Saint Maria Bernadette Soubirous (†1879) is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and is best known for the Marian apparitions of a "small young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby garbage dump of the cave-grotto at Massabielle where apparitions are said to have occurred between in 1858. She would later receive recognition when the lady who appeared to her identified herself as the Immaculate Conception. On 29 July 1866, Bernadette took the religious habit of a postulant and joined the Sisters of Charity at their motherhouse at Nevers. She died of her long-term illness at the age of 35 on 16 April 1879 while praying the holy rosary. The Marian shrine at Lourdes (Midi-Pyrénées, France) went on to become a major pilgrimage site, attracting over five million pilgrims of all denominations each year.Bernadette is the Holy Patron of bodily illness, Lourdes, France, shepherds, against poverty, and people ridiculed for their faith. She was Beatified on 14 June 1925 and Canonized on 8 December 1933 by Pope Pius XI. Her Feast day is commemorated on 16 April, alternatively in France by some traditionalist congregations on 7 February.
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