The miraculous conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne

By Roberto de Mattei   |   22 January 2025

Everyone knows about the Marian shrines of Loreto and Pompeii, and, in Rome, the great basilicas, but not everyone knows that, in the heart of the eternal city, there is a little parochial basilica, Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, also known as the Shrine of Our Lady of the Miracle. Here, on 20 January 1842, Our Lady appeared to a Jew, Alphonse Ratisbonne, and instantly converted him. A plaque on one of the pillars of the chapel of the apparition commemorates the event: 

“On 20 January 1842, Alphonse Ratisbonne of Strasbourg came here as an obstinate Jew. The Virgin appeared to him as you see her. He fell down as a Jew and got up again as a Christian. Visitor, take back with you the precious memory of the mercy of God and of the power of the Most Holy Virgin.”

Alphonse Ratisbonne, born in Strasbourg in 1814 to a family of wealthy Jewish bankers, had decided to improve his poor health by embarking on a long journey that was to take him from France to Constantinople. He arrived for a brief stay in Rome on the feast of the Epiphany in 1842. Among the people he met there was a friend who, during a lively religious discussion, challenged him to wear a medal with an image of the Immaculate, as she had appeared four years earlier to St Catherine Labouré at Rue du Bac, and to recite the Memorare,¹ an ancient Marian prayer traditionally attributed to St Bernard.

Ratisbonne, to show his superiority over Catholic “superstitions”, laughingly accepted the challenge and put the so-called miraculous medal around his neck. But his group of Catholic friends there in Rome was praying for his conversion. Meanwhile, unforeseen circumstances had forced Ratisbonne to postpone his departure from Rome. And so came 20 January 1842.

Ratisbonne found himself passing in front of the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte, located between the Trevi Fountain and the Piazza di Spagna, when he felt an impulse to enter the church, where the funeral was being prepared for one of the friends who had been praying for him, the French Comte de la Feronnays, who died suddenly on 17 January: 

“If at that moment (it was midday) [someone] had come to me and said, ‘Alphonse, in a quarter of an hour you will adore Jesus Christ, your God and your Saviour; you will be prostrate in a poor church; you will beat your breast at the feet of a priest in a Jesuit convent where you will spend the carnival preparing for baptism, ready to lay down your life for the Catholic faith, and you will renounce the world, its pomp, its pleasures, your fortune, your hopes, your future … and you will no longer aspire to anything other than to follow Jesus Christ and carry his cross until death!’ … I would have judged only one man more senseless than he: the man who should have believed such folly possible! And yet it is precisely this folly that today constitutes my wisdom and my happiness.”

This is in fact what happened. Ratisbonne recalls:

“The church of St Andrew is small, poor, and deserted… I mechanically marched my gaze around me without dwelling on any one thought; I remember only a black dog that leapt and bounded ahead of my footsteps… As soon as the dog disappeared, the whole church disappeared and I no longer saw anything … or rather, my God, I saw only one thing!!!

“How would it be possible to speak of it? Oh! no, human words must not attempt to express the inexpressible; any description, however sublime, would be but a profanation of the ineffable truth. There I was, prostrate, bathed in my tears, beside myself… 

“I did not know where I was; I did not know whether I was Alphonse or someone else; I felt such a complete change that I believed myself to be another me … The most ardent joy burst forth in the depths of my soul; I felt something solemn and sacred within me that made me ask to see a priest … I was led there, and only after having received the positive order did I speak about it, as much as I was able, on my knees and with trembling heart.

“All I can say is that at the moment of the event the blindfold fell from my eyes; not just one blindfold, but the whole multitude of blindfolds that had enveloped me disappeared in rapid succession, like the snow and mud and ice under the action of a burning sun. 

“I was coming out of a tomb, an abyss of darkness, and I was alive, perfectly alive… But I wept! I saw at the bottom of the abyss the extreme miseries from which I had been delivered by an infinite mercy; I shuddered at the sight of all my iniquities, and I was astounded, moved, overcome with wonder and gratitude… Alas! so many men go down calmly into this abyss with their eyes closed by pride or indifference… they go down, they are swallowed up alive by the horrible darkness!”

“I can explain this change only by comparing it to the sudden awakening of a man from a deep sleep, or to a man born blind who all at once sees the daylight; he sees, but he cannot define the light that illuminates him and in which he contemplates the objects of his wonder.”

When the news spread in Rome, Pope Gregory XVI had a thorough investigation carried out which confirmed the miraculous event. Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne was baptised on 31 January 1842 at the Church of the Gesù; he became a priest and wanted to dedicate his life to the apostolate among the Jews.

At Rue du Bac, at La Salette, at Lourdes and at Fatima, Our Lady chose innocent souls to communicate her messages to the world. In Rome, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a sinner who seems to represent in his person the modern world, unbelieving and obstinate in its errors. Ratisbonne’s conversion was perfect and instantaneous, like that of St Paul, but Our Lady wanted it to be brought about by small gestures: the acceptance of the Miraculous Medal, the recitation of the Memorare, the insistent prayers of friends.

Nothing is impossible for Our Lady, the royal dispenser of graces, when she is invoked by ardent and devout hearts. So let us pray to the Queen of Heaven and earth, that she may manifest once again her power and her mercy. In the same way in which she converted the Jew, Ratisbonne, and reigned in his heart, may she grant in our days the conversion of the world, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, the establishment of the Reign of Mary over souls and over society.

Note

1. Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen. ↩︎