This deplorable omission is so much the more difficult to understand, as, personally, Mgr. de Quélen took a serious interest in the apparition of 1830, the compass of which he comprehended. It was he who urged M. Aladel to have the medal struck; he expressed a wish to have some of the first; he received them, and experienced their efficacy. Before ordering the investigation, he had summoned to him the Mother General of the Daughters of Charity, together with the officers forming her council, and other Sisters well versed in Community affairs, to learn from them what usages of the Community could have drawn down upon it such a favor as the Blessed Virgin had just bestowed. Not content with possessing the Miraculous Medal, the pious prelate had in his own chamber a statue of the Immaculate Conception after the Sister's model. It was cast in bronze, under his own eyes, as he wished to assist at the operation. When, in 1839, the solemn octave of the Immaculate Conception was celebrated in the diocese of Paris, for the first time, this statue, on a throne surrounded with flowers, was exposed to the veneration of the faithful. The 1st of January of this same year, he consecrated his diocese to Mary Immaculate.
In commemoration of this, he had a picture painted, which represents him standing at the foot of Mary's statue, his eyes fixed upon her with love and confidence. The statue rests upon a globe which bears these words: "Virgo fidelis." And the invocation, "Regina, sine labe concepta, ora pro nobis," is inscribed upon the picture.
On the Feast of the Assumption, he presented this picture to his chapter, that it might, he said, be a monument of his devotion and that of the chapter of Paris to the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God.[12]
A medal, bearing date of January 1, 1839, reproduces this picture upon one of its faces. On the other is a vessel, tempest-tossed, and a star guiding it to the haven of peace. These words of St. Bernard, "Respice stellam, voca Mariam,"[13] explain the allegory. The following lines complete the explanation:
"Vana, Hyacinthe, furit; Stella maris auspice, vincis."[14]
