By Jim Davis - Florida Catholic
St. Bernadette's nave has exposed roof jambs, creating a homey feel.
Two sets of borders focus attention on the large crucifix at St. Bernadette.
The Tabernacle at St. Bernadette has an engraving of a victorious lamb, for the risen Christ, framed in olive branches of peace.
St. Bernadette kneels before Mary in the rose window at her namesake church. Behind them is the chapel that stands on the site of the Marian apparitions.
The Eucharist - with a chalice, clusters of grapes, and consecrated bread marked with crosses - is shown in a window overlooking the chancel.
Several symbols share a window overlooking the chancel. They include the Holy Spirit as a dove; fish, for Christ; the cross, for his sacrificial death; and an olive tree, for his role as the Prince of Peace.
The clerestory windows at St. Bernadette depict events from the lives of Jesus and Mary. Here, the angel Gabriel announces that she will bear the Son of God.
In this clerestory window, Mary prayerfully receives the Holy Spirit for the conception of Jesus.
In this clerestory window, Mary visits her relative Elizabeth, who announces that she, too, is pregnant - with the future John the Baptist.
The Star of Bethlehem shines over the birth of Jesus, as Mary and Joseph keep watch.
Simeon blesses the Christ Child in the Temple at Jerusalem.
Joseph, having been warned in a dream, leads Mary and Jesus out of Bethlehem into Egypt.
Mary and Joseph find the young Jesus talking with scholars in the Temple.
Mary cradles Jesus' body after his death.
Mary joyfully rises into heaven in her Assumption.
A fleur-de-lis, a symbol for Mary, is the centerpiece of a faceted-glass window in the adoration chapel.
This portrait of Jesus is in the pastor's office at St. Bernadette.
Photography: JIM DAVIS | FC
HOLLYWOOD | A “small young lady,” clad in blue and white, appeared in a grotto. The sight was both inspiring and difficult for Bernadette. Inspiring, because the “lady” eventually identified herself as Mary. Difficult, because many disbelieved her.
Today, however, St. Bernadette is honored for her faith and courage in conveying Mary’s messages of prayer and penance. Her feast day is April 16.
Born in 1844, Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was the eldest of nine children of an impoverished miller in Lourdes, France. She often suffered from ailments including asthma and cholera.
At the age of 14, Bernadette went to gather firewood along with a sister and a friend when she saw a beautiful young woman in a nearby grotto. Bernadette was frightened, but the figure smiled and made the sign of the cross with a rosary of gold and ivory.
Bernadette returned to the site for several weeks, relaying the "lady's" requests: a procession, a chapel and "penance for the conversion of sinners." Bernadette's reported visions attracted more and more visitors: some believing, some skeptical, some merely curious.
At one point, she shocked onlookers by digging at the grotto with her hands, saying she was told to “drink of the water of the spring” and wash in it. To the surprise of onlookers, water began flowing there – and still does.
During the apparitions, Bernadette repeatedly asked the lady's name. She finally replied, "I am the Immaculate Conception" – a title Pope Pius IX had given Mary four years earlier.
The apparitions drew critics and opponents: local clergy and government, even her parents. Some officials tried to shut down the spring. That effort was reversed by Empress Eugenie of France, who said her child was cured with water from the spring.
Church officials finally confirmed the validity of Bernadette’s visions in 1862, and the chapel that Mary requested was built. Pilgrims began flocking to Lourdes, and many reported healings at the site.
Through all the drama, Bernadette kept a quiet humility. Asked by a nun whether she felt any pride, Bernadette replied: “How can I? The Blessed Virgin chose me only because I was the most ignorant.”
The attention bothered her, however, and she became a boarder in a school run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, France. She then joined the order in 1866.
She suffered almost constant sickness and pain. Yet she bore it in kindness and even wit, once saying she was a mere “broom” in Mary’s hand.
Illness finally took her life, in the form of tuberculosis of the bone. She died at the age of 35, then was declared a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1933.
Lourdes has become one of the best-known centers of pilgrimage for prayers and healing. More than three million people visit every year, praying at the grotto and in several churches and basilicas.
Her namesake church in South Florida is actually one of two dedicated to her memory here. The other church is Our Lady of Lourdes in Miami, which organizes pilgrimages to the site in France.
In Hollywood, members of St. Bernadette parish began serving even before there was a church. The parish’s men organized a Holy Name Society in June 1959. Parishioners even held a picnic in the woodsy Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, across Broward County in eastern Fort Lauderdale.
Bishop Coleman F. Carroll designated 17 acres on pasture land at the church’s current site. First services in the church building were held in March 1961.
But the parishioners were just getting started. The following September, they opened a school in a temporary building, with the first graduating class in June 1964. The school grew both in numbers and scope, adding a library and a science lab in 1978. A permanent building opened in 1982.
Nor has the service ethic ended at St. Bernadette. Members have organized popular fundraising parish festivals and taken part in projects for Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for the needy.
Students at the school have also collected items for Bags N Stuff, a campaign to supply personal items – from blankets to crayons to hairbrushes – for children entering foster care homes.
