It is worth noting that the miracle that led to the Beatification of this priest took place a few months after his death, in October 1910, to one of the orphans to whom Abbé Camille had dedicated his life, as if to seal his mission as father and support for orphans. He had begun his work during the cholera epidemic that broke out in 1867. The epidemic left as a sad inheritance a considerable number of orphans: Abbé Côte de Beauregard then decided not to abandon them to their harsh fate by collecting them in a building donated by Count Ernest de Boigne.
Thus began his mission on behalf of orphans and the education of children, taking in children from the poorest and neediest classes. The young priest personally looked after the running of his homes, the workshops and the farm for the training of young farmers. As an educator, he was zealous in the Christian formation of young people, following them up individually, reserving religious instruction for himself.
His acknowledged miracle concerned the miraculous healing of a child from ‘eye trauma from burdock fruit with injury to the cornea and wound to the conjunctiva’ (1910). This was René Jacquemond, born on 16 October 1899 and taken in 1904 into the Bocage orphanage, founded in Chambéry. On 26 September 1910, René, together with companions from the orphanage, was returning to the Institute from a walk, accompanied by Sister Elisa Blanchin. While the children were walking and playing at throwing thorny burdock curls at each other, René was hit in the right eye, experiencing intense pain. This gesture was also an act of bullying involving a young boy being picked on by his peers.
When he arrived at the orphanage, René was visited in the infirmary by Sister Joséphine Rigaud who, after an eye wash, applied iodoform ointment, while waiting for the attending doctor to visit him the next day. As the pain and redness persisted, the Sister had the little patient examined by an ophthalmologist on 1 October 1910, who certified the severity of the trauma to the child's eye.
At the check-up on 7 October 1910, perikeratal and conjunctival injection, photophobia and lacrimation still persisted. The application of iodo-formic ointment was continued. At the follow-up visits on 14 and 19 October, no improvement was noted by the ophthalmologist. Meanwhile, the Bocage community had started a prayer novena for little René, asking for the intercession of the founder, Canon Camille Costa de Beauregard.
During the medication on 26 October, a further worsening of the ocular clinical picture was observed. At around 6.30 a.m. on 27 October, the Sister applied a handkerchief belonging to the Venerable Servant of God to René's right eye, which was still very inflamed. After a few hours there was a marked improvement in the clinical picture, confirmed by the evening check-up. The following morning there was no sign of inflammation or trace of pus in the right eye.
On 2 November 1910, the ophthalmologist, who had previously examined the boy several times, noted with great surprise that the right eye had healed, with no further signs of inflammation. Proof of a complete recovery of the eye also lies in the fact that little René, who had become an adult, practised as a tailor.
‘The relevance of the testimony of the new Blessed Camille Costa de Beauregard,‘ recalls Fr Pierluigi Cameroni, SDB, Postulator of the Cause, “consists in the fact that, in a time of educational emergency represented by so many children and young people who are victims of violence, bullying and emotional abandonment, Camille embodied the word of Jesus ”I will not leave you orphans”. For so many children and young people of yesterday and today he is a loving father, a wise educator, a true shepherd according to the Heart of Jesus.’
