The Virgin Mary rescuing a mother

Marie Hallé, married to Joachim Girard, lived in the fief of Saint-Jean. She was a woman of rare virtue […]. On Sundays and feast days, to hear mass, take communion and attend the meetings of the ladies of the Holy Family, Marie went to the church, which was very far away. But all the time that her devotions lasted, the poor woman’s mind was tortured. She thought of her three little children left alone at home.

It was then that the Blessed Virgin, seeing the worries of this mother, wanted to reassure her herself. Here is what happened one fine Sunday morning, July 8, 1665.

It is Father [François-Joseph] Mercier, the editor of the report, who speaks: “Marie Hallé had left her children asleep at home. She was very surprised when she returned to see them dressed very neatly on their bed, and asked her eldest daughter – aged four – who had dressed them in her absence. This child, who has a good mind for her age, could not tell her anything else except that it was a lady dressed in white, whom she did not know, although she knew all those of the village very well; that, in addition, she was only going out, that she must have met her on her way out.

Many people have devoutly believed that the Blessed Virgin herself wanted to cure the worries of this good woman, and to let her know that she should, after having taken the ordinary precautions for her children, abandon the rest to the protection of the Holy Family.

What makes this opinion probable is that the mother found the door of the dwelling closed in the same way as she had left it when she went out; that she did not see this woman dressed in white, who only went out when she came in; that all the things were done in the order in which she had accustomed to do them herself; that this cannot be attributed to any person in the neighborhood or in the country that we know of; that the child is not very capable of a lie of this nature; and that, after all, God sometimes works similar wonders in favor of the poor. “

Sources: 

Frère Ernest-Béatrix, mariste, Histoires canadiennes, La Vierge Marie, 2e édition, pages 101 à 103