OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP

Just a few blocks west of St. Mary Major Basilica stands the lofty Victorian-gothic church of San Alfonso.  Atop a long staircase beside the church is the International Headquarters of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, the Redemptorists.  The sacred picture of “Our Mother of Perpetual Help” is fittingly venerated in this church named after the Marian Doctor of the church St. Alphonsus Liguori.  It was he who wrote that great spiritual classic, The Glories of Mary.  It is his sons, the Redemptorists, who are the custodians of the shrine and picture.  They are forever associated with this miraculous image through their apostolic zeal in fostering reverence and devotion to our Lady of Perpetual Help throughout the world.

The story of this Icon is one of the most unusual and involved stories of the many Marian shrines and miraculous images throughout the world.  The painting originally came from the island of Crete where it had been venerated for a number of years.  The earliest written account is from an old document-plaque written in Latin and Italian which was placed before the Icon in the church of St. Matthew where it was first venerated in Rome in March of 1499.

Some two years before that a merchant in Crete, who was returning to Rome took the picture just before sailing and hid it among his belongings.  Some think he might have taken it to save it from possible profanation or destruction from marauding Turks, but the document says that he simply stole it.  While at sea, a life-threatening storm arose and everyone on board thought their end was near.  The sailors, not knowing of the presence of the concealed icon on board, prayed loudly to Our Lady for help.  Against all odds, the vessel safely reached Italy.  It would appear, as subsequent events will show, that Our Lady definitely wanted this picture to be venerated in Rome.

Soon after he arrived in Rome, the Cretan merchant fell ill.  As his condition steadily worsened, he sent for his best friend, another merchant, and told him about the picture.  His dying wish was to have the picture enshrined and properly reverenced in a church.  When he died, the second merchant told his wife about the icon that had been confided to him.  But the wife, after seeing the beautiful icon, was unwilling to part with it and hung it in her home.  Our Lady admonished the merchant in a dream that the picture belonged to a church.  When he related this to his wife, she became angry and said: “You should not be so superstitious as to believe in a some dream or imaginary vision!  After all, I am a good Christian and many Christians have pictures of Our Lady in their homes.  It does not have to be in a Church!”

Our Lady appeared again to the man and said that he would be punished for not carrying out her wishes.  Soon thereafter he sickened and died.  Our Lady then appeared to the merchant’s daughter asking that the icon be exposed for popular veneration in a church.  She told the girl: “Tell your mother and your grandfather that St. Mary of Perpetual Help wants this.”  The mother, now quite frightened, confided the story to her neighbor who scoffed at the whole account.  She offered to take the icon for a while, but she too became deathly ill.

She needed nothing more to accede to the Madonna’s wishes, and promised to see them fulfilled.  Thereupon she was restored to health.  Our Lady of Perpetual Help was still not finished.  She appeared again to the small daughter indicating the exact location where she wanted the image venerated—midway between the basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran.  The church which then stood halfway between these basilicas was St. Matthew’s.  The wife of the merchant went at once to the Augustinian friars who served that church and told her story.  The friars came to see the picture and were so impressed with its beauty that they made plans at once for a solemn transferal to and exposition in their church.  And so it happened on March 27, 1499.  St. Matthew’s soon became a popular pilgrimage place in Rome and the icon was venerated there for three hundred years.

In 1798, French troops occupied Rome.  General Massena, the governor, decided that Rome had too many churches.  Undoubtedly, he had his eyes on the valuable property which they occupied.  He ordered thirty churches to be closed and destroyed.  St. Matthew’s among them.  For sixty-eight years nothing more was heard of St. Mary of Perpetual Help.  People who did give it a passing thought presumed it had been destroyed along with St. Matthew’s church.  The series of events that resulted in the restoration of the icon to public veneration is so completely beyond chance that it had to be Our Lady who wrote the scenario making it happen.

When the Augustinian Fathers were ordered to leave St. Matthew’s church they moved to a nearby church, St. Eusebius, taking the sacred painting of Our Lady with them.  Several years later they relocated again to the church of Santa Maria Posterula.  Here the icon was eventually moved and placed over a side altar in a small oratory because the main altar already enshrined a Madonna called Our Lady of Grace.

