"Wear this Medal always!" These were a mother's parting words to her son as she hung a Miraculous Medal around his neck. The boy was leaving home to begin studying for the priesthood. She meant them as a mother's advice, her way of handing over her son into the keeping of a greater Mother than she.
It was September of 1890 when, having placed the Miraculous Medal around her son's neck, Elizabeth Hanlon Skelly said good-by, to her 16-year-old son, Joseph. Little did she realize in that gesture, she was placing the Miraculous Medal around the necks of hundreds of millions of people.
Joseph never forgot his mother's advice. He spoke of it even into his old age. But, more importantly, he began right then, as a teen-age seminarian, to meditate upon the meaning of the Medal.
Two years after his ordination, on June 9, 1900, Father Joseph A. Skelly, C.M. was appointed the Prefect of the Minor Seminary in Germantown. In 1912, Father Skelly was asked to devote his time to raising funds for the building of a new seminary.
Remembering his mother's advice and because of his own devotion to the Miraculous Medal, Father Skelly placed a small Medal in each appeal letter that he mailed. So generous was the response brought through the intercession of Mary Immaculate that Father Skelly felt some special mark of gratitude to Our Lady was in order. After prayer and consultation, it was decided to form - in March of 1915 - The Central Association of the Miraculous Medal (CAMM), a society devoted to Mary's interests, with Father Skelly as its first Director.
From 1915 until the present, thousands of men have studied for the Priesthood and Brotherhood in the seminaries of the Eastern Province of the Congregation of the Mission ... and being supported by the generous donations of the members, promoters, and benefactors of The Central Association of the Miraculous Medal.
Now, many of these priests and brothers who have labored for many years in the Lord's vineyard, are ill and/or retired. Through the generosity of the donors to the Central Association, the Vincentian Community was able to build Saint Catherine's Infirmary in 1980. Here retired and/or infirm priests and brothers can live among their confreres and receive needed care.
Initially, the purpose of CAMM was to propagate devotion to the Blessed Mother under the title of the Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and also to help in the formation of Vincentian students for the priesthood.
Over the years, the official "ends" of the Central Association has grown from two to four:
- Spreading devotion to Mary Immaculate and her Miraculous Medal.
- The formation and education of seminarians in the Eastern Province.
- Support of our aged and infirm priests and brothers.
- Support of Vincentian apostolic works on behalf of the poor.
In 1927 Father Skelly introduced a nine-day Novena - four times a year - in the Public Chapel of the Immaculate Conception. (The Vincentian Community built the Chapel in 1879 for their adjacent Seminary. At the request of Archbishop James F. Wood, it was built large enough to serve as a chapel of convenience for the surrounding neighborhood until 1902 when the local parish erected its own Church.
For three years, the Public Chapel hosted Solemn Novenas during November (Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal), February (Our Lady of Lourdes), May (Our Lady, Help of Christians) and August (Feast of the Assumption).
The idea of forming the Central Association had further consequences and in 1927, a change in the structure of the Public Chapel of the Immaculate Conception occurred. The Chapel was slightly altered. The transept area (west side of the Chapel), dedicated to St. Vincent de Paul, was removed and the area enlarged. In its place Father Skelly built "Mary's Central Shrine". He always spoke of it as the "Center and Heart of the Association."
Father Skelly, first Director of the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal, died on July 8, 1963 in the Miraculous Medal Priests’ Residence at 5710 Magnolia Street. Father Joseph Skelly, C.M. is buried in the crypt of Mary's Central Shrine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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