Life of St. Catherine Laboure

1. SECRET…

2. St. Catherine
Laboure and the
Miraculous
Medal
LESSON 2 (FINALS)

3. Who is
Catherine
Laboure?

4. 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.

5. 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."

6. God’s
Revelation
From ancient times, God has
relayed His messages through
the power of the Holy Spirit, to
His chosen servants by vision
and dreams.

7. 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."

8. Astonishing
Realizations
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!

9. Extraordinary
Vissions
• January of 1830, SCL 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.

10. APPARITIONS OF MARY
JULY 18, 1830- a bright light woke up her
and the voice of a child told her to go to the
chapel as the Blessed Virgin Mary is waiting
for her.
“ You will have the protection of God and St. Vincent. I will
always have my eyes upon you. There will be much
persecution. The cross will be treated by contempt. It will be
hurled to the ground and blood will flow”.

11. APPARITIONS OF MARY
NOVEMBER 27, 1830
The Blessed Virgin appeared to Catherine
again in the chapel. This time, it was 5:30 pm
during meditation. Catherine saw something
like two living paintings, one fading into the
other.

12. APPARITIONS OF MARY
First, the Blessed Virgin stood on a half globe, her
feet crushing the head of a serpent. In this image, the
Virgin held a small golden globe topped with a cross,
which she lifted up toward heaven.
“This globe represents the entire world and every
person”.

13. APPARITIONS OF MARY
Second, the beautiful image rays of light streamed from the
Blessed Virgin’s open hands, which were covered with jeweled
rings. At that same moment, Catherine heard a voice say, “These
rays are a symbol of the graces that I pour out on those who
ask them of me.”
Then, an oval formed around the apparition, and Catherine saw
this invocation emblazoned in gold letters shaped in a
semicircle: “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who
have recourse to thee.”

14. APPARITIONS OF MARY
“Have a medal made in this image. For those who
wear it with confidence, there will be abundant
graces.”
Finally, the image turned, and Catherine saw the
reverse side of the medal: the letter “M” surmounted
with a little cross; two hearts below the cross, one
crowned with thorns and the other pierced with a
sword; and twelve stars bordering the medal.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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”.)

18. She finally reveals
her story
In 1876, Catherine began to feel
a spiritual conviction that she
would die before the end of the
year. To her Sister Superior,
Catherine revealed the fact that
she was the sister to whom the
Blessed Mother appeared.

19. She finally reveals
her story
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.

20. A. Esmeralda is your best friend. She trusts you more than
anyone else. One day, she accidentally shares with you that
she slept with her boyfriend. Months after, she told you that
she is pregnant. She asks you not to tell anyone even her
parents about her situation. What will you do?
B. You have a secret that you’ve been keeping for a very long
time. You know from the very start that you were part of the
LGBTQ community. Your parents are homophobic and very
vocal about it. But you really wanted to be yourself, to get out
of the closet. What will you do?
C. Describe the three images of the apparition of the Our
Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

21. LIFE INTEGRATION
What is your greatest realization
about the story of St. Catherine
Laboure? Why?