During the pontificate of Pope Pius IX, the Redemptorists were invited to set up a mother house in Rome.  They chose a vacant lot on the Via Merulana, without realizing that it once had been the site of St. Matthew’s church and the shrine of the famous icon.  They built next to their general headquarters the small church of St. Alphonsus.  One day at recreation, one of the fathers mentioned that he had read an account on old shrines of Our Lady in Rome and recounted how the icon of Perpetual Help had been enshrined in St. Matthew’s church that stood close to the place now occupied by St. Alphonsus’ church.

One of the Redemptorists present was a young priest, Michael Marchi, who became visibly excited.  When the older priest stated that the Perpetual Help picture had been lost, Father Marchi burst in, “But it is not lost!  It is enshrined in the little oratory of Our Lady in Posterula.  When I was a boy, I often served Mass there and one of the old brothers, named Augustine Orsetti, often pointed to the picture and used to say to me, ‘Don’t ever forget it, Michael.  This picture is the one that hung for three hundred years in St. Matthew’s church.  Many, many miracles were worked for the crowds of people that always came to pray before it!’ So,” continued Father Marchi, “I feel sure that this is the very same picture!”

The fact that the original icon was not lost and that St. Alphonsus church was midway between St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran must have caused bedlam at that community recreation as the Redemptorists put the pieces of the mystery together.  Their own church of St. Alphonsus occupied the very ground on which the old St. Matthew’s Church was located, and now the lost sacred icon had been found.  They came to the conclusion that even as Our Lady had chosen this location for the Perpetual Help image to be enshrined many years before, the Blessed Mother must have been instrumental in setting the stage for the icon to be returned to its original site.

The Father General of the Redemptorists, Most Rev. Nicholas Mauron, decided to bring the whole matter to the attention of Pope Pius IX.  The Pope listened attentively and felt sure it was God’s will that the icon should be gain exposed to public veneration and the logical site was their church of St. Alphonsus, standing as it did between the Basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran.  The Holy Father at once took a piece of paper and wrote a short memorandum ordering the Augustinian Fathers of St. Mary in Posterula to surrender the picture to the Redemptorists, on condition that the Redemptorists supply the Augustinians with another picture of Our Lady or a good copy of the icon of Perpetual Help.

The Icon meant much to the Augustinians, but when the two Redemptorists came armed with the Pope’s signed memorandum, what could they do but obey?  On January 19, 1866, Fathers Marchi and Bresciani brought the miraculous picture to St. Alphonsus’ church.  Preparations were now made to inaugurate the new public reign of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.  On April 26^th, a great procession was staged in which the picture was carried throughout the Esquiline region of Rome.  Upon returning to the church, the picture was enthroned over the high altar, in a resplendent shrine-niche especially constructed for it.

All along the route of the procession the people of Rome decorated their houses with bunting and flowers.  Clergy and religious were proud to march in the procession.  Our Lady, as is to be expected, showed her pleasure at this outpouring of her children’s love in several authenticated miracles.  The procession passed a house where a little boy of four lay dying.  He had been given up as a hopeless case by the doctors.  Hearing the singing, the child’s grieving mother snatched him in her arms and hastened to the open window.  Looking out at Our Lady’s picture passing by she called out: “Dear blessed Mother, either cure my boy or take him to paradise!”

Our Lady chose the first, and the boy was cured at once.  The next day he toddled along with his mother to St. Alphonsus’ church and stood before the picture.  He waved his little hands to the Madonna and cried “Grazie, grazie” and threw her some kisses in the loving Italian style.  As the procession was passing another house, another mother called upon Our Lady of Perpetual Help to aid her eight-year-old daughter who was completely paralyzed.  At once the girl regained partial use of her limbs and was able to move about a bit.  The next day the mother brought the child to St. Alphonsus’ church to thank Our Lady and ask if she would not complete the cure.  At once the child was restored to full health and vigor.

As to be expected, the report of those marvelous healings spread rapidly throughout the city and people came by the hundreds to visit the shrine.  Soon the whole area around the altar was filled with abandoned crutches and canes and several whole glass-covered cabinets were filled with gold and silver thanksgiving offerings in the shapes of miniature hearts, arms, legs and other votive offerings.  Scarcely two weeks after the solemn exposition of the picture, Pope Pius IX himself came to visit the shrine.  He stood quietly before it for a long time and then exclaimed: “How beautiful she is!”  He was given and had enshrined a copy of the original in his own private chapel and was often seen kneeling before it in fervent prayer.  Later one, when the Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was formed, he blessed the project and insisted that his name head the list of the worldwide membership.

