Notre Dame's Grotto / by Dorothy V. Corson
The Song of Bernadette Movie
Hollywood made a beautiful inspirational movie about the Lourdes Grotto in France during the second World War. It premiered in 1943. The book it was based on was written by a Jewish man, Franz Werfel, who escaped from the Germans and found shelter in Lourdes. He vowed that if he escaped the war alive he would sing the song of Bernadette. He kept that vow and her story was published in 1942. From the book, a screenplay was written with the same name: The Song of Bernadette. It was an event that would add its own dimension to the story behind the Notre Dame Grotto.
A book entitled:The Glories of the Catholic Church in Art, Architecture and Historyby Maurice Francis Egan andSt. Bernadettea pictorial book on the Lourdes Grotto in France, written by Leonard Von Matt,(233) covered the beautiful countryside and the site of the Grotto. Von Matt's book had a number of pictures of Bernadette at the time she first saw the apparitions. It also had a close-up photograph of the Our Lady of Lourdes statue in the Grotto in France. When it was compared with the photographs taken of the replica of the statue in Lourdes Hall at Saint Mary's, it shows it to be the same size and likeness done by the original artist, just as it was described by Mother Angela in 1873.
Leonard Von Matt's book, which is mostly pictures, covered beautifully the countryside and Grotto area with a number of pictures of Bernadette at the time she first saw the apparitions. In addition, I made another lucky find, a close-up picture of the Our Lady of Lourdes statue, the original one, placed in the Grotto at Lourdes, France. I compared it to the photographs I'd taken of the statues in the Lourdes Hall alcove and was able to verify that, indeed, both Mother Angela and Father Sorin must have brought back from Paris an exact copy of the Our Lady statue at Lourdes done by the same sculptor. Not having seen Lourdes myself, to find Von Matt's lovely illustrated book about St. Bernadette, Lourdes, and the surrounding countryside, was was like being there myself.
The second book was written by Maurice Francis Egan who was brought to Notre Dame from New York by Fr. Walsh to chair the Literature Department. He lived adjacent to the campus on Notre Dame Avenue in a home built for him by the university. Egan loved lilacs. He wrote to all his friends asking them to send him different varieties of the bush to make a hedge around his home. He then christianed it, "The Lilacs," a name it still retains today.
It is worthy of note that Maurice Francis Egan's impressive book, The Glories of the Catholic Church in Art, Architecture and History was published in 1895, a year before the Notre Dame Grotto was built on campus. Notre Dame University was included but not Sorin's 1878 Grotto. In 1895 the 1896 Grotto was still a dream in Fr. Corby's heart at the time. It became a reality the following year.
In it, Egan explained why he wrote the book in which he describes and pictures famous churches and shrines all over the world. He said he felt that many people could not afford to travel to these places to see them in person and the next best thing might be a book picturing and describing these famous churches and shrines One of the churches and shrines he depicted was the Church of the Holy Rosary and the Grotto of the Holy Virgin at Lourdes. It begins with his description of this world-famous shrine.
Grotto of the Holy Virgin -- Lourdes. Lourdes is a small village in the south of France, at the common entrance to several deep gorges of the Pyrenees. Near the town is an almost perpendicular cliff known as Massabielle, which means, in the dialect of the country, 'The Old Rocks." In this cliff is a natural grotto about twelve feet high and twelve feet deep, within which is a sort of niche about six feet high, of almost oval shape. It was in this niche that on the 11th of February, 1858, the Virgin Mother of God appeared to the little shepherdess, Bernadette Soubirous, who was gathering sticks along the banks of the neighboring stream. Her form, full of divinest grace, 'was surrounded with an aureole of inconceivable brightness, not like the piercing light of the sun, but rather like a bundle of rays softened by a gentle shade, which irresistibly attracted the gaze, and on which the eyes reposed with ecstatic delight.' She held a chaplet, whose mill-white beads were gliding one by one through her fingers, while she seemed to be listening to the recitation of the rosary throughout the world. Again and again Bernadette went to the spot accompanied at first by a few of her child companions, and afterwards by crowds of people, and each time beheld the same gracious vision, at the sight of which her person was so transfigured that her every movement and gesture had a nobleness and dignity that seemed to onlookers more than human. The glorious apparition sometimes spoke to her, and once, after imparting to her a secret of personal import, regarding which she required secrecy, she commanded her to tell the priests that she wished a chapel built there in her honor. The celestial visitations still continued for a time; a copious spring of water burst forth in the cave at the Virgin's command, though it had always before been perfectly dry, and Bernadette was commanded to drink of the water and to bathe herself with it. At last, on the feast of the Annunciation, in response to a request made by Bernadette on an earlier occasion, that she should reveal in unmistakable terms her identity, the fair Vision raised her arms toward heaven, with the words, 'I am the Immaculate Conception." Thus did the definition of the apostolic doctrine of the perfect and perpetual purity of the Mother of God receive a special confirmation from her own sweet lips, and prepare the way for the rich outpouring of Divine favors which soon followed.
