ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the medal's transnational travels and its appropriation by various figures with specific agendas. Gender issues related to the popularization of the medal, and its evolving usage in contemporary Europe, are also highlighted. The medal was to be distributed widely, with the promise that those who wore it with confidence would obtain graces. From 1832 onwards when the miraculous medals first went into production, they sold all over Europe. The movement to promote the medal was most strongly supported by women and their devotional practices, a factor that eventually forced church authorities to incorporate the medals officially into the religion. The medals were being struck just when the cholera hit Paris', writes Weber, and their phenomenal success cannot be separated from their use as images of preservation'. The text on the medal was translated into various European languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch.
