Dear Friends,

I read with interest the thread on the "miracle medallion."

Just wanted to add my comments,if I may.

This medal is one of only TWO religious medallions that are officially approved by the Latin Church - the other being the medal of St Benedict.

It is referred to as the medal "of the Immaculate Conception."

The provenance of this medal goes well beyond 1830 when the final form came into being as a result of the visions at Rue du Bac.

St Dmitri of Rostov and other Orthodox Baroque-era Saints practiced devotion to the Immaculate Conception (as noted also by Fr. John Meyendorff in his book on Byzantine Theology, I think it was).

Orthodox graduates of Paris and elsewhere brought the devotion to the Immaculate Conception to Eastern Europe where they also founded "Brotherhoods of the Immaculate Conception."

They all wore a medal similar to the Miraculous Medal (although the back of it would have been different). Their Brotherhood's prayer was "All-Immaculate Theotokos, save us!" And a number of them took the Western "bloody vow" to defend to the death the "truth of the Immaculate Conception.

Yes, this was a wholesale Latinization. But the OCA site indicates that the figure of the Theotokos as she appears on the Miraculous Medal is a legitimate Orthodox representation of her, especially for the Feast of the "Conception of St Anne." Have a look if you don't believe me.

Yes, there are some Western pictures of the Immaculate Conception that are venerated locally in the Orthodox Slavic East as miraculous.

This medal became very popular among Greek-Catholics and, in Eastern Europe, it still is.

The arguments I noticed on the now closed thread that indicated the medal somehow introduced an "unhealthy" Marian devotion are simply ridiculous in the extreme.

Can anyone have a greater devotion to the Theotokos than the Orthodox and EC Churches?

Icons abound that depict ONLY her on it - she ALWAYS points to Christ and leads us to Him. The medal itself shows her "clothed with the Sun" meaning "Christ our Sun."

That the figure of the Theotokos is composed on the basis of a meditation of a couple of biblical themes - and . . .?

MANY Orthodox icons indicate the Mother of God with a crown of twelve stars, with a moon under her etc.

As for the back of the medal, the symbolism of the twelve stars is very rich in the East especially. The Cross over the "M" signifies that Mary stood beneath the Cross and "Co-suffered" with Christ - a very popular Eastern Marian theme, especially in the Octoechos Sunday Tones.

The depiction of the Hearts is, of course, Western.

I once told an Orthodox priest about the difficulty I had praying the Jesus Prayer.

But, one day, as I looked at a picture of the Sacred Heart of Christ, it seemed to me that all the difficulties went away and I could pray the Prayer with no difficulty.

Do you know what he told me? He told me to write this experience up and share it with others.

And St Nicodemus the Hagiorite and St Nicholas Cabasilas both discuss the Heart of Christ in their writings.

The East chooses another way to underscore Christ the Lover of Mankind and the Swords that pierced the soul of the Theotokos.

But the heart symbol is a potent one and it is perfectly private as indicated on the medal.

No one is forced to wear that medal.

As someone who has worn it for decades, I can attest to the Soteriological background of it and the way it inclines one to greater veneration of the Mother of Christ our God.

I was very sorry to have read some of the comments on that thread and, frankly, I'm glad it was closed.

Have a nice day everyone!

Alex

Thank God Dr Roman is back with his wealth of knowledge! Thanks Alex.
-D

Quite a few of my wife's rosaries include the Miraculous Medal as the center.

She is using the Eastern Rosary prayers for the rosary. It is quite beautiful.

Thank you St. Seraphim of Sarov for your rule of prayer, and to you Alex, for teaching us this.

Michael

Dear Michael,

Yes, St Seraphim of Sarov!

His icon of the "Joy of all Joys" - hardly "Eastern" is it?

But the Orthodox know a great thing when they see it!

And so did the Staretz.

I have a very large copy of it in my study that I recently acquired - really, there are very few icons that inspire so powerfully as that sacred object!

It was before this icon that depicts ONLY the Mother of God that St Seraphim of Sarov spent his days and nights praying the Rule of the Theotokos and the Jesus Prayer.

