St. Catherine Laboure of the Miraculous Medal

This is the story of the saint through whom we received the Miraculous Medal. No sacramental since the Rosary has had such an impact on the Church, and none has ever been diffused in such incredible numbers, with many millions of people all over the world wearing the Medal within a few years. Since 1933, when it was exhumed and found miraculously preserved, the body of St. Catherine Laboure (1806-1876) has lain incorrupt at 140, rue du Bac, Paris, in the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, venerated by thousands of pilgrims each year.

Who was this St. Catherine Laboure', who during her lifetime chose to remain entirely unknown, except to her confessor, as the visionary of the Miraculous Medal? To answer this question, the author spent 10 years in research, studying many documents never before available to her biographers and carrying out his investigation in Paris, Rome and Catherine's own village. What he has produced here is a definitive life of the Saint which is at once highly readable and inspiring.

Emerging from his work is the fact that Catherine Laboure was no accidental saint - that, to launch the Miraculous Medal devotion, Heaven chose its seer well. The reader will come to love St. Catherine Laboure', will see in her a woman of incredible strength and character, of unbelievable constancy, of kindness, humility, obedience and self-effacement. Here is a saint who from her early years was "entirely mystic," to quote her sister; who from age 12 served 10 years as mistress of her father's large household of 17 (five family members and 12 farm hands); who worked 40 years with constant fidelity running an old men's retirement-nursing home for her order (during this time, not one old man died without the Last Sacraments, a remarkable fact since they were all men of the world); who after the Miraculous Medal apparitions, would speak to the Blessed Mother at any time she chose and be answered by Our Lady; who was a tower of strength to her order during two revolutions; and who made innumerable prophecies that came true. Full of hidden gems, this is an enthralling story- totally unlikely, fresh and different.

61 pictures, including photographs of St. Catherine's incorrupt body.

• Author: Rev. Joseph I. Dirvin
• Format: Softcover
• Pages: 245