St. Catherine Labouré: Feast Day, Patronage & Prayers
Feast day: November 28 (kept by the Vincentian family and in France; not on the General Roman Calendar)
Patron of: No official patronage; closely associated with the Miraculous Medal.
About St. Catherine Labouré
St. Catherine Labouré was born in 1806 into a large farming family in Burgundy, France. Her mother died when she was nine, and the story is told that the little girl took a statue of Mary in her arms and asked her to be her mother from then on. Catherine ran her father's household for years before finally joining the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris in 1830.
That same year, as a novice in the chapel on the Rue du Bac, she received several apparitions of the Blessed Virgin. In one, Mary showed her the design of a medal with the prayer "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee," and asked that it be made. Through her confessor, the medal was struck in 1832 and spread rapidly, becoming known as the Miraculous Medal. Remarkably, Catherine kept her role secret from nearly everyone, spending some forty-six years quietly caring for elderly men at a hospice at Enghien, near Paris. She died in 1876, and she was canonized in 1947. Her incorrupt body rests in the chapel of the apparitions.
Prayers to St. Catherine Labouré on Daily Catholic Prayers
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