The Knights of Columbus aim to bring to full richness a historic Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon
This icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is being renovated for Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament and the Vietnamese Martyrs Parish in Harrisburg. The icon is a replica of the original that dates back to at least the 15th century and is associated with numerous accounts of miracles.A 92-year-old icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary was first perceived as a minor piece of a major restoration after damage to the inside of a church in Harrisburg.
But parishioners and restoration fundraisers have discovered not only the authenticity and rarity of the icon to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, but a certificate proving it is linked to an icon that has made miracles happen in America and all over the world.
Knights of Columbus Council 15137 with Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament and the Vietnamese Martyrs Parish on North Third Street in Harrisburg is trying to raise $6,000 to help restore the icon that wasn’t an initial point of concentration in the church restoration.
“We had some major wall damage due to a leak in the roof,” said Steve Grimme, the recorder for the Knights council.
“They’re scraping down all the bad walls and they’re getting ready to paint, and someone sees this icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. His eyes just fixed on that. He recognized it because they’ve done restoration for so many churches.”
But then the cleaning crew discovered what some would describe as an “Easter egg,” an unexpected hidden gem telling the incredible story of the icon: A verified certificate signed by Redemptorist Superior General Patrick Murray in 1933.
The certificate shows that their icon was the 5,561st copy of the original icon which dates back at least to the 15th century, one which has been known to deliver miracles.
Patrick Hayes, a Philadelphia-based archivist for the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province, shares how Augustinians in Rome had the original icon stored in a cupboard until the 19th century, when a priest shared word about it with his superior general.
“The Redemptorists were building their own headquarters in Rome,” Hayes said. “He remembered that the Mother of Perpetual Help icon seems to need a home, and the superior general was very taken with the idea. So he had an audience with Pope Pius IX scheduled, asked the pope about it, and the pope agreed this is going to set them apart from all of the other religious orders in Rome, and said, ‘We will ask the Augustinians if they could release the icon into your care. The only thing that you have to do is make her known.’”
The Augustinians agreed, and the original icon was transferred with a procession across Rome to the Redemptorists’ church.
“People would hang out of their windows, and we have the written accounts of some instances where grandmothers, mothers, fathers would hold their sick infant out of the windows to observe the procession,” said Hayes.
“Those same accounts detail dozens of miracles attributed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.”
Hayes said that in time, thousands of copies of the icon were produced, with many of them touching the miraculous icon.
“Every time a copy is made and is touched to the original, the original miraculous icon extends its miraculous power to the copy,” he said, citing the prayer of a novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help that has brought about miracles.
“The key one is in Boston at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the so-called Mission Church on Mission Hill. This is an icon that has deep roots in that community, but also not only because it’s the first church in America named for Our Lady of Perpetual Help, but because of the miracle accounts that have come out of it,” he said.
He explained that Redemptorists in the early 20th century often went on missions to various parishes across the U.S., one of which could have led to the icon coming to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church in the 1930s, a few years after the cornerstone of the current church was laid in 1929.
“It is very typical of American parishes that a Redemptorist preaches a mission in the church,” Hayes said. “As part of the mission, he leaves behind one of these pictures. The icon is part of the parting gift of a Redemptorist mission. They would place the parish under the protection of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.”
The icon from Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament and the Vietnamese Martyrs Parish is currently off site, awaiting restoration work. Once the Knights raise the necessary funds, they hope to turn it into a new source of devotion for members of the parish.
“We didn’t even know the jewel that we had in terms of this icon,” said council treasurer Joey Rosito, “until we had it pulled off the wall.”
As they’re discovering, they have an icon that could work miracles.
Those who wish to donate to the restoration effort can write checks to OLBS K of C Council 15137, with “Attn: OLBS, Knights of Columbus” and mail them to Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament and the Vietnamese Martyrs Parish, 2121 N. 3rd Street, Harrisburg, PA 17110.
(Jay Sorgi is a freelance reporter for The Catholic Witness. Photo courtesy of St. Jude Liturgical Arts Studio.)
By Jay Sorgi, The Catholic Witness
