Shrine

America's Shrine to
Saint Bernadette

St. Bernadette Parish in Albuquerque, situated at the foothills of the Sandia Mountains underwent a massive renovation during 2001-2002. From the very start of the parish in 1959, people of various nationalities and backgrounds developed into a dynamic Christian community of nearly two thousand families. Today, half are of Spanish or Mexican ancestry, many of their families having arrived here over four centuries ago. The other half are people of diverse nationalities including Native American, African, Canadian, European, and Asian.

For forty-four years, the parish bustled in many ways. But in 2001, the pastor faced a list of major problems, such as electrical rewiring and replacing broken water pipes, that demanded immediate attention. After much prayer, he assembled a building committee comprised of professional architects, contractors, three Board Members of the St. Bernadette Institute of Sacred Art, liturgical artists and designers, members of the parish councils and staff to assist him in the church renovation. The church was literally gutted forcing Masses to be celebrated in the Parish Hall for nearly a year.

On the Feast of St. Bernadette, April 16th, 2002, Archbishop Michael Sheehan celebrated a Mass honoring the church's rededication. The church’s new appearance visibly inspired Archbishop Sheehan. Realizing this, the pastor wrote to the archbishop and asked whether he would consider elevating the church to the status of a shrine. Though the archbishop’s decision was swift, it was a genuine surprise to those involved to find exactly how much study and research goes into elevating a parish to a shrine.

On October 7th, 2003, Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, once again, Archbishop Sheehan joined the pastor and more than eight hundred parishioners to proclaim that “St. Bernadette Church will henceforth be known as the Shrine of St. Bernadette.” The liturgy will long be remembered by the parishioners of the Shrine. During the Mass of Proclamation, Archbishop Sheehan read letters of congratulations from the Bishop of Nevers, France, from the Superior General of the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction (the congregation to which St. Bernadette belonged), and from Emile Soubirous, the Great Grand-Nephew of St. Bernadette. The Sisters wrote: “We deeply rejoice with you at the raising of your parish to the status of a shrine dedicated to St. Bernadette. We are happy that you will honor and dignify Bernadette as a glowing witness to Jesus Christ. In thanksgiving, we are sending yellow roses, symbolic of those which rested upon the feet of Our Lady at the apparitions. The roses will represent our congregation at the Proclamation Mass.” Emile wrote: “We, my entire family, are proud that our Aunt Bernadette is so well loved at your shrine. We are humbled.” His family sent three dozen assorted roses for the altar.

One of the reasons the archbishop raised the church to a shrine is the relics and artifacts given by the Sisters of Nevers, France, and from the Shrine of Lourdes. To celebrate the elevation of the shrine of “their” saint, the Superior General of the Congregation sent a lock of St. Bernadette’s hair, a sleeping sock worn during the saint’s final years of suffering, a replica of St. Bernadette’s writing book, and many quality photographs, which are displayed in Bernadette’s Chapel at the Shrine.

The Rector of the Shrine of Lourdes, France, sent several important gifts, which are also on display in Mary’s Chapel. Of all his gifts, the most inspiring is a large piece of rock from the Grotto of Massabielle, where Our Lady appeared to Bernadette eighteen times in 1858. This rock was chiseled from the floor of the niche where Our Lady stood. The rock is permanently installed in a granite pedestal near the Shrine’s Bernadette Chapel.

For many years now, the Albuquerque Shrine has maintained close links with Lourdes and Nevers, France.  “We have a large bronze statue at the entrance of our Shrine,” said the Rector of the Albuquerque Shrine. “In 1998, thanks to the Dames of Malta, we were able to gift an exact bronze replica of our statue to the Village of Lourdes. This statue of Bernadette was placed in the town center, in front of the municipal library and archive, the former site of the rectory of Father Peyramale, the parish priest during the apparitions.

The Rector of the Shrine of Lourdes, France, traveled 3,000 miles to visit our New Mexico Shrine in March 2005. During his visit, the Lourdes Rector proudly announced that the Albuquerque Shrine was being appointed as an official distributor of Lourdes Water in the Southwestern United States. Lourdes Water is shipped by air to the Albuquerque Shrine so that visitors and pilgrims may take home authentic water from the spring that Mary asked Bernadette to dig.

To prepare for the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Shrine commissioned a new statue of St. Bernadette by Albuquerque artist Timothy Hooton. Two bronze statues were ordered.  One for the New Mexico Shrine and the other, donated to the Shrine at Lourdes, France. A group of sixty-six pilgrims from New Mexico joined the artist and his wife at the dedication of the statue at Lourdes in June 2008. The statue was installed at the entrance of the Saint Bernadette Church in Lourdes, across from Our Lady’s Grotto and the River du Pau.