The fact that St. Catherine rested her hands on the lap
of the Blessed Mother did not make her a saint. She personally
worked no miracles, nor did she practice externally heroic
charity like other great saints. She was not materially poor as
were the children of Fatima and Bernadette.... She sprang from
upper middle class parents among the meadows and vineyards of
Burgundy, France. Her father was educated man and an excellent
farmer-living in the village of Fain-les-Moutiers not far from
Dijon. Her sanctity consists in half a century of faithful
service as a simple Daughter of Charity.
As the evening Angelus sounded, Catherine was born of Peter and
Louise Laboure on May 2, 1806. She was the ninth child of a
family of eleven. Fifteen minutes after her birth, her name, Zoe
Laboure, was entered on the City records. The next day, she was
baptized on the feast of the Finding of The True Cross. It seems
more than a coincidence that Catherine was born. at the ringing
of the Angelus; surely it was God's charming touch- the heralding
by Our Lady's tells of the saint who was to be so highly favored
by Mary. Nor was it an accident that Catherine's name received
the prompt attention of the world . . . certainly it was her holy
mother's intuition that led Louise Madeleine Laboure to call
attention to her elected child. Even the feast of Catherine's
baptism was prophetic, for Catherine was to find the Cross in
every turn of her life and to have a deep devotion for it, and a
mysterious vision of the Cross.
When Catherine was nine years old, her saintly mother died. After
the burial service, little Catherine retired to her room, stood
on a chair, took Our Lady's statue from the wall, addressed it,
and said: "Now, dear Lady, you are to be my mother.
After living a year in Paris with her Aunt Margaret, Catherine
came back to her father's home to supervise the household. She
was her father's favorite child, and this efficient, stern, upper
middle class farmer depended upon her. On January 25, 1818,
Catherine received her First Holy Communion. From that day on she
arose every morning at
4:00am, walked several miles in order to assist at Mass and to
pray.
One day she had a dream in which she saw an old priest say Mass.
After Mass, the priest turned and beckoned her with his finger,
but she drew backwards, keeping her eye on him. The vision moved
to a sick room where she saw the same priest, who said: "My
child, it is a good deed to look after the sick; you run away
now, but one day you will be glad to come to me. God has designs
on you-do not forget it." Later she awoke, not knowing the
significance of the dream.
Sometime later, while visiting a hospital of the Daughters of
Charity, she noticed a priest's picture on the wall She asked
sister who he might be, and was told · "Our Holy Founder
St. Vincent de Paul '; This was the same priest Catherine had
seen in the dream.
In January of 1830, Catherine Laboure became a postulant in the
hospice of the Daughters of Charity at Catillion-sur-Seine. Three
months later she was again in Paris, this time to enter the
seminary of the Mother House of the Daughters of Charity. Shortly
after she entered her new home, God was pleased to grant her
several extraordinary visions. On three consecutive days she
beheld the heart of St. Vincent above the reliquary in which his
relics were exposed, each time under a different aspect. At other
times she beheld Our Divine Lord in front of the Blessed
Sacrament; this would occur especially during Mass when He would
appear as He was described in the liturgy of the day.
On the eve of the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul, July 19, the
Sister Superior spoke to the novices about the virtues of their
Holy Founder and gave each of them a Piece of cloth from his
surplice. Catherine earnestly prayed to St. Vincent that she
might with her own eyes see the mother of God.
She was convinced that she would see the Blessed Virgin Mary that
very night; and in her conviction, Catherine fell asleep Before
long, she was awakened by a brilliant light and the voice of a
child. "Sister Laboure, come to the Chapel; the Blessed
Virgin awaits you."
Catherine replied: "We shall be discovered."
The little child smiled, "Do not be uneasy; it is half past
eleven, everyone is sleeping . .. come, I am waiting for
you." She rose quickly and dressed. The hall lights were
burning. The locked chapel door swung open at the angel's touch.
Amazed, Catherine found the Chapel ablaze with lights as if
prepared for midnight Mass Quickly she knelt at the communion
rail, and suddenly, she heard the rustle of a silk dress . . .
the Blessed Virgin, in a blaze of light, sat in the director's
chair. The angel whispered: "The Blessed Mother wishes to
speak with You."
Catherine rose, knelt beside the Blessed Mother and rested her
hands in the Virgin's lap.Mary said: "God wishes to charge
you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do not fear;
you will have the grace to do what is necessary. Tell your
spiritual director all that passes within you. Times are evil in
France and in the world." A pain crossed the Virgin's face.
"Come to the foot of the altar Graces will be shed on all,
great and little, especially upon those who seek for them You
will have the protection of God and St Vincent. I always will
have my eyes upon you. There will be much persecution. The Cross
will be treated with contempt. It will be hurled to the ground
and blood will flow " Then after speaking for some time, the
Lady like a fading shadow was gone.
