Jean-Marie Aladel

Jean-Marie Aladel was a French Vincentian priest, born on May 4, 1800, in Les Termes in the Cantal region of southern France. He is most often remembered as the spiritual director and confessor of Saint Catherine Labouré, the Daughter of Charity associated with the 1830 visions that led to the Miraculous Medal.

Aladel’s lasting place in religious history comes from his role in preserving and explaining those events. He wrote The Miraculous Medal: Its Origin, History, Circulation, Results, a book long treated as a key early account of the medal’s beginnings and spread. Because he was so closely connected to Catherine Labouré, his writing carries unusual historical importance for readers interested in the origins of the devotion.

He died in 1865. Though not a widely known literary figure in the usual sense, he is remembered as an author whose work grew directly out of pastoral experience, careful record-keeping, and a major 19th-century Catholic devotion.