Large crowds and a 'minor miracle' greet the relics of St Bernadette as they arrive in Cork
Large crowds attended the Cathedral of St Mary & Saint Anne in Cork as they waited patiently to touch the glass cover containing the relics of Saint Bernadette, to whom Our Lady is believed to have appeared in Lourdes.
Hundreds of thousands of Irish people have made a pilgrimage to Lourdes and generations of young Irish women have been named after her.
There was a ‘minor miracle’ just before the relics arrived at 4pm. A French couple on holiday in the city had been touring around and doing a bit of sightseeing.
When they arrived outside the gates of what’s commonly known as The North Cathedral, they saw the crowds and asked a garda what was going on.
Catholics Philippe Marcatel, 36, and his partner Mylene Bardiau, 38, were delighted to be told by Sergeant Tom McCarthy that the French saint’s relics were going on show.
Both are from Avignon, in the southeast of France and they’ve never been to Lourdes.
“I asked the policeman and what he told us was a big surprise. It is a bonus for our trip,” Philippe said.
A little closer to home Christian Carton, 53, made the journey from Rockmills, near the village of Kildorrery in North Cork.
“My confirmation name is Bernadette,” she said rather proudly.
“I went to Lourdes with my grandmother when I was seven. I saw the movie about her twice and I was absolutely fascinated by her life.”
Sister Máire O’Donohoe had come with her brother, Sean Dunne, from the southside suburb of Blackrock.
She visited Lourdes some years ago just before she joined the Ursuline nuns.
Sister O’Donohoe said she wanted to see the relics “as an acknowledgement of the mystery and goodness” of what happened in Lourdes in 1858 when the Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared 18 times to Saint Bernadette.
The relics of the saint are parts of her body removed by doctors when they found “it to be incorrupt". In other words, not decomposing as would normally happen.
In 1866, the Bishop of Tarbes authenticated the miracle. The same year Saint Bernadette left Lourdes and joined the Sisters of Charity in Nevers and despite being famous she wasn’t given any special treatment and didn’t ask for it either.
She got tuberculosis and died at the age of 35 in 1879. In 1925, she was officially declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
Her body is not kept in Lourdes but in a convent at Nevers, which is several hours' drive away.
Diocese of Cork & Ross spokesman Fr Tom Hayes said it had been planned to bring the relics to Ireland a couple of years ago but the covid pandemic prevented that from happening.
The relics will remain on view in the cathedral from 6am to 10am on Thursday after which they will be taken to the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Clonakilty for what will be their final showing in Ireland before being they are returned to France.
The relics have toured every diocese in the country since September.
Bishop of Cork & Ross Fintan Gavin is celebrating Mass in the cathedral on Wednesday night, as well as anointing the sick.
He will do the same again in Clonakilty on Thursday.
• Full details of the relics' Irish pilgrimage are available online at the CorkAndRoss.org Diocesan website, and also on StBernadette.ie.