Customer Reviews

Saint Catherine Laboure of the Miraculous Medal

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This is the story of the famous saint through whom we received the Miraculous Medal. No sacramental since the Rosary has had such an impact on the Church. The author spent 10 years in research, studying many documents never before available. What he has produced is a definitive life of the Saint which is both highly readable and inspiring. You 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 was a saint who, from her early years was "entirely mystic," to quote her sister; who from age 12 served 10 years as mistress to her father's large household of 17 (five family members and 12 farm hands), who worked 40 years with constant fidelity running an old man's retirement-nursing home for her order; 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. Enthralling story! Full of terrific photos including some of her incorrupt body. 239pp. PB. Imprimatur.

Even though the Miraculous Medal is probably one of the most popular sacramnetals, up there with the Rosary and the Brown Scapular, most people do not really know the visionary, St. Catherine Laboure. For some strange reason she's not a well-known as St. Bernadette ( Lourdes ) or San Juan Diego ( Guadalupe ), two other saints our Lady has revealed her Immaculate Conception. I bought this book with some reserve because most books I have read about saints have been so overly dramatic that it's almost hard to believe that the saint was also a human being. This book was a surpise, Father Dirvin did such a good job of researching and writing , the book is very interesting. You can see the person of St. Catherine as a true saintly person and also a human being. She was a very hard working person, with her family, later with the Sisters of Charity, and in taking care of the old men. She was a very real person, not given to ecstasies, she even took notice of the Blessed Virgin's outfit when she came to see her and how she looks like. Her Guardian Angel have to remind her that " This is the Blessed Virgin ". This book is really wonderful, fast- paced and great reading. As Rev. Skelly wrote in the foreword " This is a book you will find very hard to lay aside until you have read the final sentence on the last page. "

This biography of St. Catherine Laboure of the Miraculus Medal is really a jewl. I can't stop reading the very interesting life of the Saint. This book can exhort you to imitate St. Catherine in the spiritual life and therefore persevere in your faith. I would recommend this book to everyone. It's really a remarkable story of a humble, sincere, simple yet loving nun who commited her life to Jesus and Mary.

This book is a special book which everyone should read to understand what life is really about. We are all here though our own chose to experience our own powerful journey so we can learn who we truly are.

Very well written life story of an amazing holy woman.
The book states that the details of her life were carefully studied and
documented before being accepted for print. I really appreciate a book that does not embellish the facts and looks for the truth in the history of an individual.

Many Catholics, I suspect, do not know the story of the origin of the sacramental known as the Miraculous Medal. It was not designed by a mortal human artist. Its design was revealed to Catherine Laboure in 1830. The revelations to her are the only officially recognized Marian apparitions involving the sense of touch as well of sight and sound. Catherine Laboure knelt beside Mary as Mary sat in a chair. With Catherine's hands folded in prayer, Catherine laid her arms on Mary's lap, so that Catherine's arms were touching Mary's legs through the clothing of both of them. Catherine did this without conscious thought of the fact at the time, but remembered it. Later in life, Catherine had occasion to correct somebody who imagined the encounter to have been dreamlike, by saying that it was real in every way. The complete story involves Catherine's long subsequent life, in which the identity of the nun to whom the medal had been revealed was kept a secret for forty-six years. Although the story was widely and publicly known, and the medal was being worn, nobody knew that the nun was Catherine Laboure except her spiritual advisor and one or two others. Not even the pope knew. There seems to have been a fear that, if Catherine were known to have been the one, then she would have been showered with corrupting or distracting attention.

Personally, I find the author's perceptions or assumptions to be slightly questionable here and there. I do not want to overstate the matter; but for him, saintliness seems to involve a very heavy measure of uncompromising sternness. But I find reason to wonder whether he thinks too heavy a measure would ever be possible. On pages 158-160, for example, he tells of a Sister Darlin whom Catherine very suddenly, in an abrupt change of attitude, made to feel so sorry that she had offended Catherine by showing Catherine attentions and reverences that Sister Darlin burst into tears and fled from the room. The author remarks that the incident "is a graphic picture of the personality of a saint." Darlin seems to focus entirely on Catherine's rejection of attentions and reverences, while overlooking an apparently tactless handling of Sister Darlin's innocent emotions. Here is the whole passage:

"At any rate, Catherine had gone to the Motherhouse one day with a group of Sisters from Enghien to visit several of the novices who had postulated there. A young teaching Sister, Sister Darlin, was serving her turn as portress that day. Observing the group from Enghien her eyes rested especially on Catherine:
"'I had been told that she wss the Sister who had been favored with the Apparitions of the Most Holy Virgin," Sister Darlin states. 'I looked upon her with respect, thinking to myself sadly that this worthy Sister did not appreciate the school Sisters, and I liked school work a great deal. I said to myself: _Is it possibile for her to love the Most Holy Virgin so much and not to care for an office in which it is possible to inspire children with great devotion for Mary?_ I wished to speak with her very much but did not dare.'
"At that same moment, Catherine left the group and approached Sister Darlin.
"'Come with me, Sister,' Catherine said smiling pleasantly, 'we shall go to the "Holy Mary" class and say an _Ave Maria_ together.'
"Sister Darlin stared in amazement; then flushed with pleasure. This was precisely the class of which she had particular charge. More than that, Catherine had never, until that moment, laid eyes on her.
"Catherine's efforts to reassure Sister Darlin of her good will were not at an end. After they had recited the _Ave Maria_, Catherine took out her purse and gave the delighted Sister one of the first Miraculous Medals; then she invited her to accompany her to the infirmary to visit Marie Louise, who was ending her days there.
"So great a show of favor on Catherine's part was too much for the poor Sister. She lost her head. On the way to the infirmary, she showered Catherine with attention, running ahead to open doors, getting her a chair, bowing and scraping in every way.
"On the instant, Catherine changed from the smiling Sister of a few minutes before. Her face froze in stern lines, her whole body stiffened. 'She looked at me coldly,' Sister Darlin lamented, 'as if to say: "Are you finished with your attentions and reverences?" She practically turned her back on me. Knowing I had offended her, fearing I had offended the Blessed Virgin, I burst into tears and fled from the room.'
"The incident, with its mixture of the supernatural and the human, is a graphic picture of the personality of a saint, a scant two years berfore her death.

My comment is really about the author, not Catherine Laboure or Sister Darlin anybody involved in the 19th century. We cannot be sure of what really happened in this incident, it seems to me. But this is what the author says happened, and his conclusion is that Catherine's behavior is "a graphic picture of the personality of a saint." I find this a little strange, enough to think that I must not accept unthinkingly all the author's general remarks. The reader will have to decide for himself or herself.

This book seems to be the only account in print in English now. I assume that there are other accounts in French and other languages.