The Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

The Story

The World Into Which Heaven Spoke

To understand the apparitions at the Rue du Bac, it is necessary to understand the world into which they came. France in 1830 was a nation in spiritual crisis. The French Revolution had attempted to destroy the Church, altars were overturned, priests were martyred, and the worship of Reason was installed in the great cathedrals. Though Napoleon had restored outward religious practice, the soul of France remained wounded. Anti-clericalism was on the rise, political revolutions were erupting, and the faith of ordinary French men and women was under siege from every direction.

The messages of Our Lady to Catherine pointed to coming upheavals in France and the world. She warned of great troubles, acute dangers, of a time when everyone would believe all to be lost. "The Cross will be trampled on, blood will run in the streets, the world will be plunged into sadness. But grace will be showered upon all who ask for it with faith and fervor."

Into this darkness, God sent His Mother.

St. Catherine Laboure: The Hidden Instrument

Saint Catherine Laboure was born in France on May 2, 1806. She was the ninth of eleven children. Upon her mother's death, when Catherine was eight years old, the young girl assumed the responsibilities of the household. It was said of her that she was very quiet and practical. She became a Daughter of Charity, and when she was a novice, at 24 years of age, the Virgin Mary appeared to her for the first time.

St. Catherine Laboure was a novice with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul when she received three apparitions from the Blessed Virgin Mary, a vision of Christ present in the Eucharist, and a mystical encounter in which St. Vincent de Paul showed her his heart.

The First Apparition: July 18, 1830

In the darkness of the night of July 18 to 19, 1830, just before the hour of midnight, the counter revolution struck.

A few weeks after she had begun her novitiate, on the night of July 18, 1830, she was led by her guardian angel into the chapel where Our Lady appeared to her in great splendor and dignity.

Out through the corridors and down the halls they went, the convent lamps lighted all the way, a condition not to be explained naturally. The chapel door was locked as usual, but at the touch of the angel it swung open. The chapel, normally dark by night, was lighted brightly as if for Midnight Mass.

On July 18, the Immaculate Virgin, seated in the same chapel, had spoken gentle words of encouragement to the young novice. In 1830 the Blessed Virgin appeared three times, sitting in a chair, to a novice, Catherine Laboure, asking her to have a medal struck honoring her Immaculate Conception. The chair is now preserved as a relic there. Mary told Catherine of the terrible things that would happen unless true religious fervor among the people was revived.

The Second Apparition: November 27, 1830

On November 27, the Virgin Mother showed St. Catherine the design of a medal which would remind people of the love and protection that Our Lady continually offers to God's children.

On the second occasion, Sister Catherine records that the Blessed Virgin appeared as if standing on a globe, and bearing a globe in her hands. As if from rings set with precious stones, dazzling rays of light were emitted from her fingers. These, she said, were symbols of the graces which would be bestowed on all who asked for them.

Framing the figure was an inscription: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." Then Mary spoke to Catherine: "Have a medal struck upon this model. Those who wear it will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around the neck."

The vision then seemed to turn to show the reverse of the Medal: the letter M surmounted by a cross with a bar at its base; below this monogram, the Sacred Heart of Jesus crowned with thorns, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced with a sword.

The young nun remembered that at the second apparition of Our Lady, she stood on a globe, holding in her hands another globe which reflected rays of light of great brilliance. The Blessed Virgin had explained to Catherine that the globe represented the entire world, France in particular and especially every single person, on whom she would bestow grace.

The Medal Is Struck: 1832

Catherine's first attempt to follow the Blessed Mother's request was unsuccessful, but later a medal was coined depicting the Blessed Virgin. With approval of the Catholic Church, the first medals were made in 1832 and were distributed in Paris.

The response was immediate and extraordinary.

People turned to the Sisters of Charity who gave them the Medal of the Immaculate Conception with the assurance that great graces would be showered upon all who would wear it with confidence, especially if it were worn around the neck. After the first cures, people demanded it excitedly.

So many favors, cures, and conversions were effected through its instrumentality that its name and doctrinal significance were lost in the clamor; it became known simply as "The Miraculous Medal."

A Life Hidden in Humility

What makes the chapel of the Rue du Bac all the more remarkable is what Catherine Laboure chose to do after receiving these apparitions. She told no one except her spiritual director, Blessed Father Jean-Marie Aladel. For 46 years, she kept the secret of the apparitions, serving in a house for the elderly in Enghien, a Paris suburb, as an ordinary, even obscure, sister. She cared for the sick and the aged, she tended chickens, she answered the door. She was considered by most of the sisters who lived alongside her to be rather unremarkable.

Catherine spent 46 years in the obscurity of the Laboure house without telling anyone else that she was the privileged soul to whom Our Lady had appeared. Only Aladel, who had initially doubted, and ultimately promoted the cause of the medal's creation with the Archbishop of Paris, knew the secret. And even he did not know the name of the privileged recipient until very near the end of Catherine's life.

A few months before her death, sensing that her time was near, Catherine revealed herself to her superior, Sister Dufes, as the privileged soul. She died on December 31, 1876, only a few months after this revelation.

