Saint John of the Abbesses

November 30, 2015 by · Leave a Comment
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In 887, a monastery was founded in the Catalonia region of Spain. It was called “Saint John of the Abbesses.” The monastery is noteworthy today for something that happened almost 400 years later.

In 1251, some figures were carved in wood, depicting Jesus being taken down from the Cross. They included Jesus, His Mother, the Apostle John, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the two criminals crucified with Him. In the forehead of the statue of Jesus, the woodcarver made a depression, approximately two and a half inches in diameter, for the apparent purpose of enclosing a host.

A consecrated Host was indeed placed there and sealed with a small silver plaque. It was forgotten until, in 1426, work was done to restore the statues. Then the Host was discovered, wrapped in a white linen cloth, totally uncorrupted.

The statue survived the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and that same Host, known as “The Most Holy Mystery of Saint John of the Abbesses” is still visited by numerous pilgrims to this day.

Source: “The Eucharistic Miracles of the World,” a Vatican international exhibition, as reported by The Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration and Association, http://www.therealpresence.org/eucharst/mir/english_pdf/johnofabbesses.pdf.

The Nun in the White Habit

November 29, 2015 by · Leave a Comment
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Coreen Marson gave birth to her first child on August 30, 1956, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. It was a difficult delivery and the specialist who performed emergency surgery that day thought that neither mother nor daughter would survive long. He was proven wrong and both got to leave the hospital and go home.

A week afterwards, however, Coreen developed a blood clot in her left lung, as well as pneumonia. She returned to St. Francis Catholic Hospital and spent the next seven weeks there. Each morning, she heard a little bell being rung, to announce the coming of the Holy Eucharist, as it was being brought into the room of another patient. She had wanted to receive daily Communion herself, but was young and did not know how to arrange for it.

After having spent several weeks in the hospital, her condition was not improving. Then, a beautiful young nun in a white habit came and, after attending to some nursing duties with her roommate, asked why Coreen was not receiving the Holy Sacrament. She replied that she very much wanted to, but did not know who to ask about it. The nun told her to ask mother superior the next time that she came in to see her. Coreen said that she also needed to go to confession before receiving the Eucharist. The nun told her that mother superior could arrange for that as well.

While she had been in the hospital, mother superior had rarely come in to see Coreen. Shortly after the nun in the white habit left, however, she came again. She promptly agreed to both of the requests put to her. Then Coreen asked about the beautiful young nun in the white habit. Mother superior informed her there were no nuns in white habits who worked at that ward.

Shortly after she began to take Holy Communion daily, Coreen began to improve. She proceeded to recover fully and returned home.

Over the years that followed, Coreen came to this same hospital, for the births of other children as well as many visits for other family members. She never saw a nun in a white habit again.

Who was the nun in the white habit? How did she know, when only visiting Coreen for the first time, that she had not been receiving the Eucharist? Why had her condition only begun to improve afterwards?

The answers to these questions may of course be different depending on whether the person asking them has any faith. For the young mother in this story, one thing is sure, as it is simple. She received a moment of grace when she was in need of it.

Adapted from Proctor, Sister Patricia, O.S.C., 201 Inspirational Stories of the Eucharist (Spokane, Washington, Francisan Monastery of Saint Clare, 2004) p. 25-26.

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