The Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena

The Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena is one of the great Marian devotions of the modern Catholic Church. It centers on a Byzantine Hodegetria icon (the iconographic type in which the Blessed Virgin Mary points to her Son with one hand) preserved since 1866 at the Redemptorist Church of Sant'Alfonso de'Liguori in Rome. The icon depicts Mary holding the Christ Child, who in turn looks toward two archangels (Gabriel and Michael) showing Him the instruments of His Passion: the cross, the lance, and the sponge. The Christ Child grasps His Mother's right hand with both of His, an iconographic detail that has been read by Catholic devotional writers as the gesture of a frightened child running to the protection of His Mother.

Origin and history of the devotion

The icon itself is of Cretan origin, painted probably in the late fifteenth century and brought to Rome by an Italian merchant in the early sixteenth century. It was venerated for over two centuries at the Augustinian Church of San Matteo in Merulana in Rome, where it was the principal Marian image of the city under the title Madonna di San Matteo. When the church was destroyed during the Napoleonic occupation of Rome in 1798, the icon was preserved in the private chapel of the Augustinian friars and was largely forgotten by the wider Catholic public for nearly seventy years.

The decisive moment for the modern devotion came in 1865-1866. Pope Blessed Pius IX, having received the request of the Redemptorists (whose new church on the same site was being built), formally entrusted the icon to the Redemptorist Order with the words "Make her known throughout the world." The icon was solemnly enshrined at Sant'Alfonso on 26 April 1866, and the Redemptorists began the systematic Catholic promotion of the devotion that has continued for the following century and a half. Pope Pius IX himself prayed before the icon and contributed to its diffusion. The Catholic faithful across the world have been drawn to the icon and the novena since.¹

The Wednesday devotion

The Catholic tradition has traditionally assigned Wednesday as the day of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help devotion. The Wednesday novena (consisting of the recitation of the prayers of the novena weekly on nine consecutive Wednesdays, rather than nine consecutive days) is a particular adaptation of the standard Catholic novena format used by the Redemptorists and many Catholic parishes that have adopted the devotion.

The standard nine-day form is also widely prayed. The novena is most commonly prayed:

• In the nine days before 27 June, the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the universal Roman Calendar (the anniversary of the 1866 enshrinement at Sant'Alfonso).
• In the nine days before any major Marian feast (the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on 1 January; the Annunciation on 25 March; the Assumption on 15 August; the Nativity of Mary on 8 September; the Immaculate Conception on 8 December).
• In the nine consecutive Wednesdays preceding any of these feasts or for any particular intention.
• At any time of personal need, for the intercession of the Mother of Perpetual Help in any concrete circumstance of life.

Structure of the novena

Each day of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena follows the same structure:

1. Opening invocation: O Mother of Perpetual Help, behold us prostrate at thy feet.
2. A meditation on a theme proper to the day, drawn from the icon, the apparitions in Catholic Marian history, or the broader Catholic doctrine of Mary's intercession.
3. The petition: the specific intention for which the novena is being prayed.
4. The classical Redemptorist novena prayer to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
5. Closing prayers: the Hail Mary, the Memorare, and the closing invocation Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

Theological foundations

The Our Lady of Perpetual Help devotion rests on the Catholic doctrine of Mary's perpetual intercession for the human family. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that Mary's motherhood in the order of grace is uninterrupted and continues until the eternal fulfillment of all the elect (CCC 969). The icon's name is the visible sign of this doctrine: Mary's help is perpetual in two senses, that it is offered without interruption from her bodily Assumption to the end of time, and that it is offered without limit to whoever turns to her.

The iconographic detail of the Christ Child gripping His Mother's hand is theologically significant. Catholic devotional writers have read this as the gesture of the Lord Jesus, in His Sacred Humanity, claiming the protection of His Mother in the moment of foreseeing His Passion. The same Mother who protected the Child Jesus from Herod and led Him in the flight to Egypt, who lost Him and found Him in the temple, and who stood beneath His Cross, is the Mother who continues to receive every soul who comes to her, including the souls she leads, by her hand, into the protective embrace of her Son.

Pairing the novena with other prayers

The Our Lady of Perpetual Help Novena is paired with:

• The Holy Rosary, particularly the Joyful Mysteries.
• The Memorare of Saint Bernard.
• The Hail Holy Queen ( Salve Regina).
• The Mary Undoer of Knots Novena, which shares the same Marian theology of intercession.

For the broader theological context, see Mary, Mother of God and the Communion of Saints.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Origini e Storia della Madonna del Perpetuo Soccorso (Redemptorist publication, Rome, 1956). Pope Blessed Pius IX, instruction to the Redemptorists of 1865, "Make her known throughout the world." The icon's history is documented in the archives of the Redemptorist generalate in Rome and in the parish history of Sant'Alfonso de'Liguori. Catholic Encyclopedia (1907), "Our Lady of Perpetual Help," available at newadvent.org. ↩