November 23
Bl Miguel Pro
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World Youth Day

November 24
St Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions

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November 25
St Catherine of Alexandria
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International Day For the Elimination of Violence Against Women

November 26
St. Sylvester
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November 27
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
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Thanksgiving Day

November 28
St. Catherine Laboure
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November 29
St Saturninus of Toulouse

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November 23

Bl. Miguel Pro

Miguel Agustin Pro was born into a prosperous, devout family in Guadalupe de Zacatecas, Mexico in 1891. As a young boy he was, in equal parts, intensely spiritual, charitable, and mischievous. Inspired by the example of his older sister, who joined a cloistered order, he joined the Jesuit order as a novice in Mexico in 1911.

When governmental anti-Catholicism became widespread in 1914, the Mexican novitiate were forced to disband, and he and his fellow seminarians were ordered to flee to the Jesuit house in Los Gatos, California. He was to a seminary in Granada, Spain in 1915, where he resumed his studies. He was sent to Nicaragua to teach for 4 years, and then was sent to Belgium, where he was ordained in 1925.

The next year he was allowed to return to Mexico City by his Order. Shortly after he returned, the Mexican president Calles banned all public worship. Since he was not known as a priest, he used disguises to secretly minister to the people, celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, and helping the poor; even appearing in jail dressed as a police officer to bring Eucharist to condemned Catholics.

In 1927, when a bomb was thrown at President Calles from a car formerly owned by one of his two brothers, all three brothers were arrested. Without a trial, the two older brothers were sentenced to death by a firing squad. Calles made the execution public, hoping to show the brothers dying as cowards. But Padre Pro refused the blindfold and welcomed the bullets with his arms extended in the form of a cross, a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other. He forgave his executioners and, before he was shot, cried out, “Viva Cristo Rey!”

After his death, 40,000 Mexicans defied the government by lining the streets as Padre Pro was carried to his gravesite, where 20,000 more witnessed his interment. he was beatified in Rome on September 25, 1988, by Pope John Paul II as a Catholic martyr, killed in odium fidei (in hatred of the faith).

“We ought to speak, shout out against injustices, with confidence and without fear. We proclaim the principles of the Church, the reign of love, without forgetting that it is also a reign of justice. “

– Miguel Agustin Pro

“If you listen, God will also speak to you, for with the good Lord, you have to both speak and listen. God always speaks to you when you approach him plainly and simply.“

Saint Catherine Laboure

November 27
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

November 28
St. Catherine Laboure

St. Catherine Labouré was born in Burgundy, France on May 2, 1806 as the ninth of 11 children. When she was 9 years old, her mother passed away, making Catherine responsible for the household. In an act of faith, she decided to replace the mother she had lost with her Heavenly Mother, Mary.

Growing up, Catherine was known for being a quiet and practical child, though she was extremely devout. A couple of years after her mother’s death, Catherine experienced a dream of St. Vincent de Paul motioning her to a room of sick people, and urging her to become a Daughter of Charity.

In January 1830, Catherine Labouré entered the Seminary at the Motherhouse of the Daughters on rue du Bac, Paris as a novice.  Catherine began to receive personal visions of the heart of St. Vincent and of Our Lord in the Eucharist. She also had two visions of Mary Immaculate who showed herself inside an oval frame, standing upon a globe with rays of light coming from her hands toward the globe. Around the frame were the words, “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” 

Mary asked Catherine to take these images to her confessor, telling him they should be placed on medallions. “All who wear them will receive great graces.”

In 1831 Catherine Labouré was sent to serve the poor, the afflicted, the marginalized elderly in the hospice of Enghien.  She spent the next 46 years of her life there, devoted to their care. She died on December 31, 1876, at the age of 70. After being exhumed in 1933, her body was found to be incorrupt; she was canonized by Pope Pius XII on July 27, 1947.

St. Catherine Laboure was granted her vision of Mary Immaculate on November 27, 1830. She viewed both the front and the back of the frame in which Mary appeared. The back of the frame showed a circle of twelve stars, recalling the vision of Saint John in the Book of Revelation (12:1); a large letter M surmounted by a cross, and the stylized Sacred Heart of Jesus crowned with thorns and Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced with a sword. Catherine heard Mary tell her to fashion after the image a medal which would provide protection and fill with grace those who wore it.

With approval of the Church, the first Medals were made in 1832 and were first distributed in Paris; then, to millions around the world.  Countless wonders came to those who wore it: health was restored; bad habits were overcome; dangers were averted; men survived war and pestilence; and thousands were converted to the True Faith. People began to call it the “Miraculous Medal” — the official title it now bears in the liturgical feast that was established to honor the Queen Mother who gave it to us.  Its greatest miracles are those of patience, forgiveness, repentance, and faith. God uses the Medal, not as a sacrament, but as an agent, an instrument, in bringing to pass certain marvelous results.

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