Our Lady of the Miracle

Alphonse Ratisbonne was born to a wealthy family of Jewish bankers in Strasbourg, France, on May 1, 1814. His older brother Theodore converted to the Catholic faith and became a priest when he was just a boy. Alphonse and his parents reacted with hostility and horror. Why would Our Lady appear to a man who hated the faith? Who knows? ...but on January 20, 1942, Alphonse entered the Basilica of Saint Andrea delle Fratte in Rome and fell on his knees... After the apparition of Our Lady to Alphonse Ratisbonne, he told an acquaintance (Baron Theodore de Bussières, his priest brother's close friend and a convert to Catholicism): "I was scarcely in the church when a total confusion came over me. When I looked up, it seemed to me that the entire church had been swallowed up in shadow, except one chapel. It was as though all the light was concentrated in that single place. I looked over towards this chapel whence so much light shone, and above the altar was a living figure, tall, majestic, beautiful and full of mercy. It was the most holy Virgin Mary, resembling her figure on the Miraculous Medal. At this sight I fell on my knees where I stood. Unable to look up because of the blinding light, I fixed my gaze on her hands, and in them I could read the expression of mercy and pardon. In the presence of the Most Blessed Virgin, even though she did not speak a word to me, I understood the frightful situation I was in, my sins and the beauty of the Catholic Faith."(1) _____ (1) The Conversion of Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne (1842), Baron Marie Theodore Renouard de Bussières, Ed. by W. Lockhard, Kessinger Publishing, 2008.