The Manifestation of

the Miraculous Medal

A Brief Account of Its History and of the Establishment of the Association

O Mary Conceived Without Sin
Pray for Us Who Have Recourse to Thee

Published by
THE ASSOCIATION OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL
St. Mary's Seminary, Perryville, Mo.

His Grace, the Most Reverend Archbishop of St. Louis, in a letter to the Director, has heartily approved of the establishment of the Association of the Miraculous Medal at St. Mary's Seminary, Perryville, Mo.

MISSOURIAN PRINTING & STY CO., CAPE GIRARDEAU

THE ASSOCIATION
OF THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL
IN HONOR OF
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

The object of this Association is to spread and to increase devotion to Mary under the title of her Immaculate Conception; and one of the most efficacious means for the accomplishment of this aim is the Medal known as Miraculous.

A brief account of the supernatural origin of this medal and of the statutes of the Association will prove of interest and help to all devout clients of our Blessed Mother.

SISTER CATHERINE

The weak and lowly does God choose to confound the strong and worldly-wise, and so in His inscrutable designs, when He would reveal to the Church the marvelous blessings of the Miraculous Medal, He chose for this great mission an humble Daughter of Charity. She was Zoe Laboure, called in community life Sister Catherine. This saintly child of God was born on May 2, 1806, at Fain-les-Moutiers, a village of the Cote-d'Or, in France.

Zoe had not reached her eighth year when death took her pious mother, and henceforth this peasant child felt that Mary, the Consoler of the Afflicted, would be her only Mother.

From the time of her First Communion at the age of twelve years, she felt an abiding desire to give herself unreservedly to her Divine Master. The choice of her vocation was decided in a remarkable manner. When she was eighteen a venerable priest appeared to her in a dream, and told her that one day she would be happy to come to him and that God had great designs on her. Sometime after she saw a picture of this holy priest, and, on inquiring, she learned he was none other than St. Vincent de Paul. After many trials and sufferings she finally succeeded in overcoming all obstacles to her vocation, and in the beginning of the year 1830 she entered as postulant the house of the Sisters of Charity at Chatillon. Her soul was happy in the thought that He who watches over our ways had brought her through storm and trouble to the calm and peace of the religious life.

On April 21, 1830, she entered the Seminary of the Daughters of Charity. During her novitiate she received many supernatural favors—the most remarkable of which was the Manifestation of the Miraculous Medal.

In the month of January, 1831, Sister Catherine received the holy habit of a Daughter of Charity; and she was then sent to the hospital of