“The Song of Bernadette” by Franz Werfel.
St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1942, republished 1970, 575 pages, Grades 10 and higher.
On Feb. 11, 1858, a young peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, fearful of the freezing temperature of a local stream, declines to follow a group of girls into the hills behind the local dumping site near the Grotto of Massabielle. As Bernadette waits, she sees an incredibly beautiful woman standing in front of her. The woman did not reveal her name and tells the child that more penance must be practiced and that she desires a church to be built on the site.
Being a simple peasant child, Bernadette is overwhelmed by the visitation. When her friends return, she tells them about the Lady and asks them to keep it a secret. They do not keep their promise and soon everyone in nearby Lourdes knows about the event.
Bernadette is from a poverty-stricken family born in the rustic town of Lourdes. She is a mediocre student in school, speaks in broken French and normally used the local dialect of Provence. The Pyrenees Mountains border her village in southern France near the Spanish border.
When the news of the beautiful woman appearing to this meek child begins to spread, it seems inconceivable. Why would a heavenly messenger choose such a humble girl to spread her ideas?
Bernadette is quickly taken as either a saint or a fraud by the people in Lourdes. Those thinking her a saint ask her to intercede for them. This bewilders Bernadette. She can’t understand why she is suddenly important.
The opposite also happens when the police and governmental officials interrogate her using deceptive words and phrases. They want to trip up the girl and then charge her with fraud.
News of the visions reach Paris and newspapers begin printing stories about the apparitions. The atheistic leaders in France are threatened by the news about Lourdes. They want a secular France without God. Little Bernadette becomes a great threat to their idea that mankind does not need God. The struggle becomes venomous as the secular leaders try to discredit and ruin 14-year-old Bernadette by proving that she is mentally ill and fabricating the visions.
The appearances also force Church leaders to make difficult decisions. Too often in the past, fakes have claimed to see saints for their own material gain. These reprehensible actions have caused great spiritual harm and the leaders must decide whether Bernadette is lying or telling the truth. The issue causes a furor in France. Those wanting religion dead and replaced by “enlightened leadership” need to crush the movement. French women throughout France side with Bernadette while their husbands remain highly skeptical.
It is as if the 1789 Revolution and its horrible attack on religion is again being replayed. How is this possible? After all, Bernadette is just a simple, poorly educated 14-year-old girl.
How does this end? Who is the Lady? Why does She tell Bernadette that She is the Immaculate Conception? How do these apparitions lead to one of the greatest Marian shrines in the world? Why do people flock to Lourdes today by the millions for healing in the spring at Massabielle?
Franz Werfel was a famed European author before World War II. Hated by the Nazis for his Jewish faith and his anti-Nazi views, Werfel is placed on their death list. Escaping the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, he and his beautiful wife, Alma Mahler, flee throughout Southern France trying to get into Spain. They wind up in Lourdes and Werfel learns about the Lady of Lourdes and the life of Bernadette Soubirous. He vows that if he and his wife escape the clutches of the Nazis, he will write a book about Bernadette.
By the grace of God they trek over the dangerous passes in the Pyrenees into Spain. In late 1940, the Werfels arrive in the United States. By early 1941, Franz Werfel fulfills his promise by beginning the novel about the story of Bernadette.
Werfel finishes this magisterial novel within a year and names the work “The Song of Bernadette.” The novel becomes immensely popular and is made into the highly-acclaimed movie of the same name. Jennifer Jones will win the 1944 Academy Award as best actress for her role as Bernadette.
Though he remains Jewish, Werfel writes with such tenderness and understanding that readers might think he is Catholic. This is one of the great religious novels of our time. Highly recommended.
