We can understand from the above, how M. Aladel could have mistaken some details furnished by Sister Catherine, or have confounded the apparition of the medal with the visions of July 18th and 19th, in which the Blessed Virgin's apparel was white and blue.
However, the accessories of the mantle and its indescribable hue, in no wise affect the reality of the apparition.
We recollect with what indifference, we might say severity, M. Aladel received his penitent's communications, bidding her give no heed to them, but dismiss them from her mind, as altogether unworthy of attention. But Sister Catherine's obedience, attested by her Director himself, could not efface the delightful remembrance of what she had seen and heard; to return to Mary's feet was her greatest happiness; the thought never left her, nor the firm conviction that she would see this dear Mother again. And, indeed, in the course of December, she was favored with another vision, similar to that of November 27th, and occurring at the same time, during evening meditation. But there was a striking difference between this and the previous one, the Blessed Virgin, instead of stopping at St. Joseph's picture, passed on, and rested above the tabernacle, a little behind it, and precisely in the place the statue now occupies. The Blessed Virgin appeared to be about forty years of age, according to the Sister's judgment. The apparition was, as it were, framed from the hands in the invocation: "O Mary! conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!" traced in golden letters. The reverse presented the monogram of the Blessed Virgin, surmounted by a cross, and beneath were the divine hearts of Jesus and Mary. Sister Labouré was again directed to have a medal struck upon this model. She terminates her account in these words: "To tell you what I understood at the moment the Blessed Virgin offered the globe to Our Lord, would be impossible, or what my feelings were whilst gazing on her! A voice in the depths of my heart said to me: 'These rays are symbolic of the graces the Blessed Virgin obtains for those who ask for them.'"
These few lines, according to her, should be inscribed at the base of the Blessed Virgin's statue. On this occasion, contrary to her usual custom, she could not refrain from an exclamation of joy at the thought of the homages which would be rendered Mary! "Oh! how delightful to hear it said: 'Mary is Queen of the Universe, and particularly of France!' The children will proclaim it, 'She is Queen of each soul!'"
When Sister Labouré related the third apparition of the medal, M. Aladel asked her if she had seen anything written on the reverse. The Sister answered that she had not. "Ah!" said the Father, "ask the Blessed Virgin what to put there."
The young Sister obeyed; and after having prayed a long time, one day during meditation, she seemed to hear a voice saying: "The M and the two hearts express enough."
None of these narrations mention the serpent, yet it always figures in representations of the apparition, and certainly in conformity with Sister Catherine's earliest revelations of the vision. The following shows why we are so positive of this fact.
Towards the close of her life, after a silence of forty-five years, M. Aladel being no more, this good daughter was interiorly constrained to confide to one of her Superiors the communications she had received from the Blessed Virgin, that they might serve to reanimate devotion and gratitude to Mary. Having done this, her mind was relieved; she felt that now she could die in peace.
The Superior, favored with her confidence, wishing to realize one of her venerable companion's most cherished desires, proposes a statue of Mary Immaculate, holding the globe. On asking Sister Catherine if the serpent must be represented under the Blessed Virgin's feet, she answered: "Yes; there was a serpent of a greenish color, with yellow spots." She also remarked that the globe in the Virgin's hands was surmounted by a little cross, that her countenance was neither very youthful nor very joyous, but indicative of gravity mingled with sorrow, that the sorrowful expression vanished as her face became irradiated with love, especially at the moment of her prayer.