Flora Cantábrica

APPARITIONS OF THE VIRGIN MARY TO SAINT CATALINA LABOURE AND THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL

the apparitions

1830 is a key year: the first modern apparition of the Blessed Virgin takes place in Paris. What Pius XII called the «era of Mary» begins, a stage of repeated heavenly visitations. Among others: La Salette, Lourdes, Fatima… And as in her visit to Saint Elizabeth, she always comes to bring us grace, to bring us closer to Jesus, the blessed fruit of her womb. Also to remind us of the path of salvation and warn us of the consequences of choosing other paths.

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St. Catherine Labouré
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Catherine was born on May 2, 1806, in Fain-les-Moutiers, Burgundy (France). She entered religious life with the Daughters of Charity on January 22, 1830 and after three months of postulancy, on April 21, she was transferred to the novitiate in Paris, at 140 Rue du Bac.
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The Heart of Saint Vincent
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The novice was present when the remains of her founder, St. Vincent de Paul, were moved to the new church of the Padres Paules just a few blocks from her novitiate. The right arm of the saint went to the novitiate chapel. In this chapel, during the novena, Catalina saw the heart of Saint Vincent in various colors. White in color, signifying the union that should exist between the congregations founded by Saint Vincent. Red in color, signifying the fervor and spread that these congregations were to have. Dark red, meaning sadness for the suffering she would suffer. She heard a voice inside: «the heart of Saint Vincent is deeply afflicted by the evils that are going to come to France.» The same voice added a little later: «The heart of Saint Vincent is more consoled for having obtained from God, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that neither of the two congregations perish in the midst of these misfortunes, but that God will make use of them to revive the faith «.-

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Visions of the Lord in the Eucharist

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During the 9 months of her novitiate in Rue du Bac, Sister Catherine also had the special grace of seeing the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament every day.

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On Holy Trinity Sunday, June 6, 1830, the Lord appeared during the gospel of the mass as a King, with a cross on his chest. Suddenly, Jesu s’ royal ornaments fell to the ground, the same as the cross, like wasted debris. «Immediately,» Sister Catalina wrote, «I had the blackest and most terrible ideas: that the King of the earth was lost and would be stripped of his royal garments. Yes, bad things were coming.»
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Catalina dreams of seeing the Virgin

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On Sunday, July 18, 1930, the eve of the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul, the novice mistress had spoken to them about devotion to the saints, and in particular to the Queen of them all, Holy Mary. Her words, impregnated with faith and ardent piety, kindled in Sister Laboure’s heart the desire to see and contemplate the face of the Blessed Virgin. As it was Saint Vincent’s Eve, they had distributed to each one a small piece of canvas from a roquette of the saint. Catalina swallowed it and fell asleep thinking that S. Vicente, along with her guardian angel, would obtain for her that same night the grace to see the Virgin as she wished. Precisely, the previous favors received in the various apparitions of Saint Vincent to Sister Catalina nourished in her heart an unlimited trust towards her blessed father, and her candor and lively hope did not deceive her. «Trust achieves everything it hopes for» (Saint John of the Cross
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The Angel wakes her up

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Everything was silent in the room where Sister Catalina slept and around 11:30 PM she heard her name being called three times. He woke up and, pulling back the curtains of his bed a little, looked at the side where the voice came from and then saw a boy dressed in white, who seemed to be about four or five years old, and who said to him: «Get up quickly and come to the chapel. ; the Blessed Virgin awaits you».

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Sister Catalina hesitates; she is afraid of being noticed by the other novices; but the child responds to her inner concern and tells her: «Don’t be afraid; it’s 11:30 p.m.; everyone is sleeping very well. Come, I’ll wait for you.

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She does not stop for a moment; she hastily dresses and makes herself available to her mysterious guide, «that she stood without parting from her bed-post.»

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Dressed as Sister Catalina, the child begins to walk, and she follows him marching to «her left side» of her. Wherever they passed the lights were turned on. The boy’s body radiated bright glows and everything was illuminated in his path.

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Arriving at the door of the chapel, she finds it closed; but the child touches the door with her finger and it opened instantly.

