Bernadette Soubirous was a 19th-century French mystic who gained international recognition for her reported visions of a lady in Lourdes. Born into a poor miller's family in 1844, she experienced eighteen apparitions at the Massabielle grotto throughout 1858. During these encounters, the figure identified herself as the Immaculate Conception. Following these events, she joined the Sisters of Charity of Nevers, where she lived as a nun until her death in 1879. She is now venerated as a saint in the Catholic and Anglican traditions.