| Catherine was the daughter of Peter and Louise Laboure, born on May 2, 1806, ninth child of a family of eleven. When Catherine was nine years old, her mother died. She felt called to the religious life and entered the Sisters of Charity at their convent on the Rue de Bac in Paris. She had a special devotion to St. Vincent de Paul. God was pleased to grant her several extraordinary visions.
St. Catherine had several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the chapel. In an apparition on November 30th, 1830, Mother Mary spoke, and gave the design of a Medal and told her to have a medal struck. Catherine confided in her confessor, Father Aladel, and he persuaded Archbishop de Quélen of Paris to give permission for a medal to be struck, which is known as the 'Miraculous Medal'.
Catherine spent her life in caring for the aged and infirm. On December, 1876, Catherine died. When her body was exhumed in 1933 after fifty-seven years,it was found as fresh as the day it was buried. Her incorrupt body is encased in glass beneath the side altar at 140 Rue du Bac, Paris, beneath one of the spots where our Lady appeared to her.
|
Prayer of Saint Catherine Laboure
Whenever I go to the chapel,
I put myself in the presence of our good Lord, and I say to him
"Lord, I am here.
Tell me what you would have me do."
If he gives me some task,
I am content and I thank him.
If he gives me nothing,
I still thank him
since I do not deserve to receive anything more than that.
And then, I tell God
everything that is in my heart.
I tell him about my pains and my joys,
and then I listen.
If you listen, God will also speak to you,
for with the good Lord, you have to both speak and listen.
God always speaks to you
when you approach him plainly and simply.
|
