St Catherine Labouré And The Sign From Heaven - Part One
How the Miraculous Medal will overcome the present darkness
Incorrupt body of St Catherine Labouré, Rue du Bac, Paris
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On the Twentieth of January, 1842,
Alphonsus Ratisbonne, of Strasbourg,
Came here, an obstinate Jew.
The Virgin appeared to him,
As you here see.
Falling down a Jew,
He rose up a Christian.
Stranger,
Store up this precious remembrance
Of the mercy of God
And the power of the Virgin
Inscription in the chapel of the Miracle in the church of Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte in Rome
I begin this article with an event which happened 12 years after the Virgin Mary appeared to St Catherine Laboure at the Rue du Bac in Paris because it is at the centre of a 24 year period between 1830 and 1854 - that is between the apparition of Our Lady in which she gave St Catherine the design for the Miraculous Medal and the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX. All these events are linked together and if we study them carefully we will clearly see and understand what heaven is telling us.
1830, July and November
On the night of the 18th-19th July 1830, Our Lady appeared to a young novice, Sister Catherine Laboure, in the chapel of the Mother House of the Sisters of Charity in Paris. She was awakened by a voice at half past eleven, and discovered a radiant child next to her bed who led her to the chapel. There she saw a Lady of great beauty appear in the Sanctuary and seat herself on the chair usually occupied by the Director of the Community:
“Following only the emotion of my heart, I threw myself on my knees at the Blessed Virgin’s feet and placed my hands familiarly on her lap, as I would have done with my own mother. At that moment I felt the sweetest emotion that I have ever experienced; it would be impossible for me to find words to express it…I am unable to state how long I remained with the Blessed Virgin; all I know is that after speaking with me for a long time she went away, vanishing like a shadow.”
Second apparition
In the evening of the 27th November of that same year, Our Lady appeared again to St Catherine, and revealed to her the design for a medal.
“She saw two animated images passing in front of her. In the first, the Holy Virgin is standing on a hemisphere [the terrestrial globe] and she holds a small golden globe in her hands. Mary's feet crush a serpent. In the second, rays of dazzling brilliance emerge from her open hands. At the same time Catherine hears a voice saying: "These rays are the symbol of the graces that Mary obtains for men".
Then an oval forms around the apparition and Catherine sees an invocation, still unknown at the time, written in gold letters in a semicircle: "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to You".
Immediately afterwards, the oval of the medal turns and Catherine sees the reverse: at the top a cross surmounts the 'M' of Mary, at the bottom two hearts, one crowned with thorns, the other pierced by a sword. Catherine then hears these words: "Have a medal minted, according to this model. Those who wear it with faith will receive great graces".
After the extraordinary events of which she was the protagonist in 1830, the Vincentian nun was able to keep the secret of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin hidden for 46 years, that is, until her death, revealing it only to Father Aladel, her confessor.
Sister Catherine Labourè lived in the greatest humility and absolute silence for another 46 years, serving the poor of the Enghien Hospice in Reuilly, in the east of Paris, incognito. Among the workers and the sick, among the soldiers and the poor, for over 40 years, the humble and hidden 'Daughter of Charity' was the first extraordinary apostle of the "Miraculous Medal".
In the next part of the series we will examine the meaning of the image, and the other events in this crucial period.