Take and carry with you the
"MIRACULOUS MEDAL"
The Miraculous Medal owes its origin to the Marian Apparitions in the Chapel of the rue du Bac, in Paris, in 1830.
• On Saturday, November 27, 1830, the Immaculate Virgin appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré, Daughter of Charity, and entrusted her with the mission of having a medal struck and revealed the model to her.
"Have a medal struck on this model," said the Virgin, "and those who wear it with confidence will receive great graces, especially when wearing it around their necks."
• The Medal immediately enjoyed a prodigious distribution. Countless graces of conversion, protection, and healing were obtained. In the face of all these extraordinary facts, the Archbishop of Paris,
Bishop de QUELEN ordered an official inquiry into the origin and effects of the Medal of the rue du Bac. Here is the conclusion:
"The extraordinary rapidity with which this medal has been spread, the prodigious number of medals that have been struck and distributed, the astonishing benefits and the singular graces that the confidence of the faithful has obtained, seem truly the signs by which Heaven has wanted to confirm the reality of the apparitions, the truth of the seer's account and the dissemination of the Medal."
• In Rome itself, in 1846, following the resounding conversion of the Jew Alphonse Ratisbonne, Pope Gregory XVI confirmed with all his authority the conclusions of the Archbishop of Paris.
• If you love Virgo and trust in her powerful intercession:
• Always carry the Medal with you to live in the Grace of God and enjoy the protection of the Immaculate Virgin.
• Say the invocation of the Medal every day. The Virgin wished to be greeted and invoked in this way: "0 MARY, CONCEIVED WITHOUT SIN, PRAY FOR US WHO HAVE RECOURSE TO YOU." .
• Spread the Medal around you; give it especially to the sick and afflicted.
LOURDES AND THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL
• The Miraculous Medal is universally known. But it is often ignored that the apparitions of the Chapel of the rue du Bac prepared the great events of Lourdes.
"The Lady of the Grotto appeared to me as she is represented on the Miraculous Medal," said Saint Bernadette, who was carrying the medal of the rue du Bac on her person. The invocation of the Medal: "0 MARY CONCEIVED WITHOUT SIN, PRAY FOR US WHO HAVE RECOURSE TO YOU" spread everywhere by the Miraculous Medal, gave rise to the immense movement of faith that led Pope Pius IX to define, in 1854, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Four years later, the appearance of Massabielle confirmed this Roman definition in an unexpected way.
• On the occasion of the centenary of this definition, in 1954, the Holy See had a commemorative medal struck. On the reverse of the latter, the image of the Miraculous Medal and the image of the grotto of Lourdes, closely associated, underlined the link between the two apparitions of the Virgin and the definition of the Immaculate. Conception.
• Just as Lourdes is an inexhaustible source of Graces, the Miraculous Medal is always the instrument of Our Lady's tireless goodness for all sinners and all the unfortunate of the earth.
• Christians who know how to meditate on it will find symbolized the whole doctrine of the Church on the providential place of Mary in the Redemption.
The MIRACULAR MEDAL
De permissu superiorum
9~, rue de Sèvres 75006 Paris
