5 Things to know about the St. Bernadette relics tour stop in Baltimore

Here are some items of interest about the tour stop of the relics of St. Bernadette in Baltimore. The relics are being displayed at sites throughout the United States for the first time:

When and where will the tour visit Maryland?

The tour will make a stop in Baltimore May 12-15 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Homeland. The relics will be available for viewing most of the day for three straight days at the cathedral, 5200 N. Charles St. It is the only stop of the relics in the Mid-Atlantic. The tour started in Florida April 7 and will visit 23 other dioceses, stopping at 34 churches, cathedrals and shrines. The last stop is St. Bernadette Church in Los Angeles, July 31-Aug. 4.

Who was St. Bernadette?

On Feb. 11, 1858, a “lady in white” began her 18 visits to a poor, uneducated 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in the obscure town of Lourdes in southern France at the Grotto of Massabielle. Over the course of six months, the Blessed Virgin Mary asked Bernadette to come and visit her. Bernadette left Lourdes to live out her religious vocation within the community of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers in 1866. She saw the chapel completed but never returned to Lourdes. She died in 1879, was proclaimed blessed in 1925 and was canonized in 1933.

What are the relics and what are their significance?

The relics are holy Items relating to the Marian visionary of Lourdes, France. Bernadette’s body, exhumed in April 1925 for her beatification, was found to be uncorrupted. Fragments of her fifth and sixth vertebrae were removed and reserved for veneration by the faithful, which are the relics that will be on the tour. The Vatican has granted a plenary indulgence for those visiting the relics during the tour. 

Who is organizing the tour stop and why?

The stop at the cathedral was spearheaded by the Baltimore chapter of the Order of Malta. The tour is primarily going to churches dedicated to St. Bernadette or Our Lady of Lourdes. The Order of Malta usually sponsors a pilgrimage each spring to Lourdes, France, for physical and spiritual healing. The trips have been canceled the past three years because of the pandemic; so the Baltimore stop will serve as the local chapter’s trip.

What is the full schedule for the tour stop in Baltimore at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen?

Thursday, May 12
4 p.m. — Public Veneration of the Relics begins
4:30 p.m. — Sacrament of Reconciliation
5:30 p.m. — Mass
6-7 p.m. — Veneration of the Relics

Friday, May 13      

2-2:30 p.m. – Students of the Cathedral School visit and venerate the Relics

2:30-4:40 p.m. – Veneration is open to the public

4:30 p.m. – Confessions available

5:30 p.m. – Mass

6-7 p.m. – Veneration

 Saturday, May 14

7:30 a.m-3 p.m. – Veneration with Malta Honor Guard in attendance

8:15 a.m. – Mass

3-5 p.m. – Confession available; anointing of the sick; rosary

5 p.m. – Mass with Archbishop William E. Lori, including the sprinkling of Lourdes water (Mass will be televised)

6:15 p.m. – Procession following Mass with statue of the Blessed Mother  

6:45-8 p.m. – Veneration  

Sunday, May 15

7-8 a.m. – Veneration

8, 9:30, 11 a.m. – Masses

Noon-2 p.m. – Veneration of relics

2:15 p.m. – Closing Benediction and recessional of relics 

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The full schedule of the relics’ U.S. tour can be found at stbernadetteusa.org.

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