Novena to St Bernadette

The novena to St Bernadette is a nine-day prayer to the humble shepherd-girl of Lourdes — St Marie-Bernarde (Bernadette) Soubirous — who at fourteen saw the Blessed Virgin eighteen times in the grotto of Massabielle and was told, "I am the Immaculate Conception." It is prayed above all for healing of body and soul, because through Bernadette's obedience the miraculous spring of Lourdes was opened; but it is prayed too for humility, for patience in sickness, and for the grace to see God in all things, as she did. Her feast is 16 April, and the nine days before it are the classic time to make the novena. Below is the full prayer, her own words, and the story of the girl who kept the Lady's secret.

The full novena to St Bernadette

This is the main prayer of the devotion. Say it once on each of the nine days, at a fixed hour, naming your intention where the prayer opens a place for it. It asks Bernadette to carry your petition to Our Lady, who carries it to her Son — the order of grace she herself lived.

Dear Saint Bernadette, you were chosen by Almighty God as a channel of His graces and blessings, and through your humble obedience to the requests of Our Blessed Mother Mary, you gained for us the miraculous waters of spiritual and physical healing.

We now implore you to listen to our pleading prayers, that we may be healed of our spiritual and physical imperfections.

St Bernadette, place our petition in the hands of our Holy Mother Mary, so that she may place them at the feet of her beloved Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and He may look on us with mercy and compassion. (Here name your request.)

Help us, O dear Saint Bernadette, to follow your example, so that irrespective of our own pain and suffering we may always be mindful of the needs of others, especially those whose sufferings are greater than ours.

As we await the mercy of God, remind us to offer up our pain and suffering for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins and blasphemies of mankind.

Pray, Saint Bernadette, that like you we may always be obedient to the will of our Heavenly Father, and that through our prayers and humility we may bring consolation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who have been so grievously wounded by our sins.

Holy Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, pray for us. Amen.

After the prayer, the tradition adds one decade of the Rosary and the Memorare, then repeats three times the invocation of Lourdes:

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

If you do not know the Rosary, or wish to give it its full honour in this novena, see our guide on how to pray the Rosary; and if the whole idea of a nine-day prayer is new to you, begin with what is a novena.

The Memorare

Said each day after the decade:

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

St Bernadette's own prayer: the bread of humility

Bernadette left few writings, but one prayer of hers has been treasured ever since — a fitting thing to add to the novena, because it asks for exactly the graces her hidden life at Nevers was built on. Many pray it on the ninth day, or each day at the close:

O Jesus, give me, I pray thee, the bread of humility, the bread of obedience, the bread of charity, the bread of strength to break my will and make it one with thine, the bread of interior mortification, the bread of detachment from creatures, the bread of patience to bear the pains my heart suffers. O Jesus, thou willest that I be crucified — fiat. The bread of seeing thee alone in all things and always. Jesus, Mary, the Cross — I wish for no other friends but these. Amen.

This is the true measure of the devotion. Bernadette asked nothing for herself but to be hidden and to belong wholly to God; a novena made in her company should ask the same, whatever else it names.

Novena to St Bernadette for healing and for the sick

The most-brought intention, by far, is healing — and rightly, for the whole meaning of Lourdes is the healing spring the Lady told Bernadette to uncover with her hands. Bernadette herself was never healed; she carried asthma, tuberculosis of the bone, and a painful knee to her early grave, and answered those who asked why the water did not cure her: "The spring is not for me." So the novena to St Bernadette for asthma, or for any sickness of body, is prayed in her own spirit: we beg the cure with all our hearts, and in the same breath we offer the illness, if it be not lifted, for the conversion of sinners. Bring the sick person by name into the prayer where it opens the place for your request. For grave illness many join this novena to the Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes, that the mother and her little servant may plead together.

Novena to St Bernadette of Lourdes and to the Immaculate Conception

To pray to St Bernadette of Lourdes is to be drawn straight to Our Lady, for Bernadette never pointed to herself. It was to her that the Lady of the grotto gave her name — "Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou," in the old dialect of Bigorre: "I am the Immaculate Conception." The dogma had been defined by Pope Pius IX only four years before, in 1854, and a poor unlettered girl could not have known the words; the Church saw in this heaven's own seal upon the definition. A novena to St Bernadette is therefore a natural companion to the devotion of the Immaculate Conception and to the Miraculous Medal novena, which honours the same title under which Our Lady had appeared, a generation earlier, to St Catherine Labouré.

The novena to St Bernadette to the Sacred Heart

Some search for a novena to St Bernadette to the Sacred Heart — and the main prayer above already carries it: its closing petition begs that "through our prayers and humility we may bring consolation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary." Bernadette's whole vocation was reparation — the offering of her suffering to console the wounded Heart of the Redeemer. To pray this novena with that intention, dwell on the last paragraph, and join to it, if you wish, the Novena to the Sacred Heart or the Novena to the Immaculate Heart.

A shorter novena to St Bernadette

For children, for the sick who tire quickly, or for a busy day, the tradition also keeps a short form, drawn from the old prayer-books:

O dear little St Bernadette, humble little shepherdess who wonderingly beheld the lovely Lady of the grotto, pray for us to Our Lady of Lourdes, that she may heal us of our ills. St Bernadette, pray for the sick and the afflicted. Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

Said once a day for nine days, with three Hail Marys added if time allows, this is a complete and worthy novena. Length is never the measure of a prayer.