This developed into the Orthodox practice of praying the Name of Jesus before the Face of the Most Holy Virgin Mary.

It is like praying the Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament.

Again, Mary ONLY points to Her Son.

When the Lord Jesus gave us His Mother at the Foot of the Cross, He really did know what He was doing!

Alex

Dear Daniel,

God bless you and your family, Sir!

Alex

Alex,

It is so good to have you back!

Do you know what was on the back of the Orthodox medal? Are there any still in existence somewhere? Do you have a link to these?

I would very much be interested in acquiring one, as a devotee of the medal and Our Lady's Immaculate Conception. (The one I am wearing right now was blessed by the Servant of God, Pope John Paul the Great!)

Peace,

Gordon

PS; I will be in Tokyo this December 8th/9th and plan on attending Vespers Liturgy at the shrine to St. Nicholas of Japan. What a blessed place to be for the Feast!

Dear Gordon,

There was probably a prayer or a cross inscribed on the back of the old medal - I saw some in a religious museum but they were behind glass.

The front of the Miraculous Medal is simply a copy of the older medal that can be traced to the 17th and 18th centuries.

Archeologists found some among the ruins of Ste Marie of the Hurons - Sts. Charles Garnier and Noel Chabanel both made the "bloody vow" and died on the eve before and the day of the feast of the "Conception," Dec. 7 and 8 respectively.

Apart from that, I've never seen any other rendition except that of the Miraculous Medal.

Interestingly, that term is not used by the Roman Rite - it is a popular term that gained provenance after the deluge of miracles experienced by those devoted to it in Paris and beyond. The statue of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in the Chapel of Rue du Bac has been declared miraculous also and bears a papal crown.

There is also an interesting passage in Bl. Catherine Emmerich's visions of the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

She says that the image of Our Lady (as depicted on the Miraculous Medal) goes back to the days of the Fathers, when the Church was one.

When the Greek Fathers first saw it, she relates, they were surprised by it as it was a different depiction of Our Lady than they were used to.

They then submitted the image to "testing" on the basis of scripture and tradition etc. and found it to be perfectly in keeping with the faith etc.

That St Catherine Laboure had a vision of Our Lady - many saints have had such visions, including St Seraphim of Sarov.

The Eastern Church especially has taken saints' visions and has sometimes made them part of the liturgical/faith heritage. St Macarius of Alexandria's visions of what happens to the soul after death and over what periods of time are now part of the Church's official traditions regarding prayer for the dead.

And so familiar in spiritual converse with the Theotokos was St Seraphim of Sarov that he even wrote a rule of life for the Nuns at Diveyevo that he said was actually dictated to him by the Mother of God!

Thus, the Rule of 150 Hail Mary's that figured so prominently in the Marian devotion of St Seraphim of Sarov, St Seraphim Zvezdinsky (shot by the Bolsheviks in 1937 and St Seraphim Vyritsky and others.

This is also why St Seraphim prescribed the singing of a Paraclisis service prior to Sunday Liturgy at Diveyevo and other details of the daily prayer rule for the Nuns - all given by the Theotokos through the Elder!

Happy Feast of the Conception of St Anne in Japan!

Alex

Dear Gordon,

One more thing, the medal of Our Lady Joy of all Joys of St Seraphim was routinely distributed at Sarov (as it is today and in many churches in Orthodox Russia devoted to St Seraphim).

I managed, by the help of the Most Holy Mother of God, to have acquired an antique one.

On the back of it is a depiction of St Seraphim standing beside the Diveyevo Monastery with his leather "Lestovka" and the Mother of God with her arms crossed over is looking down at him from the skies.

It is the one medal I would wear instead of the Miraculous one, since that icon, too, is miraculous!

(It's the same Mother of God, right?)

Alex

Alex,

That is marvellous. Where can I find a copy of the "Rule of 150 Hail Mary's"? Is it simply saying the Hail Mary or REjoice, O THeotokos prayer 150 times in addition to the traditional prayers before and afterwards?

God bless!

