By Michael J. Miller

The Marian Year 1954 saw a tremendous worldwide outpouring of devotion to Mary, the Mother of Christ. Unfortunately it was largely downhill for decades afterward. Most alleged Marian apparitions in the latter part of the twentieth century were more about curiosity, novelty seeking, and clever publicity than about communications from heaven.

A few counterfeits, however, must not make us lose sight of the genuine apparitions historically approved by the Church. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1972, Archbishop Lefebvre preached:

Throughout the life of the Blessed Virgin, we see her truly and completely filled with the Holy Ghost.… But Our Lady’s influence has not ended. Even now in Heaven, the Blessed Virgin Mary continues to be the Mother of the Mystical Body of Our Lord, the Mother of the Church, the Mother of our souls. She shows this, she proves this, she proves it to each one of us. But she proves it also by her apparitions.¹

This article describes the apparitions of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, a story that is inseparable from the life of St. Catherine Labouré.²

Catherine was born in 1806 in the French village of Fain-les-moutiers (Burgundy), to a prosperous farming couple. With the birth of her little sister and brother in 1808 and 1809, the family had seven sons and three daughters. From her father she learned honesty, discipline, and hard work. Her mother, though a former schoolteacher, did not teach the younger girls to read or write, but instead set for her daughters a shining example of prayer and devotion to daily duty. Madame Labouré died in 1815. Shortly afterward a servant saw Catherine stand on a chair and take a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary down from a shelf. She embraced it and said simply, “Now you will be my Mother.”

In 1818, the oldest Labouré daughter, Marie Louise, entered the Sisters of Charity, a religious community that St. Vincent de Paul had founded so that consecrated women could live in the world and serve the poor. This left the management of the large household in the capable hands of twelve-year-old Catherine. Despite her many responsibilities and endless chores, Catherine found time to attend daily Mass at a nearby chapel. Catherine patiently served as her father’s housekeeper until she was twenty-two years old. Then, with the help of an aunt and an uncle who provided her dowry, she too entered religious life.

On April 25, 1830, during her novitiate with the Sisters of Charity at their Motherhouse in Paris, the relics of St. Vincent de Paul, which had been hidden for safekeeping during the French Revolution, were solemnly returned to the nearby church of the Vincentian Fathers. A few months later, on July 18, the eve of St. Vincent’s feast day, the Mother Superior gave to each of the novices a piece of cloth from a surplice once worn by the Saint. Sister Labouré tore her piece in two and swallowed one part of it.

That night she was awakened by a beautiful child dressed in white and surrounded by a heavenly light. The child said, “Come to the chapel. The Blessed Virgin awaits you,” then led Catherine through the halls and down the stairs. In the chapel all the candles were lit, as though for Midnight Mass. She heard something like the rustling of a silk dress, then saw a beautiful woman walk in and sit on the chair used by the chaplain. “My child,” Our Lady said, “the good God wishes to charge you with a mission.” (82-83)

During this first apparition, Catherine knelt beside the Blessed Virgin Mary and had the privilege of conversing with her for almost two hours about her vocation and her community. Our Lady spoke also about the sorrows that France would soon experience. “The throne will be overturned.” To reassure Catherine, she added, “Do not be afraid.... Come to the foot of the altar. There graces will be shed upon all, great and little, who ask for them.” (84)

Mary also promised that another community of Sisters would ask to join the Community of rue du Bac. The prediction was fulfilled in 1849, when [the Vincentian General Superior] received Mother Elizabeth Seton’s Sisters of Emmitsburg, Maryland, into the Paris Community. These Sisters were the foundation stone of the Sisters of Charity in the United States. (85).

In a second and a third apparition on November 27, 1830, during the evening meditation of the community of Sisters, Our Lady revealed to Catherine the design for the Miraculous Medal. She appeared standing on a globe:

The Virgin held in her hands a golden ball which she seemed to offer to God, for her eyes were raised heavenward. Suddenly her hands were resplendent with rings set with precious stones that glittered and flashed in a brilliant cascade of light.... Catherine heard a voice. “The ball which you see represents the whole world, especially France, and each person in particular.... These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them. The gems from which rays do not fall are the graces for which souls forget to ask.” (93)

Then the apparition was framed with an oval formed by letters of gold reading: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” Catherine heard the words, “Have a medal struck after this model. All who wear it will receive great graces.” (94) Then the scene revolved as though on a turntable, and Catherine saw the reverse of the Medal, with the cross, the large M, the Two Hearts, and the twelve stars.

Sister Labouré told her confessor, Vincentian Father Jean-Marie Aladel, all that she had heard and seen, then begged him to have a medal made according to Our Lady’s instructions. She insisted on remaining anonymous, so Fr. Aladel informed the General Superior of the Vincentians and the Archbishop of Paris about the apparitions. After both authorities approved, the first two thousand medals were produced in June of 1832. They were distributed quickly and soon became known as “the Miraculous Medal” because of the many miracles of healing, conversion, and reconciliation that were granted to those who wore the medal and prayed confidently to Mary Immaculate. The Medal quickly spread in France and then throughout the world.