How to pray the 9-day novena to St Bernadette

A novena is nine days of the same prayer, prayed with one intention. Keep it simple and steady:

• Choose your nine days. The classic time is 7 to 15 April, so that the novena closes on the eve of her feast on 16 April; but any grave need may be brought to her at any time of year.
• Pray at a fixed hour each day — morning or evening — so the devotion holds its place.
• Name one intention and keep to it through all nine days, offering it where the prayer opens the place for your request.
• Add the decade and the Memorare each day, and the threefold invocation O Mary conceived without sin.
• Pray in submission. Bernadette was not cured, and she called it a grace. Ask for the healing you long for, and in the same breath say, with her, fiat — thy will be done. A novena obtains not always the thing we name, but always what is best for the soul.

There is no need for a printed sheet: the full text above is the whole of the 9-day novena prayer, and can be kept on a phone or copied out by hand.

Who was St Bernadette Soubirous?

Marie-Bernarde Soubirous — Bernadette — was born on 7 January 1844 at the Boly Mill in Lourdes, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, the eldest of nine children of a miller who lost his mill and sank into poverty. She was small, sickly, asthmatic, and could neither read nor write; when the apparitions began she did not yet know her catechism well enough to make her First Communion. The family lived in a single damp room, a former prison called the cachot, that no one else would rent.

On 11 February 1858, gathering firewood by the river Gave at the grotto of Massabielle, the fourteen-year-old saw a Lady "young and beautiful, beautiful above all," standing in a niche of the rock with a rosary over her arm. Between that day and 16 July 1858 the Lady appeared eighteen times. She asked for penance and prayer for sinners, told Bernadette to have the priests build a chapel and lead processions there, and bade her drink and wash at a spring — where, when Bernadette scratched at the mud with her fingers, water welled up that flows to this day and has been the occasion of countless cures. On 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation, the Lady at last gave her name: "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Bernadette bore three years of interrogation — by the parish priest, the police, the imperial prosecutor, doctors who thought her mad, and crowds who thought her a saint — with an unshakeable, unadorned honesty; she never varied her account and never sought anything from it. In 1862 the Bishop of Tarbes declared the apparitions worthy of belief. To escape the fame that pressed on her, Bernadette entered the Sisters of Charity of Nevers in 1866, far to the north, where she asked to be "hidden." She worked in the infirmary and as sacristan, suffered greatly and long, and answered a superior who asked if she was proud of her visions: "The Blessed Virgin used me like a broom. When you have finished sweeping, you put the broom back in its place, behind the door."

She died at Nevers on 16 April 1879, aged thirty-five, kissing her crucifix and saying, "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, poor sinner." Her body, exhumed in 1909 and again in 1919 and 1925, was found incorrupt, and lies to this day in a glass reliquary in the convent chapel at Nevers. Pope Pius XI beatified her in 1925 and canonized her on 8 December 1933 — fittingly, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception. She is the patron of the sick, of shepherds, of the poor, and of those mocked for their piety. Because she saw Our Lady, she is a sure friend to bring to Our Lady; because she suffered without cure and called it grace, she is a sure friend to the incurable. The girl who kept the Lady's secret keeps ours too.

Frequently Asked Questions

When do you pray the novena to St Bernadette?

The classic time is the nine days before her feast, from 7 to 15 April, closing on the eve of 16 April. But a novena to St Bernadette may be prayed at any time of year for any grave need — most often for the sick, for whom she and Our Lady of Lourdes are the great intercessors.

What is the novena to St Bernadette prayed for?

Above all for healing of body and soul, since through Bernadette the miraculous spring of Lourdes was opened; and for humility, patience in suffering, obedience to God's will, and the conversion of sinners. She is a patron of the sick and of the poor, and the natural intercessor for anyone praying for a cure.

Is there a novena to St Bernadette for asthma?

Yes — many bring their asthma and lung ailments to her precisely because she suffered from asthma and tuberculosis herself and was never cured, offering her illness for souls. Use the main prayer above and name the affliction where it opens the place for your request, asking for the cure and offering the suffering in the same breath, as she did.

What did the Lady say to St Bernadette?

At the eighteen apparitions the Lady asked for penance and prayer for sinners, for a chapel to be built at the grotto, and for the spring to be uncovered. On 25 March 1858 she revealed her name: "I am the Immaculate Conception" — confirming the dogma Pope Pius IX had defined only four years before.

Why was St Bernadette never healed at Lourdes?

Because, as she said herself, "the spring is not for me." She carried asthma and painful bone disease to an early death at thirty-five and did not ask to be cured, offering her suffering for sinners. This is the heart of her holiness, and why the incurable find in her so understanding a friend.

When is the feast of St Bernadette?

Her feast is kept on 16 April, the day of her death at Nevers in 1879 (in France and some places she is also honoured on 18 February). The apparitions themselves are commemorated on 11 February, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.

Is St Bernadette's body really incorrupt?

Her body was exhumed three times — in 1909, 1919, and 1925 — and found remarkably preserved. It rests in a glass reliquary in the chapel of the convent at Nevers, where it may still be venerated. The Church took this among the signs in her cause; she was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1933.

Pray this novena to St Bernadette with day-by-day reminders, the Rosary, and audio in the Iter Fidei app. Download it here.

Sources. The traditional novena prayer to St Bernadette and the short form O dear little St Bernadette from the traditional Catholic prayer-books; the Memorare; the prayer of St Bernadette Soubirous, O Jesus, give me the bread of humility; the definition of the Immaculate Conception (Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, 1854); the beatification (1925) and canonization (Pope Pius XI, 8 December 1933) of St Bernadette; Luke 1:38 (fiat) and the words of Our Lady at Massabielle.