Gordo

PS: Today, I officially leave the SFO. I am meeting with my fraternity to announce it to them personally, instead of sending a note. My hope is to now dedicate myself to the Byzantine Companions of the Holy Cross instead. Most Holy Theotokos, save us!

Alex,

You mentioned the "bloody vow".

I put together this act of entrustment to the Theotokos some time back, basing it mostly on the writings of Saint John of Damascus. What do you think?

My spiritual father gave me his blessing to use this prayer.

Peace,

Gordo

-------------------------------------------

O daughter of Joachim and Anna, O Lady Theotokos, receive the word of a sinful servant, who nevertheless burns with love and places in you his only hope of joy; in you he finds the guardian of his life, not only a Mediatrix in your Son's presence, but also a sure pledge of salvation.

What is sweeter than you, the Mother of my God? You have taken my mind captive; you have taken possession of my tongue; you are on my mind day
and night!

I therefore today desire to remain near you, O Lady, as the Beloved Disciple of your Son at the foot of the Holy Cross. Yes, I repeat, O Lady Theotokos and Virgin:

I (profession name) take you into the home of my heart and bind my soul to you and to your mantle of Holy Protection for the sake of the Holy Gospel and Kingdom of your Son as to a most firm hope, as to a most firm and totally unbreakable anchor and shield, entrusting to you (anathemenoi) by vow my mind, soul, body and all my being and honoring you, as much as I can, with words, deeds and spiritual canticles, and by keeping the commandments of God and bearing testimony to Jesus Christ in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen!

O Christ our God, through the prayers of the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, Saint John the Theologian, Saint Michael the Archangel and all the saints of God, have mercy on us and save us!

The prayer rule of St. Seraphim of Sarov
St. Seraphim of Sarov taught everyone the following rule of prayer:

“Let any Christian, upon arising from sleep stand before the holy icons, and read the Lord’s Prayer “Our Father” thrice, in honor of the Most-holy Trinity, then the hymn to the Theotokos “O Theotokos and Virgin, rejoice…” three times as well, and finally, the Symbol of Our Faith once. Having completed this rule, let each one attend to the tasks to which he was appointed or to which he is called.

“During work at home or while traveling somewhere, let him quietly read “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” If there are others in his vicinity while he is working, let him silently repeat “Lord have mercy,” until supper.

“After supper, upon completing his tasks, let him quietly read “Most Holy Theotokos, save me a sinner,” and let him repeat this until falling asleep.

“Going to bed, let any Christian again read the above-mentioned morning rule. Thereafter, let him go to sleep, having protected himself with the sign of the Cross.” Fr. Seraphim said “Keeping this rule, it is possible, to reach Christian perfection, for the three prayers indicated are the foundation of Christianity. The first, as the payer given [to us] by Christ Himself, is the model for all prayers. The second was brought from Heaven by the Archangel to greet the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Our Lord. The Symbol [of our faith] contains in brief all of the salvific dogmas of the Christian Faith.”

To those who for whatever reason could not complete this little rule, Venerable St. Seraphim recommended reading it under whatever circumstance: during lessons, while walking, and even in bed. He based this advise on the words of the Scriptures “whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved…”

Dear Gordo,

That is marvellous!

As for the Rule of 150 Hail Mary's, every time I have mentioned this, along comes Fr. Deacon Lance with his English translation of ANOTHER rule of prayer of St Seraphim's that is completely different and separate from the previous one!

Fr. Deacon Lance seems to think St Seraphim of Sarov only established one rule of prayer, when, in fact, he established FOUR.

One of these, namely the Rule of the 150 Hail Mary's I have translated into English, together with St Seraphim Zvezdinsky's additions to the meditations, that is somewhere on this site.

If not, then it is also in a letter that is contained in the comments section of this site: www.montfortmissionaries.com.

Also, if you google it, it should come up.

Fr. Deacon Lance's Rule is the basic rule for Laity. St Seraphim also had a longer, ascetical rule for saying the Psalter. He also had another Rule, an embellishment of the basic rule for Laity (that Fr. Deacon Lance is always bringing up on the screen . . . ) for the Nuns of Diveyevo for their morning and evening prayers and also their other rules given by the Theotokos herself.

