The miraculous picture of the Mother of Perpetual Help is of Eastern origin, and was brought from Crete to Rome at the close of the 15th century. After its arrival in Rome, extraordinary events took place. One such event was the Apparition of Our Lady to a little girl. The Mother of God told her favoured child that she wished to have her picture exposed for veneration between the Basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. Between these two Basilicas stood the Church of St. Matthew, served by the Augustinian Fathers and in this Church the picture was enshrined, over the High Altar.
There the sacred image was venerated for three centuries (1499 - 1798). We do not know what title was given to it in Crete: but in Rome it was called "The Mother of Perpetual Help" because the Blessed Virgin, when giving the message to the little child said, she was "Holy Mary of Perpetual Help".
In 1798, St. Matthew's was destroyed by a French army of invasion, and the Augustinian Fathers transferred the Picture to a neighbouring monastery. Afterwards they placed it in their own oratory of St. Martin in Posterula, where it remained hidden until the year 1866.
Meanwhile a new Church was built by the Redemptorist Fathers almost on the very site of the old Church of St. Matthew's. Through God's Providence, the miraculous Picture was discovered and in the year 1866 Pope Pius IX, having learned the history of the Picture, commanded that it should be restored to its former place of honour, and entrusted its guardianship to the Redemptorist Fathers. On that occasion he commissioned the Redemptorists to spread everywhere devotion to the Picture. "Make the Mother of Perpetual Help known", he said "throughout the world."
The Redemptorists have endeavoured to be faithful to this command of the Pope and their efforts have been visibly blessed by God. To quote the words of the Office for the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help: "Since that time when the Holy Picture was by the special providence of God, recovered from oblivion and restored once more to public veneration, it has been famous for so numerous and such striking miracles and marvels of grace that, within the space of only a few years, the devotion to the Madonna of Perpetual Help has spread throughout the world."
In recent times, God has clearly made know His will that His Blessed Mother should be still more widely known and honoured. This is evident from the miraculous happenings at Lourdes and Fatima, the consecration of the human race to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and the widespread and ever increasing devotion of the faithful to the Perpetual Novena in honour of the Mother of Perpetual Help.
The Perpetual Novena in honour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is styled "Perpetual" for two reasons: first, because it is held one day each week (Wednesday - Holy Mass at Our Lady's Shrine in the morning and devotion in Her honour in the evening) and secondly, because people desiring to join in the Novena, may begin it any week they choose.
Thanks! Come again soon!