Chapter VII. The effects of the medal of St. Benedict in the nineteenth century

During the last few years the grace of God has produced a change in the minds of the faithful of these Northern countries, by reanimating many of them with a respect for what is supernatural. This also in its turn revived confidence in the holy practices from which our ancestors received so many blessings. The medal of St. Benedict, which was on the point of becoming a secret, known only by a few pious souls, has now been brought so much into notice that thousands have recourse to it in their necessities, and their confidence has been rewarded . 1

We proceed to give several instances of the protection granted to those who have used this holy medal, and we begin by those which relate to the cure of bodily ailments.

1 See “Vie de M. Dupont, mort k Tours en odeur de sainted le 18 Mars 1876. Par Abbe Janvier.” This work was reviewed in the “Tablet” of February 7, 1880. The subject of the memoir is said to have made great use of the medal of St. Benedict as a means of defeating the malice of Satan, and his Life is full of most interesting examples of wonderful graces obtained through its use. — E d.

In the early part of July, in the year 1843, a lady* who was taking the waters at Ndris (France), was suddenly seized with a violent bleeding at the nose. The doctor is called in ; he perceives the danger, but the remedies he prescribes for stopping the bleeding only seem to increase it. Things continue in this state till the evening of the third day, when, at nine o’clock, the danger visibly increases, and the doctor can no longer conceal his fears. The landlady of the hotel goes out of the room in a state of great excitement, and, as if by inspiration, she asks if any one in the house has a medal of St. Benedict. Fortunately one is found; the sick person, who was a woman of strong faith, accepts the medal, and immediately the bleeding stops. She washes her hands and face, and goes to lie down, which she had not been able to do for three days and two nights. The person who had lent the medal found, on returning home, a letter dated Rome, July 8, 1843, in which was written : “ I have Aot yet been able to meet with the book of the ‘ Benedictine of Prague.’ 1 However, I send you a little book on the same subject, given me by our Benedictines of Rome.” Now, in the list given in this little book of the miraculous effects of the medal of St. Benedict we read this amongst this rest : “ It is a most efficacious remedy against hcemorrhage ” 2

1 The book here alluded to is that of Benno Lobl, Abbot of St. Margaret’s of Prague, entitled, “ Disquisitio sacra numismatica, de origine, quidditate, virtute, pioque usu Numismatum seu Crucularum S. Benedicti, Abbatis, Viennse, Austrise, apud Leopoldum' Kaliwoda, 1743.” We have this work, and have consulted it in drawing up this notice.

a “ E’rimedio efficacissimo pel jetto di sangue.”

About the same time, a young person, who was laid up with the typhus fever, had been obliged to sit for ten days in an arm-chair, as the reclining position of lying in bed had become unsufferable. At nine in the evening, a friend of the family, who had come to see her, spoke to her of St. Benedict's medals, and slipped one into her handkerchief. Scarce five minutes had elapsed, when the sick person got into bed, and on the morrow, after sleeping soundly during the whole night, found herself perfectly recovered from the terrible fever, which up to that time had baffled all the skill of the doctors.

In January of 1849, at T •, the Reverend Father

P , a Jesuit, called at the house of an intimate friend who lived close by, and asked him if he could recommend some cure for a toothache, which was almost driving him wild. The friend began to tell him about St. Benedict's medal. After a short explanation of it, the good Father accepts of one. The very moment it touches his hand he utters a cry, like that which dentists so often hear from their patients, and then says, “ My tooth is broken." He puts his finger on the place, and is surprised to find the tooth all right and the aching quite gone.

In 1858, a Benedictine of St. Paul's in Rome, having heard that a child, to which he had stood godfather, was taken dangerously ill at Juliers, in Rhenish Prussia, sent to the mother a medal of St. Benedict. Inflammation of the lungs, accompanied by spasms in the stomach, had gradually reduced the child to the last extremity. One night, the mother, seeing the child almost at the c point of death, was suddenly minded to make use of the medal which she had received a few days before. Distracted with grief and trembling with anxiety, she lays the medal on her child’s breast, and then throws herself on her knees at the foot of the bed in fervent prayer. That very moment the poor little sufferer quietly fell asleep, and after some hours of the most tranquil slumber, got up full of life and free from the disease, which up to that time had seemed incurable.

