99-519: Bernadette Soubirous ( / ˌ b ɜːr n ə ˈ d ɛ t ˌ s uː b i ˈ r uː / ; French: [bɛʁnadɛt subiʁu] ; Occitan : Bernadeta Sobirós [beɾnaˈðetɔ suβiˈɾus] ; 7 January 1844 – 16 April 1879), also known as Bernadette of Lourdes , was the firstborn daughter of a miller from Lourdes ( Lorda in Occitan), in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées in France, and
198-470: A sociolect of Gascon with special phonetic and lexical features, which linguistics named Judeo-Gascon . It has been superseded by a sociolect of French that retains most of the lexical features of this former variety. Béarnais , the official language when Béarn was an independent state, does not correspond to a unified language: the three forms of Gascon are spoken in Béarn (in the south, Pyrenean Gascon, in
297-507: A baby named Louise who died soon after her birth (1866). Soubirous was born on 7 January 1844 and baptized at the local parish church, St. Pierre's, on 9 January, her parents' wedding anniversary. Her godmother was Bernarde Casterot, her mother's sister, a moderately wealthy widow who owned a tavern. Hard times had fallen on France, and the family lived in extreme poverty. Soubirous was a very sick child and possibly due to this only measured 1.4 m (4 ft. 7in.) tall. She contracted cholera as
396-542: A common origin (see Occitano-Romance languages ). The language was one of the first to gain prestige as a medium for literature among Romance languages in the Middle Ages. Indeed, in the 12th and 13th centuries, Catalan troubadours such as Guerau de Cabrera , Guilhem de Bergadan, Guilhem de Cabestany, Huguet de Mataplana , Raimon Vidal de Besalú, Cerverí de Girona , Formit de Perpinhan, and Jofre de Foixà wrote in Occitan. At
495-636: A consonant), whereas the southernmost dialects have more features in common with the Ibero-Romance languages (e.g. betacism ; voiced fricatives between vowels in place of voiced stops; - ch - in place of - it -), and Gascon has a number of unusual features not seen in other dialects (e.g. /h/ in place of /f/ ; loss of /n/ between vowels; intervocalic -r- and final -t/ch in place of medieval - ll -). There are also significant lexical differences, where some dialects have words cognate with French, and others have Catalan and Spanish cognates. Nonetheless, there
594-416: A dialect of French spoken by Jews in southern France. Southern Jewish French is now estimated to only be spoken by about 50–100 people. Domergue Sumien proposes a slightly different supradialectal grouping. Gascon language Gascon ( English: / ˈ ɡ æ s k ə n / ; Gascon: [ɡasˈku(ŋ)] , French: [ɡaskɔ̃] ) is the vernacular Romance variety spoken mainly in
693-729: A part of a wider Occitano-Romanic group. One such classification posits three groups: According to this view, Catalan is an ausbau language that became independent from Occitan during the 13th century, but originates from the Aquitano-Pyrenean group. Occitan has 3 dialects spoken by Jewish communities that are all now extinct. A sociolect of the Gascon dialect spoken by Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Gascony . It, like many other Jewish dialects and languages, contained large amounts of Hebrew loanwords. It went extinct after World War 2 with
792-540: A second Occitan immigration of this period was assimilated by the similar Navarro-Aragonese language , which at the same time was fostered and chosen by the kings of Aragon . In the 14th century, Occitan across the whole southern Pyrenean area fell into decay and became largely absorbed into Navarro-Aragonese first and Castilian later in the 15th century, after their exclusive boroughs broke up (1423, Pamplona 's boroughs unified). Gascon-speaking communities were called to move in for trading purposes by Navarrese kings in
891-429: A sensation among the townspeople, who were divided in their opinions on whether or not she was telling the truth. Some believed her to have a mental illness and demanded she be put in an asylum. The other contents of Soubirous's reported visions were simple and focused on the need for prayer and penance. On 25 February she explained that the vision had told her "to drink of the water of the spring, to wash in it and to eat
990-489: A single written standard form, nor does it have official status in France, home to most of its speakers. Instead, there are competing norms for writing Occitan, some of which attempt to be pan-dialectal, whereas others are based on a particular dialect. These efforts are hindered by the rapidly declining use of Occitan as a spoken language in much of southern France, as well as by the significant differences in phonology and vocabulary among different Occitan dialects. According to
1089-465: A sister of the community. They claimed that although the crucifix in her hand and her rosary had both oxidized, her body appeared incorrupt – preserved from decomposition . This was cited as one of the miracles to support her canonization. They washed and reclothed her body before re-burial in the Chapel of St Joseph in a new double casket. The church exhumed the corpse a second time on 3 April 1919, on
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#17331050450871188-480: A toddler and suffered severe asthma for the rest of her life. Soubirous attended the day school conducted by the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction of Nevers. Contrary to a belief popularized by Hollywood films, Soubirous learned very little French, only studying French in school after age 13. At that time she could read and write very little due to her frequent illness. She spoke the language of Occitan , which
