2023-06-28 02:19:00
June 27, 2023 / 7:19 p.m.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pro-Prefect of the Department for Evangelization, led a procession through the streets of Rome on Sunday in honor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, whose feast is celebrated on June 27.
The procession began with a Mass in the temple that houses the original icon of the Virgin of Perpetual Help, the Church of San Alfonso de Ligorio.
More than 30 nuns participated in the Marian procession. Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA
More than 70 priests and religious went out in procession, two by two, in front of a large image of the Marian icon along the Vía Merulana, the street that connects the Archbasilica of San Juan de Letrán with the Basilica of Santa María la Mayor.
The modern route follows the historic route that Pope Gregory XIII created for religious processions between the two basilicas during the Jubilee of 1575.
Procession on the occasion of the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help along Via Merulana in Rome. Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA
The Byzantine icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was painted on wood and is believed to date from the 13th century.
The image was brought from Greece to Rome at the end of the 15th century and was consecrated in 1499 in the Church of San Mateo, located in what is now Via Merulana, where pilgrims have venerated the image for centuries.
Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Credit: CNA
The icon shows the Virgin Mary holding the Child Jesus, to whom the archangels Saint Michael and Saint Gabriel show the cross, nails and other instruments of his Passion. In the image, the Child Jesus has lost his sandal, which has led some to interpret that the child represented hastily ran into the arms of the Virgin.
The Church of San Mateo was destroyed when Rome was occupied by Napoleon’s French troops and the icon was lost for decades until it was rediscovered in an oratory of the Augustinian Fathers in the 1860s.
More than 50 priests participated in the evening procession for the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA
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Pope Pius IX, who remembered praying before the icon as a child when it was in the Church of San Mateo, asked that it be returned to its original location on the pilgrimage route between the basilicas of Santa Maria Maggiore and San Juan. Lateran. At that time, the order of the Redemptorists had built a church on the site of the old Church of San Mateo.
In 1866, the icon was carried in a great procession through the streets of Rome to the Church of San Alfonso de Ligorio dei Redemptoristas, where it was enthroned above the main altar. News of the miraculous healings quickly spread throughout the city of Rome, and people flocked by the hundreds to visit the sanctuary.
The church of San Alfonso de Ligorio houses the original Byzantine icon, which is always found above the main altar of the church. Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA
Pope Pius IX himself went to the church to pray before the Icon two weeks later. His successor, Leo XIII, kept a copy of the image on his desk for constant viewing during his workday.
Saint 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 image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help placed immediately above his chair in the throne room. Everyone could see it just above her head, as if to say: “Here is your true Queen!”
The Redemptorists also built a church dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, which was later raised to the honor of a papal basilica by Pope Pius XII.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally posted on CNA.
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