. Sister Marie Bernarde was declared a saint on that day.

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