From This Day Forward….there shall be shown messages from Mary, about Mary, through Mary, for Mary…etc.

Our Lady of the Miracle

The Jew Alphonse Ratisbonne and the Miraculous Medal (1842)

Basilica Sant Andrea delle Fratte, Rome

Why would Our Lady appear to a man who hated the Faith?

Marie Alphonse Ratisbonne was born at Strasburg France, on 1 May, 1814. He was the son and heir of a wealthy, aristocratic family of Jewish bankers. When Alphonse Ratisbonne was still a child his older brother, Theodor, converted to the Catholic faith and became a priest. The family Ratisbonne reacted with hostility and horror. Alphonse resolved never to communicate again with his older brother, and developed a violent antipathy to the Catholic faith and to all things Catholic. In 1842, 28 years old, he is engaged to his own niece, Flore Ratisbonne, whom he plans to marry the following August. Right now, he is touring Europe and the East, partly for pleasure and partly for his health; one last fling before settling down with Flore and assuming a partnership at his uncle’s bank. Ratisbonne decided to go to Naples, to spend the winter in Malta, to strengthen his delicate health.

In Naples he had mistaken the road and instead of coming to the reservation office for Palermo, as he intended, he arrived at the stage-coach for Rome. Even after he realized what was up; he remained there and booked his passage on the steamer to Rome. He left Naples on the 5th and arrived in Rome on the 6th, the feast of the Three Kings.

So here he is, making the best of it, avidly touring Roman ruins and museums in the company of a paid guide. On January 8, Ratisbonne was called by name on the street. It was his old classmate from Strasburg, Gustavo de Bussières, a Protestant. The two eagerly rekindle their friendship. Later, when Alphonse calls on Gustave, he encounters the latter’s older brother, the Baron Theodore de Bussières, a convert to Catholicism and a close friend of Alphonse’s priest-brother. Alphonse feels instinctive abhorrence toward this zealous Catholic convert, but he knows the baron is an expert on Constantinople, which Alphonse plans to visit, so he rashly agrees to call upon him for travel advice. De Bussières saw it as his mission to convert any unbeliever who crossed his path in life, to Catholicism. He and Ratisbonne became friends, but Ratisbonne’s sarcasm and blasphemy irritated him enormously.

Finally, the baron makes an extraordinary proposition. “Since you abhor superstition and espouse such liberal views,” he asks Alphonse, “would you consider submitting to a simple test?” “What test?” “To wear something I’m going to give you. It’s a medal of the Holy Virgin. It appears quite ridiculous to you, no doubt. But as for me, I attach great importance to it.” And he shows Alphonse the Miraculous Medal attached to a cord. Alphonse is dumbstruck. He can scarcely believe the baron’s impertinence. But as a man of the world, he doesn’t want to seem to be making too much of a trifle. So he consents, breezily quoting a line from The Tales of Hoffman: “If it does me no good, at least it will do me no harm.” The baron’s little daughter puts the miraculous medal around Alphonse’s neck. And Alphonse burst out laughing: “Here am I, a Roman, apostolic Catholic!” But this was not enough for De Bussières. “And now”, he said, “you must complete the test. Every morning and evening recite the Memorare; a short and officious prayer, which St. Bernard composed to the Virgin Mary”. Ratisbonne said: “Let it be! I promise to recite this prayer. If it will not do me any good, it will not do me any bad!”

In fact, the baron’s relentless proselytism is starting to get on Alphonse’s nerves. Far from drawing him toward Catholicism, it is repelling him further. Yet the baron, undaunted, persists. But the baron is not relying on argument alone. He’s also praying very hard. And so are his friends, his fellow members of Rome’s tight-knit community of aristocratic French expatriates. Notable among these friends is the Count Laferronays, ex-diplomat, once a notorious rogue’ and now a devout, fervent Catholic. Moved by the baron’s pleas, the Comte drops into a church and fervently prays “more than 20 Memorares” for the conversion of the “young Jew.” That very same evening, the Count suffers a fatal heart attack. After receiving his final Sacraments, he dies devoutly, surrounded by his loving family.

At midday, January 20, 1842, when the Baron was arranging the funeral of his friend Count Laferronays in the basilica of St. Andrea delle Fratte in Rome he asked Ratisbonne to wait for him in the church. When the Baron came back to the church he found Ratisbonne on his knees in prayer. This sight moved him to tears. In Ratisbonne’s own words: “I was scarcely in the church when a total confusion came over me. When I looked up, it seemed to me that the entire church had been swallowed up in shadow, except one chapel. It was as though all the light was concentrated in that single place. I looked over towards this chapel whence so much light shone, and above the altar was a living figure, tall, majestic, beautiful and full of mercy. It was the most holy Virgin Mary, resembling her figure on the Miraculous Medal. At this sight I fell on my knees right where I stood. Unable to look up because of the blinding light, I fixed my glance on her hands, and in them I could read the expression of mercy and pardon. In the presence of the Most Blessed Virgin, even though she did not speak a word to me, I understood the frightful situation I was in, my sins and the beauty of the Catholic Faith.

