Our Lady of The Miraculous Medal

by Irene Barrack

In the heart of Paris, France, bordered by small stores and apartments, across from a major department store, is the Motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. Here in their chapel Our Lady appeared several times to St. Catherine Labour. Here Our Lady gave the world the Miraculous Medal. Their chapel, which is open to visitors, is now called the At about eleven thirty in the evening of July 18, 1830 a small child dressed in white awoke Catherine, a novice of the Sisters of Charity, from her sleep and said she should come to the chapel. When Sister Catherine arrived at the chapel she saw the Blessed Virgin taking a seat in the Father Director's Chair. Catherine wrote that, "Then I flung myself at her feet on the steps of the altar and put my hands on her knees."

Mary told her several things, which Catherine revealed before her death, including that God had a mission for her that would cause her suffering but not to fear because she was doing the will of God, that she would see certain things which she was to report, and to "come to the foot of the altar. There, graces will be poured out on all those who ask for them with confidence and fervor. They will be poured out on the great and the humble."

The Blessed Virgin revealed the mission when she appeared to Sister Catherine on November 27, 1830. Catherine said the Blessed Virgin was standing and held a globe in her hands raised to the level of her breast, her eyes raised heavenward. Our Lady lowered her eyes to look at Catherine, and an interior voice told Catherine that the globe which she saw represents the entire world, particularly France and each person in particular. The Blessed Virgin asked for a statue of herself holding the globe.

Then the globe disappeared, and Mary extended her radiant hands. Suddenly, Catherine noticed, on Mary's fingers, rings with precious stones, which gave out rays of light, some more beautiful than others. Mary told Catherine that the rays are the graces which she pours out on those who ask them of her. The precious stones that cast no rays represent the graces which people forget to ask of Mary.

Then there formed around the Blessed Virgin an oval frame and on it, written in gold letters, were the words: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Our Blessed Mother told Catherine to have a medal made on this model and that the persons who wear it will receive great graces.

Suddenly the picture seemed to turn. Catherine saw the reverse of the medal: the letter M surmounted by a cross, and below it, two hearts, one encircled with a crown of thorns, and the other pierced with a sword. Twelve stars encircled this.

At first Catherine's confessor did not believe her. Troubled by Catherine's insistence that the medal had to be made, her confessor discussed the medal with the Archbishop without revealing her identity. The Archbishop authorized creation of the medal.

In May 1832, nearly two years after the apparitions, the first medals were distributed. So many cures and startling conversions resulted that the people started calling it the Miraculous Medal. In a pastoral letter, the Archbishop of Paris urged the faithful to wear the medal

Meanwhile Sister Catherine left the Motherhouse to work at a hospice for elderly persons. She remained there all her life, for nearly 40 years. She spoke little and performed her humble duties of taking care of the elderly and of the chicken yard.

Under obedience, Catherine had never spoken to anyone except her confessor regarding the apparitions of the Blessed Mother. In 1876, 46 years after the apparitions, the 76-year-old Sister Catherine knew she would not live long. Because the statue of Mary holding the globe, had not yet been made, she asked Mary to release her from her silence so she could have the statue made. Once released, Sister Catherine told her story to the Mother Superior. The statue was made and placed in the chapel of the Motherhouse.

On December 31, 1876, Sister Catherine died. Fifty-six years later, when the body was exhumed for her beatification, it was as if she had just died. Her body had not decomposed nor had rigor mortis set in.

Her body was placed in a glass casket in the chapel of the Motherhouse under the altar of the Virgin of the globe, in the very place where a century earlier Mary had appeared to her. To this day her body has not decomposed; to this day people come to the foot of the altar to ask for Mary's graces and to leave flowers. I know because, through the grace of God, I was there and I saw her body and the site of Mary's apparitions.

In July 1947, Pope Pius XII canonized Catherine LabourŽ whom he named the saint of the duties of her state in life and the saint of silence.

Today the medal is known and worn on every continent, and it still works marvels of grace through Mary's intercession. It is her gift to us, reminding us of her love, reminding us to ask her to send graces to us and to intercede for us with the Lord.

You do not have to go to Paris to gain the graces from Mary. But, if you do go to Paris, do not just go to the Louvre or Notre Dame or Sacre Coeur. Go to the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal at 140 rue du Bac, go where Mary appeared, go to the foot of the altar.

When he was at the Motherhouse on May 31, 1980, Pope John Paul II said the following prayer to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal:

Prayer to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

You are blessed among all women!
Blessed are you who have believed!
The Almighty has done marvels for you!
The miracle of the Divine Maternity!
And, in view of it, the miracle of the Immaculate
Conception!
The marvel of your fiat!
You have been so intimately associated to your work for our redemption, associated to the Cross of our Saviour; your heart was transpierced by it, along with His Heart.
And now, in the glory of your Son, you incessantly intercede for us, poor sinners.
You watch over the Church, of which you are the Mother.
You watch over each one of your children.
You obtain for us, from God, all these graces which are symbolized by the rays of light which radiate from your open hands.
With the one condition that we dare ask you for them, and that we draw near to you with the confidence and the simplicity of a child.
And it is, in this way, that you bring us constantly towards your Son Jesus.

Irene Barrack, and her husband Marty, are Catholic evangelists.