FRANCE 11 February - 20 July 2008 Virgin Mary believed to have appeared between February and July 150 years ago to French teen, now Saint Bernadette

Between 11 Feb and 20 Jul in 1858 the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared 18 times in a cave near Lourdes to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous. The Catholic Church begins year-long program on 8 Dec 2007 to commemorate the 150th anniversary. Lourdes is one of the major pilgrimage destinations in the world, attracting some 6 million visitors a year, in part because miracle cures have been attributed to the waters from the cave spring. The 150th anniversary has been flagged as a top event for the Catholic Church for 2008, so Pope Benedict XVI is likely to make the journey for at least one of the dates on which the Virgin was said to have appeared.

According to the biograghy on Catholic Online, Bernadette Soubirous was born on 7 Jan 1844 during hard times for her normally prosperous family. At 14, she began having mysterious visions of the Virgin Mary at the cave, some 18 in all. Both she and her family suffered persecution from believers, unbelievers and the civil authorities when she wouldn't recant her accounts of the incidents.

On Feb 25, two weeks after the first vision, a spring emerged from the cave and the waters were reported to have healing properties. On Mar 25, Bernadette announced that the vision stated that she was the Immaculate Conception, and that a church should be erected on the site. Many authorities tried to shut down the spring and delay the construction of the chapel, but the influence and fame of the visions reached Empress Eugenie of France, wife of Napoleon Ill, and construction went forward. Bernadette died in a convent on 16 Apr 1879, still giving the same account of her visions.

Bernadette was beatified in 1925 and canonized in 1933 by Pope Pius XI. Jan/07