I have, to date, translated three of the four rules of prayer of St Seraphim here. I will get to the other one soon.

The Rule of Prayer to the Theotokos of St Seraphim is simply the Our Father once followed by ten Hail Mary's said 15 times meditating on the following:

The Birth of the Theotokos
Entrance into the Temple
Annunciation
Visitation
Nativity of our Lord
Meeting in the Temple
Flight into Egypt
Finding in the Temple
Changing of the water into wine at Cana
Crucifixion
Resurrection
Ascension
Pentecost
Dormition
Protection

The above Rule to the Theotokos of St Seraphim (NOT the one Fr. Deacon Lance gives above), is also described iin the 2003 edition of the "Encyclopedia of Orthodoxy" published by the Moscow Patriarchate.

But of course, the Rule to the Mother of God of St Seraphim is Orthodox and bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Roman Catholic rosary.

At least, so I am told by those who obviously know better than me.

For one thing, the Orthodox prayer rope doesn't make a "clicking" sound when you walk around with it or put it on a table or desk.

Forgive me for not paying attention to the finer points that divide our traditions for all eternity!

Once again, St Seraphim of Sarov left us four rules of prayer. If one has the Jordanville "Little Russian Philokalia" then the volume dedicated to St Seraphim of Sarov also mentions the Hail Mary rule of prayer (O.K., "Rejoice O Theotokos!")

Fr. Deacon Lance is a great Christian gentleman, but if he puts up that prayer rule again whenever we mention the Rule of the Theotokos, I'm going to scream something in Church Slavonic!!

Have a nice weekend, y'all . . .

Alex

Alex and Father Deacon Lance,

These are terrific! Thank you for the explanations.

Alex - where can I locate all four of St. Seraphim's rules of prayer? (links are great if you have them)

Many years!

Gordo

Alex,

I was in no way trying discredit St. Seraphim's rule of 150 Hail Marys. However, when ever I google it the only thing that comes up is the above which I think is also very nice and also seems Rosary like with its Our Fathers and Hail Marys. Please post all his rules of prayer as I am sure all would benefit from them.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Dear Father Deacon Lance,

O.K., I'll create one document with all four Rules and will then approach His Honour, the Administrator, with a request to post them!

Alex

Spasi Khristos!

Alex is indeed right - there were even more than four - individual spiritual children of the great St. Seraphim have told about unique variations of his "rule" which he gave them for their own individual circumstances.

One very simple one he gave was this (a variation of the "Seven-Bow Beginning") revealed by one of the "orphans":

Lord, cleanse me of my sins and have mercy on me.
You have created me; have mercy on me.
There is no way to measure my sin; have mercy on me.
Lord, forgive the many times I disobey You.
Master, I bow down before Your cross and glorify Your resurrection.
Lord, when I sin in what I say and do, have mercy on me because of Your great compassion."

I personally like to use his "Rule of St. Pachomius" which he gave to his "orphans" (he called his sisters at Divayevo that because most were illiterate and refused by other convents):

Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us.

Amen. Glory to Thee, our God, glory to Thee.

O Heavenly King, Comforter...
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us. (Thrice)
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the unto the ages of ages. Amen.
O Most Holy Trinity, have mercy on us...
Lord have mercy. (Thrice)
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
Our Father...,
O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amen.

Lord, Have mercy. (Twelve times)
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and unto the unto the ages of ages. Amen.
O come, let us worship God our King.
O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and God.
O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ Himself, our King and God.

Psalm 50
The Creed

The Jesus Prayer:
O Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. (100 Times or as directed by your spiritual father)
More honorable than the Cherubim...
Glory...Both now and ever...
Lord have mercy (3X) O Lord, Bless.
The Dismissal

I also call it "The Rule of the Y" because one can do this while exercising, doing chores, etc. While certainly it has early origins likely of Thebaidic origin it was St. Seraphim especially who disseminated it (as well as later the Optina Elders). Dostoyevsky knew of it.

