Reliquary theca with relics of St. Catherine Labouré, D.C., Patron of the elderly
Round glass-fronted yellow-metal reliquary theca housing the first-class ex ossibus (of the bone) relic of Saint Catherine Labouré. The relic is affixed to a red silk ground and identified in Latin on a typeset cedula label as S. C. Labouré, V. (Saint Catherine Labouré, Virgin). On the back, under the protective cap, the theca is secured with a seal of red Spanish wax bearing an imprint of a crest of the Congregation of the Mission S Vincent de Paul.
Saint Catherine Labouré, D.C. († 1876) was a French religious sister. She was a member of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul and is a Marian visionary. She is believed to have relayed the request from the Blessed Virgin Mary to create the famous Miraculous Medal of Our Lady of Graces worn by millions of Catholics. She was beatified in 1933 by Pope Pius XI and canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII. Saint Catherine's feast day is observed on November 28, and she is a Holy Patron of Miraculous Medal, infirmed people, and the elderly.