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
She loved these humble duties. Everything was kept in perfect order,
and for her there was no greater happiness than that of being among
her poor. At the end of her life, she spoke of it as her chief
consolation. "I have always," said she, "loved to stay at home;
whenever there was question of a walk, I yielded my turn to others that
I might serve my poor."
And this was true. One walk only was she unwilling to forego, that
which led to the Community, and she knew no other road but that to the
Mother House. When she could make this visit she never yielded her turn.
Her attraction for silence and the hidden life always kept her in the
rear, as the place most suitable for her, and most favorable to the
spirit of recollection. She ceded to none the lowest and most repulsive
duties of her ward, duties which she termed the pearls of a Daughter
of Charity; she moved calmly and quietly, avoiding precipitation, and
when advanced in years, the young Sisters, her assistants, often heard
from her lips these words: "Ah! my dear, do not be so agitated, be more
gentle."
She regarded as one of the most cherished souvenirs of her Community
life, that of her first Sister-Servant, "a dear soul," said she, "who
every year sent the first fruits of her garden to the indigent families
of the faubourg, or to her old men. The Sisters were not allowed to
touch them until this had been done."
This aged Superior was Sister Savard, who never supposed that Sister
Catherine was favored with especial graces, and particularly with the
vision of the Blessed Virgin.
Our humble daughter Catherine respected and loved all the Sisters under
whom she served, and never did she utter a word against them; she saw
only their virtues and good qualities.
"Child of duty and labor, but especially of humility," says her last
Superior, "Sister Catherine was not truly appreciated except by
those who studied her sufficiently to perceive the great simplicity,
uprightness, and purity pervading her soul, her mind, her heart, her
whole person.
"Never arrogating to herself the slightest merit on account of the
singular favors with which the Immaculate Virgin had loaded her, she
said, one day towards the close of her life, when Providence permitted
a slight allusion to this subject: 'I, favored Sister! I have been
only an instrument; it was not for myself the Blessed Virgin appeared
to me. I knew nothing, not even how to write; it was in the Community
I learned all I know; and because of my ignorance the Blessed Virgin
chose me, that no one might doubt."
Is not the conclusion inspired by the spirit of St. Vincent, "I have
been chosen, because being nothing, no one could doubt that such great
things are the work of God."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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