The Miraculous Medal: Its Origin, History, Circulation, Results

by Jean-Marie Aladel

THE ARCHCONFRATERNITY OF

NOTRE DAME DES VICTOIRES.

Scarcely six years since the apparition of 1830, and already the designs of Providence were realized; the Miraculous Medal had awakened devotion to the Blessed Virgin, belief in the Immaculate Conception had penetrated all classes of society, and the innumerable favors accorded those who fervently recited the prayers revealed by Mary, had clearly proved how she prizes this first of all her privileges. But so far, her servants remained isolated, having no bond of union, no central point where they could meet; the majority of those who wore the medal as the livery of the spotless Virgin, knew neither the place, the mode, nor date of its origin.

God was now about to complete the work, by giving to this devotion, an organization and fixed exercises which favored its development, and increased the efficacy of prayer, by the power of association.

Towards the end of the year 1836, a man was raised up to execute the divine plans; this man was M. Dufriche Desgenettes, curé of Notre Dame des Victoires, Paris. From 1820 to 1832, in charge of St. Francis Xavier's Church, he numbered among the religious establishments of his parish, the Mother House of the Daughters of Charity, where the Blessed Virgin had appeared. He was one of the most earnest in thanking God for this grace, and most eager to propagate the medal. It was his desire that the privileged chapel should become a pilgrim shrine, but this desire not being realized, he was chosen by Providence to supply the substitute.

Let us quote his own words, relating how he was led to found the Archconfraternity of the Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary. "There was in Paris, a parish scarcely known even to many of the Parisians. It is situated in the centre of the city, between the Palais Royal and the Bourse, surrounded by theatres and places of dissipation, a quarter swallowed up in the vortex of cupidity and industry, and the most abandoned to every species of criminal indulgence. Its church, dedicated to Notre Dame des Victoires, remained deserted even on the most solemn festivities.... No Sacraments were administered in this parish, not even to the dying.... If, by dint of novel persuasion, the curé obtained permission to visit a person dangerously ill, it was not only on condition of waiting until the patient's faculties were dimmed, but also on another almost insuperable condition, that of presenting himself in a secular habit. What benefit were such visits? They were merely a useless torment to the dying."[20]

Such was the parish confided to M. Desgenettes. With the hope of recalling to God, even a few strayed souls, the poor curé, for four years, employed every means that the most active zeal could suggest, but in vain. Sad and grieved beyond measure, he thought of quitting this ungrateful post, when a supernatural communication revived his drooping courage.

On the 3d of December, Feast of St. Francis Xavier, thoroughly penetrated with the inutility of his ministry in this parish, he was saying Mass at the Blessed Virgin's altar, now the altar of the Archconfraternity.... After the Sanctus, he distinctly heard these words pronounced in a very solemn manner: "Consecrate thy parish to the most Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary." They did not strike his ears, but seemed to proceed from an interior voice. He immediately recovered peace and liberty of spirit. After finishing his thanksgiving, fearing to be the dupe of an illusion, he endeavored to banish the thought of what was apparently a supernatural communication, but the same interior voice resounded again in the depths of his soul. Returned to his house, he begins to compose the statutes of the association, with a view of delivering himself from an importunate idea, and scarcely does he take his pen in hand, ere he is fully enlightened on the subject, and the organization of the work costs him nothing but the manual labor of the writing.[21]

The statutes prepared, are submitted to Mgr. de Quélen who approves them, and the 16th of the same month, an archiepiscopal ordinance erects canonically the Association of the Holy and Immaculate Heart of Mary for the conversion of sinners. The first meeting took place on Sunday, the 11th of December. In announcing it at High Mass, the pious pastor expected to see in the evening not more than fifty or sixty persons at most. Judge of his astonishment on finding assembled at the appointed hour, a congregation of about five hundred, a large proportion of whom are men! What had brought them? The majority were ignorant of the object of the meeting. An instruction explaining the motive and end of the exercises made a deep impression; the Benediction was chanted most fervently, and there was a notable increase of fervor during the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, especially at the thrice repeated invocation: "Refugium peccatorum, ora pro nobis." The cause was gained, Mary took possession of the parish of Notre Dame des Victoires.