St. Catherine Laboure and the Miraculous Medal

In one week many of our students will travel to France, Spain and Portugal where they will see many holy sites of pilgrimage, particularly sites of Marian apparitions and devotion. I thought this would be a good opportunity, therefore, to share information about the places and people they will be seeing, so each day this week I will try to post about a different place to which they will travel. 

Today's post is about St. Catherine Laboure and the Miraculous Medal - a Marian apparition which occurred in the early 19th century in Paris, France:

St. Catherine Laboure was a Daughter of Charity, a religious community founded by St. Vincent de Paul.  St. Vincent actually appeared to St. Catherine in a dream when she was young basically hinting at the fact that she would someday enter the order.  Not long after she had entered, on July 18, 1830, St. Catherine was awakened by her guardian angel at 11:30pm and was told by him to go to the Chapel where the Blessed Virgin was waiting for her.  She followed the angel to the Chapel and after waiting for a while the Blessed Virgin appeared to her and spoke to her of the suffering that would occur in France (which turned out to be the French Revolution).  She told her to be confident and not afraid and that she would be with her.  After two hours St. Catherine returned to her cell. 

In November, Our Lady appeared to Catherine holding a gold globe of which she said represented the world and in particular France and each individual soul.  Rays emitted from rings and she said these represented the graces given to souls who ask for them.  Rings from which rays did not emit were graces for which souls failed to ask.  She then told Catherine to have a medal struck of the image she was seeing which was Our Lady with her hands extended, rays emitting from her hands, Our Lady standing on a globe crushing a serpent under her foot and the words, "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." encircling her. On the back would be the letter 'M' with a cross and a bar, with the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts underneath. Our Lady said that many graces would be given to those who wore the medal around the neck with confidence.  Later on, thousands of medals were struck by order of the Archbishop and many who were suffering sickness during an epidemic were healed.  St. Catherine did not reveal that she had been the sister to whom the visions were granted for many years.  Her body remains incorrupt and can be seen under the altar where Our Lady appeared to her 181 years ago. 

For more detailed descriptions of the apparitions from which the above was derived and pictures of St. Catherine visit the following:
Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal - Paris, France
Shrine of the Miraculous Medal - Perryville, MO
Story of the Apparitions - Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary
EWTN