1287-492: A turning point for Bernadette as she realized more than ever that the great grace she received from the Queen of Heaven brought with it great responsibilities." Soubirous spent the rest of her brief life at the motherhouse, working as an assistant in the infirmary and later as a sacristan , creating ornate embroidery for altar cloths and vestments . Her contemporaries admired her humility and spirit of sacrifice. One day, asked about
1386-469: A unitary language, as it lacks an official written standard . Like other languages that fundamentally exist at a spoken, rather than written, level (e.g. the Rhaeto-Romance languages , Franco-Provençal , Astur-Leonese , and Aragonese ), every settlement technically has its own dialect, with the whole of Occitania forming a classic dialect continuum that changes gradually along any path from one side to
1485-608: A written account in Occitan from Pamplona centered on the burning of borough San Nicolas from 1258, while the History of the War of Navarre by Guilhem Anelier (1276), albeit written in Pamplona, shows a linguistic variant from Toulouse . Things turned out slightly otherwise in Aragon, where the sociolinguistic situation was different, with a clearer Basque-Romance bilingual situation (cf. Basques from
1584-410: Is "probably not more divergent from Occitan overall than Gascon is". There is no general agreement about larger groupings of these dialects. Max Wheeler divides the dialects into two groups: Pierre Bec divides the dialects into three groups: In order to overcome the pitfalls of the traditional romanistic view, Bec proposed a "supradialectal" classification that groups Occitan with Catalan as
1683-614: Is a Romance language spoken in Southern France , Monaco , Italy 's Occitan Valleys , as well as Spain 's Val d'Aran in Catalonia ; collectively, these regions are sometimes referred to as Occitania . It is also spoken in Calabria ( Southern Italy ) in a linguistic enclave of Cosenza area (mostly Guardia Piemontese ). Some include Catalan in Occitan, as the linguistic distance between this language and some Occitan dialects (such as
1782-460: Is a significant amount of mutual intelligibility . Gascon is the most divergent, and descriptions of the main features of Occitan often consider Gascon separately. Max Wheeler notes that "probably only its copresence within the French cultural sphere has kept [Gascon] from being regarded as a separate language", and compares it to Franco-Provençal, which is considered a separate language from Occitan but
1881-465: Is an optional memorial and is held on February 18, which commemorates Bernadette's third vision during which the "lady" told her that she does not promise to make her happy in this world, but in the other. Bishop Gauthey of Nevers and the Catholic Church exhumed the body of Soubirous on 22 September 1909, in the presence of representatives appointed by the postulators of the cause, two doctors and
1980-405: Is best known for experiencing apparitions of a "young lady" who asked for a chapel to be built at the nearby cave- grotto . These apparitions occurred between 11 February and 16 July 1858, and the young lady who appeared to her identified herself as the " Immaculate Conception ". After a canonical investigation, Soubirous's reports were eventually declared "worthy of belief" on 18 February 1862, and
2079-575: Is good for Heaven!" Her final words were, "Blessed Mary, Mother of God, Pray for me". Soubirous' body was laid to rest in the St Joseph Chapel, in the grounds of her convent. Soubirous was declared blessed on 14 June 1921 by Pope Pius XI. She was canonized by Pius XI on 8 December 1933, the feast of the Immaculate Conception . She is celebrated in the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church on 16 April. In France, her liturgical celebration
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#17331050450872178-704: Is the change from "f" to "h". Where a word originally began with [f] in Latin, such as festa 'party/feast', this sound was weakened to aspirated [h] and then, in some areas, lost altogether; according to the substrate theory, this is due to the Basque dialects' lack of an equivalent /f/ phoneme , causing Gascon hèsta [ˈhɛsto] or [ˈɛsto] . A similar change took place in Spanish . Thus, Latin facere gives Spanish hacer ( [aˈθer] ) (or, in some parts of southwestern Andalusia , [haˈsɛɾ] ). Another phonological effect resulting from
2277-413: Is the other native language. Up to seven million people in France understand the language, whereas twelve to fourteen million fully spoke it in 1921. In 1860 , Occitan speakers represented more than 39% of the whole French population (52% for francophones proper); they were still 26% to 36% in the 1920s and fewer than 7% in 1993. Occitan is fundamentally defined by its dialects, rather than being
2376-462: Is worthier and better suited for romances and pastourelles ; but [the language] from Limousin is of greater value for writing poems and cançons and sirventés ; and across the whole of the lands where our tongue is spoken, the literature in the Limousin language has more authority than any other dialect, wherefore I shall use this name in priority. The term Provençal , though implying a reference to
2475-470: The òc language (Occitan), the oïl language (French), and the sì language (Italian). The word òc came from Vulgar Latin hoc ("this"), while oïl originated from Latin hoc illud ("this [is] it"). Old Catalan and now the Catalan of Northern Catalonia also have hoc ( òc ). Other Romance languages derive their word for "yes" from the Latin sic , "thus [it is], [it
