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a priest had advised me to pray this, eight times a day, especially during desperate times.

(i think lorenz had already posted this somewhere, but let me post this again anyway.)

this is the prayer that i feel had bestowed on me and my family untold graces, like being snatched from the jaws of despair. 

Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession, was left unaided.

Inspired with this confidence, I fly to you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother.  To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.

O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy, hear and answer me.  Amen.

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Part of the reason Fr. Claude Bernard held the prayer in such high regard was because he himself felt that he had been miraculously cured by its use. 

In a letter to Queen Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, he wrote that he was deathly ill once.  In fear of his life he recited the Memorare and immediately began to get well again.  Feeling unworthy of such a miracle, he attributed the cure to some unknown natural cause. 

Sometime later, Brother Fiacre, a discalced Augustinian, came to call upon Fr. Bernard.  The good brother begged Fr. Bernard's pardon for disturbing him, but he desired to know how Fr. Bernard was getting along.  Brother Fiacre then went on to say that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him in a vision, told him of Fr. Bernard's illness, told him how she had cured Fr. Bernard of it, and that he was to assure Fr. Bernard of this fact.  Fr. Bernard then goes on to write in his letter that he was ashamed of his ingratitude in attributing the cure to natural causes, and asked for God's forgiveness in the matter.

/wikipedia

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At the age of 18, while studying at the Jesuit run Collège de Clermont at the University of Paris, according to the book The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales, by Jean-Pierre Camus:

    The evil spirit was permitted by God to insinuate into his mind the terrible idea that he was one of the number of the damned.  This delusion took such possession of his soul that he lost his appetite, was unable to sleep, and day by day grew more wasted and languid.  His tutor and director noticing how his health was affected, and how pale, listless, and joyless he had become often questioned him as to the cause of his dejection and evident suffering, but his tormentor who had filled his mind with this delusion, being what is called a dumb devil, the poor youth could give no explanation.

/wikipedia

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According to De Sales' Selected Letters, the "torment of despair came to a sudden end" as he knelt in prayer before the statue of Our Lady of Good Deliverance (the Black Madonna) at the church of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, Paris, saying the Memorare.  Francis credited the Blessed Virgin with "saving him from falling into despair or heresy"; he "recited the Memorare day after day", and she "did not leave him unaided".

/wikipedia

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