Anecdotes about the Virgin Mary

The healed eyes of Berthe Blais

Trois-Rivières (Canadá) (1883)

There are favors that do not come out in the big headlines, but that people in the village keep as a treasure of family. One of these is that of Berthe Blais, a young woman from Cap-de-la-Madeleine who in the spring of 1883 suffered a serious pain in the eyes that seriously threatened her sight.

According to the devotional archives of the sanctuary, after praying before the small statue of the Virgin - the image that would eventually be venerated as Notre-Dame-du-Cap - and receiving the blessing, Berthe unexpectedly regained his sight. What is moving is the date: this favor is remembered as one of the first graces attributed to the Virgin of the Cape, even before the famous "ice bridge" and the account of the eyes of the statue of 1888. It was as if the Mother was slowly preparing the heart of that earth before the most sound signs.

Conviene distinguir, con honestidad, lo que sabemos y lo que creemos. Está documentado que el santuario conserva la memoria de esta curación ocular ligada a la devoción mariana. Pero calificarla de «milagro» pertenece al lenguaje piadoso: no consta un proceso canónico formal con peritaje médico, ni se conservan públicamente más detalles clínicos. Es, sencillamente, una de esas gracias que la gente sencilla recibió y agradeció.

Maybe that's why Berthe's story is still playing. It reminds us that, before the miracles that appear in the books, there is the humble trust of those who kneel and ask, and the tenderness of a Mother who listens.