The baron helps Ratisbonne outside and into his carriage. He takes him to the Hotel Serny, where Alphonse is staying, and loosens his cravat so he can breathe. But Alphonse is still sobbing, clasping his Miraculous Medal, murmuring thanks to God. At last he turns to the baron, embraces him, and with a face “presque transfiguree” says: “Take me to a confessor! When can I receive baptism, without which I can no longer live?” “What has happened?” exclaims the baron. “What have you seen?” “That,” says Alphonse, “I can reveal only on my knees and to a priest.” So…the baron takes him to the Gesu, the Jesuit mother-church, to see Father Villefort. There, Alphonse tries to explain himself, but he is still sobbing so hard that he is unintelligible. At last he calms down, takes the Miraculous Medal from his neck, holds it up, and cries: “I saw Her! I saw Her!”

Alphonse Ratisbonne confessed and thought that his family would believe he was insane and would have ridiculed him. So he preferred to flee totally from the world, its chatter and its judgments. He entered the convent of the Jesuits to make a retreat under the guide of Father Villefort. January 31, 1842, he received from the hands of His Eminence Cardinal Patrizi, the Vicar of His Holiness, baptism, confirmation and his first Holy Communion. The following month, the Vatican holds a canonical process to investigate the circumstances surrounding Alphonse’s conversion. After lengthy investigation and many depositions, it concludes that his sudden conversion was entirely miraculous; an act of God wrought through the powerful intercession of the Virgin. In May 1842, only a few months after the apparition, a painting of the Madonna of the Miracle was placed for veneration in exactly the same spot and in the same form as She appeared. The canvas was painted by the artist Natale Carta, who according to tradition, followed the indications of Ratisbonne himself. In the same year, after a formal inquest about the apparition of January 20, the Vicar General of Pope Gregory XVI, Cardinal Patrizi, declared on June 3, 1842, that it was a divine miracle operated through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and permitted the publication and spread of texts recording the miracle.

After his conversion he assisted his brother, Theodor, in founding the Sisterhood of Our Lady of Sion in 1843, was ordained priest in 1847, and entered the Society of Jesus. Desirous, however, to devote himself entirely to the conversion of the Jews, he left the society with the consent of Pope Pius IX, transplanted the Sisters of Sion to Jerusalem in 1855, and built for them in 1856 the large Convent of Ecce Homo with a school and an orphanage for girls. In 1860 he erected the Convent of St. John on the mountain at Ain Karim, together with a church and another orphanage for girls. Here Alphonse laboured with a few companions (Pères de Sion) for the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans until his death. He died there May 6, 1884. Ratisbonne did try to get in contact with Catherine Labouré, but never succeeded, as the Sister was shielded from the outside world. There were so many miracles operated by Mary in the Shrine, that on January 17, 1892, Pope Leo XIII coronated the venerated icon with a diadem. On April 25, 1942, Pope Pius XII elevated the title of the church to the rank of a basilica. On March 12, 1960, Pope John XXIII elevated the basilica of Sant Andrea delle Fratte to the title of a cardinal’s church. The visit of Pope John Paul II to this church took place on February 28, 1982.

“This apparition to Alphonse Ratisbonne in Rome is fully approved by the Holy See: June 3, 1842″

Miraculous Medal Miraculous Medal Miraculous Medal
Miraculous Medal Miraculous Medal Miraculous Medal

Are you wearing one?

Miraculous Medal Miraculous Medal Miraculous Medal
Miraculous Medal Miraculous Medal Miraculous Medal

Why Not?

Alphonse Ratisbonne - Book of Ratisbonne; The Conversion of Ratisbonne; Alphonse Ratisbonne explains the miracle of the Medal

Four years later, in 1846 The Holy Virgin appeared once more.
This time in La Salette

Mary Most Holy, Co-Redemptrix
May 1, 1925 Volume 17

The mission of living in the Divine Will: the mission of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the mission of Mary Most Holy, and the mission of Luisa.

Luisa: I was thinking about the many things that my beloved Jesus told me on His Most Holy Will, and some doubts came back to me – that, who knows, it might really not be necessary to say everything, or, that some things were not necessary. But Jesus, wanting to lovingly resolve my doubts and make me know the mission He entrusts to the one who is to make His Divine Will known – having chosen for this the misery that I am, to my great stupefaction and confusion – continuing His holy instructions on this matter, told me:

“My daughter, every mission is to be connected to the office of executing it, and therefore it must be carried out omitting nothing of that which belongs to it. In fact, every mission which is destined for the good of others, has its own particular gifts, graces, riches and qualities, which are useful for its execution.”

My Humanity received from my Divinity the mission of the salvation of souls and the office of Redeemer – that is, to redeem them from the slavery of sin and from eternal death. In order to carry out this office, I was given their souls, their pains, their satisfactions. Therefore, I enclosed within Myself everything from everyone; and if my Humanity had neglected to enclose in Itself just one soul, one satisfaction, the office of Redeemer would not have been complete - I would not have enclosed in Myself all the graces, the goods and the light which it was necessary to give to each soul. And even though not all of the souls are saved, this says nothing. On my part, I had to enclose the goods of all, so that I might have necessary and superabundant graces for all, in order to be able to save all. This was convenient to Me for the decorum and the just honor of my office as Redeemer.

