Catherine Labouré was a Daughter of Charity who experienced apparitions of Our Lady in Paris in 1830 and brought the Miraculous Medal to the world. All her life she kept this hidden and humbly cared for the elderly.
Life
Catherine Labouré was born in 1806 to a farming family in Burgundy, France. Tradition says that after losing her mother as a child, she embraced a statue of Mary and asked Our Lady to be her mother. For years she ran the family household before entering the Daughters of Charity.
In 1830, in the chapel of the motherhouse on the Rue du Bac in Paris, she experienced apparitions of Our Lady and was asked to have a medal made. The medal soon spread widely and came to be called the Miraculous Medal.
Afterward she lived quietly for more than forty years caring for the elderly at a hospice in Paris, and she died in 1876. She was canonized in 1947.
Spirituality
The spirituality of St. Catherine Labouré is hidden humility and childlike trust in Our Lady. Though she received extraordinary graces, she never boasted of them and stayed within ordinary service. For her, prayer and caring for the elderly were one, and through Mary she entrusted everything to God.
Reflection
St. Catherine received great graces yet served where no one noticed. Today, can I look for a small act of service I can do gladly, even if no one recognizes it?