Generational devotion, such as that shared by family members devoted to Mary, acts like a chain that links together a community throughout time. It gives families a sense of who they are and how to approach life.

Assunta Cerrato Romero (pictured with her son and parents) was a girl of just 6 or 7 when she donned a ceremonial white gown and led her schoolmates in a procession through the streets of their Philadelphia neighborhood. The vibrant flowers of early spring lined their route as they processed praying the Holy Rosary.

Assunta had been chosen as the May Queen for The Miraculous Medal Shrine’s annual May Procession. Today, that celebration of the Blessed Mother is among her earliest childhood memories of the Shrine. But, it is only one among many.

For Assunta, the Shrine has always been a second home. It is where her grandparents brought her parents, where her parents brought her, and where she brings her own school-age son to experience first-hand the beauty, grace, and solemnity of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

“From those early days, I’ve always had a strong devotion to Our Lady,” explains Assunta. “I knew [the Shrine] was a sacred place, a safe place, a place to come to pray and be close to Our Lady and get closer to her son, Jesus.”

Like Assunta, Marylou Tammaro inherited a devotion to The Miraculous Medal Shrine from her parents. Although she was raised in a different part of the city, Marylou remembers how her mother, Mary Quinn, loved to share stories about growing up in Immaculate Conception Parish and attending the parish school on the Shrine grounds. Mary often told of the special bond she developed with one of the Vincentian priests at the Shrine, Fr. Bogart. As a teenager, Marylou began to accompany her mom on frequent pilgrimages to the foot of Mary’s altar.

“That’s when I became aware of the Shrine, when I started going to the novenas with my mother,” recalls Marylou. “It was absolutely beautiful, very moving. As a teenager, you’re not necessarily into all of that, but having grown up with my mom, who had a great devotion to the Blessed Mother, she passed that on to me.”

It’s a devotion that Marylou then passed down to her own adult daughter, Christine McCauley, who—as fate would have it—has become a near-constant presence at the Shrine as an employee in the administrative office of the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal.

Throughout the 95-year history of The Miraculous Medal Shrine in Philadelphia’s Germantown section, and the 147-year history of the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception that houses the Shrine, there are countless examples of the type of multi-generational devotion exemplified by the Cerrato-Romero and Quinn-Tammaro families.

Envisioned and constructed by members of the Congregation of the Mission, more commonly known as the Vincentians of the Eastern Province, the Shrine is visited by tens of thousands of pilgrims from across the United States and around the world every year. They come to experience the beautiful Romanesque architecture and the inspiring Marian works of art. They come to breathe the glorified air and to heed Our Lady’s message to St. Catherine Labouré in 1830, to come to the foot of her altar and ask for her graces.

For many of the faithful, their visits to the Shrine also fulfill and perpetuate family legacies. It is their way of thanking their ancestors for an invaluable and timeless gift.

For many devotees, the perpetuation of family bonds has always been paramount to their engagement with the Shrine.

“Actually, my grandparents were married here and my parents, of course, came here to the Shrine and brought us here,” says Assunta, who currently lives in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, “and my parents continue to come here for services, as well.”

“(Our family) had a great devotion to Our Lady because of what she has done, all the miracles she has worked,” adds Assunta’s father, Samuel Cerrato Jr., 92. “That’s really what draws (us) here. I’ve been coming since I was a teenager, and I just believe the Blessed Mother is going to take care of us. …We were taught we had to go to church every Sunday and to be good Catholics, the best you could be. In those days, times were tough. We started coming here as kids and believed that coming here was going to help us.”

Assunta’s faith in the Blessed Mother sustains her perpetually and has uplifted her during the darkest moments of her life. Three times, her sister has been diagnosed with cancer, but has recovered each time.

“The first time she was diagnosed, we came here as a family and prayed and asked Our Lady for her intercession,” recalls Assunta. “And my sister was healed. Subsequent times when she was re-diagnosed, we continued to come here and pray. …And, as Our Lady promised, ‘I give you my graces,’ my sister is strong now and recovering and healthy.”

Similarly, Assunta sought Mary’s help with her own health scare several years ago when she suffered what was initially diagnosed as a stroke. As she was being rushed to the hospital, her first reaction was denial. Eventually, she accepted her dilemma and began to pray to the Blessed Mother.

“Once I got to the hospital, I was perfectly fine,” she says. “The physicians there didn’t believe that I had a stroke, but the medical team confirmed it. (They said,) ‘Oh yes, she had a stroke.’ I attribute that miraculous healing to Our Lady.”

Marylou believes that Our Lady sometimes bestows her blessings not through miracles that seem to produce instantaneous tangible outcomes, but rather through gentle-yet profound-revelations for those who seek her graces. In 2009, when the Bensalem, Pennsylvania, resident was diagnosed with breast cancer, she prayed to the Blessed Mother not for healing, but merely for a sign that she would be ok.

Soon after, she was sorting through some of her deceased mother’s possessions and found an empty box with something rattling around inside of it. Rather than dispose of the nondescript box, she opened it and found a tiny Miraculous Medal. A couple weeks later, she retrieved her mail to find a parcel from a friend, who had visited The Miraculous Medal Shrine and gifted her a second medal.

The very next day, Marylou and her husband attended Mass at their home parish, where they usually sit in the same section of the church every week. But on this Sunday, they inexplicably found their way to a different pew. As Marylou knelt to pray, she found an object in the missal rack in front of her.

“Surprisingly, there was a Miraculous Medal attached to a little booklet of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary,” she recalls. “To me, that was three times in a row that the Blessed Mother was reaching out to me. …The Blessed Mother was trying to tell me, ‘Hey, I got you. This is going to be ok.’”

Indeed, the promise of the Blessed Mother’s intercession with the Lord, even the anticipation of miracles, has inspired adoration of her Miraculous Medal for centuries and visits to The Miraculous Medal Shrine for generations. Yet for many devotees, the perpetuation of family bonds has always been paramount to their engagement with the Shrine.

“Receiving the sacraments in this place-because it’s been such an important part of my life since childhood-is really a privilege and an honor,” Assunta says. “My faith has grown because I have had the opportunity to come to this very special place.

“What I try to impart upon my young son is to explain to him that Our Lady and Our Lord, no matter what trials we have in life, will always be there for him. I bring him to the Shrine so, like myself, he can have a relationship with Our Lady and with Our Lord.”

Indeed, the promise of the Blessed Mother’s intercession with the Lord, even the anticipation of miracles, has inspired adoration of her Miraculous Medal for centuries and visits to The Miraculous Medal Shrine for generations. Yet for many devotees, the perpetuation of family bonds has always been paramount to their engagement with the Shrine.

“Receiving the sacraments in this place-because it’s been such an important part of my life since childhood-is really a privilege and an honor,” Assunta says. “My faith has grown because I have had the opportunity to come to this very special place.

“What I try to impart upon my young son is to explain to him that Our Lady and Our Lord, no matter what trials we have in life, will always be there for him. I bring him to the Shrine so, like myself, he can have a relationship with Our Lady and with Our Lord.”

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