One hundred seventy-five years today after the Medal of the Immaculate Conception was revealed to a Daughter of Charity, the world has known the wonders which the Medal has brought upon the lives of millions, and undoubtedly, has changed the course of Church history. From 1830 to the present time the Medal has become what it was, and is, meant to be: a symbol of silent and dedicated, humble service to God, a badge of sanctity and piety, and a shield of purity. 

The Medal was meant to be propagated. This is precisely the wish of Mary in 1830 when she told Sr. Catherine Laboure: “Have a Medal struck according to this model. All those who wear it with faith and confidence will receive abundant graces…” 

Over the years the Medal, which was very so known as “Miraculous,” has been an instrument of numerous cures, protection from accident, pestilence, calamities, dangers. 

Wherever Vincentian missionaries and Daughters of Charity go, the Miraculous Medal is also propagated. With the arrival of the first batch of Vincentian missionaries and Daughters of Charity in the Philippines in 1862, the seedbed of the mustard seed – of the Miraculous Medal – was prepared. 

Sometime in 1957, a layperson, Jose Chebat, approached Fr. Jesus Ma. Cavanna, then National Director of the Association of the Children of Mary in the Philippines, and suggested that the latter put up the Miraculous Medal Apostolate. 

On August 15, 1957, feast day of the Assumption of Mary, Fr. Cavanna presented the draft of the Miraculous Medal Apostolate to the Council who, without the least objection, approved the establishment of the new movement. Thus, the Miraculous Medal Apostolate (MMA) was born. The date is significant, as it signifies that the movement will draw souls to God, through the Medal, thereby to enjoy the heavenly company of Mary in the glory of her assumption to heaven. 

The Miraculous Medal Apostolate was formally launched during the Novena to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal at the St. Vincent de Paul Church in November 1957 with Jose Chebat as the first honorary perpetual member in recognition of his pioneering idea of the movement in the Philippines.