The lives of Saint Bernadette and Saint Therese briefly overlapped and it is interesting to note the similarities and differences between the two figures associated with France's two largest pilgrimage sites.

Saint Bernadette is the better-known of the two figures; her name is synonymous with that of the town of Lourdes, a small market town in the foothills of the French Pyrenees.

If you are interested in participating in a Lourdes pilgrimage then you can always contact a tour operator such as Tangney Tours who can organise a flight to Lourdes and accommodation on your behalf.

This influx of 5 million visitors per season that the town welcomes is a result of the visions seen there by Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.

Bernadette, the daughter of mill owners, was just 14 when she saw her first vision as she gathered bones and firewood with her sister in a small grotto just outside Lourdes.

Bernadette was to receive 18 visions between February and August 1858; on the 17th occasion the apparition she saw revealed herself as the Immaculate Conception – the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Saint Therese of Lisieux

In 1873, six years before Bernadette's death, Marie-Francoise Therese was born. While Saint Bernadette is associated with the South of France, Therese is associated with the North – in particular Lisieux, in Normandy, where she became a nun at the age of just 15.

Bernadette had contracted cholera as a toddler and Therese also suffered severe childhood illness; overcoming life-threatening enteritis with the love and support of her family

Bernadette did not learn to read and write until she was an adult but Therese received a far more formal childhood education and was taught well by the Lisieux nuns.

Visions do not play a large part in the life of Therese – although at the age of ten she reported that a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary had smiled at her; an action which she credits with helping her recover from illness.

Therese's life is far better documented than Bernadette's – there are plenty of photographs of her and recordings of her conversations also exist. Her literacy also explains her legacy and canonisation.

She started work on her memoir The Story of a Soul in 1895 under instruction from her sister Pauline. Bernadette experienced far greater fame in her own lifetime than Therese did – she was still alive when a shrine was erected in Lourdes.

But Therese did seem to realise the impact that The Story of a Soul would have – making many references to the book's future benefit to souls on her deathbed.

Therese's life was 11 years more brief than Bernadette's – she died at just 24 – but its impact was such that Pope Pius dispensed with the usual 50-year delay between death and beatification.

Her capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in her name was one of many factors which led to her becoming canonised in 1925.

The Basilica of St Therese was built in her honour on a hill in Lisieux and was completed in 1954.

It took 25 years to construct – a period of time that was one year longer than the simple and devout life she lived.

About the Author:
James has been a journalist for four years. He works and lives in Brighton