St Bernadette of Lourdes
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain what St Bernadette learned through her visions and reflect on whether she had knowledge of God.
Key learning points
- Bernadette experienced visions of the Virgin Mary, who asked for a chapel to be built by a nearby muddy cave.
- Mary told her to drink the muddy water of the spring and the next day it flowed with clear water.
- Her body is said by the Catholic Church to remain internally incorrupt and she was named a saint.
- Lourdes is a place of pilgrimage for Christians, with the water said to have healing properties.
- Some philosophers would argue that Bernadette gained knowledge of God although others would disagree.
Keywords
Knowledge - understanding or information believed to be true and supported by reasons
Lourdes - a French town where St Bernadette’s visions of Mary occurred, now a pilgrimage site
St Bernadette - a girl who reported visions of Mary in 1858, inspiring the Lourdes pilgrimage
The Virgin Mary - the mother of Jesus, particularly honoured in Catholicism as pure and a helper in prayer
Vision - a religious experience where a person sees or feels a divine or spiritual presence
Common misconception
St Bernadette's visions were believed by everyone at the time.
Many, including her family and Church authorities, questioned her mental state, and her visions were only accepted by the Church as genuine following investigation.
Teacher tip
Task B could be completed as an extended writing task with students writing paragraphs using their learning on St Bernadette to answer the question 'Do religious experiences prove God exists?'. It could also form the basis of an oracy task with students role-playing or debating the question.
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which philosopher researched religious experiences and recorded his findings in 'The Varieties of Religious Experience'?
Q2.A philosopher who thinks about alternative explanations for religious experience is using the tool of .
Q3.What is the name of the neuroscientist who performed the God helmet experiment?
Q4.How can Persinger's God helmet experiment be used to support a sceptical approach to religious experience as a philosophical argument for God's existence?
Q5.Which of the following statements is an example of Swinburne's principle of credulity?
Q6.According to Swinburne's principle of testimony, when might we accept someone's account of a religious experience?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Bernadette saw a total of visions of the Virgin Mary.
Q2.What did Bernadette describe the Virgin Mary as holding during one of her visions?
Q3.Put these events in the order they happened.
Q4.Why do many pilgrims visit Lourdes today?
Q5.How did people respond to St Bernadette's visions at the time?
Q6.How did Plato define knowledge?
To help you plan your 8 religious education lesson on: St Bernadette of Lourdes, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 8 religious education lesson on: St Bernadette of Lourdes, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 3 religious education lessons from the Knowing God: does religious experience prove God exists? unit, dive into the full secondary religious education curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.