The beauty of it was to be something easily put to memory, so his illiterate "orphans" could use it for the Hours as they worked at the Divayevo mill.

Deacon Diak

(n.b. One can also add on the penetential troparia "Have mercy on us...Glory...O Lord have mercy on us...Both now and ever...Open unto us the portals of mercy... after the Creed as I was instructed by a spiritual father)

Dear Father DIAKon,

Thank you for this!

Also, would you know about the Old Believer method of praying the Divine Office using 12-Psalm groups - the Semeyskie Old Believer website makes reference to it . . .

Alex

I am sorry but I am new to the Eastern Rites and found this line of discussion both fascinating and confusing. I never realized that there was an Eastern form of the Rosary (sorry if my way of putting things offends. I am still learning the correct terms for things). Can someone point me in the direction of material that would explain it to me?
Thank you so much

Dear Friend,

Here is one site:

http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/OldWorldBasic/Rosary.htm

and

http://www.angelfire.com/pa3/OldWorldBasic/RuleofMotherofGod.htm

Alex

Thank you very much!!

Ah, Alex - I have a St. Benedict medal in my pocket right now. For a fine description of it and for a reminder of the prayers associated with it, see: http://www.osb.org/gen/medal.html.

I remember when *Getting to Yes* and *Leadership Secrets of Atilla the Hun* were so very popular as "management" books. I found them pretty empty - the bottom line of how to get people to do what you want is kind of selfish, whether by cajoling or by force. I visited a Trappist monastery nad picked up and read the *Rule of St. Benedict* and became convinced it was the greatest "management" book of all time because it focused not on how to win people over or influence them but on how to foster real community and higher spiritual purpose. It is available on line in several languages. See http://www.osb.org/rb/index.html.

My personal Marian devotions tend more Eastern. I prefer the Akhatist to the rosary. I relate to my own reflections of Mary better in the warm colors of icons than in the relatively chilly feel of medals and stone statues.

More on the Miraculous Medal. This medal was brought into China by Vincentian missionaries; of honorable mention: Saint John Gabriel Perboyre and Saint John Francis Regis, both martyrs. St. John Perboyre, martyred in China after horrible and disgusting torture, distributed thousands of these medals throughout China. Father Perboyre was ordained priest in the same chapel where Saint Catherine Laboure was favored with the apparition of Our Lady. I enjoyed the following story:

Tiny medals sustain couple's faith through persecution



By PAT McDONALD
Special to the WCR

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Several years ago an event occurred that has always given me pause to appreciate the power of spirituality. I was travelling on an overnight train from the northern Chinese city of Harbin, near the Russian border.
I had spent four months in China coaching and assisting the eventual China national junior men's basketball team and was on my way back to Beijing and Canada. Security was tight in China and practising any religion was dealt with harshly.

During my stay I had observed Catholic churches boarded up and many other churches sacked and desecrated by Red Guards ever since the days of the Cultural Revolution.

I remember being taken by my interpreter Tong Tzu to visit a once majestic Russian Orthodox cathedral in downtown Harbin that had been desecrated during the Cultural Revolution. Many Russians had fled during the Bolshevik Revolution and settled in Harbin.

A once-ornate altar now was splattered with paint and Maoist slogans. Frescoes and murals were all irretrievably scarred. The church was now used as a storage facility for a furniture factory. As I was leaving the main part of this church I spotted a marking on the wall that might have appeared as desecration but was not. Someone had painted the "sign of a fish" behind the altar.

Not everyone was abandoning his or her faith. One of those Red Guards, Susan, became a teacher, was befriended by my daughter at her Teachers School in Harbin, and went on to spend a year with us in Grande Prairie. It was Susan and Tong Zhu, at great risk to themselves, who had brought me to the Russian church.

Now two compartments down from me sat an elderly couple on their way to Beijing. My interpreter, whom I trusted, informed me that the old couple would like to talk to me as they had heard I was Canadian.

