"Make yourself a slave of the Blessed Virgin and she will protect you."

Agnes Galand, in religion Agnes of Jesus, also known as Agnes of Langeac (1602-1634), was a Dominican nun renowned for her charity and virtues. She was beatified on November 20, 1994. Her feast day is October 19.

She was born in Le Puy-en-Velay (southern France) and was immediately placed under the protection of the Virgin Mary. When she was about seven years old, while going up to the city’s cathedral, Agnes thought of the sufferings of a man who had been tortured and whom she had passed in the street earlier. The sight of him had deeply moved her, and she prayed all night for him. During the celebration of the Eucharist, she heard these words in her heart:

"Make yourself a slave of the Blessed Virgin and she will protect you." Agnes, although still very young, decided to answer this call. She went to her father's workshop and found a chain to wear around her waist as a sign of her personal consecration to Mary. She prayed: "Holy Virgin, since you deign to want me to be yours, from this moment I offer you all that I am and I promise to serve you all my life as a slave.”

Shortly thereafter, Agnes made a vow of virginity before Our Lady of Le Puy. Saint Louis de Montfort alludes to Agnes of Langeac in his Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin in paragraph 170: "Blessed are those who are the faithful slaves of the Queen of Heaven, for they will enjoy true freedom"

On October 12, 1634, Agnes fell seriously ill. On October 15 and 18, she received Holy Communion, like a soul already ripe for Heaven. On October 19, 1634, at the age of 31, Mother Agnes died, leaving to her sisters in religion the particular vocation of prayer for priests and for the early stages of human life.

In 1952, in Agnes' hometown of Langeac, a woman in labor was in danger of dying, when a prayer to Agnes saved both the mother and her child. This miracle was recognized by the Church and led to her beatification. Today, Agnes is still invoked by couples trying to conceive and during difficult pregnancies.

The Dominican Sisters of the Monastery of Saint Catherine of Langeac

Adapted and translated from: Notre Histoire avec Marie