Relics of St Bernadette to visit Waterford Cathedral

The relics of St Bernadette will visit the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, Waterford on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 17 and 18. The relics are being taken on a pilgrimage to each of the 26 Catholic Dioceses in Ireland.

The saint’s relics landed in Ireland at Knock Airport on Wednesday, September 4, before visiting Galway Cathedral. Before arriving in Waterford, the relics will have also visited the dioceses of Killaloe, Limerick, Kerry and Cloyne.

St Bernadette Soubirous was born in Lourdes in 1844, and is said to have seen the Virgin Mary 18 times, starting from when she was preparing for her first Communion at age 14. She was canonised posthumously in 1933, 54 years after she died from tuberculosis in 1879.

Today, the Grotto of Lourdes, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to St Bernadette, is visited by millions each year.

The Lourdes Medical Bureau has labelled nearly 70 cures at the grotto as “inexplicable”. As a result, February 11, the date of the first apparition, is dedicated as World Day of the Sick.

For Catholics, relics are believed to be the mortal remains or personal artifacts of a saint. The relics of St Bernadette are mostly comprised of  bone fragments in an ornate reliquary and will be in Ireland until a farewell ceremony in the Church of the Risen Christ in Kiltoon, County Roscommon.

The relics will be available to the public from 1pm on Tuesday until 12.30pm on Wednesday. The full schedule for the visit of the relics is available on the Waterford diocesesan website.