CURE OF A DROPSICAL MAN (SWITZERLAND).
"Soleure, January 19th, 1836.
"Baptiste, a wood sawyer, whom you knew during your sojourn in this city, was confined to his bed two whole months by an attack of the severest form of dropsy on the chest. One of our best physicians, who attended him at the beginning of his sickness, having told Baptiste's wife that the case was a hopeless one, the family decided to consult another, M. Gougelmann, at Attyswill, a league from Soleure. After seeing the patient, he also gave the same opinion, and the poor wife's distress was beyond expression. A pious lady, witnessing her grief, gave her a Miraculous Medal. The sick man's arms, legs, and whole body were greatly swollen. His breath was short, and he had scarcely any power of motion; his back, and his elbows upon which he was obliged to lean, were a mass of sores. In this pitiable state, death might be expected any moment. His confessor having come to visit him, brought the Notice of the miracles wrought through the Miraculous Medal. The sick man on receiving it began to read it aloud, greatly to the astonishment of his wife and the priest, who were both witnesses that he had been almost past the power of speech but a few minutes before. And he continued reading thus until he had finished the little book (it was one of the first editions). This was the evening of January 19. His wife, overcome with fatigue, fell asleep for a few moments, his children were in an adjoining room expecting at any instant to hear the sad news of their father's death. He slept a little towards three o'clock in the morning, and on awaking found himself so well that it was impossible to resist the desire of rising from his bed and throwing himself on his knees before a crucifix, in thanksgiving to Our Lord and His divine Mother. His wife awoke, and not seeing him in bed, called to know where he was. 'I am well; the Blessed Virgin has cured me,' was the answer of Baptiste, whom she perceived kneeling before the crucifix. The children, hearing the noise, hastened to their father's presence, believing him about to breathe his last, but judge of their surprise at finding him restored to health, and his sores perfectly healed! Imagine, if you can, the joy of this poor family, and the happy effects the news of this wondrous cure produced upon the many who heard it. Baptiste has had excellent health ever since."
CURE OF FRANÇOIS WENMAKERS, OF BOIS-LE-DUC (HOLLAND).
The Noord Brabander, a Holland journal, printed at Bois-le-Duc, contains in number 68 the following account of an extraordinary cure, which is attributed to the Blessed Virgin:
"Bois-le Duc, June 6th, 1836.
"The 25th of last April, François Wenmakers, a young apprentice, aged fourteen years, fell from a height of about sixteen feet. An affection of the brain and an almost complete paralysis of the lungs, larynx and oesophagus were the result; he was not in a condition to take any medicine into his stomach, or even to swallow the least liquid, and he was deprived of consciousness. One of the physicians, feeling worried at his fixed stare, advised the administration of Extreme Unction; and yet another, the eve of his recovery, declared him on the verge of death. The sick man moreover, had become nearly blind the last few days. On the 1st of May, advantage was taken of a lucid interval, to give him the Holy Viaticum; and on the 4th of the same month, he received Extreme Unction from one of the chaplains of St. Jean. His parents, who immediately after his fall, had hung a medal of the Immaculate Conception around his neck, seeing there was now no hope of his recovery, except in the divine goodness and the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, began, on the 16th of May, a novena in honor of the Mother of God. Three days after, about six o'clock in the morning, the patient suddenly asked his mother if the medal around his neck were blessed. She answered yes, regarding the question as the effect of delirium. He immediately kissed it, and sat up for the first time since the fall, for heretofore he had been stretched out helpless on the bed, and, for some days past, had been deprived of the use of his limbs. 'Something tells me,' he exclaimed, 'that I must get up, that I am cured!' The astonishment of those present may easily be imagined. The mother called his sisters, who repaired to the room with an elder girl, and they, seeing that he stoutly persisted in declaring himself cured, persuaded his mother to let him rise. He did indeed get up, and pointing to a picture in the room, representing the medal, he said: 'It is this good Mother who has cured me.' From that moment the boy's health was perfectly re-established, and his intellectual faculties were brighter than ever.
"Reflections here are superfluous. Glory to God and her who thus rewards the confidence of her servants! The parents and their child will ever remember the blessing they have received, and never cease to publish it!"
CURE OF ROSALIE DUCAS, OF JAUCHELETTE (BELGIUM).
Rosalie Ducas, of Jauchelette, near Jodoigne, aged four years and a-half, was, on the 9th of November, 1835, suddenly struck with total blindness without the slightest premonitory symptoms; there was no disease, no weakness, she was in apparently perfect health. Not only was the least light, but the least breath of air so painful, that her face had to be kept constantly covered with a cloth four doubled. This poor child's sufferings night and day, were heart-rending! At last the mother herself was taken sick. Some pious individual procured her a blessed medal of the Immaculate Conception. She took it and commenced a novena. Another medal was put on the child's neck, the 11th of June, 1836, about six o'clock in the evening; at midnight, the little one ceased its moans, on the fourth or fifth day of the novena, it opened its eyes. The mother and father redoubled their prayers to the Blessed Virgin, and on the ninth day, towards evening, the child recovered its sight entirely, to the great astonishment of the neighbors and all who were witnesses of the occurrence.
"The curé of Jodoigne-la-Souveraine, who had given the medal, has himself seen the child who lives not more than half a league distant; he positively asserts that it has perfectly recovered its sight, and that not the slightest vestige of the attack remains, which fact is well known, and contributes not a little in exciting devotion to the Immaculate Mary."