In the summer of the same year, 1858, the cholera was raging at Tivoli, in Italy, and a man, who lived not far from Subiaco, was seized with the most excruciating pains. In a few hours this terrible malady had made such progress, that his friends ran in great haste to bring the priest, that he might administer the last sacraments. In the meantime the danger became so great that the sick man thought himself at the point of death, and swooned away from the violence of the pain. A few moments after he returned to himself, and felt that his sufferings were still increasing. The cramps in his stomach were more violent than ever, and in endeavouring to allay them by the pressure of his hands, he touched the medal of St. Benedict, which he always wore. This reminded him to have recourse to the holy Patriarch, for whom he entertained the most lively devotion. His pains immediately disappeared ; he gets up, leaves his bed, and seeing the priest, who, out of breath, with the perspiration running down his face, had just come into the house, “ Father,” he exclaimed, u I am cured;” and showing him the medal, he added, “ See what has saved yGoogk me.” The good man paid a visit not long after to the Benedictine abbey of St. Paul at Rome, taking with him the certificates of both the priest and doctor, which bore testimony to the truth of this extraordinary cure.

In February 1861, a colony of Benedictines from the same abbey of St. Paul at Rome, established itself near the town of Cleves, in Rhenish Prussia. They began in March to build an enclosure round the little garden of the new monastery. The man who acted as superintendent of repairs of the parish church, which was served by the Benedictine Fathers, offered to go and purchase for them the wood they required for the building of the enclosure. Accordingly, he repaired to the place where they were felling trees in the Government forests. This man had had given to him the medal of St. Benedict, and he carried it on his person with great devotion. After having loaded his cart with several large trunks of oak, he started back for the monastery ; but just as the cart began to move, one of the trees, which had not been properly fastened, came rolling down. The good man was at the back of the cart, and not being able to get out of the way in time, was knocked down and his right leg almost crushed to pieces.

He was carried home. The Prior of the monastery, on hearing of this frightful accident, said to the bystanders, “ It was in the service of St. Benedict that he got wounded, and St. Benedict will cure him.”

One of the religious mentioned this to the poor sufferer, who had already been thinking of having recourse to his medal, which he never ceased to wear.

Placing it then on his leg, which was so fearfully crushed, he fastens it there with a bandage. In a very short time he falls fast asleep, and continued so till late the following morning, when he awakes, gets up without the slightest difficulty, and finds the wounds as perfectly healed, as though there had been no accident at all.

In 1861, at Chambdry, in the convent called 66 St. Benedict’s/* one of the sisters had been suffering for three months most acute pains in her legs, brought on by her having been exposed to draughts and unusually heavy work. She could not make up her mind to tell her sufferings to any one, nor had she employed any remedy. At last she resolved on making a novena in honour of St. Benedict, and during it to make use of the medal in order to obtain the protection of the holy Patriarch. During the nine days, she used often to press the medal strongly upon her legs, first on one, and then on the other, at the same time invoking the aid of St. Benedict, and each time the pains were relieved. She went on, however, with the heavy work which her duties in the house required of her. The first novena not having produced any other effect than mere momentary relief, she decided on a second. This was blessed with perfect success, and entirely removed the pain. The same sister, being afterwards afflicted with sore eyes, had recourse to the same remedy, and having bathed her eyes with water into which she had dipped the medal, her sight was immediately strengthened, and in a few days became as good as ever it had been.

About the same time there lived in Savoy a little girl six years old, who had been, for several weeks, suffering the most excruciating pains. The child’s nerves had become contracted, and to touch her, even with the tip of the finger, caused her to feel agonies of torture. In such a state as this, she could neither eat nor drink. Her parents had employed all the remedies which medical skill could suggest without success. The case was evidently an incurable one. Two sisters of the convent of St. Benedict, which we have just mentioned, went to visit the little girl (for she belonged to the school which they managed), and to offer some consolation to the mother. On reaching home they bethought themselves of the medal of St. Benedict. They immediately sent one, with word that it should be put round the child’s neck, and that she should be persuaded to swallow something into which the medal should have been previously dipped. The mother of the little sufferer faithfully complied with the pious prescription. An immediate change was visible, and after a few days the child got up perfectly cured.

In the same country, but in the preceding year, two women were cured — one of the miliary fever after confinement, and the other of a dangerous attack of dropsy on the chest — and both of them by drinking something into which the medal of St. Benedict had been put.

