The Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help: A Brief History

Our Lady of Perpetual Help. [Family image 2019]

The Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help falls on the 27th of June. We shall be preparing for this great Feast by publishing a series posts about the famous icon that bears this inspirational and consoling title of our gentle Queen and Mother. The first post dealt with the question: Where is this original of the icon today?

The following post deals briefly with the history of this icon.

Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt.

Tecum tutus semper sum.

Ad Jesum per Mariam

[  ] References in the text to numbered footnotes are not hyperlinked but may be found at the end of the relevant text.

What is the history of this icon?

Site of Mary's house, Ephesus.

1st century AD: There are some who link the origins of this icon with the story of an icon painted by St Luke. After the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, Mary moved to Ephesus in the care of St John, the beloved disciple.[1] She took with her some personal and family items, including a table fashioned by Jesus. Before writing his gospel, St Luke painted a portrait of Mary, making use of the table top. During the sittings, Mary related to him certain details that would by then have been known only to her, such as those concerning the Annunciation, the Nativity and the flight into Egypt.


Photo 2005. Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada [CC BY-SA 2.0]

960: possible date of creation (see the website: Sant' Alfonso)

1495: The image was by this date located in a church on the island of Crete. When the island was threatened by the Muslim Turks, the icon was carried off by a merchant who took it with him to Rome. Shortly after his arrival, the man fell seriously ill. He instructed a friend to take the icon to one of the churches in Rome so that it might be venerated publicly by the faithful.The friend's wife, however, persuaded her husband to keep the icon in their home. It required a miraculous intervention by the Blessed Virgin Mary herself to command the woman to place the icon in a certain church 'between St. Mary Major’s and St. John Lateran’s'.

1499: The icon was taken in solemn procession to the said church, which was dedicated to St. Matthew the Apostle. For the next three hundred years, this tiny church was one of the most popular pilgrimage places in Rome and many miracles, including cures, were reported by pilgrims.

1798: The Church of St. Matthew was destroyed by Napoleon’s invading forces. The icon was rescued and preserved but it was lost to the rest of the world

1850-51: A student monk, who had seen the icon as an altar boy in 1840, recognized it in the monastery of Santa Maria in Posterula. [2]

1855: the Redemptorists acquired the Villa Caserta in Rome along the Via Merulana and converted it into their headquarters. This was the site of the church and monastery of Saint Matthew.

Sant Alfonso Church. Justin Ennis. CC BY 2.0

1859:  The Redemptorists’ new church, Chiesa di Sant’Alfonso di Liguori (the Church of St. Alphonsus Liguori), was completed.

1863: Fr. Francis Blosi gave a sermon about famous pictures enshrined in the churches of Rome. He described the miraculous painting of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that was once enshrined in the old Church of St. Matthew.

He appealed for information on its whereabouts and reminded everyone that the Blessed Virgin had commanded that it be placed  in a cerain church 'between St. Mary Major’s and St. John Lateran’s'. (see 1495: above).



COPIOSA APVD EVM REDEMPTIO: These words in the arch, over the rose window, are the motto of the Redemptorists. 'with Him plentiful redemption'. [3]

Image over doorway.  Livioandronico2013 [CC BY-SA 4.0]

1866: Pope Pius IX granted a formal request by the Redemptorists to move the icon to the new church, built on the location of the icon’s earlier home. Pope Pius IX told the Redemptorist Superior General: “Make her known throughout the world!”

 1866 April 26:  a solemn procession and the formal enthronement of the icon took place. Along the procession route the buildings and the roadsides were decorated with flowers, vines and banners. For three days the celebration continued, with solemn High Masses, Benediction, special devotions and sermons each day.Many miracles were reported by pilgrims.


S. MARIA DE PERPETVO SVCCVRSU. Holy Mary of Perpetual Help

1867 June 23: the image was granted a Canonical Coronation. Two golden, jewel-encrusted crowns were blessed, with one crown being placed on the head of the Blessed Virgin and the other on the head of the Infant Jesus.

Notes

[1] [26] When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son.
Cum vidisset ergo Jesus matrem, et discipulum stantem, quem diligebat, dicit matri suae : Mulier, ecce filius tuus.
[27] After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own.
Deinde dicit discipulo : Ecce mater tua. Et ex illa hora accepit eam discipulus in sua. [John 19]

[2] Demolished in 188 for the Tiber embankment extensions.

[3] De profundis. A prayer of a sinner, trusting in the mercies of God. The sixth penitential psalm.

[1] Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord:
Canticum graduum. De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine;
[2] Lord, hear my voice. Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.
Domine, exaudi vocem meam. Fiant aures tuae intendentes in vocem deprecationis meae.
[3] If thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities: Lord, who shall stand it.
Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit?
[4] For with thee there is merciful forgiveness: and by reason of thy law, I have waited for thee, O Lord. My soul hath relied on his word:
Quia apud te propitiatio est; et propter legem tuam sustinui te, Domine. Sustinuit anima mea in verbo ejus;
[5] My soul hath hoped in the Lord.
speravit anima mea in Domino.
[6] From the morning watch even until night, let Israel hope in the Lord.
A custodia matutina usque ad noctem, speret Israel in Domino;
[7] Because with the Lord there is mercy: and with him plentiful redemption.
quia apud Dominum misericordia, et copiosa apud eum redemptio.
[8] And he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Et ipse redimet Israel ex omnibus iniquitatibus ejus. [Ps 129]