2574-622: The Romance of Flamenca (13th century), the Song of the Albigensian Crusade (1213–1219?), Daurel e Betó (12th or 13th century), Las, qu'i non-sun sparvir, astur (11th century) and Tomida femina (9th or 10th century). Occitan was the vehicle for the influential poetry of the medieval troubadours ( trobadors ) and trobairitz : At that time, the language was understood and celebrated throughout most of educated Europe. It
2673-571: The Carfin Lourdes Grotto . The town of Lourdes where Bernadette grew up and had her visions has become a major international pilgrimage site attracting millions of visitors each year. Several churches and infrastructures were built around the cave where the apparitions occurred, forming together the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes . The sanctuary is reputed for the Lourdes water streaming inside
2772-582: The Gascon language ) is similar to the distance between different Occitan dialects. Catalan was considered a dialect of Occitan until the end of the 19th century and still today remains its closest relative. Occitan is an official language of Catalonia, Spain, where a subdialect of Gascon known as Aranese is spoken (in the Val d'Aran ). Since September 2010, the Parliament of Catalonia has considered Aranese Occitan to be
2871-755: The Marian apparition became known as Our Lady of Lourdes . In 1866, Soubirous joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers at their convent in Nevers where she spent the last years of her life. Her body is said by the Catholic Church to remain internally incorrupt . The grotto where the apparitions occurred later went on to become a major pilgrimage site and Marian shrine known as the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes , attracting around five million pilgrims of all denominations each year. Pope Pius XI beatified Bernadette Soubirous on 14 June 1925 and canonized her on 8 December 1933. Her feast day, initially specified as 18 February –
2970-503: The Saint Gildard Convent at Nevers . Her Mistress of Novices was Sister Marie Therese Vauzou . The Mother Superior at the time gave her the name Marie-Bernarde in honor of her godmother who was named "Bernarde". As Patricia A. McEachern observes, "Bernadette was devoted to Saint Bernard, her patron saint; she copied long texts related to him in notebooks and on bits of paper. The experience of becoming 'Sister Marie-Bernard' marked
3069-461: The UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages , four of the six major dialects of Occitan (Provençal, Auvergnat , Limousin and Languedocien) are considered severely endangered , whereas the remaining two ( Gascon and Vivaro-Alpine ) are considered definitely endangered . The name Occitan comes from the term lenga d'òc ("language of òc "), òc being the Occitan word for yes. While
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3168-574: The Val d'Aran cited c. 1000 ), but a receding Basque language (Basque banned in the marketplace of Huesca, 1349). While the language was chosen as a medium of prestige in records and official statements along with Latin in the early 13th century, Occitan faced competition from the rising local Romance vernacular, the Navarro-Aragonese , both orally and in writing, especially after Aragon's territorial conquests south to Zaragoza , Huesca and Tudela between 1118 and 1134. It resulted that
3267-485: The Val d'Aran of Catalonia. Aranese , a southern Gascon variety, is spoken in Catalonia alongside Catalan and Spanish . Most people in the region are trilingual in all three languages, causing some influence from Spanish and Catalan. Both these influences tend to differentiate it more and more from the dialects of Gascon spoken in France. Most linguists now consider Aranese a distinct dialect of Occitan and Gascon. Since
3366-825: The "Bernadette Museum". Numerous churches, shrines and Catholic schools are named after St. Bernadette all over the world. The first church in Europe to be dedicated to her was the Church of Our Lady of Victories and St Bernadette at Ensbury Park , Bournemouth , southwest England: it was under construction at the time of her canonisation and opened in 1934. Occitan language Italy Occitan ( English: / ˈ ɒ k s ɪ t ən , - t æ n , - t ɑː n / ; Occitan pronunciation: [utsiˈta, uksiˈta] ), also known as lenga d'òc ( Occitan: [ˈleŋɡɒ ˈðɔ(k)] ; French : langue d'oc ) by its native speakers, sometimes also referred to as Provençal ,
3465-498: The 11th century over the coastal fringe of Gipuzkoa extending from Hondarribia to San Sebastian , where Gascon was spoken up to the early 18th century and often used in formal documents until the 16th century, with evidence of its continued occurrence in Pasaia in the 1870s. A minor focus of influence was the Way of St James and the establishment of ethnic boroughs in several towns based on
3564-584: The 2006 adoption of the new statute of Catalonia , Aranese is co-official with Catalan and Spanish in all of Catalonia (before, this status was valid for the Aran Valley only). It was also one of the mother tongues of the English kings Richard the Lionheart and his younger brother John Lackland . While many scholars accept that Occitan may constitute a single language, some authors reject this opinion and even
3663-425: The Basque substrate may have been Gascon's reluctance to pronounce a /r/ at the beginning of words, resolved by means of a prothetical vowel. Although some linguists deny the plausibility of the Basque substrate theory, it is widely assumed that Basque, the "Circumpyrenean" language (as put by Basque linguist Alfonso Irigoyen and defended by Koldo Mitxelena , 1982), is the underlying language spreading around
