Though the Miraculous Medal was given to Saint Catherine Laboure in 1830, Our Lady continues to give immense graces through it in our times.
A True Story
A few years ago, a Brazilian cleaning lady in the large city of São Paulo told the story of her son’s conversion.
Saddened by her son’s immoral lifestyle, she had obtained a Miraculous Medal and convinced the young man to wear it. A construction worker by trade, he was in constant risk of being in an accident, and was therefore more likely to be killed in the state of mortal sin.
Although he tended not to listen to his mother’s advice, she often ordered him to pray, “O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” While he did not mind wearing the medal, he continued to lead an immoral life.
Eleven Floors Up
Soon after, he was guiding a huge bucket of cement into place on the eleventh floor of a new high-rise building. Motioning the bucket to come towards him, he momentarily lost his concentration. Before he realized the danger, the bucket had shoved him violently off the building.
The Miraculous Medal: Medal of Many Graces
From eleven stories up, the man fell onto the only standing tree left on the construction site and was tossed like a pinball from limb to limb until he dropped, unconscious, on the ground. Amazingly, he had not broken anything but was badly bruised. Extremely shaken, the young man asked his boss if he could go home. Of course, his boss acquiesced.
The Incredible Mercy of Our Lady
Upon returning home, his mother was horrified to see her son so bruised.
After her son recounted the ordeal, she asked if he had prayed. “No,” he said, “I just grabbed the Medal and yelled: Help! Help!”
Our Lady had saved him, not only from death, but also from his immoral life. He made a good confession and returned to his Catholic Faith.
Lessons to be Learned
This story should encourage us to have the highest degree of confidence in Our Lady. This did not happen five hundred years ago but in our twenty-first century. Even today, Our Lady wants to give graces of conversion to mankind but we simply do not ask.
When giving the medal to Saint Catherine, Our Lady said: “The whole world will be overwhelmed by misfortunes of all kinds… All will seem lost, but I shall be with you.”
All had seemed lost for this man, but he had recourse to the Blessed Mother. All seems lost for the world today, but we must simply increase our confidence in Our Lady who promised the triumph of her Immaculate Heart at Fatima.