By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY
As the threat from the Coronavirus grows, naturally we can tend to get worried and somewhat anxious — but we should remember that people have faced similar and even worse threats throughout history. And we should also remember that as members of the Church we can call upon the aid of those saints who are particularly associated with the care of the sick and with epidemics, and also utilize those sacramentals associated with relief from sickness which have been approved by the Church.
As was noted in a previous article, when, in 1854, Turin was hit by an outbreak of cholera, St. John Bosco told his pupils that if they prayed, avoided sin, and wore a blessed Marian medal, they would be safe from the disease. Ultimately, forty of his boys actually helped to nurse cholera victims and yet not one of them was infected.
So the wearing of a sacramental such as blessed miraculous medal, or a blessed medal of “Mary Help of Christians,” the devotion particularly recommended by Don Bosco, is certainly a practice to be strongly advised during the present coronavirus outbreak.
Another Marian sacramental associated with the sick and healing is the Green Scapular. This was revealed by our Lady in Paris in the same religious house at the Rue du Bac where she had appeared to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830. This time, on September 8, 1840, our Lady’s birthday, the Blessed Virgin appeared to a novice called Justine Bisqueyburu.
In one hand she held her Immaculate Heart pierced with a sword and surrounded with flames, and in the other, a scapular of green cloth. On one side of this there was a representation of our Lady, and on the reverse an image of a heart all burning with rays more brilliant than the sun and as transparent as crystal; this heart, surmounted by a cross, was pierced with a sword, and around it were the words: “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.” Official approval for this new green scapular came in 1846.
The particular promises associated with this scapular, with its focus on devotion to our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, include favors relating to physical health, peace of mind, and spiritual conversion. Unlike the Brown Scapular there is no need to be enrolled in order to wear the Green Scapular — a blessing by a priest suffices, along with the daily recital of the prayer, “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.”
So clearly, during the present uncertainly created by the Coronavirus the wearing of the Green scapular will help to promote peace of mind and encourage faith in the protection of the Blessed Virgin.
As regards healing, the most famous nineteenth-century Marian apparitions, those at Lourdes in France, in 1858, are intimately connected with the healing waters which the Blessed Virgin revealed to St. Bernadette. On February 25 of that year, she had been instructed by our Lady to “Go and drink at the spring and wash yourself in it.”
To the puzzlement of the onlookers, she scratched at the ground and then drank some dirty water she found there. This was the origin of the miraculous spring at Lourdes which has been connected with so many wonderful healings.
So Lourdes water, if available, is another recommended sacramental, and the same can be said for water associated with other Marian shrines and places of healing.
And indeed for centuries our Lady has been regarded as a loving Mother to whom the sick can turn with confidence, and this is reflected in the title used of her in the Litany of Loreto, that is “Health of the sick.”
We should also realize that throughout Christian history, there has been no shortage of saints and holy people to whom the faithful have turned to in times of plague and sickness.
St. Antony the Great, who is regarded as the father of monasticism, became well known in the fourth century after St. Athanasius wrote his biography. He went out into the wilderness of the Egyptian desert to live a solitary life, was renowned for his holiness, and is reputed to have lived to be over a hundred years of age. He was regarded as a patron to whom believers could turn in cases of infectious diseases, and particularly skin diseases.
St. Roch or Rocco, who flourished in the early fourteenth century was a saint who was particularly invoked against the effects of the plague. This was because, after giving away all his possessions he journeyed to Rome as a pilgrim, begging as he went. His arrival coincided with an outbreak of the plague, and he ministered to those affected by this and is said to have cured many through prayer and the Sign of the Cross.
The Fourteen Holy Helpers were a group of saints who became popular at the time of the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century, initially in the Rhineland in Germany. They were invoked against various diseases, the plague in particular, but also for more minor illnesses and against a sudden and unprovided death. This grouping including St. Blaise and St. Christopher.
St. Henry Morse, SJ, labored as a priest in England at a time of persecution for Catholics, in the first half of the seventeenth century. He is a wonderful example of Christian courage in the face of several outbreaks of the plague. Such was his zeal that he contracted it no less than three times while ministering to beleaguered Catholics. He recovered but was eventually executed at Tyburn in London in 1645.
St. Charles Borromeo, the great post-Reformation cardinal of Milan, also gave a wonderful example of care for victims of the plague when this broke out in the city in 1576. He was away at the time, but his return inspired confidence in the citizens. He personally visited people in their plague-stricken houses and also the worst cases in the hospital of St. Gregory.
His conviction was that the plague had been sent by God as a chastisement for the sins of the people, and in order to do penance for them he took part in a procession walking barefoot with a relic of the Passion in his hand.
Live Godly Lives
More recently, in June 1867, Don Bosco, while speaking to his pupils at one of his celebrated “Good Night” talks, said the following:
“I must again tell you that cholera has broken out in the Venetian provinces and has spread to Bergamo and Milan….It is more fatal than previous epidemics. Very few have survived. Do you want to be spared? Let us rid ourselves of sin and do our utmost never to sin again. The cholera will then keep away from us. Sin brings cholera and death.”
Here the saint pinpointed the ultimate cause of sickness and death — that is sin. The coronavirus may not be as deadly as cholera formerly was, but its ultimate origin is the same — human sinfulness. In the present crisis, we would do well to entrust ourselves to the protection of our Lady and the saints, and do our best to live more God-centered lives.
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(Donal Anthony Foley is the author of a number of books on Marian Apparitions, and maintains a related website at www.theotokos.org.uk. He has also written two time-travel/adventure books for young people, and the third in the series is due to be published next year — details can be seen at: http://glaston-chronicles.co.uk.)
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