The Miraculous Medal Novena

The Miraculous Medal Novena is one of the great Marian devotions of the modern Catholic Church. It is drawn from the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to a young French postulant of the Daughters of Charity, Catherine Labouré, in the chapel of the Rue du Bac in Paris in 1830. The medal that resulted from the apparitions, struck and distributed by the millions in the years that followed, was called the Miraculous Medal by the Catholic faithful in response to the extraordinary number of conversions and graces attributed to its faithful use. The medal is one of the most widely-worn Catholic sacramentals of the modern era.

Origin and history

Catherine Labouré (1806-1876), born Zoé Labouré in the small French village of Fain-lès-Moutiers in Burgundy, entered the postulancy of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in Paris in April 1830. The Daughters of Charity were the religious community founded by Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) and Saint Louise de Marillac (1591-1660) in the seventeenth century for the service of the sick poor in their homes. Their motherhouse was at 140 Rue du Bac in Paris, where Catherine was sent for her novitiate.

On 18 July 1830 (the eve of the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul), Catherine experienced the first of three apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was awakened during the night by what she described as a small child, an angel, who led her to the convent chapel. The chapel was illuminated as for High Mass. The Blessed Virgin Mary, dressed in white, was already seated in the chair traditionally reserved for the spiritual director of the community. Catherine knelt at the Virgin's feet and rested her hands on the Virgin's lap; the Mother of God spoke with her at length about the difficulties soon to come for France and for the Catholic Church (the July Revolution of 1830 had taken place in Paris only a few days before, and the apparitions occurred in the immediate political turmoil that followed).

The decisive apparition came on 27 November 1830. Catherine was at evening prayer in the chapel with her sisters when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her in vision, standing on a globe, with light streaming from her hands toward the world. The vision then turned, like a coin being flipped, and on the reverse appeared a large M surmounted by a cross, with two hearts (the pierced Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, encircled with a crown of thorns), and twelve stars around the perimeter. The Virgin instructed Catherine: "Have a medal struck on this model. Persons who wear it will receive great graces." The inscription on the front of the medal, in the Virgin's own words, was to be: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee."¹

Catherine reported the apparition to her confessor Father Jean-Marie Aladel, C.M., who initially treated it with appropriate skepticism. After two years of careful investigation and consultation with the Archbishop of Paris, the first medals were struck in 1832. The reception was extraordinary. Within ten years, ten million medals had been distributed across France and the wider Catholic world; by 1900, over a billion. The number of healings, conversions, and answered prayers attributed to the wearing of the medal was so great that the Catholic faithful renamed it the Miraculous Medal, the name by which it has been known ever since.²

The image of the Miraculous Medal

The front of the medal shows the Blessed Virgin Mary standing on a globe, her foot on the head of a serpent (in fulfillment of Genesis 3:15, the protoevangelium in which God promises that the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent), with rays of light streaming from her hands toward the world. The inscription around the perimeter reads, in French: Ô Marie conçue sans péché, priez pour nous qui avons recours à vous (O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee). The dating on most modern medals reads 1830, the year of the apparition.

The reverse shows the letter M surmounted by a cross. Below the M are two hearts: the pierced Heart of Jesus crowned with thorns, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced with a sword (a reference to Simeon's prophecy in Luke 2:35: "a sword shall pierce through your own soul also"). Twelve stars surround the perimeter, in reference to the woman of the Apocalypse: "a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Revelation 12:1).

The structure of the novena

Each day of the Miraculous Medal Novena follows the same form:

1. The opening prayer of the novena, addressed to the Immaculate Conception.
2. A meditation on a theme proper to the day, drawn from the apparitions, the imagery of the medal, and the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.
3. The petition: the specific intention for which the novena is being prayed.
4. The classical Miraculous Medal prayer: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
5. Closing prayers: three Hail Marys in honor of the Immaculate Conception.

When the novena is prayed

The Miraculous Medal Novena is most commonly prayed:

• In the nine days before the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (1-8 December), in preparation for the feast of 8 December.
• In the nine days before the feast of the Apparition of the Miraculous Medal (27 November), in commemoration of the apparition itself.
• At the time of investiture with the medal, particularly when a person is preparing to begin wearing the medal as a Catholic sacramental.
• At any time of personal need, particularly for the conversion of family members and for the protection of the household.

Pairing with other prayers

The Miraculous Medal Novena is paired with:

• The Holy Rosary, particularly the Joyful Mysteries, which meditate on the events of the Annunciation and Visitation.
• The Hail Mary and the Memorare.
• The Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the Litany of Loreto).
• The traditional Catholic devotion of the Three Hail Marys prayed daily for purity and for the grace of a holy death.

For broader context, see Mary, Mother of God, the Communion of Saints, and the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Saint Catherine Labouré, Memoirs (composed in obedience to her superiors, completed 1856). The standard French biographical source is Father Joseph Dirvin, C.M., Saint Catherine Labouré of the Miraculous Medal (1958). Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), "Miraculous Medal," available at newadvent.org. ↩

2. The diffusion of the Miraculous Medal is documented in the archives of the Daughters of Charity at the Rue du Bac in Paris, which remains the principal pilgrimage site of the devotion. Pope Leo XIII established the feast of the Apparition of the Miraculous Medal on 27 November in 1894. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was solemnly defined by Pope Pius IX in Ineffabilis Deus on 8 December 1854, twenty-four years after Catherine's apparition; the apparition is widely understood as the Marian preparation of the Catholic Church for the dogmatic definition. ↩