MIAMI (CNS) -- The relics of St. Bernadette, the Marian visionary of Lourdes, France, will tour the United States for the first time. The visit will begin in South Florida on April 7. Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Dunedin is the third stop on the tour, after the Relics arrive in Miami.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes is organizing the pilgrimage of the relics in partnership with the Conference of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, North American Volunteers, Hospitalité of Miami and the Order of Malta.

To take part in in this special opportunity, the following activities have been planned at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, 750 San Salvador Dr, Dunedin, FL. All are welcome!

SATURDAY, APRIL 23

•    5:00 p.m. Mass with Procession of the Relics

•    Church will be open until 7:00 p.m.

SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2022

•    Masses 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 5:00 p.m.

•    Divine Mercy Service with Adoration, concluding with Benediction 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.

•    Church will be open from 7:30 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.

MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2022

•    9:00 a.m. Mass

•    6:30 p.m. Virtual Presentation of Lourdes, followed by Candlelight Procession with Rosary, concluding with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction

•    Church will be open from 8:30 a.m. until the conclusion of Benediction

After leaving Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Dunedin, the relics will go across the country to 23 other dioceses, visiting 34 churches, cathedrals and shrines. The last stop is St. Bernadette Church in Los Angeles July 31-Aug. 4.

The Vatican has granted a plenary indulgence for those visiting the relics during the tour.

On Feb. 11, 1858, a "lady in white" began her 18 visits to a poor, uneducated 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in the obscure town of Lourdes in southern France -- population 4,100 -- at the Grotto of Massabielle. Over the course of six months, she asked Bernadette to come and visit her.

"I do not promise you the happiness of this world but of the other," the "lady in white" told Bernadette, who became the messenger to the local community, the priests and the bishop of Tarbes, France. She would appear 18 times to the young girl.

On the 16th apparition, Bernadette asked the "lady" her name, to which she replied: "I am the Immaculate Conception."

Father Dominique Peyramale, the local priest, was immediately convinced that Bernadette was communicating with Mary, for neither Bernadette, nor anyone in the local community, could have known that some years earlier, in 1854, this theological doctrine was declared by the church as dogma stating that Mary, through God's grace, "was conceived free from the stain of original sin through her role as the Mother of God."

The priest brought Mary's message, that a chapel should be built in that spot, to the bishop of Tarbes, who three years later confirmed the apparition was indeed Mary.

Her instructions become a reality with the building of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, the washing with and drinking of the water of Lourdes, and pilgrims coming to participate in the nightly candlelight processions.

Bernadette left Lourdes to live out her religious vocation within the community of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers in 1866. She saw the chapel completed but never returned to Lourdes. She died in 1879, was proclaimed blessed in 1925 and was canonized in 1933.

Her body, exhumed in April 1925 for her beatification, was found to be uncorrupted. Fragments of the fifth and sixth vertebrae were removed and reserved for veneration by the faithful.

Visiting St. Bernadette through her relics while they are in the United States is a rare opportunity.

"I saw a great opportunity here, particularly with the current state of our world," said Monsignor Kenneth Schwanger, pastor of Miami's Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, who was instrumental in making this tour happen. "I started calling parishes across the country with the names of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette to make them aware of this grace," he said, and the result is the upcoming tour.

For the relics to visit, he explained, Archbishop Tomas Wenski had to make a request to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes (Sanctuaire de Notre-Dame de Lourdes) in France, which he did so over three years ago, Monsignor Schwanger told the Florida Catholic, Miami's archdiocesan newspaper. "But with COVID, all requests were delayed."

Around the time Miami's request was granted, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes expressed an interest in a national tour.

"St. Bernadette continues to be a vehicle through which Mary points the way to her son, Jesus Christ, through this relics tour," said Monsignor Schwanger. "It's an affirmation that the Lord attends to everyone and everyone has an opportunity to be healed and, in turn, to bring healing and peace to the world. And don't we all need healing in one way or another?"

Teresa Peterson contributed to this article.