On many occasions I have recounted my vocational journey and how reading the novel, The Song of Bernadette by Franz Werfel, changed my life’s trajectory. However, what I have never related was the specific traits of St Bernadette Soubirous’ personality that awakened my lapsed Catholic faith.
As a child, I was fascinated with the lives of the saints. I enjoyed hearing about their mystical experiences of visions and miracles. Looking back, I realise that I rarely knew their human side, their practical life. This changed with St Bernadette.
As a young adult, after reading that novel on St Bernadette’s life, it was not Bernadette’s visions of Our Lady of Lourdes nor the miracle of her incorruptible body but Bernadette’s personality and her hidden life in the convent that touched me.
As a visionary, Bernadette gained an unwanted celebrity status in France, which she rejected. She desired a life of hidden service. That is in stark contrast to today’s culture of celebrity and addiction to social media recognition.
Upon entering the Sisters of Charity convent in Nevers (France), the mother superior convoked the entire community to listen to Bernadette’s account of the visions and to ask questions. This was a one-time event, and all were strictly forbidden to ever discuss the matter again with Bernadette, and for that she was grateful.
Bernadette had a great desire to serve in the foreign missions, but her frail health prevented it. Often she was in the infirmary due to an illness of one type or another. Eventually the mother superior placed Bernadette in charge of the infirmary stating that since she was not good for much and spent all her time in the infirmary, she might as well be in charge. She dedicated herself completely to the mission that she was given.
It seems to me that St Bernadette’s traits – stubbornness, a sense of humour, rejection of worldly fame and silent service – are missionary traits. For the mission belongs to God, and only God decides how the mission will be done. The missionary serves, often in silence in hidden places of the world, but with a sense of humour and a stubborn fortitude that all will work out in God’s time.
It is strange to imagine that a peasant girl from 19th century France, a person so unlike myself, became a powerful spiritual guide in my missionary journey. But, as our patron St Columbanus stated, “a life unlike your own can be your teacher”.
Columban Missionary Fr Chris Saenz is from Bellevue, Nebraska. He was ordained a priest in 2000 and served on mission in Chile. He was later regional director of the Columbans in the US. He now works in St Columban’s, Nebraska.
First published as the Editorial in the May/June 2026 issue of the Far East magaszine. Please subscribe here: https://columbans.ie/far-east-magazine/