The Miraculous Medal: history, meaning and prayer

On many rosaries a small oval medal sits between the beads: the Blessed Virgin with outstretched hands, and beneath her the year 1830. The Miraculous Medal goes back to a young sister in Paris to whom Our Lady appeared in the chapel of her motherhouse in the Rue du Bac. This guide tells its history, explains the front and the back, gives the prayer of the medal with its source and answers the question many people ask first: does the medal work by itself?

What is the Miraculous Medal?

The Miraculous Medal is a Marian medal whose image the Blessed Virgin showed St Catherine Labouré in Paris in 1830. On the front stands Our Lady with rays from her hands, on the back the monogram M with a cross and two hearts. Once blessed, it is one of the sacramentals of the Church.

The Rituale Romanum calls it Sacrum Numisma B. M. V. Immaculatae, the holy Medal of the Immaculate Virgin, and adds: vulgo Médaille miraculeuse, popularly the Miraculous Medal. According to the 1917 Code of Canon Law, sacramentals are things or actions which the Church, in a certain imitation of the sacraments, uses in order to obtain through her intercession effects chiefly of a spiritual kind (can. 1144). The medal is worn on a chain around the neck or as the centrepiece of a rosary, as on our rosaries with glass beads.

What happened in the Rue du Bac in 1830?

The motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul stands in the Rue du Bac in Paris. In its chapel Our Lady appeared several times in 1830 to the novice Catherine Labouré, first on 18 July, then on 27 November, and charged her to have a medal struck.

Catherine wrote down the apparition of 27 November herself. It was a Saturday, the eve of the First Sunday of Advent, at half past five in the evening, during meditation. She saw the Blessed Virgin standing on a globe, with rings set with precious stones on her fingers, from which rays fell. And she heard: "This is the symbol of the graces which I pour out upon those who ask me for them." Around the image an oval frame formed with letters of gold.

"Have, have a medal struck after this model. Those who wear it indulgenced will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around the neck; the graces will be abundant for those who have confidence."

Account of St Catherine Labouré, after Aladel, La médaille miraculeuse, Paris 1878; our translation from the French

Her confessor, the Lazarist priest Jean-Marie Aladel, at first received her accounts with mistrust. Only with the express permission of Archbishop de Quélen did he have the medal struck; the first pieces were made on 30 June 1832. In 1836 the Archbishop ordered a canonical inquiry into its origin.

Who was St Catherine Labouré?

Catherine Labouré was a Daughter of Charity, born Zoé Labouré in 1806 at Fain-les-Moutiers in the Côte-d’Or, who died on 31 December 1876. Pope Pius XII canonised her on 27 July 1947 and fixed her feast on the day of her death, 31 December; she does not appear in the general calendar of 1962.

In January 1831 she received the habit and was sent to the Hospice d’Enghien in the Paris suburb of Saint-Antoine. There she worked first in the kitchen and the linen room and then cared for the elderly for almost forty years; according to Pius XII she also kept the door.

Apart from her confessor, no one knew until shortly before her death that she was the seer of the medal; only in the last year of her life did she confide in her superior. The day after the canonisation, Pius XII summed up her life in two words from the Imitation of Christ: Ama nesciri, "Love to be unknown". For forty-six years, the Pope said, the veil of her hiddenness was not lifted for a single moment. In the homily of the canonisation he recalled that, before she died, she was still handing out the medal to those around her with trembling hands.

What do the front and back of the Miraculous Medal show?

The front of the Miraculous Medal shows Our Lady standing on the globe, with rays streaming from her hands, surrounded by the inscription of the prayer. The back shows the letter M beneath a cross that stands on a crossbar, and below it the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

The twelve stars call to mind the woman of the Apocalypse, who wears a crown of twelve stars (Apoc 12:1). The 1962 Missal reads this passage as the lesson on the feast of the medal. On the medals with Latin lettering on our rosaries, instead of the French inscription, stands Regina sine labe originali concepta, ora pro nobis: "Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us". The same words appear in the Rituale Romanum as the versicle and response at the blessing of the medal.

Which prayer belongs to the Miraculous Medal?

The prayer that belongs to the Miraculous Medal is the aspiration inscribed on it: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Catherine Labouré saw it in 1830 in letters of gold around the image of Our Lady.

O 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.

French after Aladel, La médaille miraculeuse, Paris 1878; English in the traditional wording

The Church has enriched this prayer with indulgences. The Roman collection of indulgences, the Preces et pia opera of 1952, lists it under no. 357 in Italian, with an indulgence of 300 days and a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions if it is devoutly prayed every day for a month. The usual conditions are sacramental confession, Holy Communion, a visit to a church or public oratory and a prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father. In another language the indulgence applies if the fidelity of the translation has been confirmed by Church authority (CIC 1917, can. 934 § 2).

Many pray the aspiration after the Rosary; how the decades are built up is shown in our Rosary prayer companion.

Does the Miraculous Medal work by itself?

The Miraculous Medal does not work by itself and is not an amulet. According to Pius XII, the name "miraculous" was given to it by the voice of the people, because of the many conversions and graces. Whoever wears it devoutly and says its aspiration asks Our Lady for her intercession with God.

St Thomas Aquinas draws the line precisely: to carry sacred words and signs about one is lawful if one looks solely to reverence for God, from whom one expects the effect. It becomes superstitious when one places one's hope in the manner of writing or of tying them on (Summa theologiae II-II, q. 96, a. 4 co. and ad 1). The words of the apparition, too, bind the graces to confidence: they will be abundant for those "who have confidence".

The Church has examined the apparitions: in 1836 the Archbishop of Paris had a canonical inquiry carried out, and in 1894 Leo XIII instituted the feast of the medal after a careful examination of all the facts by the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

The Catholic Encyclopedia of 1911 tells of Alphonse Ratisbonne of Strasbourg, who reluctantly wore the medal and in the Roman church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte saw Our Lady just as she is depicted on the medal; according to Aladel this happened in 1842. His conversion soon followed, and the Church has confirmed the event and recorded it in the Office of the feast.

How is the Miraculous Medal blessed and worn?

You have the Miraculous Medal blessed by a priest. The Rituale Romanum contains a proper formula for its blessing and imposition, approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in 1895. The medal is worn above all around the neck, as the account of the apparition says, or on the rosary.

This formula is proper to the Congregation of the Mission, the Lazarists, and stands among the blessings for priests with an apostolic faculty. Otherwise any priest can impart blessings, except those that are reserved (CIC 1917, can. 1147 § 2); ask your priest which form he uses. A priest who has the faculty for this formula says at the imposition:

Accipe sanctum Numisma, gesta fideliter, et digna veneratione prosequere: ut piissima et immaculata caelorum Domina te protegat atque defendat; et pietatis suae prodigia renovans, quae a Deo suppliciter postulaveris, tibi misericorditer impetret, ut vivens ac moriens in materno ejus amplexu feliciter requiescas. Amen.

Receive this holy Medal, wear it faithfully and honour it with due veneration, that the most loving and immaculate Lady of Heaven may protect and defend thee; and that, renewing the wonders of her goodness, she may mercifully obtain for thee from God whatsoever thou shalt humbly ask of him, so that in life and in death thou mayest rest happily in her motherly embrace. Amen.

Rituale Romanum, Benedictio et impositio sacri Numismatis B. M. V. Immaculatae, Regensburg edition 1937, p. 550; our translation from the Latin

Mentioned in this article Rosary with cut-glass beads, peach Handmade on a white cord, with 8 mm cut-glass beads, a silver Miraculous Medal and a Pardon Crucifix. View the rosary

Frequently asked questions about the Miraculous Medal