Figure 1.--Here we see the Empress Eugenre with her son, the Prince Imperial, who was ill and water from the Lourdes' shrine saved his life. The image pictures shows the sick room in the palace with a happy imperial mum and the recovering prince.

The movie "The Song of Bernadette" is based on a 1942 novel It is the story of Saint Bernadette Soubirou. This young French girl had eighteen visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Lourdes, a small town in southern France (1858). The interesting aspect of this very French and very Catholic story interesting was written by a Czech, German-speaking Jew--Franz Werfel. Werfel was born in Prague (1890). He became well known as a playwright. Living in Vienna, he began writing plays that lampooned the NAZIs. Withe the NAZI seizure of Austria (Anschluss), he and his wife Alma (Gustav Mahler’s widow), managed to reach France. But then with the start of World War II, the NAZIs invaded France (1940). He and other Jews attempted to reach the safty of Spain, byt the Germans seized the border town of Hendaye where they planned to cross. THe Werfels were sheltered in the town of Lourdes and their Franz learns about Saint Bernadette Soubirou and Our Lady Of Lourdes. Werfel does reach America and there he publishes his book, Song of Bernadette. In the midst of World War II it was an instant success. The following year given the huge success of the book, Hollywood made it into a movie. The movie is generally faithful to Werfel's book which is not a historical novel, but a rather romanticized version of St. Bernadette's story. One of the plot lines is that The Empress Eugene son, the Prince Imperial, was ill and water from the Lourdes' shine saves his life.

Created: 8:34 PM 8/9/2008
Last updated: 8:34 PM 8/9/2008