"His relations and numerous friends endeavored both by prayers and entreaties to snatch him from perdition, but on the other side visited daily and sustained by his old associates in impiety, he persisted in dying as he had lived, in schism.
"In the meantime, I was obliged to be absent several days. This period was for him one of Divine mercy. A lady of the parish made a last attempt to recall him to God, by bringing him one of those medals of the Immaculate Conception called miraculous. She sent it to him with the request to wear it and put all his confidence in the Blessed Virgin. The sick man took the medal, kissed it respectfully, and put it under his pillow. In giving it to him, his daughter had taken care to acquaint him with its origin and advantages, at the same time urging him, as usual, to make his confession. 'Leave me in peace,' was the wretched father's reply, and she could say no more. Next day, a neighboring curé was sent for to administer Extreme Unction to another person in the parish. He came, and forgetting, as it were, the one for whom he had been sent, he thought only of the cancerous patient. 'I felt,' he afterwards told me, 'an inexplicable and irresistible desire to visit him, I could not have returned without seeing him.' He asks some one to announce his arrival to the sick man; this person speaks to the latter, and urges him to confess. 'The curé of P. is here,' she adds, 'and would like to see you, if you have no objection.' 'Well, yes, let him come.' The curé went to him immediately; at first there was a slight air of resistance about the patient, but it vanished, the hour of grace had come, he confessed with every indication of true repentance, and received Extreme Unction with an indescribable peace and joy, that never faltered during the four remaining days of his life. The Holy Viaticum could not be administered because he was not able to swallow.
"At noon, on the 18th of last May, the month consecrated to Mary, he died, aged seventy-eight.
"Except his former companions in irreligion, this conversion was a subject of rejoicing to the parish, and doubtless it will rejoice all the servants of Mary who hear of it. May this example, among thousands, inspire sinners with great confidence in the Blessed Virgin, propagate devotion to her, and multiply the medal styled miraculous!