Our Lady Appeared to Alphonse Ratisbonne

Alphonse was born into a wealthy Jewish family of bankers. When his older brother converted to Catholicism and became a priest, the family disinherited him and young Alphonse vowed never to speak to him again. Then, at the age of twenty-seven, shortly before his marriage, everything in his life changed.

- Alphonse Ratisbonne: "I grew up until the age of fourteen or fifteen in the Jewish religion, which had been taught to me, and after that age up to age twenty-three I lived without any religion, even without believing in God, but following the inclination of natural morality, especially deep-felt charity and compassion." (...)

"In the middle of the night of January 19, (1842, in Rome) I woke up with a start--I saw before my eyes a large oddly shaped black cross, without Christ. I tried to dispel the image but to no avail, and I kept finding it before my eyes, no matter which way I turned. I cannot say how long I struggled in this way. I eventually fell back asleep, and when I woke up the next day, I no longer thought about it."

- Father de Villefort: "Ratisbonne told me he felt very agitated and had not been able to sleep all night, but didn't tell me why. He simply added that if he could convince himself that the current situation of his nation was only a test from God to distinguish those who are faithful, he would become Catholic. However, he kept having his doubts and believed that he lacked the courage to accept the test. At this point, he pressed his head against the wall and said: ‘My mind is very agitated.’"

- Theodore de Bussieres: "At about one o’clock in the afternoon I had to go and make some arrangements for the funeral ceremony of a good friend of mine. Seeing Ratisbonne coming down the Via Condotti, I invited him to accompany me but I told him he’d have to wait a few minutes while I attended to an errand. He consented and we entered the church. Noticing the funeral preparations, he asked for whom they were being made. ‘For a friend I have lost,’ I replied, ‘whom I loved very much, Mr. de Laferronays.’"

He grabbed the Miraculous Medal and kissed it repeatedly

"Then Ratisbonne began to wander aimlessly around the nave of the church. I went off to the sacristy to make some arrangements. When I returned, I found him on his knees in the Chapel of the Archangels St Michael and St Raphael, in an attitude of deep meditation. (This chapel is dedicated to guardian angels and a small painting there represents St Raphael leading Tobias. Tobias happened to be Ratisbonne’s Hebraic name.) I approached him and tapped him several times without getting the slightest reaction out of him. Finally, he lifted his tear-stained face, and said with an unreadable face,  ‘How that friend of yours must have prayed for me!’

"Ratisbonne finally grabbed the Miraculous Medal that was around his neck showing the Virgin pouring generous rays of graces and kissed it repeatedly. ‘Oh! It was really she!’ [1] Then he asked to see a priest and he told me that he could only tell this story to a priest and on his knees. So I took him at once to see Father de Villefort."

All majesty and sweetness, the Virgin Mary just as she looks on this medal, motioned to me to kneel down

- Father de Villefort: "He told me: ‘I had only been in the church for a moment when I suddenly felt torn apart by anxiety. I looked up and the whole church had disappeared. One single chapel seemed to have concentrated all the light, and in the middle of that brilliance I saw someone standing on the altar; a lofty shining figure, all majesty and sweetness, the Virgin Mary just as she looks on this medal. An irresistible force drew me towards her. She motioned to me to kneel down and when I did so, she seemed to approve. She didn’t speak a word, but I understood her perfectly.’"

The Madonna of the Miracle

Eleven days later Mary Alphonse Ratisbonne was baptized. His story spread like fire and many gathered to witness the baptism. His conversion diffused devotion to the Miraculous Medal beyond France to the world.  Ratisbonne immediately reconciled with his priest-brother, joined the Jesuits, and he himself became a Jesuit priest. The two brothers founded the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Zion, in the Holy Land, a congregation that cared for Jews and worked and prayed for their conversion.  Father Mary Alphonse died in 1884 at Ein Karem, John the Baptist’s birthplace near Jerusalem.

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[1] Mary Theodore de Bussieres gave Ratisbonne a Miraculous Medal from the Rue du Bac in Paris and requested him to wear it as a test to his liberal doctrines. After putting the medal around his neck, De Bussieres added that every morning and evening Ratisbonne must recite The Memorare.

Taken from The Conversion of Mary Alphonse Ratisbonne,

by Mary Theodore de Bussieres (Paris, A. Bray, 1959).