The Miraculous Medal: Its Origin, History, Circulation, ResultsAladel, Jean-Marie
Religion
The Miraculous Medal: Its Origin, History, Circulation, Results
Aladel, Jean-Marie
Labouré, Catherine, Saint, 1806-1876; Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint; Miraculous Medal
CURES WROUGHT IN THE CHABLAIS DISTRICT (SAVOY).
"_The Borders of Lake Geneva, June 18, 1835._
"_Monsieur_:
"The country purged of Calvin's heresy by the labors of
Geneva's holy bishop, is not a stranger to the blessings
figured by the medal's mysterious rays. This wonderful
instrument of Mary's liberality has been propagated with
astonishing rapidity, though only a few months since we heard
of it in our midst. I consider it a pious obligation to offer
you a few small stones towards the construction of that temple
of glory now in process of erection, to the honor of her,
who has lately proved herself more powerful and merciful on
earth than ever before. I am a young villager living amidst my
family; I do not announce miracles to you, but merely recount
facts just as I have seen or heard them. I could have subjoined
a list of signatures, but I did not judge it necessary, the
docile, religious heart deeming them superfluous, and the
skeptic, fraudulent, like the facts. On a perusal of the first
few phrases in each incident, persons living in the vicinity
will recognize the individuals concerned, and thereby be more
deeply impressed.
"1st. In the month of July, 1824, Mlle. C., aged twenty-nine
years, bade, as she thought, a last adieu to her family; she
and some other generous companions were going to one of the
large cities in southern Italy to consecrate themselves there
to the service of the sick and poor. After a few months'
novitiate in a religious house devoted to works of this nature,
she was attacked by one of those debilitating, wasting maladies
that physicians are at a loss to define. Attributing it to the
climate, the Superiors, after twenty-two months' ineffectual
treatment at the novitiate, sent her to breathe her natal
air. But change of air proved vain also, and the doctors at
last ceased their visits, judging the re-establishment of
her health an impossibility. About six years ago, she had
improved sufficiently to walk a few steps beyond her chamber,
and even remain in the open air some minutes, but amelioration
was illusory, and since 1830 she had not been able to leave
her couch of suffering except for a few instants. Many times
during these last five years was she apparently on the verge
of death, and that for several consecutive days, always,
however, retaining her hearing and intellectual faculties,
since she could respond by signs to the priest who visited
her. It was he who gave me these particulars. Her condition
had become such that it was judged advisable to administer the
Last Sacraments. This house was now a school of edification,
where Christians might study the price of sufferings and the
heroism of patience. Finally, about the end of last April,
this poor creature, so tortured for the past eleven years,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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