Our Lady of the Miracle Medal of Perryville

Marian vocation of Perryville (Missouri)

In Perryville (state of Missouri, United States) venerates Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal en el National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, national sanctuary linked to the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentian parents). This place is linked to the first Vincentian seminar founded in the United States and has become an important center for the dissemination of the Miraculous Medal in the Middle West. According to the institutional information of the vicentines in the United States and of the sanctuary itself, the house of Perryville was a key center of formation and mission, to which the Marian sanctuary was added over time under this title; devotion is directly inspired by the apparitions of Paris of 1830 to Saint Catherine Labouré and the subsequent global spread of the Miraculous Medal.

Main data

Origin and history

In Perryville (state of Missouri, United States) venerates Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal en el National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, national sanctuary linked to the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentian parents). This place is linked to the first Vincentian seminar founded in the United States and has become an important center for the dissemination of the Miraculous Medal in the Middle West. According to the institutional information of the vicentines in the United States and of the sanctuary itself, the house of Perryville was a key center of formation and mission, to which the Marian sanctuary was added over time under this title; devotion is directly inspired by the apparitions of Paris of 1830 to Saint Catherine Labouré and the subsequent global spread of the Miraculous Medal.

# # Documented history of advocation

La documented history of this devotion is based on the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to Saint Catherine Labouré in 1830, at the Mother House of the Daughters of Charity, at Rue du Bac in Paris. In the second apparition (November 27, 1830), the Virgin showed her the image to be coined in a medal, with the inscription: "O Mary, without sin conceived, pray for us that we have recourse to you." From the rapid spread of the medal and the countless spiritual favors attributed to its use, devotion spread throughout the Church, including North America, particularly among Vincentian communities and the Daughters of Charity.

The national sanctuary of Perryville is born precisely in this current of expansion of devotion to the Miracle Medal and is set up, in the Anglo-Saxon context, as a place of promotion of Marian spirituality linked to Saint Vincent of Paul and the experience of Saint Catherine Labouré. The sources consulted on the Perryville shrine agree to point out its character as a National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and its historical relationship with the vicentine presence in the United States, but they do not provide, in the documents easily accessible, a unique and precise date for the beginning of the specific veneration of the Miracle Medal in that place; therefore, the detailed evolution (exact years of erection of the sanctuary under this title) does not record with public certainty and easily verifiable.

# # Tradition and devotional projection

From the perspective of the devotional traditionthe Perryville shrine is considered by the Vincentians as a privileged center of intercession of Mary under the title of the Miracle Medal for the faithful of the whole country and, in a special way, of the Middle West region. This tradition is nourished by testimonies of favors received, letters of thanks and pilgrimages, following the same spiritual style as the chapel of the Rue du Bac in Paris, the original center of the advocation. Local tradition presents the sanctuary as a "spiritual home" for those who seek the intercession of the Virgin of the Miracle Medal in situations of illness, family difficulties or conversion; however, the specific details of many stories of miracles or particular graces belong to the realm of popular piety and are not always collected in systematic critical historical documentation, so they are considered rather part of devotional memory than of strict historiography.

The image and the sanctuary

La image of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal venerated in Perryville is inspired by the classical iconography born of the apparitions of 1830: the Virgin standing on the globe, crushing the head of the serpent, with her arms extended and rays of light coming out of her hands, a sign of the graces that God gives by her intercession. In the iconographic tradition of this advocation, the representation is usually presented in sculpture or relief, with the inscription "O Mary, without sin conceived, pray for us that we turn to you" around the figure, evoking the anverse of the medal. In the specific case of Perryville, the consulted sources of general access describe the sanctuary, but do not provide precise technical details on the material (wood, marble, plaster, bronze or other) or on the authorship of the main image; therefore, no consta with documentary certainty open to the public the exact material of the headline image of the sanctuary.

El temple where this advocation is venerated is officially called National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, located in Perryville, Missouri. It is a national sanctuary of the Catholic Church in the United States, entrusted to the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentian Fathers), historically linked to the first Vincentian seminary of the country, which worked in the same complex. The sanctuary is part of a wider set including the church, dependencies of the religious community and areas for the reception of pilgrims. According to the usual canonical practice in the United States, the declaration of "National Shrine" implies the recognition by the Episcopal Conference of the particular character of that place as a centre for pilgrimage and veneration for the faithful. In the consulted sources it does not appear that the temple enjoys the title of minor basilicaand therefore indicates that no consta such dignity. If your condition of National sanctuarywith a special connection to the corresponding diocese and the Vincentian family.

Sponsorship and coronation

The Perryville shrine is presented as a national centre of Marian devotion under the title of Our Lady of the Miracle Medal, but the open sources consulted do not indicate that there is a canonically proclaimed patronage of this advocation over a specific city, a municipality or a specific diocese in the United States directly related to the sanctuary. In the context of devotion to the Miracle Medal, Mary is universally venerated as thanksgiving lawyer and protector of the faithfulbut this is at the level of piety and not necessarily a particular legal patronage, so as far as Perryville is concerned, it is noted: does not contain a specific canonically proclaimed patronage for a civil or ecclesiastical jurisdiction, beyond its character as a national sanctuary.

As for the canonical coronation, the sources consulted (including general information on the advocation of the Miracle Medal and on the sanctuary) do not record an act of canonical coronation of the title of Perryville given by the Holy See or by pontifical delegate with clearly determined date and name. Due to the absence of verifiable data in the accessible documentation, it should be indicated: does not contain a documented canonical coronation of the image of Our Lady of the Miracle Medal in Perryville National Shrine.

Party and devotion

La main party of Our Lady of the Miracle Medal is celebrated throughout the Church 27 November, in memory of the second apparition to Saint Catherine Labouré and the order of the medal. This date is also assumed by the Perryville shrine as the central day of devotion, integrating itself into the liturgy of the Latin Roman rite, with special solemnity in the national sanctuary and in the Vincentian communities.

Around this date are usually held Novies and pilgrimages, following the tradition of the Novena to the Virgin of the Miraculous Medal from 18 to 26 November, which is practiced in many parts of the world and is linked to the invocation "O Mary, without sin conceived, pray for us that we turn to you." Although the specific sources of Perryville do not in open detail exact inflow figures, by analogy with other national sanctuaries and according to the continental spread of devotion, the place is considered a important pilgrimage center for the faithful of the Middle West and other states, especially on dates close to November 27