Moirans, 1877.
The Superioress of the Sisters of Charity at Moirans, relates as follows a very consoling conversion, redounding to the glory of Mary Immaculate:
"The most important manufacturer of our village, who employed from four to five hundred men and women, has just died, and contrary to all expectations, his death was penitent and consoling. He had been impious and immoral, and the profligate characters in his workshops were a curse to the surrounding country. His rudeness was such, that everybody trembled before him. His wife and two daughters, pious Christians, silently bewailed his misconduct; and as for myself, I had barely sufficient acquaintance with him to render justifiable my calling upon him in any urgent need.
"One morning I received a message in great haste; this person was very sick and wished to see me. I went at once, but the disease was of so serious a character and its progress so rapid, that I saw the poor man on the verge of the grave ere I could find a means of turning his thoughts to eternity. I had told his wife and daughters to give him a medal of the Immaculate Conception, but he refused to accept it, and we were reduced to the necessity of stealthily putting it under his pillow. On the third day, as I was about to leave, after rendering him all the care and attention in my power, he wished, in the effusion of his gratitude, to shake hands with me. I profited by the opportunity to tell him how much pleasure he could give me by consenting to receive the curé, who had just come to see him. He made a sign in the affirmative and with a smile that very rarely parted his lips. We went out of the room, leaving him alone with the priest, whom he had welcomed cordially. In half an hour the latter returned blessing God, for the sick man had made his confession. He now consented to wear the medal, and that evening he received Extreme Unction, but not the Holy Viaticum, as he had spells of suffocation. I asked his wife to let his employees see him, that they might be edified at their patron's conduct. The request was granted, but not many came, as the workshops were closed at this hour; those who did come, prayed a few minutes beside him. Next morning his family was greatly rejoiced at his apparent physical improvement, but their hopes were deceived, and very soon his last agony began. He was recommended to the prayers of the parish; the whole village manifested a touching interest in his condition, and his employees all came to see him. The throng around the dying man was renewed every quarter of an hour, and we recited the Chaplet aloud, a most appropriate devotion for this occasion, the last moments of one whom the Blessed Virgin had snatched from eternal misery. Amidst this concert of praises to Mary, he expired. The Christian Brothers, to whom he had been very hostile, willingly aided us in rendering to him the last duties of religion."
[CHAPTER VII.]
PROGRESS OF THE DEVOTION TO MARY
CROWNED BY THE DEFINITION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.—I. OUR LADY OF LA SALETTE.—II. THE CHILDREN OF MARY.—III. THE DEFINITION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.
I.—Our Lady of La Salette.—1846.