Look at the sun above your horizon: it contains so much light as to be able to give light to all; and even though not all might want to enjoy its light, by its unique office as sun, it possesses even the light that creatures might refuse. This was convenient to the Sun, because it was created by God as the unique sphere which was to warm and embrace the earth with its light. Each created being has its own office to carry out, and that office is unique - linked to that being, to that creature. In order to execute it well, it is necessary that the one who is to carry out the office entrusted to her, contain so much of that good – good which she must give to others according to the mission for which she was created - that as much of it as she gives, it is never exhausted, not even by one atom.

This was even more convenient to Me, Who was to be the new Sun of the souls, and Who was to give light to all and embrace all with my light, to bring them all to the Supreme Majesty, offering to this Divine Majesty an act from Myself which would contain all acts, and to make the superabundant light of my Divinity descend upon all in order to rescue them.

In addition to Me, there is my Celestial Mama, who received the unique mission as the Mother of a God Son, and the office of Co-Redemptrix of mankind. For her mission of Divine Maternity, She was enriched with so much grace, that all other creatures combined, both celestial and terrestrial, would never be able to equal Her. But this was not enough to draw the Word into her maternal womb; it was necessary that the Mother put in action all this abyss of graces and gifts, by embracing all creatures, loving them, repairing and adoring the Supreme Majesty for all; in such a way as to accomplish Herself, all that the human generations owed to God. Therefore, in her virginal Heart, She had an inexhaustible vein for God and for all creatures. When the Divinity found in this Virgin compensation for the love of all, It felt enraptured, and formed in Her Its Conception – that is, the Incarnation of the Word. And as She conceived Me, She took on the office of Co- Redemptrix, and shared and embraced together with Me, all the pains, the substitutions, the reparations, the maternal love, for all. In the Heart of my Mother there was a fiber of maternal love for each creature. This is why, in truth and with justice, when I was on the Cross, I declared Her Mother of all. She ran together with Me in the love, in the sufferings - in everything; She never left Me alone. If the Eternal One had not placed so much grace in Her as to be able to receive, alone, the love of all - He would never have moved from Heaven to come down upon earth and redeem mankind. Here is the necessity, the convenience - that She had to embrace and surpass everything, as befitting the mission of the Mother of the Word.

When an office is unique, as a consequence, nothing must escape the one who has it as mission. He must have everything under his eyes, so as to be able to offer the good he possesses; he must be like a true sun that can give light to all. So were I, and my Celestial Mama.

Now, your mission of making known the Eternal Will is braided with mine and with that of my dear Mother. And since it has to serve for the good of all, it was necessary to centralize the Eternal Sun of my Will into one creature; so that, as a unique mission, this Sun might let its rays blaze from her, and all might take the good of Its Light. This implies that, for the decorum and honor of my Will, I had to pour into you, as bearers and preparations, such graces, light, love and knowledge of It, as to befit the residence of the Sun of my Will. Even more, you must know that, just as my Humanity, in Its office of Redeemer, conceived all souls, the same was to happen in you, in your mission and office to make my Will known and reign: as you continue to do your acts in my Will for all, all creatures remain conceived in your will; and as you keep repeating your acts in Mine, you form many sips of Life of Divine Will, in order to be able to nourish all the creatures which are as though conceived in yours, by virtue of my Will. Do you not feel how, in my Will, you embrace all, from the first to the last creature which is to exist upon earth; and for all, you would want to satisfy, love, please this Supreme Will, binding It to all, removing all obstacles that prevent Its dominion in the creatures - making It known to all; and even with sufferings, you expose yourself to satisfy for all, this Supreme Will, which so much loves to be known and to reign in the midst of creatures?

To you, Firstborn Daughter of my Divine Will, it is given to make known the qualities, the value, the good It contains, and Its eternal sorrow of living unknown - hidden, in the midst of the human generations; even more, despised and offended by the evil ones, and placed by the good ones at the level of the other virtues, as if It were a little light which is lit by men - as virtues are in comparison with my Will - and not the Eternal Sun that my Will is.

The mission of my Will is the greatest that can exist: there is no good which does not descend from It; there is no glory which does not come from It. Everything is centered in It: Our interior Works and those which We have delivered; the Creation of the angels, of the world, of men; all virtues, all merits, all predestinations, all goods, all the glory of the chosen ones, all the mysteries of the infinite love, which are still unknown to man; and the past, the present, the future – all in one Act and in act, and in one single point.

Therefore, be attentive, and do not want to waste time with doubts or uncertainties. Everything I told you for this mission was necessary - not for you, but for the honor, the glory, the knowledge and the sanctity of my Will and of Its dominion in the creatures. And since my Will is one, one was to be the creature to whom I had to entrust It, and through whom It would make Its rays blaze, to do good to all.”