Miraculous Medal in Germantown awaits pilgrims

The Miraculous Medal is a humble little pendant, a statement of faith, not fashion, worn by many Catholics in one of the church's most popular devotions.

Every week, about 1,500 pilgrims come to the National Shrine of the Miraculous Medal in Germantown to pray to the Virgin Mary, whose image adorns one side of the medal. They ask her to put in a good word for them with God, and they thank her for favors received.

The shrine, operated by members of the Vincentian religious order and the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal, is all set to welcome many more visitors during the World Meeting of Families, according to the Rev. Carl Pieber, the shrine's executive director.

Located in the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at 475 E. Chelten Ave., the shrine will be open extended hours, from Sunday, Sept. 20, through Monday, Sept. 28, to accommodate World Meeting of Families visitors. The special hours are Monday: 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday: 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday: 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sunday: 8-10 a.m.

Shuttle buses will run between the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where the World Meeting will take place, and the shrine.

Mondays are the busiest days at the shrine, with Masses in the morning and evening and prayer services throughout the day. The Miraculous Medal Shrine and three other major shrines in the area - honoring St. Katharine Drexel, St. John Neumann, and St. Rita of Cascia - have collaborated to produce a cellphone guide (215-589-6949) and pamphlet for their visitors. The four shrines now also have a common website, www.phillyshrines.org, in addition to their individual websites. "I think [the World Meeting of Families] kind of caused it," Father Pieber said.

Shrines are not peculiar to the Catholic Church, he said. "Shrine building is a very common thing," explained Father Pieber, a priest of the Vincentian order, which has a special connection to the Miraculous Medal devotion. Any time people leave flowers at the scene of an accident, they have created a shrine, he said. "People like shrines - it's that simple."

Devotees of the Miraculous Medal believe that the Blessed Virgin appeared to a French nun, Sister Catherine Laboure, in 1830 in Paris. Mary directed Sister Catherine (who was later canonized) to have an oval medal struck with the Virgin's image on one side, framed by the words: "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." The reverse was to bear the letter "M," with a cross and a bar above and two hearts below, one crowned with thorns (representing the sufferings of Jesus) and the other pierced by a sword (representing the sorrows of Mary).

As the story goes, Mary told Sister Catherine that those who wear the medal "will receive great graces, especially if they wear it around the neck." The practice caught on quickly and spread to Catholics around the world. Messages of gratitude left on the shrine's website testify to what Mary's supplicants believe to be the power of her intercession: "Thank you, Mary," they say, "for the peaceful death of mother after suffering for dementia; . . . The large 'mass' in my husband's abdomen was benign; my son . . . is well on his way to being a recovering alcoholic; . . . my kidney transplant has been a success; . . . a negative test result on my daughter's first mammogram after her breast cancer surgery."

"The medal is a reminder to pray always," Father Pieber said. "That's how the medal became miraculous."