Today sees the first of two planned visits to locations in Tipperary for the Relics of St. Bernadette of Lourdes.
Bernadette Soubirous was born in Lourdes, a small town in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains in the year 1844. In 1858, she saw the Virgin Mary eighteen times at the Grotto of Massabielle: the Apparitions of Lourdes were authenticated in 1866 by the Bishop of Tarbes. In that same year, Bernadette left Lourdes to live out her religious vocation within the community of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers where she became seriously ill with tuberculosis of the lungs and bones. Bernadette died at the age of thirty-five and was proclaimed blessed in 1925, then a saint in 1933.
Today at 3pm the Relics will arrive in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Silvermines and remain there for veneration until 12 noon tomorrow. Between 3 and 8pm the church community will observe veneration and prayer with the Relics. At 8 o’clock Concelebrated Mass will begin and will be followed by a torch light procession around the village of Silvermines.
There will be a farewell Mass in Silvermines tomorrow at 12 noon before the relics depart for Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Childers Road Limerick for September 11th and 12th.
On September 19th and 20th the Relics will visit Holycross Abbey as part of the two month long visit to Ireland which continues until November 5th.Further information is available on the website stbernadette.ie at this link here.