Pope Leo XIII, the next pontiff, had a copy of the picture on his desk so that he might see it constantly during his working day.  St. Pius X sent a copy of the icon to the Empress of Ethiopia and granted an indulgence of 100 days to anyone who repeated the phrase: “Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us.”  Pope Benedict XV had the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help placed immediately over his chair of state in the throne room.  Here it could be seen by all just over his head, as if to say: “Here is your true Queen!”  Many famous cardinals (Like Mercier of Belgium) and bishops (like von Keppler of Germany) declared the Mother of Perpetual Help their own special patroness.  Rapidly the Madonna became known outside of Rome.  Pope Pius IX told the Redemptorists, in speaking to them of the treasure he had committed to their care: “Make her known!”  It seems as though they hardly needed the exhortation.  In the United States, they built the first Our Lady of Perpetual Help church in the Roxbury section of Boston, and it was eventually raised to the honor of a “Papal Basilica” by Pope Pius XII.

Of all of the sacred images and shrines of Our Lady related to this book, one can say without exaggeration that through the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help she was indeed established her domain throughout the whole world.

This chapter is adapted and edited by the editor from two sources: Fr. Barry Bossa’s manuscript “Mother of Perpetual Help, Rome’ and the booklet by Most rev. Clement Englert, C.Ss.R. “The Holy Icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help.”

SYMBOLISM OF THE ICON OF PERPETUAL HELP

Just as Eastern art had a great influence in the West, so the Western influence was felt in the East, especially in the 12^th and 13^th centuries.  Art is ever influenced by popular piety, and at that time there was great emphasis placed on the human nature of Jesus.  Devotion to Our Lord’s passion and to Our Lady’s dolors occupied people’s devotions to Christ and His Holy Mother.  Two strong influences in this direction were the great saints of that time, St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Francis of Assisi.

This emphasis was felt largely in the East through the Franciscan friars evangelizing in the eastern Mediterranean.  One artistic manifestation of it was the emergence of the class of icons called Cardiotissa, from the Greek word kardia, meaning heart.  Cardiotissa means “having a heart” or showing sympathy and mercy and compassion.  In them the face of Our Lady appears full of sorrow, yet supremely dignified in her contemplation of the sufferings of her Son.  His passion is represented by angels holding instruments of His passion, most often the cross, the lance, the sponge, and the nails.  Icons of this type in Russia were called Strastnaya (from the verb to suffer).

The Our Mother of Perpetual Help icon is of this type.  The angels holding the instruments of the Passion have their hands covered with a protecting veil as a sign of reverence in handling sacred objects.  In some Eastern rites, for example the Armenian, the deacon has his hand covered with a silken veil when he carries the gospel book.  And in the Roman Rite, the priest covers his hands with the humeral veil when blessing the people at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The Child Jesus is shown with an adult face and a high brow, indicating His divine Mind of infinite intelligence.  As God, He knew that the angelic apparition was prophetic of His future passion.  Yet in His human nature as a small child, He is frightened and runs to His Mother for protection.  Our Lady hastily picks Him up and clasps Him to her bosom.  This action is indicated by the fact that the Lord’s right foot is nervously curled about the left ankle and in such haste that His right sandal has become loosened and hangs by a single strap.  Further action is indicated by the way the Child Jesus clasps His Mother’s right hand with both of His, holding tightly to Our Lady’s thumb.

Our Lady is clothed in a dress of dark red which was long reserved in the Byzantine world for the Empress alone, indicating the Queenship of Mary.  We know that reddish purple was considered the noblest color in the ancient world.  Recall that Our Lord said “Those who are clothed in purple and fine linen are in the houses of kings.”

