And, from the isles of far Japan
To the broad Andes, won o’er man
A bloodless victory!”
THE MIRACLE OF SEPTEMBER 16, 1877.
ABRIDGED FROM THE FRENCH OF M. HENRI LASSERRE.
In the month of August, 1874, Canon Martignon, previously curé-archiprêtre of Algiers, arrived at Lourdes. He was a man of about forty years of age, and while in Africa had been attacked by an affection of the chest which entirely deprived him of the use of his voice; he had therefore crossed the Mediterranean to seek healing in the city of Mary.
At the rocks of Massabielle he prayed, drank of the miraculous font, and bathed in the piscina, but without obtaining the cure he sought.
Not disheartened, he resolved to make a novena. This, too, was unaccompanied by any change for the better.
“Well, then,” he said, “I will make a novena of weeks.” And he took up his abode at Lourdes for sixty-three days.