Retracing the steps of St Bernadette
Pilgrims complete their 150 km walk from Lourdes to Nevers in honor of St Bernadette Soubirous
Retracing the route taken by St Bernardette Soubirous in 1866, a small group of 15 pilgrims walked in silence for 150 km through the wheatfields and thickets of central France from Lourdes to Nevers.
Jean-Claude, wearing a bucket hat and sandals that relieve his sore, blistered feet, tells his story with emotion.
For this sixty-something from Poitiers, who has roamed the roads of France as a seasonal farm worker and volunteered much of his time at the Cité Saint-Pierre in Lourdes, and in Nevers, Bernadette represents a precious companion in his spiritual life.
“I discovered Bernadette when I was a teenager. I was on my first journey to Lourdes. Coming from a family of very modest means, I was deeply moved by the story of this young girl. She had lived in poverty, and, despite the attention she excited after the apparitions, she remained humble, chose to live simply. And she continued to seek Christ by coming to Nevers.”
Like Jean-Claude, most of the pilgrims who walked the 150th anniversary commemorative route this week are not natives of Nevers. But all have a special connection with the town’s saint, canonized in 1933.
“I have heard stories about Bernadette since I was a child, and I appreciate her simplicity and common sense,” confirms Marie Gayrard, a 57 year-old farmer from near Albi, who walked with her sister who lives in the region, both wanting to “gain insight” into the life of Bernadette in Nevers.
That, indeed, was the goal of this pilgrimage to Nevers. Each day, the pilgrims meditated on an excerpt from the Private Notes of Saint Bernadette and followed a lesson proposed by Sister Martine Gobeau, a Sister of Charity of Nevers, and a member of the Saint Gildard Convent, which welcomed Bernadette while she was only a novice.
In coming years, organizers hope to create an association to signpost and maintain a pilgrim trail over the full distance between Lourdes and Nevers.
The journey proposed is first and foremost a spiritual one. “Of course in 1866, when Bernadette entered the convent, she arrived by train,” smiles Sister Martine Gobeau. “But walking lets us take our time.”
“Bernadette is not a saint by virtue of the apparitions in Lourdes”, she reminds us. “She became a saint in Nevers, through thirteen years of ordinary, mundane life, but a life given over to Christ! Her Marian spirituality led her to a profound union with Jesus. She sought God everywhere, in all things.”
In this spirit, the pilgrims walked the route leading to the cathedral city of Nevers.
“What I like about Bernadette is her spontaneity and her joyful peace, her true acceptance of the life which she was given,” explained Élisabeth Chervet, 60 years old, who is a consecrated virgin and lives in Paris. “Like her, I felt called to Lourdes. Then, I wanted to see the place where she spent the rest of her life.”
For the city of Nevers itself, however, there is also a tourist interest in the venture.
“Proposing a permanent trail may attract pilgrims,” hopes Sophie Vitoux, in charge of the volunteers at the Espace Bernadette, the association that hosts pilgrims at the Saint Gildard Convent.
“Unfortunately, many tourists and pilgrims, whether from Lourdes or Nevers, do not know that Bernadette’s body is on display here in a glass case!”
“If Nevers becomes the end point of a pilgrims’ trail, the pilgrims may stay longer,” hopes Sister Martine Gobeau, who regrets the way certain tour operators schedule only a quick stop there.
Ultimately, creating such a trail could help calm the controversy fueled by local government officials from the Lourdes region who want to see Bernadette returned to their city.
Nevers and Lourdes are inextricably connected, maintains Chantal de Thoury, a young retired woman who walked her own route between the two cities last autumn, bearing the intentions of her family and friends.
“Lourdes is a mirror of the events that take place in our lives. But then we need to learn to live day-to-day, as Bernadette did in Nevers.”
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