Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Biography

The children of Saint Alphonsus Ma. de Ligorio, for 91 years, formed a congregation very devoted to the Blessed Virgin. They adopted as an emblem of this devotion, the image of Our Lady of Good Counsel, to whom the hermits of San Agustín also paid special honor. In 1866, the Virgin entrusted the Redemptorists with the treasure of one of her miraculous images: Our Lady of Perpetual Help. It was a painting on wood, in the Byzantine style, from the 13th century. The Virgin carries the Child in her left arm with a surprised expression, because the Archangel Gabriel presents him with four nails and a Cross. This painting had been taken to Rome, towards the end of the 15th century, by a merchant from Crete and placed in the Church of San Mateo in Merulana, in 1499. There it was honored until 1812. On that date the old sanctuary was demolished, so the glorious image remained in the shadows and secret of an oratory of Augustinian fathers. In 1866, under the generalship of the Most Reverend Father Mauron, the Redemptorists obtained from Pius IX the venerable image that they placed in their church dedicated to Saint Alphonsus, on the Esquiline, between Saint John Lateran and Saint Mary Major, in Rome. Countless have been the graces obtained through the mediation of this holy image. The figure of the Virgin has a serious and melancholic expression. She seems to say to those who contemplate her: "See how my Jesus is afraid: it is for you... and I am also afraid for you... Why don't you ask me with all your heart to help you?" Is she not the "help of Christians", the "help of Christians", as the Marian litanies say? Our Mother in Heaven demands nothing more than to come to our aid, at all times, in all places.