The Song of Bernadette

Peyramale:
[to Bernadette] Wake up! Now! Else life is at an end for you. You are playing with fire, Bernadette.

Dr. Dozous:
There was something about her that precluded laughter. Her exaltation was so genuine that the observer almost had the impression that he saw what the child saw.

Bernadette:
The spring is not for me.

Sister Marie Therese Verzous:
Are you pert, indifferent or only stupid?

Bernadette:
I'm stupid, Sister. I have a poor head for study.

Bernadette:
Your Reverence, I DID see her.

Peyramale:
Yes, my child, you did. And you will see her again.

Bernadette:
Perhaps I haven't suffered enough.

Peyramale:
You've suffered enough, my child, for the Heaven of Heavens.

Dutour:
If I understand you correctly, Doctor, science then excludes fraud; it excludes mental disease, and it excludes a miraculous occurrence. I venture then to ask science, what is left?

Dr. Dozous:
Yes, what IS left?

Louise Soubirous:
Life goes fast, my child. It's hard to believe how fast.

Father Pomian:
[speaking metaphorically] Last night when I came here, it was very dark. It's much lighter now.

Bishop of Tarbes:
The Commission can render only one of three decisions. First: "You're an impostor, little Soubirous. Away with you to a home of juvenile delinquents". Second: "You're a madwoman, little Soubirous. Away with you to an asylum". Third...

Peyramale:
"You are the rarest of mortal beings, little Soubirous".

Bishop of Tarbes:
[he has ordered that the grotto be closed until the Emperor gives the order to open it] I wonder, my dear Peyramale, who will win - the Emperor or the Lady?

Mother Superior:
Well, Doctor?

Dr. St. Cyr:
Well, in addition to the large tumor on the knee, she has tuberculosis of the bone. She has never complained of pain?

Mother Superior:
No. Sister?

Sister Marie Therese Verzous:
[stunned by the news] She never mentioned it.

Dr. St. Cyr:
I can't understand it. She's had this affliction for a long time, and the constant pain and suffering associated with this disease is almost too horrible to describe.

Sister Marie Therese Verzous:
[Sister Marie Therese looks as if she had been struck a violent blow and walks off as if under a trance]

Dr. Dozous:
I asked her 'Do you know what a sinner is?' And she answered, 'Certainly, Monsieur. A sinner is one who loves evil'. That's quite a good answer. What pleased me is that she said 'loves', and not 'does'.

Dr. Dozous:
[speaking of Bernadette's reaction upon seeing the Virgin Mary] Close behind her, twice in succession, I heard a long, drawn-out "Yes", wrung from her very depths.

Aunt Bernarde Casterot:
She SEES this lady. No one else does. Who are you to say that she is wrong and you are right? She may well be a heavenly creature... You will go with her! All the women of the family must stand by her side. I'll come. And when I walk with her... let anyone dare to laugh!

Empress Eugenie:
You're an atheist, Louis!

Emperor Louis Napoleon III:
That's the most stupid thing a sovereign could be.

Peyramale:
Bernadatte sometimes to express certain things in a letter is difficult, so, wherever may you go, if ever you need me, just send me this. [hands her a holy card] I shall understand and come immediately.