Back-to-back this week are two very important feasts: Thursday the 27th - The feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and on Friday the 28th - The feast of St. Catherine Labouré. Last year we had the opportunity to journey to Paris, France. One of the highlights and easily the most memorable stop on our visit was the Miraculous Medal Shrine, the chapel where the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Catherine in July of 1830. Below are a few photos of our visit. The small chapel is impressively beautiful as you would expect, but the most inspiring impression is the reverent prayer of the visitors to the chapel from all across the world.
The photo below is of the main altar of the chapel, with the engraving circling the statue of Our Lady, the words Our Lady requested St. Catherine to have struck on the medal she asked to be cast..."O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." 
After her miraculous visits from Our Lady, Catherine lived her remaining years as an ordinary nursing sister. Catherine never told anyone but her confessor about her visions. So, even at her death in 1876, no one knew that Catherine was the one who brought the Miraculous Medal to the world. Exhumed in 1933, her body was found incorrupt, and it now lies in a glass coffin at the side altar of the chapel, one of the spots where the Blessed Mother appeared to her. On July 27, 1947, she was canonized by Pope Pius XII.
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