The relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous – the 19th century young girl whose visions of Our Lady at Lourdes, France confirmed the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception – inaugurated on Sept. 18 a year-long journey across the United States with three days of public veneration at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy officially welcomed the relics to the United States with a Mass that day at the National Shrine where he recalled that Bernadette was “a young woman of faith” who was “stunned to find appearing to her a young woman of great, wondrous beauty… the Mother of God who embraced her with a mother’s love.”
The cardinal said Bernadette was similar to Mary in that she was a young woman from a small town who “taught us the pathway of simplicity towards God is through surrendering ourselves to God’s grace.”
About 1,500 people attended the midday Mass. Among the 10 priests concelebrating were Holy Cross Father Jim Phalan, the English-speaking chaplain at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France who is accompanying the relics on the tour across the United States, and Msgr. Walter Rossi, rector of the National Shrine.
The relics of St. Bernadette will be displayed at approximately 140 locations across the United States during a yearlong 2026–2027 “Journey of Grace.”
Housed in a 132-pound reliquary are fragments of two of Bernadette’s ribs, her kneecaps, and strands of her hair. The relics will be hosted at cathedrals, basilicas, shrines, seminaries, Catholic universities, hospitals, and parishes between now and next year when the journey concludes.
Forming a queue that stretched from the narthex at the front doors of the shrine’s Great Upper Church to the main altar, the faithful waited on the first day of the tour for up to an hour in a line that was never less than several hundred people deep. With walkers and in strollers, resting on canes or held gently in their mother’s and father’s arms, visitors waited to venerate the relics that were placed in front of a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes.
One tour guide remarked that the number of people lining up to venerate the relics on that first day was “beyond expectation” and included a large number of young people and families.
Once before the sacred relics, people knelt and prayed, took photos and offered their thanks or asked for favors. They touched the relics’ protective case with rosaries and other items that they carried home with them.
Looking at the crowds gathered for the Mass and for the veneration of the saint’s relics, Cardinal McElroy said, “Bernadette, a young woman of faith, reaches across the centuries to us.”
“The legacy of Bernadette is alive and thriving, not just in Lourdes, but in the hearts of those she has touched. Bernadette is calling us to be closer to Christ, to do penance,” Cardinal McElroy said, adding that the saint is a model of “Christian hope … (that) God stands with us, by our side.”
Marie-Bernarde Soubirous (who had the nickname Bernadette) was 14 years old when on Feb. 11, 1858, she had her first vision of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary at a grotto in Lourdes, France. She would later describe Our Lady as a young girl about 16 or 17 years old.
From that first vision until July 16, 1858, Our Lady appeared a total of 18 times to Bernadette. Facing ridicule and disbelief from family, friends, clergy and public officials, Bernadette relayed Our Lady’s message of prayer, repentance and a desire that a chapel be built where the faithful could go in procession. A spring miraculously appeared at the apparition site, where to this day the faithful bathe and ask Our Lady’s intercession.
On March 25, 1858, during the 16th vision of Our Lady to Bernadette, the Blessed Virgin identified herself as the “Immaculate Conception.” Commemorated by the Catholic Church each year on Dec. 8, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception teaches that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. While long believed by the faithful, it was not proclaimed an official dogma of the Church until Pope Pius IX infallibly did so in 1854, four years before Bernadette’s visions.
Bernadette would later join the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. The Catholic Church officially confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862, and Bernadette died in 1879 at the age of 35. She was declared “Blessed” in 1925 and canonized in 1933. Her feast day in the United States is April 16.
Speaking of Mary’s apparitions at Lourdes, Cardinal McElroy said during the Sept. 18 Mass at the National Shrine that “Mary, the Immaculate Conception, reaches out to us and communicates to us God’s love… she brought Christ into this world and proclaims Christ by how she follows Christ.”
Because of her answer to “the incredible question, ‘Will you become the Mother of God, the Mother of the Messiah?’,” the cardinal said, Mary “continues to live out the love of God.”
“Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God … she was not only sinless in the world, but Mary was free from all effects of sin – original sin,” Cardinal McElroy said. “Because she is the Mother of Jesus, God wanted her to be completely free of original sin and actual sin.”
The National Shrine’s hosting of the relics included a “Lourdes Immersive Experience” where over the course of the three days the faithful could visit the Chapel of Our Lady of Lourdes, attend talks, pray the rosary and participate in a procession.
Noting that it was during one of her apparitions in Lourdes that Our Lady identified herself as the Immaculate Conception, Msgr. Rossi, the National Shrine’s rector, said, “It is appropriate that this National Shrine is the first venue” in the United States to host the relics.
“We entrust our prayers to Our Lady of Lourdes and to the intercession of St. Bernadette for the sick and suffering,” Msgr. Rossi added.
Among those traveling to the National Shrine to venerate the relics was Zoe Cuadra who was celebrating her 17th birthday that day. She said she chose to mark her birthday by honoring a saint for whom she has always had a particular devotion.
“I chose Bernadette for my Confirmation name three years ago because she was around the same age I was when she saw Mary,” Cuadra said. “It impressed me that Our Lady chose someone young and poor and illiterate to appear to when she could have chosen someone richer and smarter.”
The lesson St. Bernadette teaches the faithful today, Cuadra said, is “do not be afraid to share your faith and your love for the Virgin Mary, because having a good relationship with Our Lady will deepen your relationship with her Son.”
Another visitor to the relics, Franco Brezo, said he waited “just about an hour” in line to make his petitions because “I’ve always had devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes and Bernadette saw her. This is probably the closest I will ever go to Lourdes.”
After departing the National Shrine, the relics were transferred to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Bethesda, Maryland. Other stops in Maryland include Sept.22-23 at the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes in Emmitsburg, Maryland; Sept. 24-25 at the Pastorate of Christ the King and St Bernadette in Severn, Maryland; and Sept. 25-27 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore.
When they leave Maryland, the relics are scheduled to head to Pennsylvania with a stop at Villanova University, the alma mater of Pope Leo XIV.
