Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

Paris, France on Rue de Bac, 1830
Visionary Sr. Catherine Laboure


Catherine Leboure and the appartions

Catherine Leboure was born on May 2nd 1806 atFainles-Moutiers a little village in France.
She came from a family of 11 children and she was the 9th child. She lost her mother at when she was just 9 years old so she already experienced suffering then. She had a divine call and joined the community of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul in Paris. In the first few months she started as a novice the appartions started, the first one on July 18th 1830. Against noon Catherine hears somebody calling her name. Catherine is a 24 year old novice and she looked in the direction of the sound and pulled away a curtain. there she saw a child like 5 years old, dressed in white.The child says:"Come to the chapel, the Holy Virgin is waiting for you". Catherine walks to the chapel of the convent, together with her guardian angel. She sees Mary sitting on the directors seat. The guardian angels says again:"There is the Holy Virgin." Mary enthrusts her several things. She tells Catherine that she has an assignment for her for the difficult times there were about to come. Mary promised help and mercy for those in prayer. Specificly she talked about the religious persecution later in that century. Catherine told her confessor, who didn´t believe much of it untill a week later the revolutionstarted in Paris. On November 27th, that same year,Catherine sees Mary again in the chapel. She is dressed in white, standing on a globe with a golden ball in her hands. A voice within says her that the ball represents the world and the rays of light which came from it, is the mercy for the people who love her. The golden ball dissapears when Mary moves. A scene shows with around her golden letters who form the text: "Oh Mary conceived without sin; pray for us who have recourse to thee. On the backside Catherine saw a big M above the cross, under it a heart, one surrounded with thorns, theother pierced with a sword. Again Catherine heard the innervoice to make a medal of this scene. Later this medal would be called the "Miraculous Medal". Until shortly before she died Sr. Catherine didn´t tell anybody about the apparitions, only to her confessor since that is what Our Lady had asked her to do. On December 31st. 1876 Sr. Catherine dies at an age of70 years. 57 years later her body was exhumed and found in perfect condition. And her body was placed in a shrine in Rue de Bac. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII on July 27, 1947