Chaplet in honour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Feast Day 27^th June

Commence on the medal, making the Sign of the Cross and saying:

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

On the single blue bead, honouring the Blessed Virgin Mary, say:
O mother of perpetual help,
We come now in prayer, seeking your assistance
In our hour of need.
Help us to help ourselves and one another.
(Here make your private petition or prayer for help)

On each of the 50 red beads, symbolic of comfort and love, say:
Mother of God,
Comfort and help us!

Conclude upon the medal saying:
Thank you, O Mother of Perpetual Help
For listening and caring for us and our needs.
We trust that, with your help,
Our prayers will be heard.
Our Lady of perpetual help
Continue to help us

make the Sign of the Cross saying:
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

The Image of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour
and its History

The image of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour does not appear in the usual western catholic form of a statue but rather as a 13th century icon. The image depicts the Mother of God holding the Christ Child, before whom the Archangels Michael and Gabriel present the instruments of His Passion.

At the top of the Icon are the Greek letter abbreviations for:  Mother of God, Jesus Christ, Archangel Michael and Archangel Gabriel respectively.

to learn more about the above icon click on the image to visit Carpathian Mountains International (CMI).

The image seems to have been brought to Rome towards the end of the fifteenth century by a pious merchant, who was subsequently to die in the Eternal City and whose Will ordered that the image should be on public view in a church so that it might be venerated.

It was first exposed in the church of San Matteo, Via Merulana, situated between Santa Maria Maggiore and San Giovanni Laterano. The Roman people took the image to their hearts and for almost three hundred years pilgrims prayed before it, gaining many graces through the prayers of the Mother of God in that place. The Icon was commonly know as the Madonna di San Matteo, being situated in the church of that name served by the Hermits of saint Augustine.

Destruction and Triumph

The Augustinians were present when Napoleon invaded Rome (1812). During this upheaval the church of San Matteo was destroyed and the Icon temporarily lost. It was to remain hidden and neglected for over forty years, However, between 1863 and 1865 a number of fortuitous circumstances led to its discovery in an oratory of the Augustinian Fathers at Santa Maria in Posterula. Pope Pius IX, as a boy, had prayed before the icon in San Matteo, and he took a keen interest in the discovery. A letter dated 11 December 1865 in which the Pope wrote to Father General Mauron, C.SS.R., gave instruction that the Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour should be again publicly venerated in Via Merulana. As the church of San Matteo was no more, this was to be in the new Redemptorist church of Saint Alphonsus. The ruins of San Matteo stood in the grounds of the Redemptorist Convent.

Pius also approved of the solemn translation of the image on 26 April 1866, and its coronation by the Vatican Chapter on 23 June 1867. A feast day was set as a Double of the Second Class (duplex secundae classis), for the Sunday before the Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, and by a decree dated May 1876, Pope Pius approved an office and Mass for the Redemptorists (Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer).

Due to the popularity of the icon, these were later to be more widely in use outside the congregation. In addition, the Pope caused a Confraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour &

Saint Alphonsus, (which had been erected initially in Rome), to be raised to the status of an Arch-confraternity and he enriched this body with many privileges and indulgences. Pius was amongst the first to visit the Icon in its new home, and his name is the first in the register of the arch confraternity.

Two thousand three hundred facsimiles of the Holy Picture have been sent from Saint Alphonsus’s church in Rome to every part of the world. At the present day not only altars, but churches and dioceses (e.g. in England, Leeds and Middlesborough; in the United States, Savannah) are dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. In some places, as in the United States, the title has been translated Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

A recent shrine to Our lady of Perpetual Help has been erected in Little Billing in the Diocese of Northampton in England. The Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour was established in Great Billing on the 8th September 2006; the anniversary of the founding of the church in 1878. The parish has long had possession of one of the thousand copies made during the pontificate of Pius IX.

Great Billing is also famous as having given the name to a tune by Sir Richard Terry (1865-1938: organist of Westminster Cathedral) to the words of Elgar’s hymn ‘Praise to the holiest in the Height’, taken from his Oratorio The Dream of Gerontius. A local gentleman, Gervase Cary Elwes (1866-1921) who was connected with the church and parish was the tenor who sang at the London premiere of Gerontius in 1904 at the Queens Hall.  A great friend of Elgar, (who like Terry also visited Little Billing), Gervase was also brother of Dudley Charles Cary- Elwes (1868-1932) Bishop of Northampton.

Many favours are reported through the intercession of our Lady at Billing. The shrine may be contacted on:

www.ourladyandstanselm.org

This information is taken largely from the Catholic Encyclopedia, J Magnier, 1911

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour is patron of the diocese of Buxar, India; diocese of Hallam, England; diocese of Leeds, England; diocese of Middlesbrough, England; diocese of Salina, Kansas; diocese of Savannah, Georgia.

A Hymn to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour

Mary from Thy sacred image, With those eyes so sadly sweet,
Mother of Perpetual Succour See us kneeling at Thy feet.
In Thine arms Thy Child Thou bearest, Source of all Thy joy and woe;
What Thy bliss, how deep Thy sorrows, Mother, Thou Alone canst know.

On Thy face He is not gazing, Nor on us is turned His glance,
For His anxious look He fixes On the Cross, and reed and lance.
To Thy hand His hands are clinging, As a child would cling in fear;
Of that vision of the torment, Of His passion drawing near.

And for Him Thine eyes are pleading, While to us they look and cry,
“Sinners, see My Child, your Saviour, Who for love of you will die!”
Yes, we hear Thy words, sweet Mother But poor sinners we are weak;
At Thy feet Thy helpless children, Thy perpetual succour seek.

Succour us when stormy passions Sudden rise within the heart;
Quell the tempest, calm the billows, Peace secure to us impart.
Through this life of weary exile, Succour us in every need;
And when death shall come to free us, Succour us, ah, then indeed!