St. Catherine Labouré

Saint Catherine Labouré, D.C.
Simplicity
Supernatural Visions
Silence
Patience
Humility

The stuff of Sainthood
The fact that Saint Catherine
rested her hands on the lap
of the Blessed Mother did
not make her a saint.
She personally worked no
miracles, nor did she practice
externally heroic charity like
other great saints.

The makings of a Saint
She was not materially poor as
were the children of Fatima and
Saint Bernadette... she sprang
from upper middle class
parents among the meadows
and vineyards of Burgundy,
France.

Consistent, faithful service
Her sanctity consists in half
a century of faithful service
as a simple Daughter of
Charity.

“God opposes the proud but shows
favor to the humble...”
It had been almost 300 years since
the last apparition of Our Lady of
Guadalupe in 1531. It is interesting
that the Holy Mother of God began
her plans with a 24-year-old novice
in the Motherhouse of the Daughters
of Charity.

From the start, consistently faithful
As a teenager, Catherine
had arisen every morning
at 4:00 a.m. and walked
several miles to church in
order to assist at Mass, and
to pray.

Mother of Our Lord, and our Mother
When Catherine was nine years
old, her mother died. After the
burial service, little Catherine
went to her room, stood on a
chair, took our Lady's statue
from the wall, kissed it, and
said: "Now, dear Lady, you are
to be my mother."

God’s Revelations
From ancient times, God has
relayed His messages through
the power of the Holy Spirit,
to His chosen servants by
visions and dreams.
From “The Vision of Daniel”
painting by Willem Drost

An old priest with a message
One day Catherine had a
dream in which she watched an
old priest say Mass. The vision
moved to a sick room where
she saw the same priest, who
said: "My child, it is a good
deed to look after the sick [...]
God has designs on you-- do
not forget it."

Astonishing realization
Sometime later, while visiting a
hospital of the Daughters of
Charity, she noticed a priest's
picture on the wall. She asked a
sister who he might be, and was
told: "Our Holy Founder Saint
Vincent de Paul." This was the
same priest that Catherine had
seen in the dream!

Extraordinary visions
In 1830, Catherine entered the
Seminary at the Mother House of
the Daughters of Charity. Shortly
afterwards, God granted her several
amazing visions. Three times she
beheld the heart of St. Vincent
above the reliquary in which his
relics were exposed. At other times,
she beheld our divine Lord in front
of the Blessed Sacrament.

Apparitions of Mary
Her first apparition of the Blessed
Virgin was on July 19, 1830. She
reappeared to Catherine on
November 27, 1830, and said,
"Have a medal struck in this form
(which she described in detail).
All who wear it will have great
graces." Because of the power
working through it, it came to be
called the "Miraculous Medal".

Patience in the face of skepticism
When Catherine asked how she
was to have the medal struck,
Mary told her to go to her
confessor, a Father Jean Marie
Aladel. Father Aladel at first did
not believe Catherine.

Waiting for two years
After two years' worth of
investigation and observation of
Catherine's normal daily behavior,
the priest finally went to the
archbishop, without revealing
Sister Catherine’s identity. The
Archbishop listened carefully and
questioned Fr. Aladel in detail, and
finally gave his permission for two
thousand medals to be made.

Miraculous spread of the devotion
When Catherine received her share
of these first medals from the
hands of the priest she said: "Now
it must be propagated."
The spread of a devotion to the
medal, urged by Saint Catherine,
was carried out so swiftly that it
was miraculous itself.

Humility
We might expect that praise and
prominence would be the lot of
one so favored by heaven. But
Catherine sought none of it;
rather, she fled from it. She
wanted to be left alone to carry
out her humble duties as a
Daughter of Charity.

Forty-six year silence
Sister Catherine lived her
remaining years as an ordinary
nursing sister. For over forty years,
she cared for the aged and infirm,
not revealing to those about her
that she had been the recipient of
our Lady's medal. (She has
sometimes been called “The Silent
Saint”.)

Catherine finally reveals her story
In 1876, Catherine began to feel
a spiritual conviction that she
would die before the end of the
year. Mary Immaculate gave
Catherine leave to speak, to
break the silence of forty-six
years. To her Sister Superior,
Catherine revealed the fact that
she was the sister to whom the
Blessed Mother appeared.

Catherine reunited with Mary in heaven
On December 31, 1876, Saint
Catherine passed on-- once
again to the hands of Mary--
this time, however, in heaven.
At the time of her death, very
few people knew that Catherine
was the one who brought the
Miraculous Medal to the world.

Source
“The Story of St. Catherine”
amm.org

St. Catherine Labouré

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St. Catherine Labouré