It was Thursday, February 25th. Hoping to witness something of her ecstasy, that morning there was already an extraordinary crowd of people gathering together in the vicinity of Massabielle, overflowing on to the island, covering the crests of the hill, and climbing up the trees by the bank. Every good vantage spot close to the grotto was crowded with ardent eager people. The police were again there, and, according to their head-count, there were more than 350 present. The kind, merciful, and most admirable Virgin Mary vouchsafed, that day, just like on all the others, to keep her appointment in the grotto. In no other sanctuary, perhaps, did the Mother of God so often repeat her celestial visits.

Unlike the fine weather of previous days, this was a cold, miserable rainy day. It was out of the cold misty dawn that Bernadette finally appeared, and everyone, the skeptics, as well as the believers, instinctively uncovered their heads. She was seen to remove her hood, put her candle aside, walk towards the River Gave, then turn, go down on her knees and finally crawl on all fours to the back of the grotto, towards the left of the rock.

After her usual prayers, Bernadette rose by herself as if she were alone in the heart of this crowd, went to the interior of this cavern flooded with light, and, moving aside the tough branches, kissed the rock at the place which served as a pedestal for the Queen of Angels. Then, once at her rocky prie-dieu, she beheld for nearly a quarter of an hour the most blissful of visions.

The Blessed Virgin began the conversation on this occasion, by confiding to her dear Bernadette her third secret. “My daughter,” said she to her, “I wish to confide to you, for yourself alone, a last secret; and like the other, you are not to reveal it to anyone in the world.” Bernadette heard, with joyful heart, the ineffable melody of that voice so sweet, so motherly, so tender, which of old, at Nazareth, charmed the ears and heart of the child Jesus. “And now,” said the Blessed Virgin to her, after moment’s silence, “go drink and wash yourself at the spring, and eat of the grass which is there.”

Bernadette looked round her in astonishment. Our Lady had demanded from Bernadette an act of faith and abandonment of reason, in favor of faith, an act which she has required of every one of her ambassadors. She told Bernadette to "go and wash and drink in the spring." Suddenly she looked puzzled. There was no spring! There was no spring in the grotto; there had never been one. Bernadette looked helplessly about for one, but to no avail.

Hesitating, she logically turned towards the river, for that was the only visible water source available, and so she took several steps forward as if to go there. Without losing sight of the Apparition, Bernadette was moving toward the River Gave, but soon she stopped, looked behind and with a gesture of the hand, the Blessed Virgin pointed out the place where she was to go. “Do not go there,” said she to her “I did not tell you to drink at the Gave; go to the fountain, it is here!” And extending her hand, she pointed out to the child that same dry corner, to which, the evening before, she had made her ascend on her knees. It was at the end of the grotto, on the left of the spectators.

Bernadette listened attentively, nodded affirmatively, then she turned toward the grotto again and walked, not to the bed of the river, but towards the left corner of the excavation. She went up, and when she was near the rock, she was seen to stop and look undecidedly several times all round her for the fountain. Not finding it, yet wishing to obey, she manifested her embarrassment to the heavenly Lady by a glance. In obedience to another sign, the child bent down and, scraping the earth with her little hands, began to scoop out the soil and made a hollow in the ground. At the end of a few seconds, the little hole she had just hollowed out was seen to be full of water. Then the water slowly overflowed the limits of the hole, which might contain about a glass full, and trickled forth, slowly at first, oozing up and turning the surrounding soil to mud and then began to flow like a fine thread, which, during the first day, only moistened the sand. The wet mark which it traced on the soil slowly, insensibly lengthened, in the direction of the River Gave.

Our Lady had said to wash and drink. Mingled with the earth, it was quite muddy. Bernadette scooped up the muddy water and smeared it over her face, leaving it mud-stained. Then poor Bernadette raised the muddy water to her lips three times, without having courage to taste it. Finally, after much hesitation, she overcame her repugnance; she drank the muddy water and bathed her face with it.

Our Lady required a further act of faith and humility; she asked that Bernadette eat some leaves nearby, and in response she plucked a few and ate them (the plant was the golden saxifrage, in Latin, chrysoplenium; French, la dorine. The leaves and stems can be eaten in salads or as cooked greens). What was the object of all this very strange ceremonial of a new kind, so calculated to puzzle the spectators, or to fill them with doubts regarding the state of mind and mental health of their little compatriot? The crowd gathered about the grotto, which had been growing at each one of the apparitions, gasped. When they saw Bernadette drink the muddy liquid, they were in dismay, for most of them had believed in her. The crowd thought her mad. They understood nothing of all this. “Oh! See!” cried some of them, “Look how she daubs her face, poor child!” Others said: “She is losing her mind; there is no sense in that!”

The fact that these seemingly illogical and incomprehensible events, strange in appearance, produced a bad impression on a crowd of witnesses, only goes to show that little is needed to make the ‘prudence of the prudent’ become skeptical when faced with the secrets of Heaven. It also shows that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and that our ways are not God’s ways: “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways’, saith the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts’” (Isaias 55:8-9).

Feeling deceived and discontented, the people departed, just as the weak-minded and faint-hearted followers of the Jesus went away, long ago, when He told them to eat His flesh and drink His blood (John, chapter 6). The carnal and worldly man, at all times, in all ages and places, is everywhere the same. With a mud-streaked face and dripping with muddy water, Bernadette wandered back to her former place before the grotto, the crowd in consternation, believers confounded, unbelievers louder than ever in their ridicule. There Bernadette resumed her contemplation of "The Lady."

The pious, humbled, obedient child continued to enjoy the heavenly Vision, with the eternal smile of Heaven on her lips, and on her forehead an angelic gleam, till about eight o’clock in the morning, when the divine Vision usually ended.

The Blessed Virgin, rewarding her little workwoman with a smile, disappeared, all radiant, and the faithful, obedient Bernadette went home as usual. The astonished spectators wished to see the miraculous fountain, and to soak their handkerchiefs in it. Next day, the Blessed Virgin’s fountain, visibly increasing, flowed already a finger’s breadth. At the end of a few days, it gushed out of the earth, pure and limpid, about as broad as a child’s arm. It then ceased to expand.

It was subsequently measured with mathematical precision: the first week, it gave 85 quarts (21 gallons) a minute; 5,100 quarts (1,275 gallons) an hour; that is to say, 122,400 quarts (30,600 gallons) a day. And before that time, we say again, that that rock, those sands were dry and arid, as all the inhabitants of the country knew. The skeptical minds of the neighborhood said and wrote that it was something quite natural, that there was no spring; that the crazed and deluded Bernadette had simply struck a collection of water, which had undoubtedly oozed out of the rock! The miraculous water of Lourdes has been analyzed by skillful chemists; it is a pure, virgin water; a natural water devoid of all mineral properties.

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