S. Francesco Antonio Fasani    

On March 25, 1858, around four o'clock in the morning, Bernadette Soubirous left the «dungeon,» the hovel where her family lived, to go to the grotto at Massabielle, where, since February 11th, a mysterious Lady had been appearing to her. The fourteen-year-old slipped through sleeping Lourdes, accompanied by several people let in on the secret by her aunt. Scarcely had she recited a decade of the Rosary before the grotto than the Lady revealed Herself to the girl. Smiling, the Lady motioned for her to draw nearer. Bernadette then found herself very close to the Visitor, to Whom she passed along, in her Bigorran dialect, her parish priest's insistent request: «Madame, would you be so kind as to tell me who You are?» The Apparition smiled and did not reply. A second time, the child repeated her question. The third time, the Lady, who was holding Her hands open, clasped Her hands in front of Her chest, and said, «Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou... (which means: I am the Immaculate Conception). I wish for a chapel to be built here...» Then, still smiling, She disappeared.

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