MARY AND THE SAINTS 71
unable to make the appointment. The day after that, he
avoided Tepeyac Hill, ashamed. But Mary appeared and
told him not to worry: His uncle had been cured, and Juan
Diego should not be discouraged by the task he had been
assigned. She told him to use his cloak to gather roses
from the hilltop and bring them to the bishop. Miracu-
lously, not only did Juan Diego find roses on the normally
barren hill, but they were of a variety found not in Mexico
but in Spain.
When Juan Diego opened up his cloak toreveal the
roses, the bishop wept. There, emblazoned on the fabric,
was the image of Mary.
The bishop saw to it that Mary got her
church: The Basilica of Our Lady of Gua-
dalupe, built near Tepeyac Hill, is now a
national shrine in Mexico. And in 2002,
Pope John Paul II recognized Juan Diego
as a saint.
MakeaMedal
PA R I S , 18 3 0
Catherine Labouré’s visions began the
night she ate a relic.
One evening, in the convent of the
Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de
Paul in Paris, where Catherine was a nov-
ice, her mother superior gave her a scrap
of fabric from the surplice worn by the
order’s founder. Catherine, 24, did some-
thing unusual. She split the bit of cloth
in half, stashing one piece in her prayer
book and swallowing the other. Then she
prayed to Saint Vincent for a visit from
the Virgin Mary.
Later that night, Catherine awoke to the
vision of a young child summoning her to
the chapel. There, she heard the sound of
rustling silk. She looked up to find Mary
seated before her. As Catherine knelt at
the Virgin’s feet, Mary warned that terri-
ble times were ahead: The streets of Paris
would run with the blood of arevolution.
A little over a week later, a three-day surge
of protest and violence resulted in the de-
throning of the French king.
Four months later, Catherine was
meditating in the chapel and again heard
a rustling of silk. This time, Mary ap-
peared surrounded by an oval frame with gold lettering. A
voice instructed Catherine to have the image made in to a
medal that people could wear. Everyone who wore it, the
voice said, would receive grace. It took Catherine two yearsMary’s appearance to Catherine
was a premonition, a snapshot of the
bloody revolution that would overtake
the streets of Paris.