One of my readers kindly left me a message, and since her computer name is St. Catherine, I thought I would write about St. Catherine Laboure of the Miraculous Medal.
Most of you know what the Miraculous Medal is and perhaps some of you wear one, or give the medal as a gift to your children, family or friends. There are many miraculous events and documented stories of healings and protection attributed to Mary's medal. But like all of God's plans on this earth He needs humans to cooperate in the fulfillment of destiny. Catherine Laboure didn't know what her destiny was, but by following the things of God she fulfilled His plan, and lived peacefully, at least in her heart, within the circumstances of her life.
A life which can be divided into three parts - before the apparitions of the Miraculous Medal, during, and after. This article is more concerned with her life leading to her entrance into the convent before the apparitions. For a life to be committed to God or a heavenly mission, the seeds must be firmly planted and rooted, strong enough to withstand erosion of topsoil and the changing of each particular season.
What is the essence of this woman, Catherine, who chose to allow her heavenly Father to mold and shape her to do His work? We are given free will and it is not necessarily any easier for a saint to turn from wordly things and daily annoyances towards the things of God. Nor was it any easier for Catherine, perhaps born with a little extra grace to help her on her way...
Not far from Ars where the Cure d'Ars worked miracles of faith and healing, a daughter was born during the ringing of the Angelus, which itself could have been a sign of her special destiny, to Pierre and Madeleine Laboure in the village of Fain-les-Moutiers, France. There was nothing spectacular about this event except for Madeline Louise Laboure's insistence that her daughter's name be immediately entered on the civil register on the day of May 2, 1806 at six o'clock at night. Amazement stirred in the birthing room, the mother raising herself from bed within a quarter of an hour of the delivery to sign the book. Father Joseph I. Dirvin notes in his book, "St. Catherine Laboure," that this was an action previously not taken for her children, nor would she do it for the children to be born. The next day on the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross the infant Catherine Laboure was baptized, officially entering her on the books of the Church, as well as State. How could the pious mother know, a farmer's wife, that by following her maternal instincts and a strange inner urging, she had given birth to a saint?