3762-448: The Bishop did not insist, I gave up the idea of opening the left-hand side of the thorax and contented myself with removing the two right ribs which were more accessible. [...] What struck me during this examination, of course, was the state of perfect preservation of the skeleton, the fibrous tissues of the muscles (still supple and firm), of the ligaments, and of the skin, and above all
3861-592: The Judeo-Occitan dialects, Judeo-Niçard was spoken by the community of Jews living in Nice , who were descendants of Jewish immigrants from Provence, Piedmont, and other Mediterranean communities. Its existence is attested from a few documents from the 19th century. It contained significant influence in both vocabulary and grammar from Hebrew. All three of these dialects have some influence in Southern Jewish French,
3960-797: The Pyrenees onto the banks of the Garonne River, maybe as far east as the Mediterranean in Roman times ( niska cited by Joan Coromines as the name of each nymph taking care of the Roman spa Arles de Tech in Roussillon , etc.). Basque gradually eroded across Gascony in the High Middle Ages (Basques from the Val d'Aran cited still circa 1000), with vulgar Latin and Basque interacting and mingling, but eventually with
4059-634: The apparitions, she replied: The Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust. When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again. Soubirous had followed the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage shrine while she still lived at Lourdes but was not present for the consecration of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception there in 1876. Unfortunately, Soubirous's childhood bout of "cholera left [...] [Bernadette] with severe, chronic asthma, and eventually she contracted tuberculosis of
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4158-526: The attention she was attracting, Bernadette went to the hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers where she had learned to read and write. Although she considered joining the Carmelites, her health precluded her entering any of the strict contemplative orders. On 29 July 1866, with 42 other candidates, she took the religious habit of a postulant and joined the Sisters of Charity at their motherhouse,
4257-466: The cave from a spring discovered by Bernadette during the apparitions, which is said to have healing properties, attracting many sick pilgrims. The most recent church in the sanctuary is the St. Bernadette Church, completed in 1988. The sanctuary also has a museum called the St. Bernadette Museum, dedicated to the history of the apparitions. In the city center of Lourdes, pilgrims can visit the house where Bernadette
4356-454: The center and in the east, Eastern Gascon; to the north-west, Western Gascon). A poll conducted in Béarn in 1982 indicated that 51% of the population could speak Gascon, 70% understood it, and 85% expressed a favourable opinion regarding the protection of the language. However, use of the language has declined dramatically over recent years as a result of the Francization taking place during
4455-410: The church exhumed the body for a third time. They took relics , which were sent to Rome. A precise imprint of the face was molded to make a wax mask based on the imprints and on some genuine photos to be placed on her body. This was common practice for relics in France as it was feared that the blackish tinge to the face and the sunken eyes and nose would be viewed as corruption by the public. Imprints of
4554-452: The cities in southern France is unlikely to hear a single Occitan word spoken on the street (or, for that matter, in a home), and is likely to only find the occasional vestige, such as street signs (and, of those, most will have French equivalents more prominently displayed), to remind them of the traditional language of the area. Occitan speakers, as a result of generations of systematic suppression and humiliation (see Vergonha ), seldom use
4653-463: The concerned region. It is mainly in Béarn that the population uses concurrently the term "Béarnais" to designate its Gascon forms. This is because of the political past of Béarn, which was independent and then part of a sovereign state (the shrinking Kingdom of Navarre ) from 1347 to 1620. In fact, there is no unified Béarnais dialect, as the language differs considerably throughout the province. Many of
4752-450: The convent at Nevers was converted into a pilgrimage centre dedicated to Soubirous, run by volunteers and a few sisters and known as Espace Bernadette Soubirous Nevers . In the spring of 2015, the town of Lourdes lobbied for Soubirous's remains to be returned to Lourdes, a move opposed by the city of Nevers. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes has a few bodily relics which traveled in several European dioceses from 2017 to be exposed for
4851-509: The day Mary promised to make her happy, not in this life, but in the other – is now observed in most places on the date of her death, 16 April. Marie Bernarde Soubirous was the daughter of François Soubirous (1807–1871), a miller, and his wife Louise (née Casteròt; 1825–1866), a laundress. She was the eldest of nine children—Bernadette, Jean (born and died 1845), Toinette (1846–1892), Jean-Marie (1848–1851), Jean-Marie (1851–1919), Justin (1855–1865), Pierre (1859–1931), Jean (born and died 1864), and
4950-435: The differences in pronunciation can be divided into east, west, and south (the mountainous regions). For example, an 'a' at the end of words is pronounced "ah" in the west, "o" in the east, and "œ" in the south. Because of Béarn's specific political past, Béarnais has been distinguished from Gascon since the 16th century, not for linguistic reasons. Probably as a consequence of the linguistic continuum of western Romania and
5049-485: The early 12th century to the coastal fringe extending from San Sebastian to the river Bidasoa , where they settled down. The language variant they used was different from the ones in Navarre, i.e. a Béarnese dialect of Gascon. Gascon remained in use in this area far longer than in Navarre and Aragon, until the 19th century, thanks mainly to the fact that Donostia and Pasaia maintained close ties with Bayonne . Though it
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#17331050450875148-890: The end of the 11th century, the Franks , as they were called at the time, started to penetrate the Iberian Peninsula through the Ways of St. James via Somport and Roncesvalles , settling in various locations in the Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragon enticed by the privileges granted them by the Navarrese kings . They settled in large groups, forming ethnic boroughs where Occitan was used for everyday life, in Pamplona , Sangüesa , and Estella-Lizarra , among others. These boroughs in Navarre may have been close-knit communities that tended not to assimilate with
5247-593: The extreme beauty and youth of the apparition, and Bernadette commented: "too big, too old". After investigation, Catholic Church authorities confirmed the authenticity of the apparitions in 1862. In the 160 years since Soubirous dug up the spring, 70 cures have been verified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau as "inexplicable" – after what the Catholic Church claims are "extremely rigorous scientific and medical examinations" that failed to find any other explanation. The Lourdes Commission that examined Bernadette after
5346-574: The former replacing the latter north of the east and middle Pyrenees and developing into Gascon. However, modern Basque has had lexical influence from Gascon in words like beira ("glass"), which is also seen in Galician-Portuguese . One way for the introduction of Gascon influence into Basque came about through language contact in bordering areas of the Northern Basque Country , acting as adstrate. The other one has taken place since
5445-522: The geographical territory in which Occitan is spoken is surrounded by regions in which other Romance languages are used, external influences may have influenced its origin and development. Many factors favored its development as its own language. Catalan in Spain's northern and central Mediterranean coastal regions and the Balearic Islands is closely related to Occitan, sharing many linguistic features and
5544-615: The grotto. Soubirous knelt down immediately, saying she saw the apparition again. When one of the girls threw holy water at the niche and another threw a rock from above that shattered on the ground, the apparition disappeared. On her next visit, 18 February, Soubirous said that "the vision" asked her to return to the grotto every day for a fortnight . This period of almost daily visions came to be known as la Quinzaine sacrée , "holy fortnight." Initially, Soubirous's parents, especially her mother, were embarrassed and tried to forbid her to go. The supposed apparition did not identify herself until
5643-487: The hands were also taken for the presentation of the body and the making of wax casts. The remains were then placed in a gold and crystal reliquary in the Chapel of Saint Bernadette at the main church of the convent Three years later in 1928, Doctor Comte published a report on the third exhumation of Soubirous in the second issue of the Bulletin de l'Association medicale de Notre-Dame de Lourdes . I would have liked to open
5742-440: The herb that grew there," as an act of penance. To everyone's surprise, the next day the grotto was no longer muddy but clear water flowed. On 2 March, at the thirteenth apparition, Soubirous told her family that the lady said that "a chapel should be built and a procession formed". The sixteenth vision, which Soubirous stated went on for over an hour, was on 25 March. According to her account, during that visitation, she again asked
5841-476: The language at the beginning of the 13th century by Catalan troubadour Raimon Vidal de Besalú(n) in his Razós de trobar : La parladura Francesca val mais et [es] plus avinenz a far romanz e pasturellas; mas cella de Lemozin val mais per far vers et cansons et serventés; et per totas las terras de nostre lengage son de major autoritat li cantar de la lenga Lemosina que de negun'autra parladura, per qu'ieu vos en parlarai primeramen. The French language
5940-409: The language in the presence of strangers, whether they are from abroad or from outside Occitania (in this case, often merely and abusively referred to as Parisiens or Nordistes , which means northerners ). Occitan is still spoken by many elderly people in rural areas, but they generally switch to French when dealing with outsiders. Occitan's decline is somewhat less pronounced in Béarn because of
6039-474: The language. Following the pattern of language shift , most of this remainder is to be found among the eldest populations. Occitan activists (called Occitanists ) have attempted, in particular with the advent of Occitan-language preschools (the Calandretas ), to reintroduce the language to the young. Nonetheless, the number of proficient speakers of Occitan is thought to be dropping precipitously. A tourist in
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#17331050450876138-516: The larger collection of dialects grouped under the name langues d'oïl ) should be used for all French administration. Occitan's greatest decline occurred during the French Revolution , in which diversity of language was considered a threat. In 1903, the four Gospels ( "Lis Evangèli" , i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were translated into Provençal as spoken in Cannes and Grasse. The translation
6237-564: The last centuries, as Gascon is rarely transmitted to young generations any longer (outside of schools, such as the Calandretas ). By April 2011, the Endangered Languages Project estimated that there were only 250,000 native speakers of the language. The usual term for Gascon is "patois", a word designating in France a non-official and usually devaluated dialect (such as Gallo ) or language (such as Occitan ), regardless of
6336-505: The last speakers being elderly Jews in Bayonne . About 850 unique words and a few morphological and grammatical aspects of the dialect were transmitted to Southern Jewish French. Judeo-Provençal was a dialect of Occitan spoken by Jews in Provence . The dialect declined in usage after Jews were expelled from the area in 1498, and was probably extinct by the 20th century. The least attested of
6435-772: The latter term for the language as a whole. Many non-specialists, however, continue to refer to the language as Provençal . One of the oldest written fragments of the language found dates back to 960, shown here in italics mixed with non-italicized Latin: De ista hora in antea non decebrà Ermengaus filius Eldiarda Froterio episcopo filio Girberga ne Raimundo filio Bernardo vicecomite de castello de Cornone ... no·l li tolrà ni no·l li devedarà ni no l'en decebrà ... nec societatem non aurà , si per castellum recuperare non o fa , et si recuperare potuerit in potestate Froterio et Raimundo lo tornarà , per ipsas horas quæ Froterius et Raimundus l'en comonrà . Carolingian litanies ( c. 780 ), though
6534-643: The leader sang in Latin , were answered to in Old Occitan by the people ( Ora pro nos ; Tu lo juva ). Other famous pieces include the Boecis , a 258-line-long poem written entirely in the Limousin dialect of Occitan between the year 1000 and 1030 and inspired by Boethius 's The Consolation of Philosophy ; the Waldensian La nobla leyczon (dated 1100), Cançó de Santa Fe ( c. 1054 –1076),
6633-521: The left side of the thorax to take the ribs as relics and then remove the heart which I am certain must have survived. However, as the trunk was slightly supported on the left arm, it would have been rather difficult to try and get at the heart without doing too much noticeable damage. As the Mother Superior had expressed a desire for the Saint's heart to be kept together with the whole body, and as Monsignor
6732-522: The lungs and bones." For several months prior to her death, she was unable to take an active part in convent life. She eventually died of her long-term illness at the age of 35 on 16 April 1879 (Easter Wednesday), while praying the Holy Rosary . On her deathbed, as she suffered from severe pain and in keeping with the Virgin Mary's admonition of "Penance, Penance, Penance," Bernadette proclaimed that "all this
6831-415: The modern Occitan-speaking area. After Frédéric Mistral 's Félibrige movement in the 19th century, Provençal achieved the greatest literary recognition and so became the most popular term for Occitan. According to Joseph Anglade , a philologist and specialist of medieval literature who helped impose the then archaic term Occitan as the standard name, the word Lemosin was first used to designate
6930-505: The name Occitan : instead, they argue that the latter is a cover term for a family of distinct lengas d'òc rather than dialects of a single language. Gascon, in particular, is distinct enough linguistically to have been described as a language in its own right. The language spoken in Gascony before Roman rule was part of the Basque dialectal continuum (see Aquitanian language ); the fact that
7029-422: The negative sense: for example, "Vous n'avez pas de frères?" "Si, j'en ai sept." ("You have no brothers?" "But yes, I have seven."). The name "Occitan" was attested around 1300 as occitanus , a crossing of oc and aquitanus ( Aquitanian ). For many centuries, the Occitan dialects (together with Catalan ) were referred to as Limousin or Provençal , after the names of two regions lying within
7128-418: The occasion of the approval of Bernadette's canonization. Dr. Comte, who examined the body, noted, "The body is practically mummified, covered with patches of mildew and quite a notable layer of salts, which appear to be calcium salts. [...] The skin has disappeared in some places, but it is still present on most parts of the body." Again, the body was returned to the vault of St Joseph's chapel. In 1925,
7227-488: The officially preferred language for use in the Val d'Aran. Across history, the terms Limousin ( Lemosin ), Languedocien ( Lengadocian ), Gascon , in addition to Provençal ( Provençal , Provençau or Prouvençau ) later have been used as synonyms for the whole of Occitan; nowadays, the term "Provençal" is understood mainly as the Occitan dialect spoken in Provence , in southeast France. Unlike other Romance languages such as French or Spanish , Occitan does not have
7326-478: The other. Nonetheless, specialists commonly divide Occitan into six main dialects: The northern and easternmost dialects have more morphological and phonetic features in common with the Gallo-Italic and Oïl languages (e.g. nasal vowels ; loss of final consonants; initial cha/ja- instead of ca/ga- ; uvular ⟨r⟩ ; the front-rounded sound /ø/ instead of a diphthong, /w/ instead of /l/ before
7425-538: The predominantly Basque -speaking general population. Their language became the status language chosen by the Navarrese kings, nobility, and upper classes for official and trade purposes in the period stretching from the early 13th century to the late 14th century. Written administrative records were in a koiné based on the Languedocien dialect from Toulouse with fairly archaic linguistic features. Evidence survives of
7524-440: The primordial description of the entity made by Bernadette Soubirous was gradually modified to fit the more familiar Marian iconography images. In the seer's account, the apparition was a small figure, a young girl (a " jeune fille "), who looked like a twelve years old child, who was later transformed by interpreters into a "lady" of fifteen or even twenty years of age. The commissioned statue by Joseph Fabisch also failed to capture
7623-550: The privileges bestowed on the Francs by the Kingdom of Navarre from the 12th to the early 14th centuries, but the variant spoken and used in written records is mainly the Occitan of Toulouse. The énonciatif (Occitan: enunciatiu ) system of Gascon, a system that is more colloquial than characteristic of normative written Gascon and governs the use of certain preverbal particles (including
7722-653: The province's history (a late addition to the Kingdom of France), though even there the language is little spoken outside the homes of the rural elderly. The village of Artix is notable for having elected to post street signs in the local language. The area where Occitan was historically dominant has approximately 16 million inhabitants. Recent research has shown it may be spoken as a first language by approximately 789,000 people in France , Italy , Spain and Monaco . In Monaco, Occitan coexists with Monégasque Ligurian , which
7821-413: The region of Gascony , France . It is often considered a variety of Occitan , although some authors consider it a different language. Gascon is mostly spoken in Gascony and Béarn ( Béarnese dialect ) in southwestern France (in parts of the following French départements : Pyrénées-Atlantiques , Hautes-Pyrénées , Landes , Gers , Gironde , Lot-et-Garonne , Haute-Garonne , and Ariège ) and in
7920-513: The region of Provence , historically was used for Occitan as a whole, for "in the eleventh, the twelfth, and sometimes also the thirteenth centuries, one would understand under the name of Provence the whole territory of the old Provincia romana Gallia Narbonensis and even Aquitaine ". The term first came into fashion in Italy . Currently, linguists use the terms Provençal and Limousin strictly to refer to specific varieties within Occitan, using
8019-420: The scenes of the apparitions, usually with a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in a niche and a statue of Bernadette on her knees and praying or holding a candle. The Espace Bernadette Soubirous Nevers, is dedicated to her memory. This is where her body has been kept after her death. Her body is now exposed for the veneration of visitors. The city of Nevers also has a museum dedicated to the life of Bernadette, called
8118-459: The seventeenth vision. Although the townspeople who believed she was telling the truth assumed she saw the Virgin Mary, Soubirous never claimed it to be Mary, consistently using the word aquerò . She described the lady as wearing a white veil, a blue girdle and with a yellow rose on each foot – compatible with "a description of any statue of the Virgin in a village church". Soubirous's story caused
8217-528: The site of her visions eventually gave rise to a number of chapels and churches at Lourdes. The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is now one of the major Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. One of the churches built at the site, the Basilica of St. Pius X , can accommodate 25,000 people and was dedicated by the future Pope John XXIII when he was the Papal Nuncio to France. In 2013, 715,000 and in 2016, 570,000 pilgrims attended pilgrimage events. Disliking
8316-463: The sometimes emphatic affirmative que , the occasionally mitigating or dubitative e , the exclamatory be , and the even more emphatic ja / ye , and the "polite" se ) has also been attributed to the Basque substrate. Gascon is divided into three varieties or dialect sub-groups: The Jews of Gascony, who resided in Bordeaux , Bayonne and other cities, spoke until the beginning of the 20th century
8415-623: The term would have been in use orally for some time after the decline of Latin, as far as historical records show, the Italian medieval poet Dante was the first to have recorded the term lingua d'oc in writing. In his De vulgari eloquentia , he wrote in Latin, "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("for some say òc , others sì , yet others say oïl "), thereby highlighting three major Romance literary languages that were well known in Italy, based on each language's word for "yes",
8514-404: The totally unexpected state of the liver after 46 years. One would have thought that this organ, which is basically soft and inclined to crumble, would have decomposed very rapidly or would have hardened to a chalky consistency. Yet, when it was cut it was soft and almost normal in consistency. I pointed this out to those present, remarking that this did not seem to be a natural phenomenon. In 1970,
8613-656: The veneration of people. In 2019, a new reliquary was built for the travel of the relics. In 2022, the reliquary visited the United States and the United Kingdom. The relics first traveled to the United States from April to August 2022, visiting around thirty dioceses. In September and October 2022, the relics where exposed in around fifty places in England, Scotland, and Wales, including in the Westminster Cathedral and at
8712-401: The visions ran an intensive analysis on the water and found that, while it had a high mineral content, it contained nothing out of the ordinary that would account for the cures attributed to it. Bernadette said that it was faith and prayer that cured the sick: "One must have faith and pray; the water will have no virtue without faith". Soubirous's request to the local priest to build a chapel at
8811-632: The water and was lowering her stocking when she heard the sound of rushing wind, but nothing moved. A wild rose in a natural niche in the grotto, however, did move. From the niche, or rather the dark alcove behind it, "came a dazzling light, and a white figure". This was the first of 18 visions of what she referred to as aquerò (pronounced [ake'ɾɔ] ), Gascon Occitan for "that". In later testimony, she called it "a small young lady" ( uo petito damizelo ). Her sister and her friend stated that they had seen nothing. On 14 February, after Sunday Mass, Soubirous, with her sister Marie and some other girls, returned to
8910-501: The woman for her name but the lady just smiled back. She repeated the question three more times and finally heard the lady say, in Gascon Occitan , "I am the Immaculate Conception " ( Que soy era immaculada councepciou in Occitan). Despite being rigorously interviewed by officials of both the Catholic Church and the French government, she stuck consistently to her story. On 7 April, Soubirous had another vision, during which her hand
9009-414: The word 'Gascon' comes from the Latin root vasco / vasconem , which is the same root that gives us 'Basque', implies that the speakers identified themselves at some point as Basque. There is a proven Basque substrate in the development of Gascon. This explains some of the major differences that exist between Gascon and other Occitan dialects. A typically Gascon feature that may arise from this substrate
9108-474: Was apparently not burnt while being in contact with the flame of a candle for several minutes. On 8 June 1858, the mayor of Lourdes decided to barricade the grotto and put guards to prevent public access. On 16 July, Soubirous came back to see the grotto from the other side of the river and experienced her eighteenth and last apparition of the lady. As happened later with the 1917 apparitions of Fatima in Portugal,
9207-404: Was born and the room where her family was staying at the time of the apparitions. Hundreds of Lourdes grottos were built all over the world after the apparitions to allow believers to venerate Our Lady of Lourdes in their own countries, specially those who could not afford to make the expensive and long trip to Lourdes. These replicas of the original cave where the apparitions occurred recreate
9306-444: Was done], etc.", such as Spanish sí , Eastern Lombard sé , Italian sì , or Portuguese sim . In modern Catalan, as in modern Spanish, sí is usually used as a response, although the language retains the word oi , akin to òc , which is sometimes used at the end of yes–no questions and also in higher register as a positive response. French uses si to answer "yes" in response to questions that are asked in
9405-478: Was given the official Roman Catholic Imprimatur by vicar general A. Estellon. The literary renaissance of the late 19th century (in which the 1904 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Frédéric Mistral, among others, was involved) was attenuated by World War I , when (in addition to the disruption caused by any major war) many Occitan speakers spent extended periods of time alongside French-speaking comrades. Because
9504-401: Was out gathering firewood with her sister Toinette and a friend near the grotto of Massabielle (Tuta de Massavielha) when she experienced her first vision. While the other girls crossed the little stream in front of the grotto and walked on, Soubirous stayed behind, looking for a place to cross where she wouldn't get her stockings wet. She finally sat down to take her shoes off in order to cross
9603-545: Was spoken by the local population of the Pyrenees region at that time and to a residual degree today. By the time of the events at the grotto, the Soubirous family's financial and social status had declined to the point where they lived in a one-room basement, formerly used as a jail, called le cachot , "the dungeon", where they were housed for free by her mother's cousin, André Sajoux. On 11 February 1858, Soubirous, then aged 14,
9702-543: Was still an everyday language for most of the rural population of southern France well into the 20th century, it is now spoken by about 100,000 people in France according to 2012 estimates. There is a movement in regions of France where Occitan was widely spoken to introduce educational programs to encourage young people in these regions to learn the language. According to the 1999 census, there were 610,000 native speakers (almost all of whom were also native French speakers) and perhaps another million people with some exposure to
9801-511: Was the maternal language of the English queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and kings Richard I (who wrote troubadour poetry) and John . With the gradual imposition of French royal power over its territory, Occitan declined in status from the 14th century on. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) decreed that the langue d'oïl (French – though at the time referring to the Francien language and not
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