This awful vision entirely destroyed my false and pharisaical security, and filled my soul with an unspeakable terror. I could not cry to Jesus Christ, nor to God, his Father, for mercy; for I sincerely believed what my church had taught me on that subject, that they were both angry with me on account of my sins. With much anxiety, I turned my thoughts, my soul and hopes toward St. Anne and St Philomene. The first was the object of my confidences since the first time I had seen the numberless crutches and other “Ex Votos” which covered the Church of “La Bonne St. Anne du Nord,” and the second was the saint a la mode. It was said that her body had lately been miraculously discovered, and the world was filled with the noise of the miracles wrought through her intercession. Her medals were on every breast, her pictures in every house, and her name on all lips. With entire confidence in the will and power of these two saints to obtain any favor for me, I invoked them to pray God to grant me a few years more of life; and with the utmost honesty of purpose, I promised to add to my penances, and to live a more holy life, by consecrating myself with more zeal than ever, to the service of the poor and the sick. I added to my former prayer, the solemn promise to have a painting of the two saints put in St. Anne’s Church, to proclaim to the end of the world their great power in heaven, if they would obtain my cure and restore my health. Strange to say! the last words of my prayer were scarcely uttered, when I saw above my head St. Anne and St. Philomene, sitting in the midst of a great light, on a beautiful golden cloud. St. Anne was very old and grave, but St. Philomene was very young and beautiful. Both were looking at me with great kindness.
However, the kindness of St. Anne was mixed with such an air of awe and gravity, that I did not like her looks; while St. Philomene had such an expression of superhuman love and kindness, that I felt myself drawn to her by a magnetic power, when she said distinctly: “You will be cured!” and the vision disappeared.
But I was cured, perfectly cured! At the disappearance of the two saints, I felt as though an electric shock went through my whole frame; the pains were gone, the tongue was untied, the nerves were restored to their natural and easy power; my eyes were opened, the cold and icy waves which were fast going from the extremities to the regions of the heart, seemed to be changed into a most pleasant warm bath, restoring life and strength to every part of my body. I raised my head, stretched out my hands, which I had not moved for three days, and looking around, I saw the four priests. I said to them: “I am cured, please give me something to eat, I am hungry.”
Astonished beyond measure, two of them threw their arms around my shoulders to help me sit a moment, and change my pillow; when two others ran to the table which the kind nuns of Quebec had covered with delicacies in case I might want them. Their joy was mixed with fear, for they all confessed to me afterwards that they at once thought that all this was nothing but the last brilliant flash of light which the flickering lamp gives before dying away. But they soon changed their minds when they saw that I was eating ravenously, and that I was speaking to them and thanking God with a cheerful though very feeble voice. “What does this mean?” they all said. “The doctors told us last evening that you were dead; and we have passed the night not only weeping over your death, but praying for your soul, to rescue it from the flames of purgatory, and now you look so hungry, so cheerful and so well.”
I answered: “It means that I was not dead, but very near dying, and when I felt that I was to die, I prayed to St. Anne and St. Philomene to come to my help and cure me; and they have come. I have seen them both, there, above my head. Ah! if I were a painter, what a beautiful picture I could make of that dear old St. Anne and the still dearer St. Philomene! for it is St. Philomene who has spoken to me as the messenger of the mercies of God. I have promised to have their portraits painted and put into the church of The Good St. Anne du Nord.”
While I was speaking thus, the priests, filled with admiration and awe, were mute; they could not speak, except with tears of gratitude. They honestly believed with me that my cure was miraculous, and consented with pleasure to sing that beautiful hymn of gratitude, the “Te Deum.”
The next morning the news of my miraculous cure spread through the whole city with the rapidity of lightning, for besides a good number of the first citizens of Quebec who were related to me by blood, I had not less than 1,800 penitents who loved and respected me as their spiritual father.
To give an idea of the kind interest of the numberless friends whom God had given me when in Quebec, I will relate a single fact. The citizens who were near our parsonage, having been told by a physician that the inflammation of my brain was so terrible that the least noise, even the passing of carriages or the walking of horses on the streets, was causing me real torture, they immediately covered all the surrounding streets with several inches of straw to prevent the possibility of any more noise.
The physicians having heard of my sudden cure, hastened to come and see what it meant. At first, they could scarcely believe their eyes. The night before, they had given me up for dead, after thirteen days suffering with the most horrible and incurable of diseases! And there I was, the very next morning, perfectly cured! No more pain, not the least remnant of fever, all the faculties of my body and mind perfectly restored!