For the fervor with which the villagers received this celestial manifestation soon communicated itself to all parts of the Christian world. A great basilica was built at an enormous cost above the grotto, and other buildings were put up one after another until the whole city has arisen around the sacred spring, whose waters have flowed throughout the world, their channels marked by miracles of bodily and spiritual healing. Shrines in honor of Our Lady of Lourdes have sprung up even in the most distant places, and the wonders worked by Our Lady's intercession under this title have everywhere confuted the enemies of the supernatural.
In the spot where the Blessed Virgin appeared stands a life-size statue conforming to the description given by Bernadette, and at its base still grows the wild rose which the feet of the Holy Virgin touched. The upper church of the basilica is lined with the silken banners of various nations and confraternities and guilds, which have been hung there by visiting pilgrims. . . .
His detailed description of this world-famous church and shrine follows.
The Hesburgh Library database listed the earliest book about Bernadette, the English version of the French book, Our Lady Of Lourdes , written during her lifetime by Henri Lasserre,(234) her official historian. He wrote about people who witnessed the apparitions and were still alive to be interviewed.Church of the Holy Rosary -- Lourdes 
The church of the Holy Rosary at Lourdes consists of an upper and a lower church quite distinct and necessitating distinct descriptions. The lower church, usually called the Church of the Grotto, is built just below the apse of the basilica and was blasted out of the solid rock. Thus it may be said that the Almighty himself not only laid the foundations of the Church of the Grotto but even raised its walls; the work of man has been merely to carry away the debris. It has no windows, light being admitted through a cupola, and not a single pillar supports the roof and arch; it reminds one of the subterranean vaulted chapels so common in old cathedrals.
The glory of the basilica, however, is the interior of the upper Gothic church, where all the great celebrations of feasts are held. Simple in its design it owes all its splendor to the beauty of its decorations. There are magnificent silken banners woven in every country and in every clime testifying to the gratitude of thousands of pilgrims, while ensigns of the great powers droop in a semicircle around the sanctuary, the Stars and Stripes being conspicuous in the foreground. The magnificent blaze of color produces an effect which description can hardly exaggerate. The walls of the church and the long corridors of the crypt are covered with marble tablets commemorating cures and other favors attained through the intercession of Our Lady at her world-famed Grotto.
Among the many lights which are burning before the high altar is one whose flame is never extinguished. It was called the 'lamp of Ireland' because its anonymous donor was a native of the 'ever-faithful isle;' and there it will burn as long as the church stands in that far away valley of the Pyrenees, symbol of a Faith that never dies.
Stranger and more distinctive signs and symbols are those laid down by repentant sinner's at the feet of the Virgin, so that the whole world may see that there have lived strong men who have put away those things hurtful to their spiritual life and growth. There is a battered bronze medal, the Victoria Cross for which thousands of England's sons have died; there a grand cordon of the Legion of Honor; there are swords that are now sheathed and left to rust in this court of peace. There, most magnificent and singular of all, is a strangely shaped miniature in a jeweled case closed forever to the world; the face perhaps of some darling sin or unholy desire.
Surely the human heart is here naked in all its weakness, superb in all its strength!
Although there have been a great many pilgrimages at Lourdes -- notably the Festival of the Banners in 1872, and the English pilgrimages of 1883 -- when all France assembled to implore Mary's intercession for their stricken land, nevertheless there is no special history of the pilgrimages to the Grotto chiefly for the reason that the greatest cures have been wrought in obscurity and quiet and upon those of the humblest origin. God loves to work in silence and in His own good time, acting not when the world is on tiptoe for the event but when the world is asleep or absorbed in trivialities. The population in the mountains and valleys in the neighborhood form the most constant train of visitors, but the pilgrimage is also made by thousands every year from all parts of France, Belgium, Spain and Germany, by many from England, Russia and America, and even by pilgrims from the far east, eager to see the spot touched by the feet of the Virgin and to implore her intercession in their earthly and spiritual needs.
Above the main entrance to the basilica, let into the white stone of the facade, is a large enamel portrait of Pope Pius IX, who proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
It seems fitting that the most ardent champion of Our Lady should have a place of honor in her church, and significant truly that here the peasant girl Bernadette and the pontiff of the universal Church, the genial Pio Nono, are side by side, all earthly distinctions merged and lost in their one title -- children of our Blessed Mother.
