Catherine Laboure

Saint Catherine Laboure was born on May 2, 1806 to Peter and Louise Laboure. She was the ninth child to bless the Laboure family and was followed by two others. Sadly, Louise died when Catherine was nine years old and Catherine turned to the Blessed Virgin and asked Our Lady to be her mother.

In 1818 Catherine became a postulant to the Daughters of Charity at Catillon-sur-Seine. Three months later she returned to Paris to the Mother House of the Daughters of Charity and was entered into the seminary.

On the eve of Feast of Saint Vincent De Paul, the founder of the order, she had a vision of the Blessed Virgin. The Holy Mother told Catherine that great suffering would come to her and to seek comfort at the foot of the altar. During the following visitations of Our Lady she revealed to Catherine an image of her Immaculate Conception to be made into a medal for men and women to wear about their necks. Catherine revealed all these things only to her confessor Father Aladel. She was twenty-four at the time.

Forty-five years after the apparitions Catherine illustrated the entire story to one of her superiors after keeping the secret Our Lady revealed to her for more than half her life time. The medal Mary had requested be made was crafted and given to hundreds of men, women and children. Many miracles followed at result such as cures to fatal diseases, cripples and souls becoming more fervent in their faith.

Catherine died on December 31, 1876 at the age of seventy. Her incorrupt body was exhumed in 1933 and is on display Paris beneath one of the places that Mary appeared to her. She was canonized on July 27, 1947. her feast day falls on the 25th of November.

The medal is now widely known as The Miraculous Medal and is worn as a devotion to the Blessed Mother by many people world wide.

Sources[edit]

St. Catherine Laboure, http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=266

Story of Saint Catherine Laboure, http://www.amm.org/catherine.htm

The Miraculous Medal by Mary Fabyan Windeatt