Poor people of Rome attend the preview of the musical Bernadette de Lourdes

The musical that tells the story of Saint Bernadette, seer of the Virgin of Lourdes, landed on January 14 in Rome. The preview has been reserved for a select group of guests: 1,600 people from families with few resources.

The Apostolic Alms, headed by Cardinal Konrad Krajweski, has invited more than a thousand people with limited resources and refugees to enjoy the show in the large auditorium located on Via of the Conciliationthe wide avenue that leads to San Pedro Square.

On this Tuesday afternoon, thousands of guests presented their tickets, distributed in the soup kitchens and communities where they live, to enjoy this performance that has triumphed in France and that from this Thursday, January 16, will be included in the official program of the Jubilee of Hope.

At the end of the musical, the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta offered each guest a bag of food.

Cardinal Krajewski stressed in statements to Vatican News that it is “very nice to think that the show will be given in advance to the poor” since, after all, “even in the Gospel” they are given priority.

It was the production director of the musical in Italy, Fátima Lucarini, who expressed her desire to offer the show beforehand to the poor of Rome, an initiative that she was able to share with the Holy Father during a private meeting they held on December 12 at the Vatican.

The musical will be available for one month for those who make a pilgrimage to Rome during the Jubilee of Hope. The show will later be performed in other cities in Italy such as Naples, Bari and Turin. In addition, it is expected to arrive in the United States and Latin America in 2026.

Released in France in 2019, Bernadette of Lourdes shows the plight and perseverance of Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year-old girl who experienced mystical encounters with the Virgin Mary in the Massabielle grotto.

In that grotto, Bernadette saw a Lady dressed in white who later presented herself as the Immaculate Conception.

The play is directed by the renowned Canadian stage director Serge Denoncourt and the protagonist is played by the French singer Eyma.

The visionary of the Virgin of Lourdes died at the age of 35, after leaving Lourdes to enter the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers (France).