__________ 'Rich men and nobles gave their gold and silver, and delicately- nurtured ladies spent night and day in embroidering banners which cities, and towns and rural parishes unanimously agreed to send with their delegates to Lourdes, to be first laid at Mary's feet, and then suspended like so many trophies from the vaulted roof of the church of Massabielle. Men and woman of every rank and station, and from every part of France, assembled with immense enthusiasm and kept up the festival for several successive days. On Sunday morning High Mass was celebrated on a magnificent altar erected in the vast meadows below the grotto, and the bishops of France pronounced their own benediction and that of the sovereign pontiff upon the immense hosts of pilgrims. It was impossible not to feel as if France herself were actually present there, kneeling penitent and forgiven at the feet of her Creator.'
Henri Lasserre's -- Our Lady of Lourdes
On May 28, 1870, another review of Lasserre's, Our Lady of Lourdes was reprinted in the Ave Maria entitled, "Pilgrimages in the Pyrenees and Landes." It was written by the same reviewer, Denys Shyne Lawlor:
It is impossible to read this account of the gifted author's sojournings in the "Land of visions" -- without feeling the heart throb with increased devotion and love for our ever Blessed Mother. . . . We tread with him the winding banks of the Gave . . . or kneel in the Grotto of Lourdes, where, in our own day, wonderful visions have been granted to the simple and pure-hearted little shepherdess, Bernadette. . . . I do not know in the whole range of modern literature any work that exceeds Notre Dame de Lourdes in eloquence of description, accuracy of detail, accumulation of proof, force of reasoning and earnestness of conviction. No honest-minded person can peruse it carefully and refuse to believe that the Blessed Virgin did personally appear at the grotto of Massabielle to Bernadette Soubirous, and that she confirmed her apparition by numerous miracles.
Lasserre's book is a forthright detailed description of all the elements of the apparitions except the personal side of Bernadette's life in the convent, which would not have been available to the author, at that time, because she was still living.
In his book, which was published in English in 1875, the author also tells of his own healing and that of another close friend's son. In his thought-provoking "Note to the Reader" (quoted in the appendix of this manuscript) he speaks of the extraordinary providential circumstances that led to his becoming Bernadette's official historian. It is an impressive documentation of Bernadette's Grotto experience.
Henri Lasserre concludes his book with this interesting observation:
She lives in the humility of the Lord and is dead to the vanities of this lower world. This book, which we have written and which speaks so much of Bernadette, will never be read by Sister Marie-Bernard.
The later book, written by Franz Werfel, which was made into the 1943 Song of Bernadette film, was based on Lasserre's book. Both books start with unusual personal prologues which explain how and why the books were written.
Werfel describes Bernadette as "a little creature clear as well water and yet inscrutable." Seaton's dialogue in the film portrays her protector, Dean Peyramale, once disbelieving, who then encouraged her:
Let nothing make you weaken. The Lady knows exactly what she is doing. She knows why she came to you and to none other. She knows why she is giving you this life to live, too. It couldn't be different; it had to be thus.
Lasserre describes Bernadette's last visit to the Grotto:
On the sixteenth of July, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Bernadette had heard within her the voice which had for some months been silent, and which now no longer summoned her to the Rocks of Massabielle, then closed and guarded, but to the right of the bank of the Gave into those meadows where the multitude used to assemble to pray, safe from prosecutions and the vexatious proceedings of the Police. It was about eight o'clock in the evening. Scarcely had the child knelt down and commenced the recitation of her chaplet, when the Blessed Mother of Jesus Christ appeared to her. The Gave, which separated her from the Grotto, had almost vanished from her sight as soon as the ecstasy came over her. She saw naught before her but the blessed Rock -- to which she seemed to be as near as on former occasions -- and the Immaculate Virgin, who smiled sweetly upon her as if to confirm all the past and shed light on all the future. Not a word proceeded from her divine lips. At a certain moment She bowed Her head towards the child as if to tell her, "We shall meet again at some very distant period," or to bid her a last farewell. After this She disappeared and re-entered Heaven. This was the eighteenth Apparition and it was the last.
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Bernadette's personality is reflected in pictures taken of her as a child during and after the apparitions. She became the first Saint photographed in her lifetime. In Lasserre summation of Bernadette's visions he paints a profound word portrait of the distinctive personal qualities that endeared Bernadette's to all who knew her or were touched by her story:
The testimony of the young girl offers all the guarantees we can possibly desire. There cannot be the slightest doubt as to her sincerity. Who does not, when coming in contact with her, admire her simplicity, modesty and candor? While everybody is discussing the marvels which have been revealed to her, alone, she remains silent. She never speaks unless when questions are put to her; then she enters into details without the slightest affectation, and with the most touching ingenuousness; and her answers to the numerous questions addressed to her are given without hesitation; are clear, precise, very much to the purpose, and bearing the impress of deep conviction.
