Marian devotion
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
The medal born at the rue du Bac (Paris, 1830)
One of the most widespread Marian devotions in the world was born from the apparitions of the Virgin to Saint Catherine Labouré in the chapel of the rue du Bac of Paris, in 1830, when the Virgin herself asked to coat a medal "according to this model."
The Apparitions of 1830
In 1830, the Virgin appeared several times to Sister Catalina Labouré, a young Daughter of Charity, in the chapel of the Mother House of the rue du Bac in Paris. On the night of 18-19 July he announced a mission; the decisive moment came on 27 November 1830, during the prayer of the novices.
The model of the medal
On that day Catherine saw the Virgin standing on the globe of the world, crushing with her foot the head of the serpent, with her hands open and low from those that sprout beams of light. The invocation appeared around, in letters of gold,: "O Mary, without sin conceived, pray for us that we turn to you." The Virgin said to her, "Make a medal coined according to this model; the people who carry it with confidence will receive great thanks." The picture then turned and showed the reverse: the letter M crowned by a cross and, below, the two hearts of Jesus and Mary, one crowned with thorns and another crossed by a sword, surrounded by twelve stars.
The meaning of the rays
La Virgen explicó que los rayos que brotan de sus manos son símbolo de las gracias que derrama sobre quienes se las piden; y que algunas piedras de la imagen quedaban sin emitir rayos porque representan las gracias que no se reciben… por no haber sido pedidas. La medalla resume así toda una catequesis: María, Inmaculada y Medianera, intercede sin cesar por quien acude a ella con confianza.
«The Milagrosa Medal»
The order was transmitted to the spiritual director of Catalina, who after doubting the first medals in 1832, in the middle of the cholera epidemic in Paris. The speed with which it was spread and the many favors attributed to it soon gained the popular name of "Miraculous Medal." The devotion spread throughout the world, and the chapel of the rue du Bac is today one of the great places of Marian pilgrimage. The 1830 message also prepared the way of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, proclaimed in 1854.
Documentary update: the Miraculous Medal
The chapel and the 1830 story
The Chapel of Our Lady of the Miracle Medal, in Rue du Bac in Paris, is the place linked to the spiritual experiences of Saint Catherine Labouré in 1830. The official source of the chapel presents three meetings with the Virgin Mary between July and December: the night of July 18, the night of November 27 and the night of December. The first story refers to a conversation in the chapel; the second is linked to the image of Mary on the globe and to the invocation "O Mary without sin conceived"; the third closes the cycle narrated by Catherine.
The form of the medal is transmitted from the experience of November 27: anverse with Mary on the globe and the serpent under her feet, and reverse with the cross on the letter M and the two hearts. The chapel itself explains that the medal began to be coined in 1832 and that its spread was rapid in different countries. This is the history documented by the place's custodian institution; the graces received by those who carry it belong to the language of devotion and are not presented here as certified individual miracles.
Catalina Labouré and charity
The chapel recalls that Catherine left the seminar in January 1831, received the habit and spent decades later serving poor people. The medal is therefore not separated from a Christian life of service. Marian devotion is understood here as a request for intercession and as a call to follow Christ in charity, not as an worship of the image or devotional object.
Ecclesial State
The record of the apparition of the Miracle Medal on the Apparition Map retains the state permitted veneration, documented by the Archdiocese of Paris: this source contains Mgr de Quélen's authorization to coil the medal in 1832 and the diocesan liturgical memory. The label does not rise here to "approved" because the documentation used for this lot proves the veneration and authorization of the medal, but does not provide a formal decree of approval of the supernatural of the apparition.
Sources of this enlargement
- Chapel of the Miracle Medal: the apparitions and the medal.
- Archdiocese of Paris: Saint Catherine Labouré and the Miraculous Medal.
- OpenStreetMap: Capilla Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.
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