Some commentators on color claim that bluish purple became the color of penance in the Western Church (during Lent and Advent) because purple is a combination of blue and red.  The blue reminds us of heaven, to which we wish to arrive by our penance, and the red recalls martyrdom, because all penance requires a dying to oneself, especially mortifying inordinate desire for food and pleasure.  The archangels Gabriel and Michael were tunics of purple since they carry the instruments of the passion and death of Christ.  IN the usual Byzantine style, the figures of the icon are identified with abbreviations of their names.  In this icon Mary is designated by her chief title to glory: Mother of God.

Thus the picture of the Mother of Perpetual Help is a traditional Byzantine icon of Our Lady, but modified by the medieval softening of features in Cardiotissa style, touching the emotion and showing an action story proper to this art form.  Our Lady’s face is of unspeakable majesty and calm and yet her large eyes, partly closed, express ineffable sorrow and sympathy.  Our Lady is not looking at Jesus, but rather to us, her adopted children, as if to express compassion for us in our fears and sorrows.

Countless miracles are attributed to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pictured above upon the altar of the Church of St. Alphonsus in Rome.

The exterior of the Church of St. Alphonsus with the international headquarters of the Redemptorist Fathers in Rome

The first Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in the United States in Roxbury (near Boston), Massachusetts. It was raised to the honor of a “Papal Basilica” by Pope Pius XII.

The above is based largely on chapter 5 of the excellent booklet, “The Holy Icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help” by Archimandrite Clement Englert, C.SS.R.

(From the book: Marian Shrines of Italy published by Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate, Our Lady’s Chapel, New Bedford, Massachusetts, 2000)

OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP

 Rome, Latium, Italy
1495

The documented history of this wonder-working icon begins in the year 1495, when the image was highly reverenced in a church on the island of Crete.  At that time it was already considered of great age, with some writers placing its origin at either the thirteenth or fourteenth century.  It was afforded every measure of devotion because of the number of favors granted to those who prayed before it.

Most writers agree that the painting came into the possession of a wealthy merchant in the late fifteenth century.  Some writers claim that the merchant stole the painting.  One claims that he obtained it through honest means, while still another reports that the merchant and others fled Crete with the painting when Crete was threatened by the Turks.  Whatever the reason, it is known that the merchant carried the painting with him to Rome, and that he became seriously ill.  Before he died he requested that the painting be placed in a church as soon as possible.  Contrary to his request, the painting remained in private hands until 1499, when it was escorted in a solemn procession to the Church of St. Matthew on the Esquiline Hill.  A tablet which hung for many years beside the portrait told of this procession and noted that, “In this manner, the picture of the most glorious Virgin Mary was enshrined in the church of St. Matthew the Apostle, on the 27^th of March, 1499, in the seventh year of the Pontificate of our most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, the Lord Pope Alexander VI.”

Our Blessed Lady seemed eager to make known the virtues of her image by way of a miracle that was performed during this procession.  A man who had been paralyzed for some time was immediately cured when the image passed in procession near the house in which he lay.

For the next 300 years the image hung in St. Matthew’s church, where innumerable favors were granted to the people who prayed in its chapel.  With members of the Augustinian Order as its guardian, the image was known by various names: Our Lady of St. Matthew, Our Lady of Never-failing Help, Our Lady of Ever-enduring Succor, and finally, Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

In 1798 Marshal Berthier, under orders from Napoleon Bonaparte, invaded Rome and forced Pope Pius VI into exile in France.  One writer reports that Berthier’s successor, Massena, destroyed almost 30 churches, including the Church of St. Matthew.  Thankfully the priests had had time to remove the miracle-working image of Our Lady.  For several years it found refuge in the Church of St. Eusebius.  It was then placed in the Church of St. Mary of Posterula, where it was hung in a side chapel and was all but forgotten for almost 40 years.  The image had at least one devoted admirer, an elderly lay-brother, Augustine Orsini, who was particularly devoted to it and often told its history to whomever would listen.  One of those who was keenly interested was a young altar boy, Michael Marchi.

When Pope Pius IX in 1853 requested that the Redemptorists establish a house in Rome, they chose a property on the Via Merula, which was located between the Lateran and St. Mary Major.  While the church was being built, one of the priests, Fr. Edward Schwindenhammer, mentioned that he had found a reference which revealed that their new church was being erected adjacent to the site where once had stood a church which enshrined a miraculous image of the Blessed Mother.  One of the priests replied that he knew the history of the image and the exact location where it could be found.  The priest was the former altar boy, Michael Marchi.  ON learning of the portrait’s whereabouts, the Redemptorist General, Fr. Nicholas Mauron, gained a private audience with the Pope.  The Holy Father listened to his plan to have the portrait returned to the site where it had been enthroned for almost three centuries.  Pope Pius IX then recalled that as a small boy he had once prayed before the miraculous image while it was in the Church of St. Matthew.

