Some months after the apparitions, Sister Catherine was assigned to the Hospice of Enghein (in the 12th district of Paris) to care for the elderly. She begins her work, however an interiour voice keeps insisting that the Medal must be struck. Once again Catherine speaks to her confessor, Father Aladel.
In February 1832 a terrible epidemic of cholera broke out in Paris and would eventually result in 20,000 deaths! In June the Daughters of Charity began to distribute the first 2000 medals that had been made at the request of Father Aladel. The number of cures multiplied, as well as protection from the disease and conversions. There was a surge of requests for the medal. The people of Paris called the medal “miraculous.”
By autumn of 1834 there were already 500,000 medals in existence. In 1835 there were more than one million worldwide and in 1839 more than 10,000,000 medals were distributed.
At the time of the death of Sister Catherine, in 1876, there were more than a billion medals.