From: rich <richarra@gmail.com>

November 28th ' St. Catherine Laboure
(1806-1876)

Probably every Catholic is familiar with the =E2=80=9CMiraculous=E2=80=9D M= edal. Few
Catholics, I imagine, are familiar with Catherine Laboure, the saint
whom the Blessed Virgin instructed to popularize that medal. St.
Catherine wanted to avoid public notice. She confided her visions to
only two personages.

It wasn't hard for Catherine to appear ordinary. She was ordinary i=
n
most things. Born in France in 1806, Zoe' Laboure was a member of a
large farming family. Circumstances even prevented her, alone among
her brothers and sisters, from learning how to read and write. After
her mother died, she served as the family housekeeper. In 1830,
however, Zoe joined the Sisters of Charity, taking the name Catherine.
Her novitiate she passed at the motherhouse of the Sisters, on the Rue
du Bac, Paris.

Catherine had not been a novice for long when God began to show this
prayerful young woman unusual spiritual favors. Her earliest visions
were of St. Vincent de Paul, the founder of the Sisters of Charity.
Jesus also appeared to her more than once in connection with the
Blessed Sacrament.

Most notable of these revelations, however, was a series of three
visions in the novitiate chapel. Here the Blessed Virgin carried on
long conversations with Sister Catherine and gave her a special
mission. On November 27, 1830, Our Lady appeared to her standing on a
globe, with light streaming from her hands. Framing Our Lady was a
prayer, =E2=80=9CO Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recour=
se
to thee.=E2=80=9D Then the picture (for it was essentially that) turned abo= ut.
On the back side of the vision was a large =E2=80=9CM=E2=80=9D with a cross=
above, and
below the cross, two hearts, one crowned with thorns and one pierced
by a sword. Our Lady told Sister Catherine her mission was to spread
Marian devotion through this image in the form of a medal.

Catherine told these things at first only to her confessor. Because
she wanted to avoid publicity, she declined even to appear before the
board set up by the archbishop of Paris to investigate the
apparitions. But Sister Catherine's confessor, Father Aladel, was
highly regarded by the archbishop, so his testimony was accepted as
confirming the reports. It was also Fr. Aladel who had the first
medals stamped in 1832. From that time on, the devotion spread
throughout the world.

The Miraculous Medal gained further credence in 1842. In that year,
somebody persuaded Alphonse Ratisbonne, a prominent Alsatian Jew, to
wear one of the medals. Ratisbonne reluctantly consented. But when he
was visiting the church of S. Andrea delle Frate in Rome, he had a
vision of Our Lady in the same pose as on the medal. Deeply moved, he
sought baptism, studied for the priesthood, and with his convert
brother, founded the Fathers of Sion and the Congregation of Notre
Dame de Sion. Both orders are dedicated to bringing Jews and
Christians together.

In 1831, Catherine was assigned to the Sisters' house at Reuilly,
Paris. Here she spent the last 46 years of her life. Her mystical
experiences continued. Most people saw her, however, simply as an insignificant, rather distant person, busy about ordinary things like
tending the door, plucking chickens and serving the aged. Only in her
last year, 1876, did she speak of her experiences to a second person.
Her superior, Sister Dufes, was anxious to have a statue made
according to the design that Our Lady had requested, so she turned to
Catherine for details. Catherine supplied them and the whole story as
well.

Despite her efforts to remain hidden, when Sister Catherine died,
there was an outburst of devotion at her funeral. Shortly afterward, a
child crippled from birth was cured instantaneously at her tomb. St. Catherine's remains (enshrined today in the Rue du Bac chapel of th=
e
apparitions) have remained incorrupt. She was canonized in 1947.

Why did St. Catherine struggle so to avoid the limelight? Because she
believed that the message is more important than the messenger!

'Father Robert


Saint Quote:
Happy the man whose words issue from the Holy Spirit and not from himself!
-- Saint Anthony of Padua

Bible Quotes:
"Forgetfulness of God, defiling of souls, changing of nature, disorder
in marriage, and the irregularity of adultery and uncleanness" ... for
two things they shall be punished, because they have thought not well
of God ... and have sworn unjustly in guile despising justice=C2 (Wisdom 14:22-26)

"the land is filled with blood, and the city is filled with
perverseness: for they have said: The Lord hath forsaken the earth,
and the Lord seeth not. Therefore neither shall my eye spare, nor will
I have pity: I will requite their way upon their head"=C2 (Ezechiel
9:9-10)


<><><><>
18. How beautiful it is to behold a person destitute of all
attachment, ready for any act of virtue or charity, gentle to all,
indifferent as to any employment, serene in consolations and
tribulations, and wholly content if only the will of God be done!
--St. Francis de Sales

Behold how this Saint, without intending it, has depicted himself to
the life! For he was precisely such a person as is here described, as
may be seen from many incidents recorded in this work.
(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints".=C2 =C2 November: Charit=
y)

--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)