A rebirth for Lourdes, France, driven somewhat by the saintly life of Bernadette
Los Angeles Times – 2019/08/11.
Reporting from Lourdes, France — Dazed by a series of light-filled spiritual apparitions in a remote southwestern French grotto, a teenager named Bernadette dressed in mid-19th century peasant garb hesitates for just a moment.
She then glides to the edge of the stage where she lifts her head and bursts into an emotion-drenched ballad that would make Celine Dion proud.
“I was born in the mud,” she sings, trying to understand why she was chosen for these religious visions. “With my feet on the ground. I had nothing to give, and no words in my mouth. I was born in the mud, and it’s where I belong. So why me?”
It is the signature song from an elaborate and unlikely Broadway-style musical, “Bernadette de Lourdes,” based on the life of a 14-year-old girl who in 1858 said she experienced multiple apparitions of a young woman believed to be Jesus’ mother, Mary, and discovered a stream with miraculous healing powers.