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Catalina says: «My surprise was more complete when, upon entering the chapel, I saw all the candles and candles lit, which reminded me of midnight Mass.» (she still does not see the Virgin.

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The child took her to the presbytery, next to the chair for the Fr. Director, where she used to preach to the Daughters of Charity, and there she knelt down, and the child remained standing all the time on the right side

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The wait seemed very long, since she anxiously wanted to see the Virgin. She looked with some concern towards the right gallery, in case the sailing sisters, who used to stop to perform an act of adoration, saw her.

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Finally the desired hour arrived, and the child said: «See the Virgin here, see her here.»

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Sister Catalina heard a sound, like the rustling of a silk suit, that started from the side of the gallery, next to the painting of Saint Joseph. She saw that a lady of extreme beauty, she majestically crossed the presbytery, «she went to sit in an armchair on the steps of the main altar, next to the Gospel» .-
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Sister Catalina, deep down in her heart, doubted whether or not she was truly in the presence of the Queen of Heaven, but the child told her: «Look at the Virgin.» .
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It was almost impossible for her to describe what she was experiencing at that moment, what happened inside her, and it seemed to her that she did not see the Blessed Virgin.
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Then the boy spoke to him, not as a child, but as the most energetic man and very strong words: – «Perchance can’t the Queen of Heaven appear to a poor mortal creature in the way that she likes best?» «
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Then, looking at the Virgin, I was immediately at her side, I knelt in the sanctuary, with my hands resting on the knees of the Blessed Virgin. «I spent the sweetest moments of my life there; it would be impossible for me to say what I felt.»

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She told me how I should behave with my director, the way to behave in sorrow and go (showing myself with my left hand) to throw myself at the foot of the altar and pour out my heart there, because there I would receive all the consolations I needed. So I asked her what the things I had seen meant, and she explained everything to me.»

Apparition of November 27, 1830

On the afternoon of November 27, 1830, Saturday eve of the first Sunday of Advent, in the chapel, Sister Catalina was meditating on her, when she seemed to hear the rustling of a silk dress that reminded her of the previous apparition. .

The Blessed Virgin appears, dressed in white with long sleeves and a tunic closed up to her neck. She covered her head with a white veil that, without hiding her figure, fell on both sides to her feet. When she wanted to describe her face, only she was right to say that she was the Virgin Mary in her greatest beauty.

Her feet rested on a white globe, of which only the top was visible, and crushed a green snake with yellow spots. Her hands raised to the height of her heart held another small gold globe, surmounted by a little cross.

The Stma. Virgin maintained a pleading attitude, as if offering the balloon. She sometimes looked at the sky and sometimes at the earth. Suddenly her fingers were filled with rings adorned with precious stones that shone and spilled her light in all directions, surrounding her at this moment in such clarity that it was not possible to see her.

She had three rings on each finger of hers; the thickest next to her hand; one of medium size in the middle, and no smaller, at the extremity. Rays emanated from the precious stones of the rings, elongating downwards; They filled the entire lower part.

While Sister Catalina contemplated the Virgin, she looked at her and said to her heart:

This globe that you see (at the feet of the Virgin) represents the whole world, especially France and each soul in particular. These rays symbolize the graces that I pour out on those who ask for them. The pearls that do not emit rays are the graces of the souls that do not ask.

With these words, the Virgin makes herself known as the mediator of the graces that come to us from Jesus Christ.

The golden globe (the wealth of graces) vanished from the hands of the Virgin. Her arms were spread open, while the rays of light continued to fall on the white globe of her feet.

The Miraculous Medal:

At this moment an oval shape appeared around the Virgin and the following invocation appeared written on the inner edge: «Mary conceived without sin, pray for us, who come to you»

These words formed a semicircle that began at the height of the right hand, passed over the head of the Blessed Virgin, ending at the height of the left hand.

She heard her voice inside her again: «Have a medal struck after this model. Great graces will be received by all who wear it. Graces will be more abundant for those who wear it with confidence.»

-The globe in her hands: the world offered to Jesus by her hands.

Name:

The Medal was originally called: «of the Immaculate Conception», but as devotion expanded and there were so many miracles granted through it, it was popularly called «The Miraculous Medal