By Sarah Levesque … St. Bernadette was born Marie-Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France, on January 7, 1844. She was considered a sickly child, and had asthma. Whether due to ailments or other difficulty learning, Bernadette was unable to read, write, or learn her catechism lessons properly as a child, which delayed her First Communion. At the age of fourteen, over the course of six months, she had eighteen visions of Mary, Mother of God…