Subjected to rough trials, she has never been shaken by threats, and she has declined the most generous offers with noble disinterestedness. Always d'accord avec elle-meme, she has in the different interrogatories to which she has been subjected, constantly adhered to her first statement, neither adding to nor taking away from it. Let us add that it has never been contested. Even those who opposed her, have themselves rendered her this homage.
But granting that Bernadette had no with to deceive others, is it not possible that she was deceived herself? For instance, did she not fancy she saw and heard what she neither saw nor heard? Was she not the victim of a hallucination? How could we believe this for a moment? This wisdom of her replies reveals in the child a soundness of mind, a calmness of imagination, and a fund of good sense beyond her years. In her the religious feeling has never displayed any over-excited character; it has never been proved that she suffered from any intellectual derangement, oddity or disposition, or morbid affection which might have predisposed her to indulge in creations of imagination. She has had this vision, not once only, but as often as eighteen times; she saw it for the first time suddenly, when nothing could have prepared her for what was to be accomplished later on; and during the Quinzaine, when she expected to see the vision every day, she saw nothing for two days, although she was placed in the same way and in identical circumstances. And then what took place during the time the Apparitions were before her? Bernadette was transformed; her countenance assumed a new expression, her eyes kindled, she saw things which she had never before seen, she heard language which she had never before heard, the sense of which she did not always understand, but the remembrance of which she did not fail to retain. These circumstances joined together, preclude the idea of hallucination. The young girl has therefore really seen and heard a being styling herself the Immaculate Conception, and it being impossible to account for the phenomenon naturally, we have just ground for believing that the Apparition was supernatural.
The testimony of Bernadette -- in itself of considerable importance -- acquires altogether new strength -- we might say its complement -- from the marvelous occurrences which have taken place since this event. If a tree should be judged by its fruits, we may affirm that the Apparition, as narrated by the girl, is supernatural and divine, for it has produced supernatural and divine effects. What then happened, dearly beloved Brethren? The Apparition was scarcely heard of, when the news spread with the rapidity of lightning; it was known that Bernadette was to repair to the Grotto for the space of fifteen days, and the whole country was aroused. Crowds of people streamed towards the place of the Apparition; they waited for the solemn hour with religious impatience; and while the girl, beside herself with ravishment, was absorbed by the object of her contemplation, the witnesses of this prodigy, deeply affected and melted to tenderness, were mingled in a common feeling of admiration and prayer.
The Apparitions have ceased; but the concourse of people continues, and pilgrims, arriving from distant countries as well as from the neighboring districts, hasten to the Grotto. They are of all ages, all ranks and all conditions. And by what feeling are these numerous strangers urged to visit the place? Ah! They come to the Grotto in order to pray and to demand favors of one kind or other from the Immaculate Mary. They prove, by their collected behavior, that they are sensible as it were of a divine breath which vivifies this rock, from henceforth forever celebrated. Souls, already Christian, have become strengthened in virtue; men frozen with indifference have been brought back to the practices of religion; obstinate sinners have been reconciled with God, after Our Lady of Lourdes had been invoked in their favor. These marvels of grace, bearing the stamp of universality and duration, can only have God for their author. Consequently, have they not come for the express purpose of confirming the truth of the Apparition?
The Song of Bernadette Screenplay
Bob Hohl at the Saint Mary's College library was most interested in the pictorial confirmation of the authentic Lourdes statue Mother Angela had purchased from the French sculptor. He also agreed that the earliest book on Bernadette, by Lasserre, would be the most genuine.
He had been viewing the photographs of the statues in Lourdes Hall when he turned around and faced his computer on the desk beside him. "I just thought of something that might be of interest," he said. He typed something into the computer database, then looked up from the keyboard with a smile: "I thought I'd seen this entry before."
"In our college archives we have the script, with photographs, of the 1943 movie, The Song Of Bernadette. It looks like the screenwriter sent it to one of the Sisters at Saint Mary's," he said. "There's no further explanation here, but it can be viewed in the Saint Mary's College Archives on the lower floor. It also indicates that the scriptwriter was born in South Bend."
If he was born in South Bend, would he have known about the Notre Dame Grotto and would that knowledge have factored into his writing the script of The Song Of Bernadette?
Sister Rosaleen and Sister Monica at the College Archives were surprised to hear about it. They were both curious about how the writer's The Song Of Bernadette screenplay wound up up at Saint Mary's. Sister Rosaleen was aware of it, but hadn't paid much attention to it before.
She located it and placed it on nearby table for a closer inspection. There were many glossy photographs of the actors taken on location. The script was inscribed: "To Sister Evangelista: With all good wishes from a South Bend boy." It was signed, George Seaton.
The cover page read, Franz Werfel's, The Song of Bernadette. Screenplay by George Seaton. In the lower right hand corner were the words: "Revised Final, March 8, 1943." Not much to go on there.
