Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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MIRACULOUS MEDAL (shrine)

In the motherhouse chapel of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul on Rue de Bac, Paris. In 1830 the Blessed Virgin appeared three times, sitting in a chair, to a novice, Catherine Labouré, 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. Catherine's first attempt to follow the Blessed Mother's request was unsuccessful, but later a medal was coined depicting the Blessed Virgin. Catherine Labouré was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII, and her uncorrupted body in the motherhouse makes this shrine a most popular place of pilgrimage. A replica of the shrine brings thousands of pilgrims to novena devotions at Germantown, Pennsylvania, in America to pay tribute to the Mother of God and the humble Daughter of Charity to whom she appeared in France.