Dimensions 4" long X 3" wide

Large square magnet on backside.

HISTORY OF THE ICON, OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP

The icon is a “hodegetria” (Greek for “pointing the way”) type icon originally attributed to St Luke the Evangelist. The icons is often referred to as “Passions” because in the icon the Christ Child questioning looks at one of the angels on either side of the Virgin Mary holding the instruments of “Passion:” the Cross, Lance and Sponge.

The original icon was venerated for centuries in Constantinople and it is uncertain if it was destroyed or stolen at the fall of Constantinople to the Turks.

The icon was highly venerated in the East and in 1641 was received in a solemn procession to Moscow to the Church and Convent of St Anne (the Mother of the Virgin Mary). The icon showed its miraculous powers to many in Russia.

The sacred image came to Rome via a merchant from Crete in the late 15th Century whose ship besieged in a severe storm was saved when the icon was raised and the crew prayed for “help.” The Virgin asked that her icon be venerated in a church in Rome but it became a private icon for her devotion. The Virgin appeared three times to the man asking that the icon be hung over the altar of the St Mathew the Apostle where it remained for over 300 years – until Napoleon captured Rome and the icon was secretly hidden. The icon later was taken to the Redemptorist church at the Monastery of St Alphonsus where Pope Pius IX solemnly “crowned” her as the source of help in times of need.

Throughout all of these centuries she remains our source of Eternal Hope!