Sveta Bernardica Subiru: Sveta lurdska pastirica

The book Saint Bernardine Soubirous is a pious biography of Saint Bernardine Soubirous (1844–1879), the French visionary of Lourdes, based on the best French sources. The book is written in the spirit of pre-war Catholic spirituality – in a simple, warm and pious style, with an emphasis on miracles, humility and complete surrender to the will of God.

Bernadette is portrayed as a poor, sickly (asthma, tuberculosis), illiterate shepherdess from a very poor family in Lourdes. The book describes in detail her childhood in Bartres where she tended sheep, her daily life full of deprivation, and most of all 18 apparitions of the Mother of God in the Massabielle grotto in 1858. Our Lady introduced herself as the "Immaculate Conception" and entrusted her with messages of penance, prayer and church building.

Particularly moving is the description of her later life in the convent in Nevers, where as a nun (Sister Marie-Bernarde) she lived in complete anonymity, suffered serious illnesses and remained faithful to her simplicity. The book ends with her death in 1879, her body incorrupt, and her canonization (1933).

Dobra Štampa published it in the typical style of Croatian Catholic publishing between the two wars – with the aim of spiritually building believers, promoting devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes and a model of humble holiness. The text is rich in descriptions of the nature of the Pyrenees, emotional depictions of Bernardine's childhood, and emphasizes that the Lourdes apparitions are a purely supernatural work, not the fruit of a poor child's imagination.

Today it is a rare edition, valuable as a testimony to Croatian Catholic publishing in the 1930s and a classic example of popular hagiography. Ideal for those who love old pious biographies of saints.