ChristosVoskrese wrote:Is it all right for an Orthodox Christian to wear the Miraculous Medal?
(For those of you who don't know, the Virgin Mary appeared to Roman Catholic nun Sister Catherine Laboure in 1830. She asked Sr. Laboure to have a medal made of her with the words "O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee" around the edge. She did, and many miracles have been worked through this medal, including healings and conversions of hardened sinners to Roman Catholicism)
My priest said that it would be all right to wear it, and he blessed it for me. He said something along the lines of "It's still an image of Our Lady". As a Roman Catholic, I started wearing it all the time, not taking it off even in the shower. After my priest said it was all right, I resumed this, and am wearing it even as I write this.
But now that I'm getting into traditional Orthodoxy which recognizes Roman Catholics for what they are, Papist heretics, would it still be appropriate to wear the medal? If not, is there an Orthodox equivalent to it, something that you can wear day and night, and that will protect you from Satan and the demonic forces?
Hello, ChristosVoskrese.
I am very familiar with the "Miraculous Medal" as there was a time, during my Anglican days, when I, too, had it around my neck at all times on a cord that didn't go over my head (it was scorched together at the ends while I was wearing it to fasten it). I can understand your affinity towards it and your devotion to Our Lady is to be commended and encouraged.
However, I'm not sure that this medal is the way to go about it. The reference to the Immaculate Conception is unacceptable from an Orthodox perspective. That doctrine is a false one for us which at first seems fairly harmless. After all, at first glance, from an Orthodox perspective, the Immaculate Conception is simply the Catholic solution to a problem that doesn't exist (The Augustinian and Thomist concept of "original sin"). However, the problem goes much deeper than this as it has implications on the nature of the Mother of God, reducing her willing fiat to God's will to a mere pre-programmed response in which she had no choice. This is completely at variance with the Orthodox understanding of her. I'll not go into any great depth here but I would wholeheartedly recommend to you this book, where St John explains this in chapter 6 in a very succinct way. I think that your priest's advice, while no doubt well iintentioned, may perhaps have been a little misguided. It may be that he didn't know much about the medal. I would not suggest, though, that you disregard him in favour of listening to us here on an internet forum, but rather to speak a little more with him, after thinking about what you have read here, and in St John's book.
Don't be too hard on your Catholic friends. We cannot embrace them as our brothers and sisters in Christ because they are not in Christ: their baptism is not a Baptism. However, they are our friends who struggle to do the will of God, as we do. Sadly, they are outside the Church and yes, we do consider them to be in heresy, but many of them are in that state unwittingly. We must show them love and bring them to the Truth of Orthodoxy, not with condemnations, and not hazing over the Truth either, but with an honest love.
I must agree with the above advice about the wearing of your baptismal Cross. However, if you wish to develop another particular devotion that encourages your faith in Christ and a defence against temptation, then the medal of St Benedict is a possibility. It has the advantage of being thoroughly Orthodox in orogin and its early development, and St Benedict himself was an Orthodox Saint of the West who lived in the 5th and 6th centuries. After the west went into schism, Benedictine spirituality lived on in small sections of Orthodoxy until about the 13th century, and there was a resurgence in the 19th and 20th centuries. We're still small in number but there are those of us within the Orthodox Church who still ask for the prayers and protection of our holy Father Benedict. I wear a Cross with the Benedictine medal inlaid.
With prayers,
Michael
