Which Catholic saint received the first recorded apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes in 1858?

Bernadette Soubirous received the first recorded apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes in 1858.

Soubirous was born in 1844 in Lourdes, France, and came from a poor family. On February 11, 1858, while gathering firewood near the Gave de Pau, she reported seeing a woman in a grotto at Massabielle. The apparitions continued until July 16, 1858, and are traditionally numbered as eighteen.

During one apparition, the woman identified herself with the words “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A spring appeared at the grotto, which later became the focus of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes and a major pilgrimage destination.

Bernadette entered the Sisters of Charity of Nevers and died in 1879. Pope Pius XI canonized her in 1933. The Lourdes apparitions are distinct from those associated with Catherine Labouré in Paris and Fatima’s Lucia dos Santos.