Lourdes
The girl who saw the Lady
Eighteen episodes on a fourteen-year-old asthmatic peasant girl from French Bigorre, who saw a Lady at a riverside grotto in eighteen fifty-eight, was tested by police and bishops, then disappeared into a remote convent for thirteen years until tuberculosis took her at thirty-five.
18 episodes · Narrated in English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and German
Episode 1 is free
Episodes
- 01
The Miller's Daughter
Lourdes, in the foothills of the Pyrenees. A girl is born at the Boly mill, to a couple who married for love.
- 02
The Cachot
Lourdes, in the months of misery before the apparitions. A family of six lives in a single room. A girl is sent away to the countryside.
- 03
Catechism
Lourdes, in the first weeks of 1858. Lessons with the Sisters of Charity. A catechism hard to learn by heart. The girl's return to the cachot.
- 04
The Eleventh of February
Massabielle, on the Thursday before Lent. A girl sees. A mother does not believe. Holy water as a test.
- 05
The Fortnight
Lourdes, six days in a row at Massabielle. Four silent apparitions and a promise in Bigourdan.
- 06
Penance and the Spring
Massabielle, two days in a row during Lent. Three words repeated. The girl digs in the mud. The spring that never stops flowing.
- 07
The Eight Thousand
Massabielle, the first days of March. The crowd reaches eight thousand people. The first cure. The request for a chapel.
- 08
Jacomet, Dutour, Massy
Lourdes, four months of that spring. Three civil authorities. Three attempts to silence the girl. Three failures.
- 09
Era Immaculada Councepciou
Massabielle, the feast of the Annunciation. A question asked again and again. An answer no one expected.
- 10
The Flame and the Barricade
Lourdes, April to October 1858. The candle that does not burn. The prefect's barricade. The grotto reopened.
- 11
The Commission
Lourdes and Tarbes, 1858 to 1862. A commission of inquiry. A girl questioned. Seven cures examined. A judgment.
- 12
The First Healed
Lourdes, 1858 to 1866. Four cures. A crypt. A shrine that keeps growing.
- 13
It Isn't Her
Lourdes, 1860 to 1866. The wrong statue. The visitors who never stop. The decision to leave.
- 14
Arrival at Nevers
Saint-Gildard, Nevers, a July night in 1866. An arrival. A story told only once. A rule of silence.
- 15
Vauzou
Saint-Gildard, thirteen years of religious life. A demanding novice mistress. A novice who obeys.
- 16
The Infirmary Sister
Saint-Gildard, the infirmary and the sacristy. The assignment of prayer. Illness arrives.
- 17
The Knee and the Notebook
Saint-Gildard, 1873 to 1879. A notebook of private notes. A diseased knee. The last months.
- 18
The Sixteenth of April
Saint-Gildard, more than half a century. The death. The three exhumations. The body the doctors found intact.
How this series was researched
The narration and the place and date labels were broken down into factual claims and checked against sources: 321 claims in this series were checked against a cited source. Where the sources did not support a claim, the text was corrected or reduced to what the sources actually say.
A second, independent check then went through the whole series again.
The text was reviewed separately in each of the five languages it is narrated in.
Main sources
- Mandement portant jugement sur l'Apparition de Lourdes — Mgr Bertrand-Sévère Laurence (1862)
- Lourdes: Dossier des documents authentiques — René Laurentin (with Bernard Billet) (1957–1966)
- A Holy Life: The Writings of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes — Patricia A. McEachern (2005)
- Lourdes: Body and Spirit in the Secular Age — Ruth Harris (1999)
- Bureau des Constatations Médicales — Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Lourdes (1883–)
Tradition and debate
Where the sources are thin or disagree, the series says so. For example:
- How harshly the novice mistress, Mother Vauzou, treated Bernadette is disputed: some speak of persecution, others think books and films exaggerated it.
- Father Peyramale's first reaction to “I am the Immaculate Conception”, disbelief before conviction, is known from later accounts.
- The Lady entrusted Bernadette with secrets, which she never revealed; according to the accounts, there were three.