A Closer Look at the Miraculous Medal

On the front of the Medal, the “Joyful side,” Mary is shown standing on a globe as Queen of heaven and earth. She is stepping on a serpent (see Genesis 3:15); her obedience to God’s will crushes the head of the devil and overcomes the disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve. The rays of light streaming from her hands represent graces that Mary obtains from her Son and dispenses to those who ask her for them. The picture is framed by the intercessory prayer, “O Mary, conceived without sin.…”

The reverse, the “Sorrowful side,” displays a cross resting on a bar that is held by a capital letter M. The cross symbolizes the passion of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to earth (the bar) through Mary (represented by her initial). The symbols are woven together, showing that Mary closely collaborated with her Son, our Lord, for the redemption of mankind. Beneath the letter M are two Hearts in flames. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is crowned with thorns (Mt. 27:29), and the Immaculate Heart of Mary is pierced with a sword, as Simeon prophesied (Lk. 2:35). The picture is surrounded by twelve stars, symbolizing the twelve Apostles (the Church throughout the world) and recalling John’s vision in Apocalypse 12:1: “A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.”

Fr. Aladel wondered whether any words should be printed on the back of the Medal, too. Catherine took the question to Our Lady in prayer, and the answer was: “The letter M and the two Hearts say enough.”

With the help of her Father Confessor, Sister Catherine Labouré had carried out the special mission that God had given her. She then spent most of her 46 years as a Sister of Charity quietly serving the old men who came to the hospice in Enghien to end their days (143).

Devotional Attitude

The Miraculous Medal is a sacramental. It does not bestow grace by itself, as a sacrament does, but it disposes a person who keeps it to receive divine blessings by making acts of faith, hope, and charity.

It is not necessary to be in the state of grace, or even a baptized Christian, to benefit from the Miraculous Medal. The great Marian saint, Maximilian Kolbe, wrote:

Even if someone is as wicked as can be, if he agrees to wear the Miraculous Medal, give it to him and pray for him, and occasionally try with a kind word to bring him to the point where he begins to love the Mother of God and to fly to her in all his difficulties and temptations. But anyone who sincerely begins to pray to the Immaculata will soon be convinced to go to Confession as well. There is much evil in the world, but let us consider that the Immaculata is even more powerful.³

For someone who wears it devoutly, the Medal is a constant reminder of Mary’s motherly care and protection. On Calvary, our Savior gave her to the Church, to all mankind, to be our Mother (Jn. 19:26-27). The front of the Medal depicts Our Lady as Mediatrix of all graces, encouraging us to pray for her intercession in every need. Finally, Mary Immaculate teaches her devotees to imitate her virtues and service to the Church.

A Tree Is Known by Its Fruits

The following timeline gives some idea of the momentous effects of the Miraculous Medal on the history of the Church in the nineteenth century and beyond.

On November 27, 1830, Our Lady appeared to Sister Catherine Labouré and revealed to her the design of the Miraculous Medal.

In 1839, Pope Gregory XVI, as a result of the apparitions on the rue du Bac, approved a Feast of the Immaculate Conception for the Archdiocese of Paris.

In January 1842, a young Jewish banker from Strasbourg, Alphonse de Ratisbonne, visited Rome and underwent a spectacular conversion after agreeing to wear a Miraculous Medal that was offered to him by a Catholic acquaintance and to recite the Memorare.

In 1846, the Catholic bishops gathered at the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore unanimously declared the Immaculate Conception as patroness of the United States.

In 1854, Pope Pius IX solemnly proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

On October 17, 1917, Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, O.F.M. Conv., founded the Militia of the Immaculata. Later in his writings for the Knights of the Immaculata he called the Miraculous Medal “the ammunition” that they would use on their spiritual campaign.

On September 7, 1921, Frank Duff, a member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, founded the Legion of Mary as a lay apostolate dedicated to prayer and the spiritual works of mercy. From the beginning the Miraculous Medal was an integral part of the “vexillum” (standard), the prayers, and the spirituality of the Legion of Mary.

In 1915, Rev. Joseph A. Skelly, C.M., a Vincentian Father of the American Province, founded the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal to promote devotion to Mary Immaculate and her Medal.

In 1927, Fr. Skelly commissioned the building of a shrine to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception on the campus of St. Vincent Seminary in Germantown (Philadelphia).

On Monday, December 8, 1930, Fr. Skelly inaugurated the Perpetual Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. Every Monday since then the Novena Prayers have been recited at the Shrine during several services scheduled throughout the day, with thousands attending every week. The Perpetual Novena continued uninterrupted despite the pandemic in 2020, when the services were live-streamed. The novena service begins with the hymn “Immaculate Mary,” followed by the celebrant’s greeting and announcements. Reports of favors received through Mary’s intercession are read, and the novena prayers are recited, followed by a homily and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

On May 28, 1933, Sister Catherine Labouré was beatified in a ceremony held in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. She was canonized on July 27, 1947, by Pope Pius XII.

On December 6, 2022, the Miraculous Medal Shrine in Germantown was elevated to “the title and dignity of Minor Basilica” by Pope Francis. Its official title is now The Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

Endnotes

¹ Sermon for the Ceremony of Commitments to the SSPX, Écône, December 8, 1972. Monseigneur Marcel Lefebvre, Écône, chaire de vérité (Éditions IRIS, 2015), 24-25.

² The main source for the life of the visionary and her account of the apparitions at the Motherhouse on rue du Bac is: Joseph I. Dirvin, C.M., Saint Catherine Labouré of the Miraculous Medal (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1958). Numbers in parentheses are page references.

³ Rev. Fr. Karl Stehlin, SSPX, The Immaculata our Ideal (Te Deum, 2005), 179.

TITLE IMAGE: Chapel of the Miraculous Medal, Paris.