Louis Bouriette was a quarry worker of Lourdes, neighbour to the Soubirous family. In a slate-quarry explosion in 1839 a piece of rock had struck him in the face; he survived but lost the sight of his right eye to a traumatic detached retina and chronic inflammation. The blindness was complete and had lasted nineteen years; the cornea was milky with opacity, and successive doctors had told him it was incurable.
When Bernadette's apparitions began in February 1858 and the spring opened, Bouriette had his daughter bring him a small bottle of the new water. He bathed the blind eye with it, praying. The sight returned at once — the opacity cleared, and he could read fine print again. Dr. Dozous, the chief medical officer of Lourdes (initially a skeptic of the apparitions), examined him repeatedly and could not explain it. The cure was one of the seven authenticated by Bishop Laurence of Tarbes in his decree of January 18, 1862.