Immaculate Conception of BVM - The Miraculous Medal In the name of the Father ... The Protestant revolt threw off the Catholic Church as the divinely established authoritative interpreter of the Scriptures and Tradition: every man would interpret the scriptures for himself. As a logical consequence of the ensuing chaos, the so-called Enlightenment period - the age of reason - discarded revelation altogether: rationalism claimed there was nothing to be known which reason could not discover unaided. Man became increasingly arrogant and denied both his dependence on God and the reality of revelation, and in particular that human nature is damaged by Original Sin, the legacy of Adam's Fall. It was in this period - in the year 1830 - that the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St Catherine Laboré in Paris, France and commanded her to have a medal struck depicting the Blessed Virgin framed with the words: O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. The Blessed Virgin promised great graces to those who would wear such medals which had been blessed. The devotion of the medal was officially recognised and spread rapidly. Such were the number of supernatural events associated with the medal, that it soon obtained the epithet The Miraculous Medal, leading to a surge of devotion to the Blessed Virgin under her title of the Immaculate Conception. It was largely as a result of this popular devotion that in the year 1854 Blessed Pope Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, confirming the universality of consequences of Adam's Fall among men and that she and she alone by a special privilege of God had been preserved free from Original Sin. The definition caused much consternation at the time and was made against vociferous protests, not only from without the Church, but also from within. But only four years after Pius IX's solemn proclamation, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to St Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France. Not knowing who the beautiful lady was, the sceptical parish priest instructed Bernadette to find out. When Bernadette reported back the Lady's answer - I am the Immaculate Conception - the parish priest was astounded: Bernadette confessed that she did not even know what the words meant. Extraordinary events followed these apparitions. Only four years later, the Bishop of diocese authenticated them. A basilica was built on the site attracting innumerable pilgrims and producing a prodigious number of miraculous cures, attested to by proper medical records. The miracles performed both through the Miraculous Medal and at Lourdes, which continue even to this day, give heavenly testimony to the divine foundation of the Catholic Church and that she alone is entrusted by God to safeguard and interpret revelation. Pius IX's courage in making the infallible definition in the face of hostility was amply rewarded by the extraordinary ratification of the Lourdes’ apparitions and miracles. The miracles at Lourdes and through the Miraculous Medal attest first, however, to the singular privilege of the Blessed Virgin who - excepting only her divine Son and in view of her divine maternity - was alone of all the progeny of Adam preserved free from the fault of Original Sin. That Miraculous Medal should be hanging from each of our necks, and its prayer should be frequently on our lips. Our Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.