CHAPTER IX.
Recent Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin
IN FRANCE, ITALY AND GERMANY.
THE CONFIDENCE WITH WHICH THESE APPARITIONS SHOULD INSPIRE US.
The definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, has, in our age, brought to its climax, devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Divine Providence employed twenty-four years in preparing the world for this great event; we have seen in the preceding chapters, how much the apparition of 1830, contributed thereto, and how powerful the influence of the Miraculous Medal in propagating this devotion. Since this time a second period of twenty-four years has elapsed, during which devotion to the Immaculate Mary has shone as a radiant star in the firmament of the Church, spreading everywhere the light of truth and the warmth of true piety; and, by a gentle yet efficacious impulse, producing unanimity of mind and heart in the great Catholic family.
Since the definition, as well as before it, France continues to be the privileged country of Mary; nowhere else are miracles so numerous, or graces so abundant. Whence arises this glorious prerogative? So far as we are permitted to penetrate the secrets of God, it appears to us, to our understanding: France who has wrought so much evil by disseminating philosophical and revolutionary doctrines, is to repair the past by propagating truth, and Mary desires to prepare her for this mission. Everyone knows, moreover, that the French character possesses a force of expansion and a power of energy that render the French eminently qualified to maintain the interests of truth and justice. Then, again, is not France the eldest daughter of the Church, since she was baptized in the person of Clovis, the first of the Most Christian Kings; and in virtue of this title, is it not her duty to devote herself under the patronage of her Mother in heaven to the defence of her Mother on earth?
Be the motives of Mary's predilection for the French nation what they may, the fact is incontrovertible. Nevertheless, the Blessed Virgin has not forgotten other Catholic countries; they also have had their share in the singular favors she has so generously dispensed in our days.
OUR LADY OF LOURDES.—1858.
Four years after the definition of the Immaculate Conception, Mary vouchsafed to manifest herself anew to the world, and this time, as if in token of her gratitude, she took the glorious name the Church had just decreed her: "I am the Immaculate Conception." It was in France that the vision of the medal took place, preparatory to the act of December 8th, 1854; it was also in France, at Lourdes, in the diocese of Tarbes, at the base of the Pyrenees, that Mary came in person, to testify and proclaim that privilege which she prized above all others. In 1830, she choose a young, unlettered Sister for her confidant; in 1846, she addressed herself to two poor peasant children; in 1858, she also selects one in the humblest ranks of life as the depository of her merciful designs.