The Incorrupt Body

When Catherine Laboure's body was exhumed 56 years after her death, it was found to be perfectly incorrupt. Her hands were flexible, her eyes retained their blue color. Today, her incorrupt body lies in a glass reliquary beneath the side altar in the very chapel where she received the apparitions, clothed in the habit of the Daughters of Charity. She appears to be peacefully asleep. The physical incorruption of her body is one of the Church's most powerful signs: a person so conformed to God in life that even death could not entirely claim her.

Pilgrims who visit the chapel today kneel in the same room where Mary appeared, venerate the very chair in which the Virgin sat, and gaze upon the incorrupt face of the woman to whom heaven spoke. There is no other pilgrimage site quite like it in the world.

Church Recognition

Ecclesiastical Approval of the Medal

The Archbishop of Paris, Monsignor de Quelen, authorized the striking of the medal in 1832 after a canonical inquiry. The speed of that approval, and the extraordinary response of the faithful who received it, confirmed to the Church that something truly supernatural was at work on the Rue du Bac.

The Beatification and Canonization of St. Catherine Laboure

Catherine Laboure was beatified by Pope Pius XII on May 28, 1933. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII on July 27, 1947. Her feast day is celebrated on November 28. She is one of the most beloved saints in the modern era, not because she performed spectacular works before the eyes of the world, but because she obeyed God completely, in hiddenness, for the whole of her life.

Recognition of the Apparitions

The Church has formally recognized the apparitions at the Rue du Bac as worthy of belief. It must always be remembered that Marian apparitions, even those formally approved by the Church, are classified as private revelation. As the Catechism teaches, private revelations do not belong to the deposit of faith. Their role is to help us live more fully the faith already given to us in Scripture and Tradition (CCC 67). The apparitions at the Rue du Bac do not add anything new to the Gospel. They direct the hearts of the faithful back to the center: to Christ, to the Eucharist, to the Immaculate Mother who intercedes without ceasing.

The Conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne

Among the most celebrated fruits of the Miraculous Medal is the conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne, a French Jewish banker and virulent anti-Catholic, who agreed, almost mockingly, to wear the medal as part of a wager. On January 20, 1842, in the Church of Sant'Andrea delle Fratte in Rome, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Ratisbonne in exactly the form depicted on the Miraculous Medal. He converted immediately and completely, eventually became a Catholic priest, and dedicated his life to mission work in the Holy Land. The Church formally investigated the conversion and recognized it as miraculous. It remains one of the most dramatic and well-documented conversion stories in modern Catholic history.

Papal Veneration of the Chapel

The chapel at the Rue du Bac has been visited by numerous popes and high-ranking prelates throughout its history. Pope Francis sent a rosary to be placed at the altar of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal at the Rue du Bac as a sign of his personal devotion to Mary under this title. The chapel remains under the care of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, the same congregation to which Catherine Laboure belonged, who continue to welcome pilgrims and offer daily Mass and prayer in this sacred space.

Catholic Teaching

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal is not merely a destination for pious travelers. Every element of this place, its story, its relics, its sacramentals, and its history, is a proclamation of truths the Church has always held.

On Private Revelation: The Catechism teaches that "throughout the ages, there have been so-called private revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history" (CCC 67). The apparitions at the Rue du Bac are among the most formally recognized of these private revelations. They do not ask the faithful to believe something new. They ask the faithful to return to what is eternally true: that Mary intercedes, that grace is available, and that God desires our salvation more than we desire it ourselves.

On the Use of Sacramentals: The Miraculous Medal is one of the most widely used sacramentals in the history of the Church. The Catechism teaches that "sacramentals are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy" (CCC 1667). The medal does not work by magic. It works by faith, by the intercession of the Blessed Mother, and by the grace of God that flows through these outward signs to those who receive them with open and believing hearts.

On the Immaculate Conception: The inscription on the Miraculous Medal, "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee," is not merely a pious phrase. It is a doctrinal proclamation. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, formally defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854, was anticipated by the apparitions at the Rue du Bac in 1830, and was confirmed by Mary herself at Lourdes in 1858 when she identified herself to St. Bernadette as "the Immaculate Conception." The chapel of the Rue du Bac stands as one of the earliest physical anchors of this defined truth of the faith.

On Marian Intercession: The Second Vatican Council's Lumen Gentium teaches that Mary "by her manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix" (LG 62). The Miraculous Medal is a physical expression of this theological reality. Every person who wears it around their neck is making a visible act of trust in Mary's intercession, a daily declaration that they belong to her Son and seek her maternal protection.

On Hiddenness and Humility as the Path to Holiness: Catherine Laboure received the greatest private revelation in modern French Catholic history and then disappeared into 46 years of obscurity. She washed floors, cared for the elderly, tended chickens, and answered the convent door. She is a living refutation of the modern assumption that significance requires visibility. God chose the hidden, the quiet, the unremarkable and made her the instrument of a sacramental that has reached every corner of the earth. This is the logic of the Gospel: "God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27).

Go Deeper

Visit the chapel's official website for visitor information. René Laurentin's biography of St. Catherine Labouré and the Catechism on the Immaculate Conception (CCC 490-493) offer further depth on the medal's meaning.