Catherine Labouré

Born May 2, 1806, in Fain-lès-Moutiers, Burgundy, France, Zoé Labouré was the ninth of eleven children of a farming family in the Côte-d’Or. Her mother died when she was nine years old. She later said she took the household statue of the Virgin Mary from its place and pressed it to her heart: “Now you will be my mother.” For several years afterward she managed the household and cared for younger siblings. She eventually entered the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, beginning her novitiate at the Motherhouse on the Rue du Bac, Paris, on April 21, 1830.

Three months into her novitiate, on the night of July 18–19, 1830, Catherine reported being awakened by a child who led her to the chapel. There she said she encountered the Virgin Mary and spoke with her at length. In a second vision in November 1830, Our Lady appeared standing on a globe, crushing a serpent underfoot, surrounded by rays of light and the words: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Our Lady asked that a medal bearing this image be struck and distributed, with the promise of graces for those who wore it devoutly. Catherine brought the account in confidence to her confessor, Father Jean-Marie Aladel. He was initially skeptical; after two years he obtained approval from the Archbishop of Paris, and the first Miraculous Medals were struck in 1832.

For the remaining forty-six years of her life, Catherine served in the hospice at Enghien-lès-Bains caring for elderly men — a plain, capable, unremarkable sister. No one in her community knew she was the visionary. She revealed her identity only to Father Aladel and, in the final year of her life, to her superior. She died on December 31, 1876, at the age of seventy.

Pope Pius XI beatified her on May 28, 1933. When her coffin was opened for the beatification process, her body was found incorrupt after fifty-six years. Pope Pius XII canonized her on July 27, 1947. Her body now rests in a crystal reliquary at the Rue du Bac chapel in Paris — the same chapel where she first knelt before Our Lady.