post
The Miraculous Medal Prayer
The Miraculous Medal prayer: full text, the 1830 apparitions to St. Catherine Labouré, and what the medal's symbols mean.
Part of the Prayers To Mary prayer collection.
In brief
The Miraculous Medal prayer: full text, the 1830 apparitions to St. Catherine Labouré, and what the medal's symbols mean.
Prayer: The Miraculous Medal Prayer
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. (Short form, prayed with the medal in hand:) O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us. Amen.
Source note: Revealed in the Rue du Bac apparitions, 1830
A prayer connected with the Miraculous Medal devotion
Use this prayer as part of the Catholic devotion associated with the Miraculous Medal and Saint Catherine Labouré. Read the words first, then remember that a medal is a sacramental sign that points toward Christ and Mary's intercession—not an object that controls events or replaces faithful action.
The page distinguishes the prayer, the medal's history and the practices of a particular shrine or novena. It avoids miracle guarantees and keeps the devotional object subordinate to prayer and trust in God.
What the medal says without words
Mary standing on the globe, crushing the serpent — grace tramples evil. Rays from her hands — the graces she gives to those who ask (Catherine reported Mary's remark that the gem-less rays were "graces no one asks for"). Around the border, the prayer itself. The reverse: the Cross joined to the M, the two Hearts of Jesus and Mary, twelve stars. A whole catechism in a square centimeter.
"Conceived without sin"
That phrase — prayed for 24 years before the Church formally defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854 — was heaven being twenty years early. It's also the title by which Mary named herself to Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858.
Keep praying
Hail Mary
- The Memorare
- Immaculate Conception — Dec 8