Seeking the Graces to Be Poured Out on the World
In July 1830, the Blessed Mother appeared to Catherine Labouré, a novice of the Daughters of Charity, who was living in the community’s motherhouse in Paris, on the Rue de Bac. In this first apparition, Our Lady told young Catherine, “The whole world will be turned upside-down by misfortunes of all kinds.” She continued, “There will be victims. … My child, the Cross will be held in contempt. It will be thrown to the ground and trampled. Blood will flow. … Our Saviour’s side will be opened anew. … My child, the whole world will be plunged into gloom.”
In this first apparition, and in a second apparition during November of the same year, Mary spoke a solution to the grave situation she described months earlier. She told Catherine, “But come to the foot of this altar. There, graces will be poured out on all those, small or great, who ask for them with confidence and fervour.” The promise was that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with the assistance of Our Lady’s intercession, would strengthen Christians against the portent that was gathering around France and all of Europe.
In the second apparition, the Blessed Mother made an additional request. She directed the young novice to have a medal stamped as a reminder of this important message, and then she revealed the design for both sides of the Miraculous Medal. Our Lady described the significance of the image, specifically pointing out the symbolism of the rays of light emanating from her fingers. Her statement was meant to remind Sr. Catherine, and to remind us, that we can constantly be interceding for the world; and that we can never exhaust the available graces.
With the minting of the medal, and with sharing the devotion, came a promise: “All who wear it will receive great graces…. Graces will abound for persons who wear it with confidence.” Thus, the devotion to the Miraculous Medal was born and, since 1832, the Vincentians and the Daughters of Charity have been constant in their efforts to this devotion through which Mary offers a message of hope to the world. That is the reason for the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, which stands in Perryville, Missouri, just eighty miles south of St. Louis.
The Vincentian community had arrived in St. Louis in 1818, before the apparitions of Mary in Paris. Originally, the site only contained a parish church, called St. Mary of the Barrens, along with the Vincentian seminary. The site was the locus for works of mercy and education in the region that was still sparsely inhabited after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The parish maintains the memory of its Vincentian origins as the tomb of the community’s first superior in the United States, Fr. Felix DeAndreis, resides inside the church.
