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Paris Kiosque - February 2001 - Volume 8, Number 2 Copyright (c) 2001 Paul Jensi - Used with permission.
The discreet entrance to the Chapel of the Miraculous Medallion is like a
quiet mouth, closed, calm and carefully keeping its secrets. A fitting image
because the modest Sister who made the chapel famous proved with her life
that she could keep her word.
Many people know the story of Lourdes, a small town in the French Pyrenees,
where in 1858 the Virgin appeared to a child and began performing miraculous
healings. Yet except for the five thousand people who visit the Chapel of the
Miraculous Medallion daily, few know that the exact same story took place in
the heart of Paris twenty-eight years earlier.
Orphaned when she was nine, Catherine Labouré helped raise her nine
brothers and sisters before leaving her farm in the Burgundy region of France
to come to Paris when she was twenty. Four years later, she became a "novice"
in the Community of the Daughters of Charity, a convent established by a holy
man named Saint Vincent de Paul to serve the poor. Catherine Labouré's
dedication to her mission was so great that in the year of her arrival she
spoke with the Virgin Mary not once but twice.
Fresco depicting the first vision.
The first time was July 18, 1830, the eve of the feast of St Vincent de
Paul, at half-past eleven in the evening. Catherine awoke from a deep sleep
to find a small boy standing at the foot of her bed whispering "Sister,
sister" over and over again. When the child saw that she was awake, he told
Catherine to get out of bed because the Virgin Mary was waiting. After rising
from her bed and dressing, she followed the child to the Chapel where she
discovered Mary standing beside the Father Director's chair. Still, she
hesitated to believe what was happening until the small boy spoke with a
man's voice saying, "Here is the Blessed Virgin!"
At that she fell to her knees before the figure and placed her hands in
the Virgin's lap. She later described that moment as the sweetest of her
life. The Virgin spoke with her for two and a half hours, predicting a
revolution in France and dangers for the Church and its leaders. The news was
so disturbing that Catherine was unable to sleep for the rest of the night.
The next morning, she confided in her confessor, Father Aladel, knowing that
he was bound by the sacrament of the confessional and could not share her
revelations with anyone else. Catherine did not want anyone to know of her
conversation because she considered herself a tool of God, nothing more, and
believed that if the news of her meeting got out the fame it brought her
would only complicate her task. Perhaps another reason for her hesitation was
the fear that no one would believe her; a fear Father Aladel himself
justified because he remained skeptical after his novice had explained her
story. He did not, however, remain doubtful very long. On July 28, 1830, just
ten days after Catherine predicted political turmoil, the French people
attacked Paris's religious institutions and overthrew King Charles X.
The Virgin appeared to Catherine again, four months later. During the vigil
of the First Sunday of Advent, while the Community was praying, Catherine
looked up and saw the Virgin standing to the right of the main altar,
surrounded by light. No one else noticed anything.