St. Anne de Beaupré.
As an illustration of the nature of the cures effected and the unbounded faith of the petitioners we have selected a few of the more detailed cases from the January and February number of the "Annales" for 1904 which we present in translation from the French.
1. "Since January, 1902, I have suffered a polypus of the nose and an ulcer of the jaw bone. I had submitted to two operations which have improved the condition without curing me. I continued to suffer. In July last I decided to put myself under the protection of the good St. Anne promising her to publish my cure. That moment there came about a sensible improvement. Today I believe myself entirely cured and I thank my heavenly protectress for it."
2. "My little girl of two and one-half years had never walked. She was desperately weak. I commenced to pray to the good St. Anne promising her to publish the fact in the "Annales" if she would make my child walk, and to subscribe for it the following year. Her grandmother made a pilgrimage to Beaupré and on her return she put a medallion of St. Anne around the neck of the child saying to her 'a gift, you must walk'. At the same instant the child, smiling, began to walk with a firm step. I am so happy that I do not know how to express my thanks."
3. "My husband was worn out with an affliction of mind which was about to impair his reason. The good St. Anne, invoked with confidence, has returned to him his serenity."
4. "For five years I have endured terrible suffering. Finally, I promised to make secretly the pilgrimage to Beaupré. The good St. Anne has given me enough strength to acquit myself of my promise. Since my return I have been very well. Thanks Oh Good Mother!"
5. "Last spring I had a grave sickness which brought me to the gates of death and which baffled the science of our regular physicians. I received the last rites and every one believed that I was going to die. My family commenced a "neuvaine" to the good St. Anne and to the blessed Gerard Majella. Heaven has yielded. I am cured of the disease which was about to take my life. It only remains that I make my acknowledgment and publish this favor according to the promise I had made."
6. "For ten years my wife suffered from a painful infirmity. I promised St. Anne that if she would cure her I would abstain from all intoxicating drinks. Today I am happy and publicly thank the good St. Anne, first for the complete cure of my wife obtained in a few days after my promise, then for having given me grace to kepp faithfully my temperance promise."
7. "I am happy to announce to you thatat present I walk easily without the aid of my cane. After my return from the sanctuary of St. Anne de Beaupré during the summer, I have been able to go to mass for the first time in four years. I have made already four pilgrimages to the sanctuary of St. Anne and I propose to make a fifth as an act of gratitude and to carry my cane in order to lay it at the feet of our benevolent patroness. Praying you to join me in thanking the good St. Anne," etc.
In just how far the very primitive conceptions of disease are prevalent among the devotees who visit the shrine of St. Anne it would be difficult to say. But whether or not the primitive view of the cause is prevalent, the idea of supernatural means of cure certainly varies little from that prevalent in all ages and is evidence of the persistence of a method of procedure long after the idea which gave it origin has been more or less discredited.
Miracles of Healing
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By Charles W. Waddle (1909)
Primitive Christian Worship
Hereditary genius