In compliance with the wishes of the Pope, the image was given by the Augustinians to the Redemptorist Church of St. Alphonsus.  Our Lady’s triumphal return to her chosen site took place on April 26, 1866.  During this translation two noteworthy cures took place: one was the healing of a boy who was seriously ill with meningitis; the other miracle involved a young girl who received the use of her paralyzed leg.

Never has a portrait of the Mother of God been given as much papal attention as this image received from Pope Pius IX.  Not only did he pray before the image as a boy, but he also approved its translation.  His approbation of the image was acknowledged on June 23, 1867, when the icon was crowned by the Vatican Chapter.  The ceremony was conducted by the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, whose presiding was indicative of the icon’s popularity among Easter Rite Christians.

Pope Pius IX also fixed the feast of the image for the Sunday before the feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, and by a decree dated May, 1876, he approved a special office and Mass for the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists).  When confraternities were erected throughout Europe, the Pope combined them in 1876 into one Archconfraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Alphonsus.  The Pope’s name was the first in the register of the archconfraternity, and he was among the first to visit the portrait in its new home.

Devotion to this wonder-working icon spread rapidly to the United States.  IN 1870, when the Redemptorists were asked to establish a mission church in Roxbury, not far from Boston, they dedicated their small church to the Mother of Perpetual Help.  They received from Rome the first copy of the portrait, which had been touched to the original.  Since then more than 2,300 copies that had been similarly touched to the original have been sent to other houses of the Order.

The United States also takes credit for inaugurating the Tuesday night devotions to the Mother of Perpetual Help.  Devotions that first took place at St. Alphonsus (Rock) Church in St. Louis, Missouri, on Tuesday nights, were quickly adopted by churches of the Order and by other churches, and took the form of a perpetual novena, a practice that is now observed worldwide.

A study of the portrait is necessary to understand its historical and artistic qualities.  Although its origin is uncertain, it is estimated that the portrait was painted sometime during the thirteenth or fourteenth century.  It is painted in a flat style characteristic of icons and has a primitive quality.  All the letters are Greek.  The initials beside the Mother’s crown identify her as “Mother of God.”  Those beside the child, “ICXC,” are abbreviations meaning “Jesus Christ.”  The smaller letters identify the angel on the left as “St. Michael the Archangel.”  He is depicted holding the lance and spear with the vessel of vinegar and gall of Christ’s Passion.  The Angel on the right is identified as “St. Gabriel the Archangel.”  He holds the cross and the nails.

When this portrait was painted, halos were not commonly depicted.  For this reason the artist rounded the head and veil of the Mother to indicate her holiness.  The golden halos and crowns were added much later.  The Madonna in this portrait is out of proportion to the size of her Son since it was Mary whom the artist wished to emphasize.

The charms of the portrait are many, from the naivete of the artist, who wished to make certain the identity of each subject was known, to the sandal that dangles from the foot of the Child.  The expression of the Child Jesus is haunting as He grips the hand of His Mother while gazing sideward at the instruments of torture held by the Angels.  Above all, the expression of the Madonna evokes a sadness on the part of the viewer.  With her head gently touching that of her Son, and while surrounded with the instruments of her Son’s sufferings, she seems to gaze plaintively—as though seeking compassion from those who look upon her.

Countless miracles attributed to the image extend from the time of its documented history in 1495 through the years until the present day.  These seem to give ample testimony and proof of the portrait’s favor with the Mother of God.

The miraculous portrait is till enthroned on an altar in the Church of St. Alphonsus in Rome.  The ruins of the Church of St. Matthew, where the image was reverenced for almost 300 years, are found on the grounds of the Redemptorist monastery.

(From the book: Miraculous Images of Our Lady by Joan Carroll Cruz, published by Tan Books & Publishers in Rockford, Illinois, 1993)