Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a Greek title and depiction of Mary that dates back to the 1400’s.
In the original painting, Mary is wearing red, the color of the empress. On either side of her are the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, holding the instruments of the Passion. As the story of the image goes, the original painting was created by a Crete man named Andreas Ruzo de Candia. The painting was then stolen by a Roman merchant and brought to his family’s home. The daughter of the merchant, six-years-old at the time, had a dream where Our Lady spoke to her, telling the girl to tell her mother and grandmother that the image should be placed in the Church of Saint Matthew the Apostle. The image was then moved to the church, where it remained for three hundred years.
When war broke out in Rome in 1798, the image was hidden at the church of Saint Mary in Posterula and the Church of Saint Matthew was destroyed. 67 years later, a new church was built where the Church of Saint Matthew once stood and the image was returned. The image remains in that church to this day.
The image didn’t have a title associated with it until 1866, when Pope Pius IX gave his Apostolic Blessing and named it Our Lady of Perpetual Help, emphasizing Our Lady’s eagerness to pray for those who seek her help.
Prayer to Our Lady of Perpetual Help
O Mother of Perpetual Help, grant that I may ever invoke thy most powerful name, which is the safeguard of the living and the salvation of the dying. O Purest Mary, O Sweetest Mary, let thy name henceforth be ever on my lips. Delay not, O Blessed Lady, to help me whenever I call on thee, for, in all my needs, in all my temptations I shall never cease to call on thee, ever repeating thy sacred name, Mary, Mary.
O what consolation, what sweetness, what confidence, what emotion fill my soul when I pronounce thy sacred name, or even only think of thee. I thank God for having given thee, for my good, so sweet, so powerful, so lovely a name. But I will not be content with merely pronouncing thy name: let my love for thee prompt me ever to hail thee, Mother of Perpetual Help.
