Sanctuaire Sainte-Bernadette (couvent Saint-Gildard)

Nevers

This is not Lourdes, and that is precisely what makes the place singular: Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary of Massabielle, spent the last thirteen years of her life far from the crowds, at the convent of Saint-Gildard of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, where she died in 1879 at the age of thirty-five. The sanctuary preserves the chapel of 1856, the oratory of Sainte-Croix where she died, a museum retracing her life and a replica of the Lourdes grotto built as early as 1884 in the park. The heart of the pilgrimage is the glass shrine installed in 1925, in which the body is displayed to visitors' view. Three exhumations, in 1909, 1919 and 1925, were carried out as part of the beatification process, and the official reports describe a remarkably well-preserved body, which has fed the reputation for incorruptibility attached to the place. It must be said plainly, however: the face and hands seen today are covered by a thin wax mask made in 1925, the body itself having darkened on exposure to the air, and the state of preservation remains debated outside the devotional context. The sanctuary is nonetheless one of the great places of pilgrimage in Burgundy, a direct extension of Lourdes in the very heart of the Nivernais.

Sanctuaire Sainte-Bernadette Soubirous de Nevers ↗

Getting there : 34 rue Saint-Gildard, 58000 Nevers, a few hundred metres north-west of the town centre — the coordinates given are those of the centre of Nevers; the postal address is the surest guide. Free entry through the shop; chapel, museum, replica grotto and gardens accessible; accommodation for pilgrims on site.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound