The Apparition (Thursday, February 18th) did not speak until the third appearance, and therefore its identity was a matter of considerable speculation. Two pious villagers Jeanne-Marie Milhet and Antionette Peyret, on hearing Bernadette's description of the apparition, considered it may have been a “revenant” (French for “coming back”), meaning a soul returning from Purgatory. Although it was something not officially taught in Catholic doctrine, since one has to be careful with regard to such phenomena, the concept of the revenant was deeply routed in the Pyrenean mindset; furthermore, it was a held belief that “revenants” frequently manifested themselves to young children.

Jeanne-Marie and Antoinette thought the "damiezelo," as Bernadette called her, was the returning spirit of a young woman, one of their dear friends, who had died a few months before. The previous October, the head of the local chapter of The Children of Mary, a woman named Elisa Latapie, had died — they thought that the apparition might be Elisa. “Revenants” rarely spoke, but communicated their messages in writing. Therefore, after going to the 5:30 a.m. Mass one morning, Jeanne-Marie Milhet and Antoinette Peyret, being ardent partisans of the soul-in-Purgatory hypothesis, set out to accompany Bernadette to the grotto and furnished her with paper, a pen and an inkpot to offer pen and ink to the Lady, with a request that she write down what she wished of the people, or at lest tell what was her motive in coming.

On this occasion the same little figure appeared to Bernadette, smiled warmly, and spoke, asking Bernadette to come every day for fifteen days. Bernadette promised to come, provided she was given permission to do so. Since neither her god-mother, who was her mother's sister, nor the priest actually forbade it, Bernadette's parents offered no objection.

Here is Bernadette’s account of the third apparition: "The third time was the following Thursday. The Lady only spoke to me the third time. I went to the grotto with a few mature people, who advised me to take paper and ink, and to ask her, if she had anything to say to me, to have the goodness to put it on paper. I said these words to the Lady. She smiled and said that it was not necessary for her to write what she had to say to me, but asked if I would do her the favor of coming for fifteen days. I told her that I would. She told me also that she did not promise to make me happy in this world, but in the next."

Although she spoke in Occitan, the regional language which Bernadette (whose French was poor) used, the apparition used remarkably formal language in her request: "Would you be so gracious as to come here for fifteen days?" (in Occitan: "Boulet aoue ra gracia de bié aci penden quinze dias?"; in French: "Voulez-vous me faire la grâce de venir ici pendant quinze jours?"). This significance of this politeness was not lost on the observers. As a penniless peasant girl, it would be very unusual for anyone to adopt this formal form of address when speaking to Bernadette.

While Bernadette returned to her companions, the Blessed Virgin followed her with her eyes, then, for a moment, looked tenderly at Antoinette, who was a member of the Sodality of the Children of Mary. “She is looking at you, now” said Bernadette to the young girl, who remained awe-stricken. “Ask her” said the two women again, “if it would displease her if we came with you every day during the fifteen days.” Bernadette put the question; and the Lady answered: “They may return with you; they, and others besides. I wish to see many persons here.” And she disappeared; and, after her, the celestial light which had surrounded her also gradually vanished.

Bernadette’s two companions related to her parents all that they had seen and heard. Much affected by all this, her parents began to believe, and resolved that one or the other of them should accompany their daughter to see everything for themselves. Bernadette repeated, with her usual candor, all that the Lady of the grotto had said, and how she had made her promise to return there every day for fifteen days.

That day was a market-day at Lourdes. The news of the apparitions in the grotto of Massabielle spread amongst the crowd, and, by the next day, the wonderful details agitated, not only the whole town of Lourdes, but the mountains and valleys, all the country round. “If the apparition is real” was generally said, “it is certainly the Blessed Virgin who is appearing to Bernadette.”

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