The Blessed Virgin stretched out her powerful arm and the cholera ended

The Oblate missionaries (Oblates of Mary Immaculate), who arrived in Ceylon in 1847, encountered a cholera epidemic just three years after their installation in Jaffna. For five years, this dreadful disease devastated almost all their missions. The population was numb with shock, schools were closed, and all work stopped.

The missionaries did their best to care for the sick, bury the dead and encourage the survivors. They went through the streets waving a bell to warn the dying that God's grace was passing by. When cholera reached the great city of Jaffna in November 1853, the first victims were the fishermen community. Then one thousand of the city's six thousand Catholics died. Most of the Oblates contracted the disease, but only one, Father Victor Lacombe, died, while tending to the sick.

One Oblate in particular, Father Jean Le Bescou, gave an exemplary witness of  devotion. One day, he approached a non-Christian woman who was dying, abandoned by all. He tried to tell her about the true God and the eternal happiness she could enjoy after her death, but she angrily rebuffed him. As he walked away, the priest entrusted this soul to the Blessed Virgin: "You who are the refuge of sinners, save her, my good Mother", he cried in his heart.

No sooner had he finished this prayer than the woman called him back, transformed in her heart. He briefly instructed her and then baptized her, and as he watched, her soul ascended to heaven.

The Christians, encouraged by the Oblates, never ceased to raise their ardent supplication to Our Lady. Touched by the many prayers of her children, the Blessed Virgin finally extended her powerful arm, and the cholera suddenly came to an end.

The circumstances of this extraordinary grace remain engraved in the memory of the missionaries who lived through these events.

Adapted from : André Dorval, OMI

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