Marie de Nazareth
To Jesus, through Mary
A brave little farmer
Catherine Laboure (1806- 1876) was the daughter of Pierre Laboure (1787-1844) and Madeleine Gontard (1769-1815), the eighth of ten children. On October 9, 1815, her mother died suddenly. On the first night without her mother, Catherine climbed on a chair to kiss the feet of a statue of the Virgin.
There were too many children at home, with little Augustine, disabled in an accident, so her father sent Catherine and Tonine to live with his sister Marguerite, married to a vinegar-maker called Antoine Jeanrod, at Saint-Remi, nine kilometers away. Catherine was now orphaned, and she missed her native farm. Two years later, in January 1818, their father, missing his daughters, brought the two little girls back home.
There was cause for joy, because she also went back home to make her first Holy Communion, on January 25th. For Catherine, it was a joyous and profound spiritual stage. Her older sister Marie-Louise, twenty-three years old, had had to delay her entrance to the Daughters of Charity in Langres, because of the family situation. Now Catherine, aged eleven, in full agreement with nine year-old Tonine, was inspired to make a big decision: "Go ahead! The two of us will do the work." She felt mature enough to take on the burden of running the house. She would prove to be a brave little farmer, able to serve or bring over all the meals, and to take care of the 1,121 pigeon cages, the pride of the farm, as well as the chicken coop and everything else. A detail of note is that she was illiterate.
A vocation put to test
Nevertheless, she would have loved to follow in Marie-Louise's footsteps. When she reached eighteen, she had a dream that was very meaningful to her. She saw an old priest celebrating Mass; at the part of the Dominus vobiscum he turned around and looked at her. All her life she would remember his penetrating look. [...] One day, on a visit to the Daughters of Charity, Catherine fell in contemplation before a portrait hanging in entrance hall: "That's the priest I saw in my dream! So he was real! Who is he?"
"That's Our father Saint Vincent de Paul," the sisters replied. Catherine's mind was made up, but how was she going to enter the convent? On May 2, 1827, she turned twenty one. She was aware of her rights, and communicated her decision. But her father refused: he had already given one of his daughters to God, Marie-Louise. Two was too much. He persevered in his refusal. The following year, in the spring of 1828, he changed his method. His son Charles, who was living in Paris like the others, owned a restaurant for the working class, which was managed by his wife. The latter died two years after their wedding on February 21st. Charles needed some help. So Catherine would go help him, and someone would surely fall in love with the young waitress. Fortunately for her, the situation didn't last; the brother was consoled and remarried on February 3, 1829. Catherine was now free.
At the Convent of the Daughters of Charity
On April 21, 1830, journeying by stagecoach, Catherine entered the Daughters of Charity's novitiate: "The training is tough," someone told her, but she was used to being patient, disciplined, all available, forgetful of herself, and ready for anything. Nothing was too hard for her.
During the year 1930, at Mass, she sometimes saw the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Once, the vision seemed to announce the dispossession of the king of France. And it was in that context that the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, from April to December 1930, occurred.
At Reuilly
After the apparitions from April to December 1930, Catherine took the habit and left the convent on January 30, 1831. She was sent to the convent of Reuilly, nearby, so she could be observed: was she a trouble-making nun? No. During all her life, she served in perfect discretion. She remained steadfastly a helpful and discreet servant of the poor. At Reuilly, she soon became a farmer again, in charge of the garden and the animals.
The Cross of 1848
On the eve of the 1848 Revolution, Catherine transmitted to Fr. Aladel (her confessor) a new request from heaven: a great cross was to be erected in Paris to serve as a spiritual lighting rod. "This Cross will be called the Cross of Victory. It will be greatly venerated. [...] At the foot of the cross will be represented this revolution, just as it happened. The foot of the cross seemed to measure 10 to 12 square feet, and the cross itself from 15 to 20 feet tall. Once erected, it appeared to me to measure about 30 feet high." Ten meters didn't seem to be too tall, but no one heeded Catherine's request. Crosses were very popular in 1848. Mobs carried crosses in triumph, salvaged from the pillaging of the Tuileries, but Fr. Aladel didn't seize the opportunity.
Lourdes - 1858
When Catherine heard about the apparition, she immediately said: "She's the same one!" In her mind, the Virgin had to appear so far away because the community chapel of the Sisters, so essential to them, wasn't open to the public. Three sisters have noted their reflections on this matter: "And to think that these miracles could happen in our chapel!" (told by Sister Tranchemer). She was thus expressing her regret that the Rue du Bac chapel wasn't open to the public, preventing the congregation to prosper; since the chapel was already too small for the many nuns and 500 novices.
The Virgin with the globe
Catherine was tormented by the fact that the Miraculous Medal, then reproduced in one billion copies, did not represent what she had seen in 1830: the Virgin holding a globe in her luminous hands. Eventually, the statue, made according to Catherine's indications, always preserving her incognito, was installed in the chapel of the Rue du Bac.
The day she died, she asked that 63 children recite around her bed each of the invocations of the Litany to Our Lady. They are found in the Office of the Immaculate Conception... Catherine saw in the number 63 an illustration of the oral tradition that gave the age of 63 to the Virgin: fifteen years before and after the 33 years of Christ's life. In this way she dedicated to Our Lady the 70 years of her own laborious life that made her older than Our Lady. It was her way of being poetic, familiar, and to show her sense of humor, but also how happy she was to depart for heaven. "Why be afraid to go to Our Lord, his Mother, and Saint Vincent?" These were some of her last words before she closed her blue eyes forever.
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R. Laurentin
Excerpts from R. Laurentin, Paris VII, in: René Laurentin and Patrick Sbalchiero, Dictionnaire encyclopédique des apparitions de la Vierge. Inventaire des origines à nos jours. Méthodologie, prosopopée, approche interdisciplinaire, Fayard, Paris 2007.