The Miraculous Medal: The Medal of the Poor

Our holy Founder, St. Vincent de Paul, once exhorted the first Daughters of Charity with these words: “So this prayer is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Thus, my daughters, the rosary is a very efficacious prayer, when it is done well… That is why we see so many holy souls united in praising God and the Blessed Virgin… This, my dear sisters, is how you must pray the rosary; and you must be careful to do what is commanded; it is your breviary” (IX, 1145-1146).

What is the reason for this reflection of St Vincent? At that time, the nuns prayed the breviary in choir, and this reality caused concern among the Daughters of Charity, who did not know whether they should pray in the same way. As not all of them were literate, the Founder instructed them, making it clear that, not being choir nuns, they were not obliged to the divine office. To resolve the difficulty, he indicated that those who could not read could approach the Lord by Mary’s hand, praying the rosary with faith.

For two centuries, these “poor village women” prayed with constancy and faith the rosary, an ancient tradition introduced by St. Louise de Marillac, who added as a legacy the recitation of the prayer: “Blessed Virgin Mary, I believe and confess your holy and immaculate Conception…” to each decade of the rosary. This devotion was a way of proclaiming Mary as Immaculate, even before Pope Pius IX’s official proclamation in 1854. In gratitude, Mary manifested herself to a young Daughter of Charity, Catherine Labouré, to entrust to her the treasure of the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, known as the Miraculous Medal.

I heard this reflection on the choice of Mary from our distinguished director of the Internal Seminary, Fr Fenelón Castillo, c.m. He considers that the choice of a humble and unlettered young woman like Catherine to receive this revelation carries a profound message: God chooses the little ones to manifest his treasures. This is similar to the words of Jesus: “I thank you, Father, that you have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to the simple” (Matthew 11:25-27). This does not imply that we should abandon theological and Mariological reflection, but we are called to do so from the perspective of our poor and abandoned brothers and sisters, who possess the true “treasures of the Kingdom”. We walk with them every day in missionary work, alongside those who, in the words of Pope Francis, “live on the periphery” of our world.

THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL: A TREASURE FOR THE POOR

Our Lady gave the medal to Sister Zoé Catalina, not for her glory and usufruct, but so that she and her sisters of the Company and her brothers of the Congregation of the Mission would be the instruments to give it to the poor, and with them to experience in our lives the passage of Mary. Yes, it was the poor, not us, who called it the MIRACULOUS MEDAL forever.

Juan Patricio Prager, c.m.: “The Medal appeared at a time when rationalism and positivism were on the rise. With simple symbols the Medal called attention to a providential presence without measure. In a historical moment that rejected symbols as sentimental and superstitious, the medal placed in the hands of the poor a manifestation of God’s protection. Against common wisdom, the medal reminded us of a very human truth: the need for symbols, that is, that humanity must express certain invisible realities (love, faith, commitment) in symbolic forms.

What a great treasure we have in our hands, it being our responsibility “not to give the pearls to swine” (St. Matthew 7,6) … for the Holy Medal, as the liturgy calls it, can become a magic talisman, as sadly it is used by some, not to go to God and Mary, but to do evil and trample on the treasures of the Kingdom. Mary’s medal always invites us to look to her, to wear it in faith and to remind us that she is our Mother, the pilgrim of faith, who never forsakes us, neither in life nor in death.

Only those who have the heart of the poor can recognise in the simplicity of the medal the face of the Mother who always accompanies us, reminding us of our being children of God and pilgrims in our history today.

THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL: THE CATECHISM FOR THE UNLETTERED

The Medal is, in many ways, a catechism in images that anyone, however poor or illiterate, can understand. Before offering it to the poor, let us ourselves do the exercise of contemplating and reflecting on its symbols. This will enrich our prayer and allow true communion with the poor.

On the obverse:

• Mary appears in her majesty opening her hands, and flooding the whole world with her rays, as if telling us to approach her with confidence, because the infernal serpent, by which evil entered the world, is now held before her feet, so that he cannot walk to destroy the children of God and our brothers; the serpent is alive, but she and her Son will finally crush him (Genesis 3 and Revelation 12).
• The ejaculatory prayer: “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you”, is Mary’s declaration that brings us closer to her Immaculate Conception, yes, an express declaration of the Mother, which could not have been invented by a sister who had neither wisdom nor theological knowledge. It is an invitation to pray through her, with the humble and serene request for help to her who is the “supplicant omnipotence”, who as in Cana of Galilee runs to the aid of her children, with the confident assurance that her Son will not fail to hear our supplications, because we do so through his Mother, to whom He denies nothing.

On the reverse:

• Mary presents in her sign the letter M crowned by a Cross, indicating that she is the first to be redeemed by her Son from the beginning, thus being Immaculate from the first moment of her conception. The cross rests on the M and redemption flows from it. Mary is the disciple who never turned away from her Son: we cannot see Mary without looking at Christ, and we cannot follow Christ unless in the company of Mary. She is intimately united to the mystery of the Passion and the Cross of her Son from the cradle to Calvary.
• The two hearts: Jesus’ and Mary’s. They are the two best hearts in history. Felipe Rojas, c.m.: “The heart of Our Lord, crowned with thorns, reminds us that his messianism is not a triumphalist reign of power, but of cross and service. Mary’s heart, pierced by a sword, reminds us of the fulfilment of Simeon’s promise: “a sword of sorrow will pierce your soul” (Luke 2:35). In the heart, the believer must assume that Jesus’ words are a sign of contradiction.
• The twelve stars: And I continue with the contribution of our brother of Community, quoted above: “The number 12 in the theology of St. John represents the chosen people of God, as were the twelve men chosen to accompany Jesus in his prophetic ministry, alluding to the 12 tribes of Israel. These would become the twelve pillars of the shining city, the new Jerusalem. On the medal, the stars represent the Church focusing its gaze on the mystery of the Incarnation and the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. They therefore accompany the cross and the “M”, which are at the heart of the mystery of the faith of every believer”.

AND AT THE END

• The Miraculous Medal is the medal of the Mother, who, wearing it with faith, is telling us that she is the pilgrim Virgin, the companion on the way, the consoler in the midst of our struggles, the faithful mother who never forgets us, even if we forget her.
• Our Lady with her medal is telling us that she is not the centre of our life, but the sure way that Jesus leads us. She invites us to look at her as the faithful woman, the poor villager of Nazareth, who goes before us in the footsteps of her Son.
• The Miraculous Medal is an open Gospel, in which we find a synthesis of God’s will for the life of each one of us. It is up to us to know how to read its rich and forgotten message.
• The Miraculous Medal strengthens our commitment to be with the poor and with them to walk the path of faith, in confident hope and boundless charity.

As we approach the fourth centenary of the Congregation of the Mission, we are already preparing ourselves with a grateful remembrance of her love for us, and with the whole Vincentian Family, we will joyfully celebrate the bicentenary of her maternal visit in 2030.

To you, Miraculous Virgin, “you who speak for those who have no tongue and cannot speak” (St. Vincent de Paul, IX, 733), continue to speak before your Son for the poor, his beloved, and for each one of us, the workers of his Gospel in our here and now.

Marlio Nasayó Liévano, c.m.