In the district of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, during the month of August 1861, Mrs. X., a Catholic, perceived that one of her daughters was taken with a violent attack of diphtheria. It began about evening, and kept getting worse every hour. It was the more

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distressing owing to the difficulty of finding a doctor in that part of the country. The nearest was almost twelve miles off. The mother had great faith in the protection of St. Benedict, and had one of his medals in her possession. She resolved on putting this medal into a tumbler of water, and making her child drink it. She did so. The child drank the water thus sanctified by the contact of the medal, and next morning was out of all danger.

In the early part of the year 1863, at Montigny-le- Roy, there was a woman who had been suffering for a long time the most severe attacks of earache. Clots of blood and bad matter would occasionally come forth from the ear, showing the diseased state of the organ. At length deafness came on, and the poor woman was unfit for any work. Having had a medal of St. Benedict given to her, she put it to her ear, and said a Pater and Ave in honour of the holy Patriarch. The moment after, she was completely cured, and could hear as well as ever she had done in her life.

The same year, at Andabres (Dep. de Hdrault), Miss

R. G was for two years threatened with a cancer on the forehead. A painful gland had formed on it, and had resisted all the remedies which medical men had employed to cure it. One evening, before retiring to rest, this young lady thought of placing on her forehead, during the night, a medal of St. Benedict, at the same time earnestly recommending herself to the holy Patriarch’s protection. She slept most soundly that night, and next morning, after taking off the medal, found to her surprise, that the gland had entirely disappeared.

At Limoges, in the year 1864, in the house of the Sisters of St. Joseph, a postulant came to show one of her superiors her arm, in which some foreign body had entered. She was suffering most acute pains, and this led to the conjecture, that a needle had entered the flesh; and on feeling the arm it seemed evident, that certainly something of that nature must have entered. A surgeon was sent for, in the hope that by lancing the arm the poor creature might be somewhat relieved. All at once, before the doctor arrived even, the idea struck the assistant sister of having recourse to the medal of St. Benedict. She placed it straightway on the wounded arm. After having recited together five Our Fathers and five Hail Maries, with the invocation to St. Benedict, the postulant said, “ Suppose I try to draw out the needle?” “ Try,” answered the assistant sister. Their efforts were not of the slightest avail, and tended only to increase the pain. The assistant then said to the sister, “ Press with the medal on one side.” The sister obeyed. Scarcely had she pressed it upon one side of the arm, than the needle appeared on the other, and they were able to draw it out easily, and that without causing pain. When the surgeon arrived, his services were not required.

At Montauban, in the year 1865, an invalid lady, unable to move, was confined to her bed for two years and a half, and everything seemed to forbode that she would remain thus helpless the rest of her life. One day after the priest had brought her Holy Communion, a Sister of Charity, who had just come on her accustomed visit, with some difficulty managed to place the medal of St. Benedict between her fingers, and succeeded with great exertion in bringing the hand of the sick lady to rest upon her breast, hoping the touch of this sacred object would produce some good result. Immediately the invalid felt a thrill throughout her whole being, a copious perspiration broke out, and these words escaped her lips, “ I am cured ! ” At once life returned to her limbs ; she attempted to rise, and ridding herself of the flannels in which she had been swathed for so long a time, put on once more the clothes which she had been in the habit of wearing before her sickness. As early as the following day, she betook herself to the church to give thanks to God for her sudden cure.

Madame A. S., a lady of the diocese of Le Mans, in the year 1868, suffered intense pains in the head from neuralgia, which was caused by a decayed tooth. All ordinary remedies had been tried, and none had had any effect. The patient had recourse to the medal of St. Benedict, and pressing it close to her cheek, held it there; but it gave her no relief. After the lapse of about half an hour, all the time holding the medal to her cheek, she received a visit from a neighbouring friend, who had just been acquainted with the news of her illness, and the sick woman gave him an account, in a disconnected manner, of the violence of her sufferings. Her visitor, seized with compassion, suggested that perhaps a little brandy kept in her mouth for a short time, would at least deaden the pain a little. As there was no brandy in the house, he sent to his own home a person who was present, to get some, charging him to return with it quickly.

Scarcely had the messenger closed the door behind # him, than the pain stopped suddenly, never more to return. St. Benedict, whose medal had been used, only after medical aid had proved useless, would not allow material means to succeed, after use had been made of the glorious emblem of his power, and the cure of the poor sufferer was instantaneous.