About the Parish
St. Bernadette is a parish community of approximately 160 families and 350 people. The parish was founded in 1952 with Fr. John Herold as the first pastor. After closing its school in 1988, the parish embarked upon a unique use for its building as a retreat center. Each year the parish hosts from 30-40 events from various Catholic high schools and Catholic and non-Catholic retreat movements. These events combined with the normal parish activities make St. Bernadette a very vibrant place.
Who is St. Bernadette?
At the time in which her life was dramatically changed forever, Bernadette Soubirous was a young girl of a poor family living in Lourdes, France. She had been a sickly child and uneducated due to having to care for her younger brothers and sisters. On a February day, while out collecting fire wood, she was blessed with a vision of the Virgin Mary who appeared to her as a girl her age in a blue dress and white veil. Repeatedly, Bernadette returned to see the apparition of Mary. In one of those visions, Mary pointed to a spot in a cave from which water began to pour. To this day, this place is a pilgrimage destination for the infirmed who come for the healing power of this water. It was also in one of these visions that Mary proclaimed herself as the Immaculate Conception, a doctrine that had just been promulgated by Pope Pius IX and a teaching that this simple child would have known nothing about. St. Bernadette, later in life, entered religious life and lived a long and holy life.