You probably already know the Miraculous Medal, and maybe wear one like millions of others around the world (or even have a tattoo of it like me!). But although the Miraculous Medal is among history’s most beloved and well-known devotions, few know its origins in a tiny convent tucked away in Paris.
In 1830, a young novice named Catherine Labouré had just entered the Daughters of Charity, the order founded by St Vincent de Paul and St Louis de Marillac. She was quiet and reserved, but firm-hearted. When her mother died, nine-year-old Catherine ran to the kitchen and told the family’s statue of Our Lady, “You will be my mother now.” When Catherine watched her oldest sister enter the Daughters of Charity, she resolved to do the same someday. Her family attempted to steer Catherine toward marriage, but she was undeterred.
One night shortly after she had arrived at the convent on the Rue de Bac, Catherine awoke to the sound of a child’s voice. Was someone calling her? She listened closely. Yes—there it was again. A child’s voice calling her to the chapel. She got up.
Catherine found the chapel ablaze with light, but she could not have expected who she would meet there: not a child, but the Queen of Heaven. Our Lady, sitting on the superior’s chair, called Catherine to come and talk. They talked for two hours, and then Our Lady gave Catherine an invitation: “God wishes to charge you with a mission. You will be contradicted, but do not fear; you will have the grace to do what is necessary.”
Several months passed quietly, normally, until one evening at prayer Catherine looked up to see Our Lady once again. This time, she appeared standing inside an oval frame. Rays beamed from the rings on her fingers toward the globe beneath her feet. As she turned, Catherine saw twelve stars surrounding the letter M intertwined with a cross. Around Our Lady appeared the words, O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Our Lady instructed Catherine to share the apparition with her spiritual director and request the striking of these images onto a new medal. Catherine obeyed, and then two years passed until the request was finally approved. The first “Medal of the Immaculate Conception” was produced by the king’s own jeweler as described from Catherine’s visions, but Catherine herself remained anonymous.
In the first four years after its first striking, two million medals were sold. Millions more around the world—people of faith and others without—have since cherished the Miraculous Medal.
While the medal soared in renown, young Sr Catherine remained hidden. She made her final profession and slipped into ordinary obscurity at her assignment to a hospice just outside of Paris. For the next forty years, Catherine remained at the hospice, serving the elderly and sick. She did not even tell her own superior about her role in the Miraculous Medal until shortly before her death in 1876. For burial, the superior returned Catherine to the chapel where Our Lady had appeared to her. In 1933, Catherine’s remains were exhumed to be relocated and her body was found incorrupt.
If you’re in Paris, you can pray and tour the chapel and convent where Catherine’s visions occurred. You will see the chair where Our Lady sat during the apparitions as well as Catherine’s incorrupt body. (St Louise de Marillac is also buried there, and St Vincent de Paul is just a few blocks away at another chapel).
When Our Lady had appeared in the oval frame with rays beaming from her rings down to earth, Catherine noticed that some of the rings did not shine forth light. She asked why. Our Lady told her, "These are the graces people forget to ask for."
Catherine Labouré introduced the world to a beloved sacramental that has helped millions prepare to ask for and receive those graces. Yet Catherine did not turn from this sublime experience to write books or give speeches or do anything else to gain esteem. She is not a saint for her visions. She is a saint for her obedience and humility—for loving Jesus and Mary simply and whole-heartedly, for asking for grace and then living it.
Her feast is November 28.
Visit the Chapel of the Miraculous Medal
The Chapelle de Notre Dame de la Medaille Miraculeuse is an active place of worship offering public Mass and Confession. Still operated by the delightful Daughters of Charity, the attached gift shop is one of the best places in Paris to buy affordable sacred souvenirs. A special gift for someone you love: a Miraculous Medal from the very place where it was first given by Our Lady. (Pro tip: there are also free, clean public restrooms at the shrine!)
Prayer of St Catherine Labouré
Whenever I go to the Chapel,
I put myself in the presence of our good Lord, and I say to Him,
“Lord, I am here.
Tell me what You would have me do.”
If He gives me some task,
I am content and I thank Him.
If He gives me nothing,
I still thank Him
Since I do not deserve to receive anything more than that.
And then, I tell God
Everything that is in my heart.
I tell Him about my pains and my joys,
And then I listen.
If you listen, God will also speak to you,
For with the good Lord, you have to both speak and listen.
God always speaks to you when you approach Him plainly and simply.
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