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Saint Catherine Labouré (1806–1876), a Daughter of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, received the apparitions of the Immaculate Virgin that gave the Church the Miraculous Medal. In lifelong humility and silence she served the poor and elderly for forty-six years at the Enghien hospice in Paris. She is invoked as patroness of the elderly and of those who wear the medal of Mary conceived without sin.
Catherine Labouré was born Zoé on 2 May 1806 at Fain-lès-Moutiers, a small village in Burgundy about two hundred kilometers from Paris, the daughter of the farmer Pierre Labouré and Madeleine Louise Gontard. She was one of eleven living children. When her mother died on 9 October 1815, Catherine was nine years old. With her younger sister she was sent for a time to an aunt at Saint-Rémy; at twelve she returned to her father's farm to take charge of the household, the cooking, the animals, and even hundreds of pigeons, so that she never attended elementary school. In a dream a priest later recognized as Saint Vincent de Paul told her it was good to care for the sick and that God had plans for her. Her father, hoping to turn her from religious life, sent her to Paris to work in a brother's canteen for poor laborers; there the misery of the people only strengthened her desire to become a Daughter of Charity.
On 21 April 1830, while Paris solemnly honored the translation of the relics of Saint Vincent de Paul, she entered the novitiate at the Motherhouse on the Rue du Bac. For three successive evenings she saw the heart of Saint Vincent above a small reliquary in the sisters' chapel, appearing white, red, and black. During her novitiate she also beheld Jesus in the Eucharist and Christ the King. The decisive graces were the apparitions of the Immaculate Virgin of the Miraculous Medal. On the night of 18–19 July 1830 an angel led her to the chapel, where she spoke with Our Lady for more than two hours; Mary foretold further meetings and charged her with a mission amid evil times in France and the world. On 27 November 1830, during evening meditation, the Virgin appeared standing upon a globe entwined by the serpent, offering a smaller golden globe to God while rays of light streamed from her hands upon the earth—graces, she explained, that people forget to ask. Around her shone the words "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." The vision then reversed: an M surmounted by a cross, the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary beneath, and a crown of stars. An interior voice commanded Catherine to have a medal struck after this design. The first fifteen hundred medals were coined on 30 June 1832; they were soon called miraculous. Among the most celebrated fruits was the conversion of the Jewish Alphonse Ratisbonne on 20 January 1842. At Mary's wish the Association of the Children of Mary Immaculate was founded.
No one except her superiors ever knew of the heavenly favors granted her. After profession on 30 January 1831 she was sent to the Hospice d'Enghien at Reuilly, then just outside Paris. For forty-six years she lived in the greatest humility and absolute silence, nursing the aged and infirm, working the hospice farm, tending poultry, and cleaning the stables. She died there on 31 December 1876. When her body was later exhumed, the hands that had touched the Mother of God and the eyes that had seen her were found extraordinarily preserved. She was beatified by Pope Pius XI on 28 May 1933 and canonized by Pope Pius XII on 27 July 1947. Her relics rest in the chapel of the Rue du Bac where the apparitions took place. The Vincentian Family keeps her feast on 28 November; the Roman Martyrology commemorates her on 31 December.
May Saint Catherine Labouré obtain for us the grace of hidden fidelity, and let us today practice humble silence in the service of the poor.
Source: Causes of Saints Also listed Wikidata Causes of Saints GCatholic
General Roman Calendar · Liturgical Calendar API
