Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal
Feast day: November 27
Mary appears in Paris in 1830, with rays streaming from her hands, and asks for a medal (27/11)
What is this feast?
The feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, which Vietnamese Catholics call Our Lady of Graces, recalls how Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré on 27 November 1830 in Paris, France. This is a private revelation, not a page of the Bible; private revelations do not belong to the deposit of faith that the Church requires everyone to believe. The Church has welcomed devotion to the Miraculous Medal. The feast is not in the Church’s General Calendar, but it is very familiar to Catholics in Vietnam.
The story
Catherine Labouré was a young sister of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul. On the evening of 27 November 1830, while she was praying in the chapel, she saw Mary standing on a globe, her foot crushing a serpent. Brilliant rays of light streamed from the rings on Mary’s fingers. As Catherine told it, Mary explained that the rays were the graces she gives to those who ask; the gems on the rings that gave no light were the graces people forget to ask for.
Then Catherine saw a line of words of prayer appear around Mary, and on the back the letter M, a cross and two hearts. According to Catherine, Mary asked for a medal to be made in this design, and promised that those who wear it with faith would receive many graces. The medal was made in 1832; many people told of wonderful graces they had received, so it was called the Miraculous Medal.
Catherine told this only to her confessor, and not until near the end of her life did she let her superior know that she was the one who had seen Our Lady. All her life she quietly cared for the elderly, without looking for praise. In 1947, the Church declared her a saint.
Why does the Church celebrate this feast?
The Church celebrates because Mary reminds us that every grace comes from God, who always takes the first step and wants to give, and he invites us to ask with trust. The image of Mary crushing the serpent’s head also says that, through Jesus, evil does not have the last word. The medal is not a lucky charm, but a reminder to pray and to trust.
A lesson for you
- Do not be shy about asking God and Mary for what you need, for yourself and for others.
- If you wear a medal of Our Lady, let it remind you to pray; do not treat it as a good-luck charm.
- Like Saint Catherine, do good quietly, without needing anyone’s praise.
Identifying marks
- Rays of light streaming down from Mary’s hands: as Saint Catherine told it, they are the graces given to those who ask for them; Mary prays for us so that we receive grace from God.
- Her arms open wide, lowered toward you: Mary is always ready to welcome her children and to ask God to give them his grace.
- Mary’s foot resting on a green serpent lying on the globe: Mary triumphs over sin and evil through her Son, as God promised in Gn 3:15.
- The globe under her feet: Mary prays for the whole world and for each person.
- A small ring of stars around her head: it recalls the Woman in the Book of Revelation, crowned with stars (cf. Rv 12:1).
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