November 27, Feast of the Miraculous Medal

November 27 celebrates the day in 1830 when the Blessed Virgin Mary conveyed to Saint Catherine Labourée  the details of the miraculous medal and her wish that we pray to her. Between July and December 1830, the Mother of Christ appeared three times to  the young novice from the convent of the Daughters of Charity of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul. It was during the November apparition that St. Catherine heard the words " These rays are the symbol of the graces I pour out on those who ask me for them ", after seeing rays shooting from the Virgin Mary's hands.

Then, an oval formed around the apparition, and Catherine saw this inscribed in gold letters: "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you ". Finally, a voice is heard: " Make, have a medal struck on this model. Those who wear it with confidence will receive great graces ".

Finally, Catherine saw the reverse side of the medal: at the top, a cross surmounted Mary's initial; at the bottom, two hearts, one crowned with thorns, the other pierced with a sword. She complied. The medal spread rapidly. In just seven years, 10 million medals were struck and distributed worldwide.

In 1894, Pope  Leo XIII approved the mass for the feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. 3 years later, he granted the crowning of "the statue of the Immaculate Conception known as the Miraculous Medal". Catherine Labourée was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII.

In the twentieth century, the Miraculous Medal was given new impetus by Saint Maximilien Kolbe  and his Marian apostolate. His Marian apostolate (he chose the Miraculous Medal as the distinctive sign of the members of the Mission of the Immaculate, founded in Rome in 1917). Even today, Christian devotion to the Miraculous Medal is intense. In fact, every year, 4 million medals are sold in the chapel on Rue du Bac (Paris) alone, where the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Catherine.

Christians are invited to pray especially to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal on November 27, and here are two beautiful prayers for that purpose.

Prayer to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

" O Immaculate Virgin, Mother of God and our Mother, with the greatest confidence in your powerful intercession so many times manifested by means of your Medal, we humbly beg you to kindly obtain for us the graces we ask of you through this novena :( ask for a personal grace, or simply that the Lord's will be done with, through and in Mary). O Virgin of the Miraculous Medal, who appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré as mediatrix of the whole world and of each soul in particular, we place our petitions in your hands and entrust them to your heart. Deign to present them to your divine Son and grant them if they are in conformity with the divine will and useful to our souls. And, having raised your supplicating hands to God, lower them upon us and envelop us with the rays of your graces, enlightening our minds and purifying our hearts, so that, under your guidance, we may one day reach blessed eternity. Amen. O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you! "

Prayer of Saint John Paul II to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

" O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you: This is the prayer you inspired, O Mary, to Saint Catherine Labouré, on this very spot, one hundred and fifty years ago; and this invocation, now engraved on the Medal, is now carried and uttered by so many faithful throughout the world! Blessed art thou among women! You were intimately associated with all the work of our redemption, associated with the Cross of our Savior; your heart was pierced, next to his heart. And now, in the glory of your Son, you never cease to intercede for us poor sinners. You watch over the Church of which you are the Mother. You watch over each of your children. You obtain for us from God all those graces symbolized by the rays of light that radiate from your open hands, on the sole condition that we dare to ask you for them, that we approach you with the confidence, boldness and simplicity of a child. And so you lead us unceasingly to your divine Son. So be it. "

Continue to pray at the Miraculous Medal thanks to Hozana!

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Take part in this novena to the Miraculous Medal or pray to Mary who unties knots.