Ep 220 - The Miraculous Medal with Shaun McAfee

<p>Alphonse Ratisbonne hated the Catholic Church. He put on a Miraculous Medal as a joke, just to win a bet with a Catholic friend. Days later he walked into a church in Rome, saw Our Lady standing exactly as she's pictured on that little medal, and walked out a changed man. He became a priest. That conversion, and the hidden nun behind the medal that caused it, is the whole episode today.</p><p><br />Shaun McAfee joins James for his fifth appearance on The Manly Catholic (he's officially in the Five-Timers Club now) to talk about his newest release for TAN Books, Saints and Sacramentals: Saint Catherine Labouré and the Miraculous Medal, the second book in his Saints and Sacramentals series written to give parents a way to explain Catholic devotions to their kids.</p><p>In this episode:</p><ul><li>Who Saint Catherine Labouré was, and how a farm girl became the visionary behind the most-produced medal in Church history</li><li>Why she refused every bit of credit for the rest of her life, and how nobody knew it was her until after she died</li><li>What's actually on the Miraculous Medal, and what the serpent, the twelve stars, and the two hearts on the back really mean</li><li>The wild true story of Alphonse Ratisbonne, an atheist who wore the medal to mock it and ended up a missionary priest</li></ul><p><b><strong>PRODUCTS &amp; REFERENCES MENTIONED:</strong></b></p><ul><li><a href="https://tanbooks.com/products/books/saint-catherine-laboure-and-the-miraculous-medal/?srsltid=AU7gw4WDysoTzZfvYKa5FvtXwbUniw9xTmVWG-POgenuFevmcjqC7_Fr" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Saints and Sacramentals: Saint Catherine Labouré and the Miraculous Medal by Shaun McAfee</a></li><li><a href="https://tanbooks.com/products/books/compendium-of-sacramentals-encyclopedia-of-the-churchs-blessings-signs-and-devotions/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Compendium of Sacramentals and Compendium of Eucharistic Miracles</a></li><li><a href="https://tanbooks.com/products/books/saints-and-sacramentals-saint-dominic-and-the-rosary/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Saints and Sacramentals: Saint Dominic and The Rosary</a></li><li>Shaun McAfee's <a href="https://shaunmcafee.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">website</a></li></ul><p><b><strong>KEY TAKEAWAY:</strong></b><br />Stop outsourcing your faith to a shopping cart. This week, go find a local Catholic bookstore and pick out a sacramental in person — a medal, a scapular, a rosary. Hold a few in your hand before you choose on