“The Miraculous Medal: The Story of Our Lady’s Appearances to St. Catherine Labouré,” by Mary Fabyan Windeatt
St. Benedict Press, Charlotte, N.C., published by TAN Books, 1950, reprinted in 1990, 107 pages, Grades 3-5.
During times of immense need, Our Lord sends His beloved Mother to instruct and ask people to turn away from sin and selfishness and accept His love. These divine blessings are few in number but of tremendous consequence.
Because there have been a number of false Marian apparitions in recent years, the faithful need to strictly follow the rulings of the Church on the authenticity of apparitions. When the Church has concluded that Our Lady has been sent from Heaven to counsel and comfort Her children, we should gladly rejoice. Several famous Marian apparitions include those at Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima.
The Blessed Mother’s appearances to St. Catherine Labouré have also been approved by the Church. Mary Fabyan Windeatt tells the remarkable story of these appearances in her book, “The Miraculous Medal: The Story of Our Lady’s Appearances to St. Catherine Laboure.”
The year is 1830 and a young novice with the religious order the Daughters of Charity, Sister Catherine Labouré devotes her days to prayer and work. She is unassuming, charitable and docile in spiritual matters. Though a loving follower of Christ, she does not have any remarkable abilities.
Shortly after arriving at the convent, Sister Catherine is awakened by a young child and told to come to the chapel. She is somewhat befuddled by this request but dresses and walks to the chapel. There, she sees a beautiful woman wearing a white dress sitting in a chair. Her head is covered with a lovely blue veil.
The young sister cannot believe her eyes. This undoubtedly is the Virgin Mary, but Sister Catherine is too stunned to even acknowledge the fact. The child (an angel) dispels her doubts by telling her that the “lady” is the Blessed Virgin. With this she believes that the apparition is real and believes what the Blessed Mother tells her.
To put it mildly, the messages are somber. The Blessed Virgin tells Sister Catherine that the evil times are coming to the world and to France in particular. There will be great suffering in the land and the Archbishop of Paris will be killed. Our Lady then makes her request of the young novice. She is to tell her spiritual director that a medal honoring the Mother of God is to be minted.
The description of the medal is quite detailed. The words to be imprinted on the medal are “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to Thee.”
On the medal a circle of 12 stars are to be placed around the letter M which is surmounted on a cross. Finally, on the back is to be the figure of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Sister Catherine is told to ask her spiritual director to see that this medal is created. How does the young novice accomplish everything the Blessed Virgin asks her?
The creation of the Miraculous Medal is a moving story. Lest we think that Our Lady was speaking in allegories when she said that evil was going to descend on France and that the archbishop of Paris would be killed, she wasn’t. Archbishop Affre was killed trying to negotiate a peace treaty during the Revolution of 1848 in Paris, Archbishop Sibour was assassinated in 1857, and Archbishop Darboy was executed by the Communist Paris Commune during the uprising in 1871.
Windeatt uses some created dialogues to tell the story of St. Catherine Labouré in this this biography. These passages should be understood as the author telling the importance of St. Catherine Laboure, without using actual speeches from her life.
The Miraculous Medal is a great gift from Christ to the Church. I hope you get a chance to read this fine biography about its history.
