During this month of May, we reviewed some apparitions of Our Blessed Mother in France, and discovered that through a novena to Our Lady of La Salette, A Visitation Nun of that country was cured by Our Lord. Here is the story:
The remarkable cure of Sister Mary Francis Sales, professed Religious of the first house of the Visitation at Paris. It took place at the Convent of the Visitation at Rennes. Sister Mary Francis Sales, according to the deposition of her physicians, had for several years been suffering from enlargement of the heart, with injury of the valves. An enormous projection extended from the clavicle to the lowest rib. After her arrival at Rennes from Paris the malady continued to increase, The attacks of suffocation to which she had now been subject for a long time reached to such a degree of violence, that she could no longer place herself in a horizontal position. The displacement of the ribs became enormous; the heart seemed ready to force itself through, and the whole of the arterial system on the left side began also to enlarge. The legs swelled, till the swelling rose above the knees, and they became red and excoriated. A hundred and ten days and nights the sufferer passed sitting up in one position in a chair.
It was in the beginning of March, 1849, that the physician, who had always affirmed that the disease of Sister Mary Francis Sales was beyond all remedy, finding her much worse, informed her family of her hopeless state. An elder sister then requested of the Cure of La Salette a novena of Masses, and sent to her dying sister some of the water of the miraculous fountain, begging of her that she would use it, and would join in the novena. Sister Mary Francis Sales was with difficulty induced to consent, from her ardent desire of dying. At length the voice of obedience decided her, and the novena was commenced at La Salette on the 2 1st of March ; the family of the sufferer and three of the convents of her order joined in it. Until the 26th she was not more than an hour in the day without an attack, and it often returned in the night. The least movement gave her torture, the beating of the heart alone caused insufferable anguish. She could not swallow a drop of water.
On the 26th of March, at half-past six in the evening, Sister Mary Francis Sales had an attack, which, to all appearance, would have been her last. It was the sixth day of the novena.
She received extreme unction and the indulgence at the hour of death. The sisters withdrew, and prepared everything for her funeral, whilst the Superioress, with four of the community, watched by her.
At four in the evening, after she had been twenty- two hours in her agony, the holy Viaticum was brought. Sister Mary Francis Sales must herself describe what followed. ” When they brought me our Lord,” she writes, ” I could neither see the priests nor the sisters, nor the lights. I only knew I was going to communicate. As soon as I had received the holy Viaticum, I became conscious of myself and of my state. I felt my body burning all over. I understood that I had been very near death, and said so to the Superioress. Our Lord, after having shown me the state from which He was drawing me, said to me interiorly : * It is I who can and will heal thee I said to Him, Fiat and I could not have said anything else, for I had no other feeling than to leave Him to act. From its place, but with a movement so violent that it frightened me. Yet not finding it followed by any suffering, and a feeling of ease coming over my whole frame, I perceived myself to be cured I was so effectually and thoroughly. I had no more wish to make known this favour than I had previously had to receive it; however, after half or three quarters of an hour of thanksgiving, I told it to our Mother Superioress, and my countenance also spoke for me, for it had regained its natural appearance. I asked for something to drink, and drank without difficulty. They offered me something to eat, and I ate some soup with great pleasure.
I walked about that same evening. My legs, which up to that time had been so much swollen, especially near the left foot, which was itself much diseased, had returned to their ordinary state, as well as my side. The cautery which I had over my heart was healed. I slept well all night. I breakfasted at five the next morning. At six the physician came, astonished at the state he found me in, instead of being dead, he examined me with great care, and said to me: ‘Madam, you seem to me like one from the other world.’ Ever since I have been able to go up and down stairs, which I could not do for more than ten months before ; I can lie on either side; I can use my left arm as well as my right In short I am in perfect health, and able to follow all the duties of the community. Glory be to God, glory to Mary!
Source:https://archive.org/stream/TheHolyMountainOfLaSalette/TheHolyMountainOfLaSalette_djvu.txt
Learn about Our Lady of La Salette: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_La_Salette