I wish I were one of those terribly clever people who, when they write their autobiographies, always say, when I was fifteen months old I distinctly remember my Aunt Fanny saying to me, etc. If I had such a prodigious memory I could honestly say that I remembered you -- for I gather from my sister Ruth that you occasionally visited our home in South Bend when I . . . [the next two or three lines are missing].
Still I feel as if I'd known you all my life because I've heard my sister mention you so many, many times.
I can't tell you how proud I am to know that you asked for a script of "Bernadette" -- I do hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Respectfully yours,
George Seaton.
Who was George Seaton and could it be proven that he had been born in South Bend? There had to be some connection between his sister and Sister Evangelista, but what was it?
Who Was Who, Film Goers Companion, and Film Encyclopedia all had information about George Seaton and all of it was impressive. He was a screenwriter, director and producer whose 40 year Hollywood career included winning two Oscars. He was three times president of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences; president of the Screen Writers Guild; and vice president of the Screen Directors Guild; and also served as vice president of the Motion Picture Relief Fund.
He won an Academy Award for the screenplay, Miracle On 34th Street, in 1947 and again for his adaptation of Clifford Odet's play, The Country Girl, in 1952, which he also directed and which brought an Oscar for best performance by an actress to Grace Kelly. Among countless other movies, including, The Song Of Bernadette, he wrote and directed Airport, the biggest money making movie for Universal Pictures until Jaws. In addition to a number of other awards, he was also the recipient of the Jean Hersholt humanitarian award and was a trustee of Colonial Williamsburg.(236)
The Song of Bernadette lost the Academy Award for best picture to Casablanca, which was pretty tough competition. However, Jennifer Jones won an Academy Award for best actress. It was her first movie. The film also got Academy Awards for Best Cinema Photography, Best Interior Decoration, and Best Score. George Seaton's script was also nominated for best screenplay.
Seaton's Miracle On 34th Street and Capra's It's A Wonderful Life share the distinction of being classic movies that are rerun every Christmas. The Song of Bernadette is also acquiring that same distinction. Capra and Seaton are gone now, but they spent their lives on something that would live after them.
The very fact that such a noted Hollywood personage was born in South Bend, and nobody seemed to know about it, was enough to suggest another side search. It seemed a simple fact to prove. Unfortunately, it was easier said then done.
Dr. George Plain, head of the Health Department, very kindly checked all his records for that name and birth date. They had no birth certificate in that name. On the other end, no one at Saint Mary's who knew Sister Evangelista had ever heard her mention his name, his sister's name, or the movie itself.
They could only recall that she had friends in Hollywood. The father of two sisters in her class was a Hollywood producer and he regularly sent films for their Friday movie nights at the college. There was no connection between these two men. There were also no records of a Ruth Seaton being a student where Sister Evangelista taught school.
The date of his death, July 28, 1979, seemed to be the only clue to learning more about him. Could he have changed his name as many people in the film business had done? A suggestion was made that, if he was well known, his obituary might have been in the New York Times. The NYT index gave the date it appeared. The St. Joseph County Public Library provided a copy of the obituary on microfilm.
His obituary confirmed the name change. He moved from South Bend to Detroit as a child. As a young man he auditioned for Jesse Bonstelle's drama school. She hired him instead for her stock company at $15 a week. The next line provided the answer: "George Stenius, would-be student, became George Seaton, paid actor."
A return call to Dr. George Plain produced the evidence. Ten minutes after receiving the new name he called back with good news. He had found it! The George Stenius birth certificate revealed he was the youngest of three children. It also indicated his father was 40 and his mother 39 when he was born, so his sister Ruth could have been several years older. The birth certificate listed both parents as immigrating from Stockholm, Sweden. Were they Catholic? "It was possible but not likely," he said. However, he did mention that when he lived in Minnesota, they did have a church there called the St. Olaf's Catholic Church.
This information led to the city directory which listed the family as living in South Bend, on William Street, in 1911 and 1912. Records at the convent, showed that Sister Evangelista had been a teacher at St. Joseph Academy during those years. Being close by, it was the most likely place his older sister would have gone to school at the time. Although their records did not go back that far, the evidence suggested that Sister Evengelista was her teacher. That's how they met, and they kept in touch when the family moved to Detroit. It was not an uncommon practice for a separated student and teacher.
The All Saints Parish Church, in Beverly Hills, was listed as having conducted George Seaton's funeral service. Their letterhead indicated it was an an Episcopal Church, which answered one question, he was not Catholic. They confirmed the service, but they had no records of family, then or now, to offer. Subsequent inquiries revealed that after his death his wife became mayor of Beverly Hills, CA, but even they had no clues to the whereabouts of any surviving family members.
