But despite all this, the Blessed Virgin has protected me

At the beginning of the year 1923, a 16-year-old boy was admitted at the Montargis hospital in France. For three months, the chaplain visited him every day, inquiring about his health. The young man, who was gravely ill, always refused to welcome the friendly priest.

One day, the patient asked the nun nurse to bring him a catechism, and as she showed some surprise, he said: "I want to make my confession, and for this I need a catechism, because I want to do things correctly."

When the chaplain returned, the boy told him: "I made my first communion four years ago; nothing happened in me, nothing! I only remember the beautiful clothes I was wearing. And that while one of us was reading the Act of consecration to the Blessed Virgin, I looked at the statue of Mary, and said to her: "I will most likely grow up to be a bad person, but it does not matter, I devote myself to you and I ask you to protect me. I did live like a scoundrel, but the Blessed Virgin protected me, since she sent me this illness that landed me here, and now I am about to confess and die reconciled with the Lord."

The young man lived a few more weeks, in great piety, and died the death of a saint.

Excerpt from First Communion Retreat, by Arthaud

In Le Chapelet des enfants (The Children’s Rosary)