Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France 1610—1791

[83] CHAPTER VIII.

CONCERNING SOME WONDERS THAT HAVE RECENTLY OCCURRED.
A young man twenty-two or twenty-three years old, Jean Adam by name, was with his master in the woods on the day of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, when he suddenly felt himself seized with a violent pain in the eyes; and as his sight failed him more and more every day after this, he took the ordinary remedies. But when his ailment grew constantly worse, he had recourse to God, and performed a novena to Saint Anne, promising to go on a pilgrimage to her Church, which is six leagues distant from Quebec, and celebrated for the favors which the divine Majesty has [84] there been pleased to bestow through the intercession of this great Saint.[1]

No relief, however, was experienced by the young man, his blindness, on the contrary, becoming constantly greater. Hence he was obliged to perform a second novena, this time in honor of Our Lady of Laurette,[2] binding himself by a vow to make a pilgrimage of devotion to her church some day. He begged one of our Fathers, his Confessor, to coöperate with him for the purpose of obtaining from God the cure of his blindness.

His master took him in a canoe to fulfill his first vow in the Church of Saint Anne, this good young [Page 45] man being unable to make his way unaided, as his blindness was now complete.

A good Priest, who has charge of that Parish, felt inspired to recite the Gospel over this blind man, [85] wearing the stole the while, according to the custom of the Church. During the short time of his saying this Gospel, the blind man saw at three different times what seemed like three flashes of lightning, by the aid of which he recovered his sight, but for three instants only, during which he saw very clearly the whole Church and everything in it. After this he relapsed into his former blindness; but he apprehended by an inner illumination that these three transient flashes of lightning, by which he had seen everything in the Church, were a sign to him that at the end of three days he should recover his sight entirely and be wholly cured. Indeed, from that moment he conceived a firm hope of this, and declared to those who were with him that there were only three days wanting for the completion of his second novena, which he was performing in honor of Our Lady [86] of Laurette, who would obtain his cure.

The ninth day arriving, while his Confessor was saying Mass for him, at the moment of the consecration of the most Holy Host, he felt himself struck in the eyes as if by two iron points — which made him immediately raise his hands to his eyes; and, on withdrawing them, he saw the Priest elevating the Host for the people’s adoration, so that the unseen miracles which are wrought at the moment of the consecration were accompanied, at this Mass, by this visible and sensible miracle. For, from that instant, this blind man recovered his sight in its [Page 47] perfection; and at the close of the Mass, to which he had only been able to come with the aid of a guide and a staff, he returned without help from any one and without a staff, and has seen since [87] then more clearly than ever before.

MIRACLES LIKE THIS HAVE HAPPENED MORE THAN ONCE IN THE FAMILY. WE ARE TRULY BLESSED.