Interlibrary Loan at the St. Joseph County Public Library checked their countrywide computer database to see if any books had been written about this man. Within a week, a book they ordered arrived from Brigham Young University Library in Utah. Only it wasn't a book. It was a roll of microfilm.
An Oral History on Seaton
At the top of the screen was the heading, New York Times Oral History Program.. (237) The last thing expected, and the perfect way to obtain information about his background.
It was dated 1977. He died in 1979. It contained not only the answer to how it wound up in the Saint Mary's College archives, but also an interesting detailed background on the filming of the Song of Bernadette movie.
His interviewer, David Cherichetti, did a masterful job of asking the right questions. The only one left unanswered was his possible link to the Notre Dame Grotto in connection with The Song Of Bernadette movie.
George Seaton's father was a rather famous chef. He followed Oscar at the Waldorf many years before George was born. At the time Seaton was born, in South Bend, Indiana, his father was running the Oliver Hotel. His mother's father was also a very famous critic in Stockholm. When he was about two years old they moved to Detroit. This would explain why he didn't remember Sister Evangelista.
George Seaton became "one of the most consistently successful writer-directors in the history of Hollywood." He got his start in Detroit acting in stock companies and on radio where he was the original Lone Ranger. Quite a distinction for a "South Bend Boy," and apparently nothing has ever been written locally about him.
Stenius was a very hard name to pronounce. He was writing pulp fiction at the time and got a rejection notice under the name of Stenius, so he tore off the title page and sent the story in with "George Seaton" on it.
He chose the name George Seaton because he had gone to see Philip Barry's, Holiday, and the family name in the play was Seton. He also had a belt buckle with the initials GS, so he didn't want to change his initials. With the new name, his story was accepted. He felt it was a talisman and kept the name. He put the "a" in the name Seton because he said he didn't want to be a complete thief.
Shortly afterward, he went to Hollywood under personal contract to Bill Perlberg. He was getting tired of making mostly comedies. After yet another one, he told Perlberg, "I'll do it under one condition, that if you ever get something serious to do, I hope I get a crack at it." Perlberg gave him his word. Many years and many comedies went by before he was to get his chance.
Even his sister Ruth factored into his Hollywood experience. His sister was teaching English to foreign-born students in public schools in Detroit. She had a great knack for it. When Ingrid Bergman came to this country his sister became her coach, taught her English, and "she's been with her ever since. Anytime Ingrid does a play or a film, my sister is with her, not just for the language, but for the interpretation of the part."
Ingrid Bergman's biography, Ingrid Bergman, My Story,(238) speaks of Ruth Roberts. Ingrid tells about her first arrival in the United States from Sweden. "It was strange that within those first few weeks I'd met the women who were to become three of the main pillars of my life: Kay Brown, Irene Selznick, and Ruth Roberts." Of those three women, Ruth Roberts' name comes up most often. In the index, forty some entries are noted of personal letters sent to Ruth by Ingrid.
His sister Ruth, who would have been about eleven years old when they left South Bend, must have kept in touch with her favorite teacher, Sister Evangelista, throughout her life, as she later did with Ingrid Bergman.
In hearing of Ruth's and George's Hollywood activities, Sister Evangelista must have learned of the movie, The Song Of Bernadette, being filmed and requested a copy of the script for the Saint Mary's College Library. Ruth then passed the request on to her brother and he went all out with it. The script was handsomely bound in leather, inscribed in gold on the cover, and contained not only a personal inscription, but also a personal handwritten letter from George Seaton.
Gradually, the oral history interview moved into the background of the filming of The Song Of Bernadette, and the Lourdes Grotto experience. George describes how Bill Perlberg acted upon his promise to allow him to script a more serious film. He said a book by Franz Werfel came along called The Song Of Bernadette.
He read it and raced into Perlberg's office. He told him that this was what he wanted to do and that he was sure it could be a successful film. Perlberg read it and agreed and he went in to Zanuck. When they bought the property Bill Perlberg told Zanuck he wanted Seaton to write it. Zanuck said, "You're out of your mind. He's nothing but a gag writer. He's done all these musicals. We'll have to get someone like Ben Hecht." Seaton said he felt blessed because Perlberg told Zanuck, "Unless George does it, I will not produce it. I promised him and I'm going to stick by my word." They wanted Perlberg to produce it, so Zanuck agreed.
Filming The Song of Bernadette
Seaton and Werfel were both living in Beverly Hills at the time the movie was filmed. Seaton had long talks with him before he started to write. He said he felt Werfel had great confidence in him and that it was a happy association. When he did a sequence, he would go over and read it to him. He spoke very little German and Werfel's English wasn't very good, but he said they managed to get along rather well.
