Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal · Rue du Bac, Paris · 1830
On a quiet Paris street, behind a high wall in the rue du Bac, there is a chapel that almost no tourist guide describes well — and yet which has shaped the Marian devotion of the modern world. Here, in 1830, a young Daughter of Charity named Catherine Labouré was awakened in the night and led to the choir of the convent chapel by a child of light. There she met the Mother of God in conversation, and was given a design she did not yet understand: a medal that would, in time, be called Miraculous.
The Apparitions to Saint Catherine Labouré
Catherine Labouré was twenty-four years old, a novice with the Daughters of Charity at the motherhouse on the rue du Bac, when on the night of July 18, 1830, a child of about five woke her and said, “Come to the chapel; the Blessed Virgin awaits you.” Catherine followed him through the convent in the dark. The chapel was lit, the Lady was waiting in a chair near the altar, and Catherine knelt at her feet with her hands in her lap. Mary spoke to her of difficult times to come for France and for the Church, and asked Catherine to pray.
On November 27 of that year, Mary appeared again — this time standing on a globe, her hands streaming rays of light. Around her, in oval frame, Catherine read the words: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” The Lady asked that a medal be struck after this design. Whoever wore it, she said, would receive great graces.
The medal was approved by the Archbishop of Paris and minted in 1832. Within a few years it had spread across the world. Reports of conversions, healings, and consolations multiplied. The faithful soon called it “the Miraculous Medal.” Catherine, who told only her confessor of the apparitions during her life, lived another forty-six years in obscurity, washing dishes and tending the sick, and was canonized in 1947. Her body lies incorrupt in the chapel, beneath the chair where Mary spoke to her.
The Sanctuary Today
The chapel of the Miraculous Medal is one of the most-visited Marian sanctuaries on earth — more than two million pilgrims each year, in the heart of Paris. The chair where Our Lady sat is preserved as a relic. Behind the high altar stands the great statue of the Lady standing on the globe with rays of light, and beside her, in glass reliquaries, the bodies of Saint Catherine Labouré and Saint Louise de Marillac.
The chapel is small. The pews are simple. The Daughters of Charity who keep the chapel walk softly between the pilgrims who come from every nation. The Mass is celebrated several times each day in many languages. The Miraculous Medal is given freely at the door, by the millions, every year — a small piece of metal that has carried Mary’s love into more pockets, more sickrooms, and more deathbeds than perhaps any other devotional object in history.
A Prayer at the Rue du Bac
O Mary, conceived without sin,
pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Mother of the Miraculous Medal,
who appeared to a young woman in a Paris convent
and asked that your image be placed near the heart —
place yourself near the heart of every soul who needs you.
Let the rays of grace that streamed from your hands
reach into every dark corner of our age.
Amen.
Live from the Rue du Bac
The Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal celebrates Mass and prayer many times each day. The Daughters of Charity also broadcast the Rosary and the daily Mass online for pilgrims who cannot come in person.
Visit & Learn More
- Chapelle de la Médaille Miraculeuse: www.chapellenotredamedelamedaillemiraculeuse.com
- Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miraculous_Medal
Journey with Mary: A Path to Jesus 