"The danger will be great… but I will be with you."

At that moment, I felt the sweetest emotion of my life, and it would be impossible for me to express it. The Blessed Virgin explained to me how I should act in the midst of my sorrow, and, pointing to the foot of the altar with her left hand, she told me to come and throw myself there and pour out my heart, adding that there I would receive all the consolation I needed. Then she said to me:

"My child, I want to entrust you with a mission; you will suffer many sorrows in doing it, but you will overcome them at the thought that it is for the glory of the Good Lord. You will be contradicted, but you will have grace, have no fear; tell everything that is happening in you, with simplicity and confidence."

I then asked the Blessed Virgin for an explanation of the things that had been shown to me. She replied: "My child, times are very bad; misfortunes will fall on France. The throne will be overthrown, the whole world will be upset by misfortunes of all kinds." (The Blessed Virgin looked very sad when she said this.) "But come to the foot of this altar. There, graces will be poured out on all those who ask for them, on the great and the small. A moment will come when the danger will be great. It will seem as if everything is lost, but I will be with you, have confidence. You will recognize my visit, the protection of God and that of Saint Vincent on both communities. Have confidence, do not be discouraged, I will be with you! There will be victims in other communities." (The Blessed Virgin had tears in her eyes when she said this.) "In the clergy of Paris, there will be victims, Monsignor the Archbishop will die," with these words, her tears flowed again. "My child, the Cross will be despised, it will be thrown down, the side of Our Lord will be opened again; the streets will be full of blood; the whole world will mourn."

Saint Catherine Labouré (1)

This is the saint's personal account of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary she received in Paris in 1830.

(1) Saint Catherine Labouré (1806-1876) was a French nun of the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity, in the Rue du Bac convent in Paris, France. In 1830, the Blessed Virgin appeared to her several times and asked her, among other things, to have the famous Miraculous Medal struck.