Saint Bernadette Soubirous and Our Lady of Lourdes

Encounter the Saints #2

by Anne Eileen Heffernan, Mary Elizabeth Tebo, Mari Goering (Illustrator)

A biography of the young French girl who lived during the latter part of the nineteenth century and who received apparitions of the Blessed Mother. Includes a description of Lourdes today.

Genres: Christianity, Nonfiction, Biography

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have now read 28 books in the Encounter the Saints Series from Pauline Books and Media. I started reading them myself, because they were books I stumbled upon about saints I wanted to know more about. Now, my children and I are reading the whole series. Of the 28 book I have read the vast majority have been reread with one of more child. My Oldest and I read these books together, alternating pages. And I read them with the younger two. Though the middle child will now often read alternating pages also. My first time reading this book was with my son, our middle child, for his reading challenge time. It has really left an impact upon him.

This book was a surprise on many levels. I doubt you could find a Catholic who is not familiar with the name of Our lady of Lourdes. In fact, I doubt you could find someone who was raised in the western world who does not know at least the name. But this is the incredible story of God choosing a poor small girl to bring a message though Mary, first to a small town and then to the whole world. I had recently read another book on Saint Bernadette Soubirous, but was still taken by surprised by her humility, and servants heart. For my son it was an introduction to this story.

The chapters in this book are:
Poor and Small
The Wonderful Day
A Fantastic Story
More Excitement
Promises
Three More Apparitions
Interrogation
A Mysterious Force
The Miraculous Spring
Another Summons
The Request
The Chapel and the pastor
Annunciation Day
A Temporary Farwell
Decision
Still Poor and Small
Lourdes Today
Prayer
Glossary

This book follows the same format as the others in the Encounter the Saints Series. It contains the biography of the saint, a prayer to the saint, and a glossary of terms specific to this volume. It also contains 5 illustrations, the drawings are by Mari Goering, this is the first of 4 volumes she illustrated in the series. The illustrations are wonderful pencil sketches. They have a great deal of detail and my son has spend a lot of time examining the pictures.

My son was drawn to this book in a way that he has not been drawn to many others. Currently he is wearing a back brace and preparing for spinal surgery within the next year. As soon as we finished the book, he wanted to know if we could go to Lourdes and he could bathe in the spring. It was hard to explain to him that a trip there is out of the picture, but we can pray and trust God. And that is one of the big lessons we both took from this book, pray and trust.

This book does an amazing job of portraying the life of this saint in a way that can be enjoyed by any reader. Readers of all ages. The book and series are written for children but honestly anyone can read these books and have their faith encourages and challenged by the saint presented in that volume. This series is among our favorite Catholic books to read, and from 50 years of age through to 7 we love these books. Currently there are only 10 titles we have not read in the series, but we have reread some books up to four times now. So even once we finish them all we can go back and reread them again and again.

This book is an amazing book in a wonderful series as a family we give them our highest recommendations.

Read the review on my blog Book Reviews and More and reviews of other books by Pauline Books and Media, especially the Encounter the Saints Series.

Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2018 Catholic Reading Plan!

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice telling of the apparitions and St Bernadette. I only wish I would have read more about her and Lourdes before going there in college.

[Biondy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saya kebetulan pernah mendengar tentang seorang biarawati yang sudah meninggal lama, tapi jasadnya tidak membusuk. Secara acak saya membeli buku ini, supaya tidak merasa sayang dengan ongkos kirim yang dibayar untuk buku lainnya yang memang pengin saya baca, dan sekarang saya tahu kalau nama biarawati itu adalah Bernadette Soubirous.

[Boshra · Rating 5 out of 5]

هذه القصة اعجبت بها جدا. تحكي احدى ظهورات العذراء. يمكنك ان تقرأ سرد لجزء من هذه القصة الرائعة في شكل روائي في الرابط التالي:
https://egboshra.blogspot.com/2014/09...

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells of the visions of the Virgin Mary which Bernadette Soubirous experienced at Massabielle, France, in 1858.

[Alicia McCallum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this aloud to Rose, it was engaging, a good length, and really good! Beautiful story!