Led by the child, Catherine left the Chapel, marched up the
corridor, and returned to her place in the dormitory. The angel
disappeared, and as Catherine went to bed she heard the clock
strike two.
Catherine lived the normal life of a novice of the Daughters of
Charity until Advent. On Saturday, November 27, 1830, at 5:30
p.m., she retired to the Chapel with the other Sisters for
evening meditation. Catherine heard the faint swish of silk . . .
she recognized Our Lady's signal. Raising her eyes to the main
altar, she saw her beautiful Lady standing on a large globe.
Mary's silken robe shone with the whiteness of dawn the neck was
cut high, and the sleeves were plain. A pure white veil fell to
her feet. and beneath the veil she wore a lace fillet binding her
hair. A small golden ball was in her hands, which she offered to
God with her eyes Heavenward. Suddenly, Mary's hands were
resplendent and flashed in a brilliant cascade of light. The
flood of glory was so bright that the globe on which Mary stood
was out of sight. Catherine understood that the rays symbolized
the graces shed on those who seek them; gems on Our Lady's
fingers which did not have rays symbolized the graces for which
souls forgot to ask. Then the ball vanished. Mary's arms swept
wide and down and an oval frame of words surrounded her head:
"O Mary,conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse
to thee "
The Virgin spoke again, this time giving a direct order:
"Have a medal struck in this form. All who wear it will
receive great graces-" Then the vision of the Virgin turned
completely around and on the other side appeared a large letter
"M" with a cross above it. The letter rested on a bar
beneath which appeared two hearts. The first heart was encircled
by a crown of thorns; the second was pierced by a sword. The
explanation is simple. We are Christians, purchased by a God who
was crucified in the very presence of his own mother, the Queen
of Martyrs.
Catherine asked how she was to have the medal struck. Mary
replied that she was to go to her confessor, a Father Jean Marie
Aladel saying of this saintly priest: "He is my
servant." Father Aladel at first did not believe Catherine;
however, after two years, he finally went to the archbishop who
ordered two thousand medals struck on June 20,1832. When
Catherine received her share of these first medals from the hands
of the priest, she said: "Now it must be propagated."
The spread of a devotion to the medal urged by St. Catherine was
carried out so swiftly that it was miraculous itself. The formal
name of "Medal of the Immaculate Conception" was soon
forgotten It was the "Miraculous Medal" even in those
days, for the power working through it seemed to be truly
miraculous. From that time on, it would never be called anything
else. Even the liturgy has accorded it the proud title conferred
on it by the people who accept it with faith and love.
We might expect that praise and prominence would be the lot of
one so favored by Heaven. But she bought none of it; rather, she
fled from it. She wanted to be left alone to carry out her humble
duties as a Daughter of Charity. For over forty years, she spent
her every effort in caring for the aged and infirm, not revealing
to those about her that she had been the recipient of Our Lady's
Medal. The sisters with whom she lived held her in the highest
esteem, and each one longed to be her companion.
In 1876, Catherine felt a spiritual conviction that she would die
before the end of the year. Mary Immaculate gave Catherine leave
to speak, to break the silence of forty-six years. To her Sister
Superior, Catherine revealed the fact that she was the sister to
whom the Blessed Mother appeared.
On the last day of December, 1876, St. Catherine passed on-once
again to the hands of Mary-this time, however, in Heaven. Today
her beautiful remains still lie fresh and serene.
When her body was exhumed in 1933 it was found as fresh as the
day it was buried. Though she had lived seventy years and was in
the grave for fifty-seven Years, her eyes remained very blue and
beautiful; and in death her arms and legs were as supple as if
she were asleep. Her incorrupt body is encased in glass beneath
the side altar at 140 Rue du Bac, Paris, beneath one of the spots
where Our Lady appeared to her.
In the Chapel of the Apparition you can gaze upon the face and
the lips that for forty-six years kept a secret which has since
shaken the world.
St. Catherine Laboure was born the
daughter of a farmer on May 2, 1806 in Fain-les Moutiers France.
She never went to school, as her mother died when she was only
eight, and she took care of the family. She joined the Sisters of
Charity of St. Vincent de Paul at Chatillion in 1830 taking the
name of Catherine, and was sent to the Rue de Bac Convent in
Paris. Almost at once she began to experience a series of visions
of our Lady in the chapel of the convent, and in several of them
was asked by the Lady in the vision to strike a medal showing the
Lady and honoring the Immaculate Conception. Her confessor, Fr.
Aladel, secured permision from Archbishop Quelen of Paris to have
the medals struck, and in 1832 the first 1500 of what were to be
millions of medals were minted -- the famous Miraculous Medal.
The visions were approved as authentic in 1836 by a special
commission appointed by the archbishop, and the popularity of the
medal spread all over the world. Catherine spent the years from
1831 to her death performing menial tasks at the Hospice
d'Enghein, revealing none of her visions to anyone but her
confessor until a few months before her death on December 31,
1876, She was canonized in 1947 and we celebrate her feast on
November 28.