My interpreter, Tong Zhu (now out of China), had told me that the husband had been a mayor near Beijing prior to Chairman Mao's revolution and his wife had been a professor of music at Beijing University.

Uprooted during purge
During the "Purge of the Intellectuals" in China they were uprooted and sent to the northern part of China for "re-education." They had spent 24 harsh years digging ditches, being re-educated, carrying slop pails and being humiliated as they worked the rice fields. Now they were on their way home.
They showed me photos of their children whom they had not seen all these years. I showed them photos of my family. They had spotted my crucifix under my shirt and asked if I was a Christian. I told them yes I was - a Catholic Christian. There was an exchange of quick phrases and the elderly woman clasped her coarse, weather beaten hands in mine.

With my limited Mandarin and the help of my interpreter I was able to determine that Catholic missionaries had baptized them Catholic many years before during the Second World War. Since the Communist takeover by Mao Tse Tung, they had not met any believers nor seen a church or had any opportunity to receive the Eucharist. Indeed any outward sign would have been ruthlessly dealt with.

Even now foreigners were immediately expelled from China if caught promoting any religion. I had an idea. They had some bread and I went back and got some wine that had been given to me by a Communist Party official when I boarded the train in Harbin. Little did he know to what use I would now put that wine.

With the bread and wine I began to recall as best I could the Last Supper of Jesus. Although they spoke no English and I very little Mandarin they understood and shared the meaning and nodded as I related the events of the Last Supper.

When I recalled the words of Jesus "This is my body, . . . this is my blood" in Latin and we broke the bread and shared, this lovely old couple each made the Sign of the Cross. It was as if all the previous 24 years of hardship, devoid of any Eucharist or companions for this faith-filled couple, had evaporated. They were in community.

Medals inside lapel
It was then the elderly gentleman showed me the inside of his lapel where he had sewn a small miraculous medal of Mary. His wife had a medal of the Sacred Heart of Jesus sewn into the hem of her jacket. This had sustained them somehow all these years.
It was I who was overwhelmed in that tiny compartment on a Chinese train in one of the most oppressive of anti-Catholic countries. I asked if I might take a photograph of them. I have looked at it many times in the intervening years.

Dear Annie,

Yes indeed!

But Eastern Christians likewise wear medals, along with their neck crosses, of the Mother of God and the Saints.

The Miraculous Medal is a version of an older medal that was very popular among the Orthodox in the time of the Kyivan Baroque era.

In fact, the OCA website describes the front of the Miraculous Medal as an actual Orthodox icon for the feast of the Conception of St Anne!

Although this is based upon a personal vision, Bl. Catherine Emmerich, in her "Life of the Blessed Virgin Mary" discusses how an image of the Mother of God as portrayed on the Miraculous Medal was examined by Greek theologians who had never seen it before.

They examined ancient icons to see if there were examples of this in Eastern iconography before.

They found that there were and so, according to Emmerich, approved the image.

In addition, this was also how the Mother of God appeared over the Coptic Church in Zeitun in 1968-1969.

They have a new Cathedral of our Lady of Zeitun there with an iconographic version of the Mother of God portrayed EXACTLY as she is on the front of the Miraculous Medal.

I received some photos of this Cathedral from a priest who visited there and I myself had to stop in surprise for a moment when I saw the iconography of the Cathedral . . .

The miraculous Medal was and is popular with our Greek-Catholic people in Eastern Europe. At Zarvanytsia, many don this medal as well.

In L'viv, there is an RC fountain-shrine with a statue of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal where many Ukrainian Catholic newlyweds visit after their Crownings to lay wreaths. My Godson's mother was over there for a wedding last year and saw a line-up of newly-married Eastern Catholics going with flower wreaths to lay at the feet of the Mother of God there and ask her blessing.

The Miraculous Medal image is simply one that has been adopted by many Eastern Christians, INCLUDING Orthodox, as at Zeitun ("Zeitun" incidentally means "olive oil").

There are what can be called "superstitious" uses of this (i.e. placing one over a home to protect it from ever being robbed and the like), but Christians will be Christians!

Alex