Today is the feast of St. Bernadette Soubirous.

(True photograph of the saint, hanging in the mill where she was born in Lourdes)

"All of us who approached her during the last days of her illness remarked that her eyes, always bright and limpid, shone with a striking brilliancy," wrote the convent chaplain, Abbe Febvre. "We were indescribably impressed by their eloquence, especially when she raised them to Heaven in the act of breathing, as her bodily strength diminished. It seemed as if, having once gazed upon the supernatural, they burned with increased lustre as the moment approached when the splendors of Paradise were about to be unveiled to her departing soul."
Her last words were: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me, a poor sinner.... a poor sinner...."

~ Taken from Bernadette of Lourdes by the Sisters of Charity, imprimatur 1926.