THE MEDAL OF THE
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
THE MANY SIDES OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL

“It is a gift from the Blessed Virgin Herself!”
                      

The Historical Side of the Medal

Apparitions are unusual, and yet they are dramatic reminders of what is going on all the time.  At about midnight on 18 July 1830, an angel was sent by the Blessed Virgin to Catherine Laboure, a novice with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, and led her to the Convent Chapel of the convent on Rue du Bac in Paris. There, she sat down and heard a rustle of silk. The Angel told Catherine: “This is the Blessed Virgin”, and she sat next to Catherine in the Director’s chair.  Catherine leaned her hands on the Lady’s lap and looked into her Mother’s eyes, and there for two hours Mary, the Mother of God spoke to the young Sister, telling her many wonderful things.  This apparition occurred five times, and each time with the same instructions: “There should be stricter observance of the rules, more fervor in praying, especially the rosary, and less worldliness in their lives.”

Catherine’s mission was finalized four months later. On 27 November 1890 Our Lady gave to Sister (now Saint) Catherine Laboure a vision of what the medal should look like. Catherine saw Our Lady standing on a globe, with dazzling rays of light streaming from her outstretched hands.  Framing the figure was an inscription: “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee”. Then the Blessed Virgin said to Catherine: “Have a medal struck upon this model; those who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around their neck.  Graces will be abundant for those who have confidence.”

Sister Catherine went to her confessor, Father Jean Marie Aladel, a Vincentian priest.  She endured many humiliations, but she persevered. After two years, he finally went to the archbishop and received approval of the Church.

On 20 June 1832, the first 2000 medals were stamped and distributed in Paris. Almost immediately the blessings that Mary had promised began to shower down on those who wore the medal. From 1832 to 1836 a total of at least 10 million miraculous medals were sold throughout the world. We are told that the King of France wore one himself, and had his children wear one.

The original name of the medal is that of “Holy Mary’s Immaculate Conception”, only after seven years was the name changed to the “Miraculous Medal”. The aim of the medal is the furthering of devotion to the Immaculate Conception. But the medal likewise features Mary as Mediatrix of Grace, thus comprehensively showing her in the various aspects under which she is cherished by believers such as Mary Immaculate, Mother and Mediatrix.

The images on the Medal

The front is the so-called ‘joyful side’ showing a woman, the Mother of God. It shows Mary in the glory of her Immaculate Conception.  As God’s instrument, her hands are open, shedding the graces that God won for us upon those who ask for them. She stands upon the globe as Queen-Mother of all mankind. Her feet crush the serpent to proclaim that Satan and all his brood are helpless before her (Gen 3:15). Satan’s is a world of darkness and despair; Mary’s is a world of light and grace.

Etched about the rim is the invocation composed by Mary herself:  “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you.” “O Mary conceived without sin” means that from the beginning of her existence this woman was filled with God’s grace. Christ’s redemption kept her free from original sin. “Pray for us who have recourse to you” means that those who choose grace rather than darkness turn to her for help to obtain through her the grace of her Son.

The reverse of the Medal is the so-called ‘sorrowful side’, for it shows the sufferings of Jesus and of Mary. You see a large “M” with a cross intertwined and above it. The two hearts – one with a crown of thorns and the other pierced with a sword – are the hearts of Jesus and Mary. No words are written there because, as Mary said to Sister Catherine, “the M and the two hearts say it all.” Indeed, they do! For they tell us that Mary is not only Queen and Intercessor, but also Mother of Sorrows and Mother of our Redeemer. She is ever by the side of her sorrowing children as she was by the side of her Son beneath his cross. For the love of sinful men, Jesus’ heart wears a crown of thorns; for the love of sinful men, Mary’s heart is pierced with a sword. The letter M beneath the cross is a reminder that Mary stood firm beneath the cross of her Son to the very end. Thus, it recalls the Passion of Christ and the Compassion of his holy Mother.  

The twelve stars relate to the twelve tribes of Israel or to the twelve Apostles, the first messengers of Christ’s salvation; or perhaps to the twelve stars in the vision of St. John, in which a “great sign appeared in the heavens, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1). For it is Mary’s part to bring her children through the sorrows of earth to the joys of heaven, where in the crown of the Queen they will shine like stars for all eternity.

The Meaning of the Medal

Suffering – in one form or another – comes to all of us as we travel along life’s road.  When we meet suffering of any kind, it is difficult for us to accept that God is our loving Father. The Miraculous Medal challenges us to look at life again and accept the protection and encouragement offered us by the Mother of God. The Miraculous Medal is not cheap superstition, not weird magic, certainly not a “good-luck” charm. No one should consider it strange that God works wonders through a medal. Does He not use water to cleanse the soul of original sin in Baptism? Does He not use oil to confer His graces in Confirmation and the Sacrament of the Sick?  Similarly, He uses a medal, not indeed as a sacrament, but as an agent, an instrument, a sacramental, in bringing to pass certain marvelous results. As St. Paul said, “God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27).

It is also a reminder that Our Lady is, to quote Pope Paul VI, “ a sure hope for those troubled in mind as they often are; divided in heart; uncertain before the riddle of death; oppressed by loneliness; a prey to boredom.” Our Lady will help lighten our darkness for she brought forth Him who is “the light of the world.”

