St Catherine Laboure

Catherine was named Zoe when she was born; she had 10 brothers and sisters and her father was a well-off farmer in France. She joined the Daughters of Charity when she was quite young, an Order of sisters started by St. Vincent de Paul in Paris. The sisters spent their days nursing the sick and the dying. Soon after joining the convent, the Virgin Mary appeared to Catherine while she was praying in the Church at her convent. Mary was sitting on the right side of the sanctuary (where the priest sits), and she pointed to the altar and said that from the altar of Jesus would come all that she needed. Mary told Catherine that she would have a lot of suffering in her life and there would be a lot of trouble against the Church. She appeared to Catherine again on another day and gave her the medal of the Immaculate Conception, which is known as the Miraculous Medal. She told Catherine to have the medal made, in the description that she gave her, and told her to get people to wear them so they would believe in her power to help them get closer to Jesus. After lots of investigation to see if Catherine was telling the truth and receiving a message from Mary, the Archbishop had the medal made just like Mary had told Catherine. Now this medal is worn by many Christians throughout the world. Catherine had only told her priest of her visions of Mary, and, after the medal was made, she continued her regular life as a nursing sister without any of the sisters knowing that Mary had appeared to her to give the world this medal. Before Catherine died, Mary again appeared to her and told her to share what had happened to her with the leader of the Convent, who then shared Catherine’s story with the others. After Catherine had been dead for many years, they looked at her body and it had not decayed like normal; it was incorrupt. Her body is still in the Church where Mary appeared to her the first time, and people can see her and ask for her prayers.