This totally Catholic story was written by Werfel who was Jewish. The screen play was written by George Seaton who was Swedish and non-Catholic. A campus newsletter made this interesting observation in 1958: "The best books on Lourdes have been written by non-Catholics."
Although George Seaton did not explain his own reasons for wanting to do the script, other than the chance way it came about, he did tell this poignant story related to him by Werfel himself. He said Werfel told him that when he was escaping from Germany through the woods in France, he had the manuscript of another novel with him which he had just finished. He knew if they ever got caught and the Germans found his manuscript, they would know who he was and he would be shot. So, one night he dug a hole in the ground in the forest and burned his manuscript page by page. When the town of Lourdes took him in, he vowed if he lived he would sing The Song of Bernadette. When he was safely out of danger, he wrote the book.
Seaton explained that since Werfel was reporting true events within the past nine decades, he could not draw upon his imagination, but followed rather closely the carefully investigated account of Saint Bernadette, in Henri Lasserre's, Our Lady Of Lourdes, which was also written in fulfillment of a vow. Seaton said it was a wonderful experience to work with this man.
He also related how he fought to have the movie filmed objectively, strictly from Bernadette's point of view:
Anytime you put a camera anyplace, it has to be somebody's point of view. By placing the camera behind Bernadette, with Bernadette in the foreground and the virgin in the niche, it becomes somebody else's point of view. Somebody seeing both the Virgin and Bernadette at the same time. And you cannot say that anybody saw the Virgin except Bernadette. It might have been a delusion on her part or it might have been real, but I told them "we have to keep it this way all through the picture. You can't take the position that she does see it because your picture goes right out the window."
Seaton said Zanuck argued this point with him for a long time. But he won the argument and Zanuck finally agreed. "So you never see a shot of Bernadette in the foreground. It's always her eyes and what she sees; but did she see it, or didn't she see it? That's another thing."
When the interviewer asked Seaton if in his own mind he thought she saw the Virgin, Seaton told him he'd have to take the 5th on that. He said after the picture was finished he looked at it and told Zanuck that the critics would tear them apart, because although they leave it up to the audience, they also show all those bits of evidence. He told Zanuck that what the picture needed was a foreword to take the steam out of the critics. Zanuck and Perlberg agreed and Seaton said he wrote a foreword and credited it to a fifteenth century monk. It said: "To those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary, to those who do not believe in God, no explanation is possible."
When the interviewer comments, "But it was really you?" Seaton replies, "Well it worked."
When asked about locations Seaton said:
The director flew his own plane and it was something you only did once with him. We'd be looking locally for a grotto and he'd be flying at 5,000 feet and he'd look down and say, "That looks possible," and he'd go rrrrrrrump and your stomach would be left up at 5,000 feet. He said finally they decided to create a grotto on the back lot. He said they also built the whole village, the Bernadette set, which stayed up for years and they changed it to this and they changed it to that, and now it's Century City.
Seaton explained that Jennifer Jones was chosen to play Bernadette because it was the first thing she had ever done and the part needed someone who had an earthy peasant quality about her. He also explained that the Virgin wasn't matted in, that she was actually standing in the niche. He said it was very tastefully done. When the cameraman got close, it wasn't sharp, he diffused it. It had a wonderful ethereal quality so that very few knew who played the Virgin. It was Linda Darnell.
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As noted earlier, it is said no deed done in Our Lady's honor goes unrewarded. After Seaton wrote The Song Of Bernadette his career blossomed. He went on to many successful films including academy award winning Miracle On 34th Street and Country Girl .
He said Miracle On 34th Street was one of the joys of his life. He wrote the original screenplay. He took the same attitude as with The Song Of Bernadette : "you don't say that he is Santa Claus, you just present the facts and let the audience make up its own mind."
He also mentioned the effect Miracle On 34th Street had on Macy's and Gimbels:
The interesting thing about it was that in the film Santa Claus sends customers to other stores. Well, ever since then, they have had at Macy's a Kristeen Kringle who is a comparative shopper. And if she says they haven't got it at Macy's she'll tell you where to go. Gimbels have also done it. They've become more friendly and cooperative, whereas, before the movie they were very competitive. Neiman Marcus in Dallas did the same thing.
In 1994 a news release announced the color remake of 1947 Miracle on 34th Street movie for the coming Christmas season. It was warmly reviewed and a definite compliment to George Seaton that his movie has not only survived as a black and white classic seen every Christmas on television, but has now been remade in color.
And this new version, coincidentally displayed the talents of another "South Bend Boy." Doug Kraner, a production designer on the film, who had a hand in the colorful and exquisite Christmastime decorations, is a native of South Bend. This film also has the distinction of being the only movie known to offer a guarantee of your money back if you don't like it. Twentieth Century Fox obviously had great faith in the premise of Seaton's 1947 version of faith, hope and goodness -- "that Christmas isn't just Christmas, it's a frame of mind. It's having the faith to go on believing when common sense tells you not to."
