# The Miraculous Medal

*Medal of the Immaculate Conception*

**Known today as.** An oval medal of the Virgin with the prayer “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee,” made after the visions of Catherine Labouré, a Daughter of Charity, in the chapel of the Rue du Bac in Paris in 1830.

Kind: Sacramental

## What was it used for?

Worn for protection and grace; it was first struck in 1832 and given out during the cholera epidemic in Paris, whose cures earned it its name.

## What does modern science say?

Hundreds of millions have been struck; the chapel in the Rue du Bac is a place of pilgrimage.

## What lore surrounds it?

Its reverse bears an M beneath a cross and the hearts of Jesus and Mary, ringed by twelve stars.

## What did the older authorities say?

**The Catholic Encyclopedia.** The Catholic Encyclopedia gives Sister Catherine Labouré's account of the apparition of 27 November 1830: the Virgin “standing on a globe, and bearing a globe in her hands,” rays from her fingers that “were symbols of the graces which would be bestowed on all who asked for them,” and round her “an oval frame bearing in golden letters the words ‘O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.’” The first medals “were struck” on 30 June 1832, and the conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne, who “consented, somewhat reluctantly, to wear the medal” and in Sant' Andrea delle Fratte “beheld in a vision the Blessed Virgin exactly as she is represented on the medal,” is recorded in the office of the feast.

## Sources

- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Medal, Miraculous.” newadvent.org/cathen/10115a.htm
- *The Catholic Encyclopedia* (New York, 1907–1914), “Bells.” newadvent.org/cathen/02418b.htm

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*The Miraculous Medal.* In *Materia Medica*, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1, revised 2026-10-01. The Thinking Press. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/miraculous-medal

Historical description, not medical advice.