The Memorare in the Snow

Saint Marcellin Champagnat, founder of the Marist Brothers, had great confidence in the Blessed Virgin whom he called “Our Ordinary Resource”. The following true story confirms his trust. One night, Marcellin was returning from a visit to a sick person through a snowstorm that made all the paths disappear. The night was pitch black, and the poor priest, accompanied by a brother, had been walking for two hours. Their faces burnt by the north wind and their eyes filled with snow and having lost all sense of direction, he two travelers were constrained to wander aimlessly with no other guide than Providence. After a short while, the brother became so exhausted that Father Champagnat was obliged to hold him up. The priest himself, stiffened by the cold and almost suffocating under the snow, felt so weak that he had to stop in his tracks. “My friend,” he said, “if the Blessed Virgin does not come to our assistance we are goners. Let us pray to her and surrender our lives in her hands.” While he spoke these sad words, the brother had let himself fall to the ground in an inert mass. Then Father Champagnat knelt down close to the brother in snow, and recited the “Memorare”. Afterwards, he struggled to lift up his companion and, painfully, they managed to advance a few steps. All of a sudden a light appeared in the night a short distance away. They dragged themselves in the direction of that faint light, which was a promise of safety to them. They found a logger’s cabin and they were taken in for the night; they were saved.