In 1999 Seaton's Miracle On 34th Street also became the subject of Macy's "Old fashioned Christmas" window displays for the Holidays. Every window was filled with the original, animated, characters depicting memorable scenes from the 1947 movie classic. It was described as 800 hours of perpetual motion, designed to give pleasure to holiday shoppers throughout the Christmas season. Undoubtedly, if Seaton were alive to see it such a beautiful window display celebrating his movie classic would just be more proof that miracles are still happening On 34th Street.
Seaton having left South Bend for Detroit at the age of two at first seemed to rule out any possibility of a connection between the Bernadette script and the Notre Dame Grotto. That is until this last concluding surprise turned up in Seaton's oral history.
He was speaking of his older brother, Arthur:
My brother graduated from the University of Notre Dame . As Dr. Arthur Stenius he was head of the Audio Visual Department at Wayne State University in Detroit for ten years until his death in 1955. During that time he made many advancements in film and was considered a pioneer in the audio-visual field.
It was at least a link between Seaton's Bernadette script and the Notre Dame Grotto. Whether or not it factored into his doing the script, it seems probable he would have known about it. He was seventeen when his brother graduated from Notre Dame and still living at home. Undoubtedly, he was there for that occasion, and probably other times as well, and viewed the special places on campus, possibly even during football weekends. It is unlikely he would have missed seeing the Grotto. There may also have been a subliminal memory of it during the writing of the Bernadette script of which even he was unaware.
Pondering all these significant coincidences and timely postscripts associated with Seaton's movie classics, and seemingly destined to be included in this documentation, has brought another to mind. This one, associated with Seaton's Song of Bernadette movie, appeared on campus in the form of a poignant letter.
It arrived in response to a request for Grotto Stories to commemorate the 1996 centenary of the Grotto. This touching story of the writer's vision, her own experience with the "Lady dressed in Light" at the Notre Dame Grotto, and the photograph she included with her letter, are now in the University of Notre Dame Archives. Preserved in a special file for all the original Grotto Stories sent in at the time, and for those that are still arriving.
Her letter and photograph also appeared in Grotto Stories: From the Heart of Notre Dame compiled and published by Mary Pat Dowing in 1996. It's a story tailor-made for this chapter because the writer not only shared a moving experience of her own vision of "Our Lady" associated with the Notre Dame Grotto but she also shares the name of the actress who played the part of Bernadette in The Song of Bernadette film. It's a story that speaks for itself:
No story to enlighten; no miracle to be told. Yet a picture embedded into my mind and soul and heart. That picture became a photo. That photo became my personal icon.
In Henri J. M. Nouwen's book Behold the beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons, he says, "During a hard period of my life in which verbal prayer had become nearly impossible and during which mental and emotional fatigue had made me the easy victim of feelings of despair and fear, this icon became the beginning of my healing. As I sat for long hours in front of Rublev's Trinity, I noticed how gradually my gaze became prayer. This silent prayer slowly made my inner restlessness melt away and lifted me up into the circle of love, a circle that couldn't be broken by the powers of the world. Even as I moved away from the icon and became involved in the many tasks of everyday life, I felt as if I did not have to leave the holy place I had found and could dwell there wherever I went. I knew that the house of love I had entered has no boundaries and embraces everyone who wants to dwell there." Now, 13 years since graduating from ND, far from the Grotto, I pull out my photo of the statue of Mary, look at it, and it brings me back to the Grotto, to Mary Jo, to within, to beyond, to a place no longer defined -- my icon. I gave the photo as gifts to most of my fellow Badinites and my boyfriend from Sorin. Years later, when I graduated from dental school, I heard that my close friend, Mary Jo Maheney, was in a coma from a car wreck. All I had was memories of her smile, our pizza and coke runs at 11 p.m. and her spirit. Five years later, she died.
During that time, I would write not knowing if she could hear her mother's words. I often think of Mrs. Mahaney. What to do or say? Send the photo. The Grotto became alive with color and passion because once I shared with Mary Jo her love for Notre Dame. "In the world you will have trouble. But be brave: I have conquered the world." JN Bible
-- Jennifer Jones, Class of 1982, Seattle, Washington.
As mentioned earlier, Jennifer Jones is also the name of the actress who won an Academy Award for her performance in The Song of Bernadette , the 1943 movie based on the experiences of Bernadette Soubirous at the Lourdes Grotto in France. It was her first movie. The film also won best cinema photography, best interior decorations and best score. George Seaton's script was nominated for best screenplay.
The Song of Bernadette is now finding a new and appreciative audience, as a black and white classic, often replayed on television. The Miracle of Lourdes lives on in the hearts of those who believe in it.