A less well-known part of the apparitions of 1830 is the Virgin of the Globe. Mary appeared to Saint Catherine holding in her hands a globe surmounted by a cross which she raised upwards in an attitude of offering to God the Father. “The globe represents the entire world .. and each person in particular.”  She asked that an altar be erected on the place of the apparitions and that a statue be made showing her thus offering the world to God. Catherine affirmed that Our Lady held the world in her hands: “…. like a compassionate mother, keeping it close to her heart, warming it with her tender love.” She said, “When Our Lady is honored as Queen of the universe, then there will be peace.”

The Medal and the Dogma

After two years of rigid investigation in 1832, the ecclesiastical authorities declared the apparitions to be factual and permitted the medal to be struck and to be used officially by the faithful. Its fame spread like wildfire and such marvels of grace, health, blessings, protection, peace and prosperity followed its use that the people began calling it the beautiful name it has kept ever since: “Miraculous Medal”. It has also become known for bringing about large numbers of conversion into the Church, and has been used as a special sacramental in praying for vocations to the Priesthood.

The following true account is one of the more unusual events testifying to the powerful effect of the Miraculous Medal: When Alphonse Ratisbonne was only 28 years old, he was not only good looking and popular, but was also a successful lawyer and very well-to-do banker. He was a prominent Alsatian Jew, proud of his Jewish background and engaged to marry an aristocratic Jewish girl. He was an agnostic, a former atheist and fiercely anti-Catholic. So, when he was given a medal of the Immaculate Conception by a close friend, Baron de Bussieres who was visiting him in Rome, he was naturally embarrassed. Not wishing to hurt his friend by rejecting it as superstitious foolishness, he accepted the gift and agreed to his request that he say the “Memorare” prayer of St. Bernard de Clairvaux ... thinking it could “do no harm”! A few days later, while waiting for the Baron to make funeral arrangements for a friend, out of curiosity he entered the chapel of Sant’ Andrea delle Fratte (Church dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle). Suddenly a flood of light overwhelmed him and he beheld the Lady of the medal of the Immaculate Conception standing in the centre of the vision. She did not speak to him, but he suddenly understood. He was so moved, he wept. His conversion was instantaneous. He immediately converted and joined the Jesuits, and ten years later, he was ordained to the priesthood and spent more than 30 years evangelizing the Jewish people. He founded the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion and built the Church of ‘Ecce Homo’. He died in Ain Karem, the reputed site of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth. On his deathbed he went into ecstasy, apparently seeing one last time before his death the Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

Eventually, the Church designated 27 November as the “Feast of the Miraculous Medal” in recognition of the numerous miracles and conversions attributed to its use and to the faith with which it is worn. 24 years later, in 1854, the truth of the Immaculate Conception was finally declared a Doctrine of Faith by Pope Pius IX. Four years after that, the first of 18 apparitions to Bernadette Soubirous occurred at Lourdes in France on 11 February 1858, which once again confirmed God’s great love and his wish that His Blessed Mother be recognized as the “Immaculate Conception”.

In 1954, on the occasion of the centenary of the definition of this dogma of 1854, the Holy See had a commemorative medal struck. On the reverse side can be seen a picture of the Miraculous Medal and of the Grotto of Lourdes, both closely associating the two apparitions of the Virgin with the definition of the Immaculate Conception.

The Medal and Divine Grace

Catherine Laboure was born of Peter and Louise Laboure in Burgundy, France, as Zoe Laboure on 02 May 1806, as the evening Angelus sounded.  She was the 9th child of a family of eleven. When Catherine was 9 years old, her saintly mother died.  After the burial service, Catherine retired to her room, stood on a chair, took our Lady’s statue from the wall, kissed it, and said: “Now, dear Lady, you are to be my mother.” Catherine died on 31 December 1876. When her body was exhumed 56 years later, it was unblemished. Her eyes were as blue as the day she died. On 28 May 1933, Catherine Laboure was beatified by Pope Pius X1, and on 27 July 1947, she was canonized by Pope Pius XII. Many believers were present, including more than 10,000 children of Mary, veiled in white. Catherine’s incorrupt body still lies in state, encased in glass beneath the side altar at the Chapel at 140 Rue du Bac in Paris beneath one of the spots where our Lady appeared to her, and she still looks as though she only died yesterday.

Certainly, if used in the proper way, you will find the Miraculous Medal of the Immaculate Conception to be as effective today as it has been now for over 170 years. Let us remember Mary’s promise, “All who wear it will receive great graces; they should wear it around the neck. Graces will abound for those who wear it with confidence.”

The medal itself has no power, but God chooses to act through the medal just as He worked through the staff of Moses on behalf the Israelites (Ex 14:15-31)) or through pieces of cloth touching Paul’s body for healing (Acts 19:11-12). Spread the medal and its message! It is easy to give to anyone, especially on some festive occasion such baptisms and birthdays or at times of trial, sickness or distress. Let us heartily thank Our Blessed Mother for having appeared upon earth to give us these messages and to beg us to mark ourselves with “HER” sign …in the name of Her Son Jesus Christ, who is Lord forever and ever. Amen.

References:
The Legion Handbook, Appendix 6, pages 343-4.
The Miraculous Medal, Precious Blood Monastery, Ottawa
Seeds from Heaven, The Central Association of the Miraculous Medal, Philadelphia