The role of the Redemptionists in the renewal of the cult of the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help

Abstract

This year marks the beginning of the 150th anniversary of the rediscovery of the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, icon connecting the Eastern and Western traditions of the Church. The rediscovery was directly related to the Redemptorists whom Blessed Pius IX entrusted the image of Mary, asking them to „make her known throughout the world”. The article aims at presenting the circumstances of the events occurring 150 years ago, the Roman ceremony of the crowning of the icon in 1867 and the history of the promotion of the devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help through various forms of Marian piety and confraternities. The dynamism of the Redemptorist ministry made the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help one of the most widely spread and venerated Marian icons in the world.

Keywords

• Our Mother of Perpetual Help