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Finding A MIRACLE In ParisBy Susan R. NortonI had heard in the U.S. rumors about a tiny church in Paris that marked the spot of an appearance of The Blessed Virgin to a young nun who was later given Sainthood and then something else about her body not deteriorating after she died. That’s all I had to go on, but I was intrigued and so set out to find it on my trip to Paris this past May. I filed this chapel in the back of my mind as I wandered the streets, somehow hoping that I was would round the next corner and there it would be. As the days drifted away, I was beginning to believe that my MIRACLE was more wishful thinking than truth.. Even all the Parisians I asked knew nothing of it.
After awhile I stepped out into the patio, and must have been looking bewildered because a darling British nun asked me if I had any questions. I told her I wasn’t sure if I had the right place or not? Then I went on to tell her of the story I had brought with me from California. She smiled and said, “You have found where you have been led.”
Four months later, Mary appeared again to Catherine, standing on a globe with her foot crushing a serpent. Rays of light came from her fingertips and she held a small gold ball. This vision was part of the design of the medal that The Virgin described.
The medals were finished just as the disastrous cholera epidemic of 1832 broke out in Paris. They were given to the sick in the hospitals and, “behold, patients were cured,” which is why they were called the Miraculous Medals. Thousands of medals have been distributed to believers around the world, not as a lucky charm but as a symbol of faith and love.
The Irish Sister pressed a Medal into my hand and then walked away. I returned to the Chapel. All the artwork made sense to me now. There was Catherine with her hands clasped in Mary’s lap, surrounded by angels above the center alter and The Virgin Mother, standing on a globe, her foot, crushing the serpent. I had been to Lourdes before and felt the Faith of the thousands visiting there but this simple Chapel touched me in a more personal way, and as I sat in that small chapel, hidden in the back streets of Paris, my fingers curled around my very own Médaille Miraculeuse. GUIDEBOOKS Chapel Of The Marvelous Medal, Paris No matter how you come up from the Metro, face the charming Square Boucicant go down the rue de Sèvres, along the left side of the square. Look for the small Chapelle de la Médaille Miraculeuse signs. Just a few blocks down at the Bon Marché department store, turn right onto rue du Bac. The church is ½ block down on the left. Contacting Them: |
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I finally got the bright idea to ask the first nun or
priest I came across. I did so and after the Sister quit chuckling at my botched
French, her response was an excited, “Mais oui, L’Eglise de la Médaille
Miraculeuse! (The Church of the Miraculous Medal)”. It sounded close enough to
me. She gave me enthusiastic directions but spoke so fast, I only grasped that
it was behind the Bon Marché Department Store. Being an enthusiastic shopper,
that was good enough for me. After a few wrong turns and faulty guidance from
three charming but misguided French Policemen, I arrived at my destination and
stepped under an unassuming arch and into a long courtyard that led to the
portal of a small chapel. There were no lofty spires, an impressive bell tower
or anything else to alert passer-bys that a church was even there at all. You
had to know what you were looking for. They definitely needed some serious
Public Relations help and a good sign painter.
A service was in progress. I tiptoed in and sat down on a
bench up against the back wall. I recognized the language of the Mass as Polish,
so my eyes and thoughts began to wander around the interior. After so many
heavy, dark French churches, this one really stood out. The walls were painted
white (a real first for Paris) and the mosaic tile and fresco paintings were all
in light blue, white and gold. It felt so airy and light, positive and hopeful.
She explained the complete story to me. In 1830 Mary
appeared in this chapel to Catherine Labouré, a young Sister of St. Vincent de
Paul. While Catherine had been sleeping, a mysterious child came to the foot of
her bed, saying “Sister! The Blessed Virgin is waiting for you”. Catherine
dressed and followed him into the Chapel. “He went before me shedding rays of
light everywhere he passed,” she said. Upon arriving, she heard a noise “like
the rustle of a silk dress”. Catherine spent two hours kneeling, with her hands
held in the Virgin’s lap. She was given the charge to have a Medal made so that
believers who “asked with confidence would receive graces”.
Catherine told her spiritual director, Father Aladel, about
the apparition. He went to the Bishop, who responded, “Let me meet this Sister
and let her plead her case before me.” Catherine firmly declined to tell anyone
of the vision and refused to meet with the Bishop, being humble, modest and
determined to stay anonymous. “I am only the instrument,” she said, and no one
ever knew it was she who Mary visited until after her death. The Bishop,
believing in her sincerity, gave permission for the medals to be made.
There is one last point, which is fascinating. When the
body of Sister Catherine was moved 57 years after her death from her hometown in
Reuilly to the Chapel on rue du Bac, it was discovered that she looked the same
as the day she was buried. Her body and clothing had not decomposed. Her fingers
even remained in an erect position of prayer, pointing heavenward, clasping her
Rosary. She remains in her original habit of the 1800’s in a glass coffin on the
right side of the alter, just below a statue of her Beloved Mary.
