St Bernadette Relics visit Ampleforth Abbey
On Monday 3rd October, a "once-in-a-lifetime" experience presents itself as the relics of St Bernadette will be displayed in Ampleforth Abbey on Monday 3rd October from 1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Watch the Relic Tour video below to find about more!
This spectacular event is part of a tour of cathedrals, abbeys and parishes in England, Wales and Scotland, which begins on 2nd September and is scheduled to end in London on 1 November.
The relics will arrive from Middlesbrough Cathedral at 1:30 p.m. and be carried in procession to the Abbey Church where the Abbot will celebrate a brief liturgy of welcome. An exhibition will be set up in the monastic cloister where visitors and pilgrims can read about the story of Lourdes and St Bernadette. From there you can enter the Abbey Church, pass close by the relic, and spend some time in prayer and reflection (we kindly ask you to switch off mobile phones when in the Abbey Church and restrain from taking photographs).
The final liturgy will begin at 4:30 p.m., after which the relics will be brought in procession to Leeds Cathedral to continue their tour.
In the Newman Room, just along from the Abbey Church, a pop-up tea room will be offering tea, coffee and biscuits. Here you will also find a small pop-up shop selling various religious items.
If you would like to register your visit to the relics, please do so here. (Please note this is not a booking system but simply provides organisers with an indication of numbers).
Relics of St Bernadette Retreat
In preparation for this unique spiritual event there will be a special retreat at Ampleforth Abbey organised by Fr Richard (former Pilgrimage Director and chaplain to the Ampleforth Lourdes Pilgrimage.
The retreat will begin at 4.30 p.m. on Friday 30 September and end on Monday 3 October. Reflections will focus on a number of aspects of the Lourdes experience, including the Apparitions to St Bernadette, the impact of Lourdes on assisted pilgrims and student helpers, and the role of chaplains and helpers. The retreat is open to both residents and non-residents, who may wish to attend some or all of the talks.
If you would like to book, please indicate whether you will be attending as resident or non-resident and click here.
Who was St Bernadette?
Bernadette Soubirous was born in January 1844 in Lourdes, a small town in the south of France. She was one of eight children born into a very poor family.
Between 11 February and 16 July 1858, Bernadette saw the Virgin Mary eighteen times in a series of Apparitions that took place in cave on the outskirts of Lourdes, a place now known as the Grotto of Massabielle. In the course of these miraculous encounters, Bernadette, then aged just 14, became the friend and confidante of Our Lady, the mother of Jesus.
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. She died in 1879, aged 35. When her body was exhumed in 1909 it was found to be incorrupt and preserved from decomposition. She was proclaimed Blessed in 1925, and a became a Saint in 1933.
The Relics
On 18th April 1925, forty-six years after her death, the body of Bernadette Soubirous was exhumed so that relics could be retrieved.
The conservation and attribution of these relics were entrusted to the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, under the vigilance of the Bishop of Nevers.
These relics were given, in the form of ex-carne or ex-ossibus fragments, by the Sisters of Nevers, to various houses of their Congregation.
The relic in the reliquary, which will travel through the United Kingdom, is an ex-carne relic, given to the Congregation of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception (Fathers of Garaison), founded in 1836. From 1866, it was this congregation which managed the Sanctuary of Lourdes, at the request of Mgr. Laurence, Bishop of Tarbes.
In 2018, the Very Reverend Father Horacio Brito, Superior General of the Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception, entrusted this relic to the Sanctuary of Lourdes. It is now in the reliquary which was made in Spain by the Maison Granda workshop. This reliquary was solemnly unveiled in Lourdes on 30th May 2019.
