The Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help: Location

Prayer Card dated Lent 1984

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 in order to honour Our Queen and Mother and to seek a renewal of the spirit of reparation for sins committed against her Immaculate Heart.

Update: After beginning work on this project, I discovered a prayer card dating from Lent 1984 when two fervent men preached a Redemptorist Mission in the church of Our Lady and St Joseph, Kingsland. Astonishingly, Fr Michael Creech is still active, despite having been ordained in 1952.  He was hearing confessions as a visiting priest at my TLM church yesterday!

Ash Wednesday of Lent in 1984 fell on the 7th of March. This means E was expecting our fourth child, T.

Sancta Maria, ora pro eis et pro tota familia mea.



We aim to consider questions such as the following:

Where is this original of the icon today?
What is its history?
What does it communicate?
What devotions are associated with the 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.

Where is this icon today?

Sant' Alfonso Liguori, Rome.The nave. [2015]

The original of the icon is on display in the Church of Sant' Alfonso Liguori on the Esquiline Hill, the largest of the seven hills of Rome. This church is on the Via Merulana, a street connecting the basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. The church also has the nickname of Madonna del Perpetuo Soccorso after the famous icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary which is enshrined here.

The church belongs to the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, whose members are known as the Redemptorists and who operate throughout the world.

The motto of the Redemptorists is ‘Copiosa apud Eum Redemptio’ The phrase is taken from Psalm 129 (130)[1] and may be translated as  ‘With Him is plentiful Redemption’.
Livioandronico2013 [CC BY-SA 4.0] 
 

Closer view of the icon. Fczarnowski 2017 [CC BY-SA 4.0]

Here is a closer view of the icon, displayed over the altar and decorated with flowers.

The church was designed  in 1855–1858 by George Wigley, famous for his involvement in the foundation of the Society of St Vincent de Paul.The scheme was paid for by Fr Edward Douglas (1819-98), who used his personal fortune to finance the project, and served as the superior of the order subsequently.

This was the last new church built within the walls of Rome before the suppression of the Papal government by Italy in 1870.





St Alphonsus (1696-1787) was the original founder of the Redemptorist order. We followed the Lenten meditations of Alphonsus earlier this year: see here. Originally the church was dedicated to Christ the Redeemer, but this was changed to honour St Alphonsus after a major restoration was completed in 1900. There was another restoration in 1932, when the entrance staircase was provided; and a further restoration for the centenary of the enthronement of the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in 1958. The last restoration was in 1964.

Notes

[1] De profundis. Ps 129. 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.