Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Our Mother of Perpetual Succour (Latin: Nostra Mater de Perpetuo Succursu), colloquially known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help), is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a 15th-century Byzantine icon and a purported Marian apparition. The image was enshrined in the Church of San Matteo in Via Merulana from 1499 to 1798 and is today permanently enshrined in the Church of Saint Alphonsus of Liguori in Rome, where the novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is prayed weekly.

Pope Pius IX granted a pontifical decree of canonical coronation along with its official formalized title Nostra Mater de Perpetuo Succursu on 5 May 1866. The Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, Cardinal Ruggero Luigi Emidio Antici Mattei, executed the rite of coronation on 23 June 1867.

The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer serve as custodians of the icon. The image is alternatively named as the Virgin of the Passion in Eastern Orthodoxy. Novena prayers are held before its feast day on 27 June every year. Due to promotion by the Redemptorist priests, the image has gained popularity among Western and Eastern Catholics. Modern reproductions are often displayed in residential homes, commercial establishments, and public transportation.

The Cretan image originated as an Eastern Orthodox icon of the Virgin of the Passion called Amolyntos which depicted the Madonna and Child along with two angels carrying the Holy Instruments of the Passion of Jesus Christ.

The current title derives from the external door tymphanum of the Augustinian Church of San Matteo in Via Merulana, where the antiquated inscription from 1579 once bore the invocation:

Deiparæ Mater et Virginis Succursu Perpetui
(Latin for 'Virginal Mother who bore God, May always Assist us')

The Order of Saint Augustine already had a devotion to this Marian title based on a namesake cloistered monastery "Our Lady of Help" (Italian: Madonna del Soccorso) in Corleone, Palermo, Sicily.

This posthumous title was formalized by Pope Pius IX based on the history of the older church that housed the icon in the present accorded title "Holy Mother of Perpetual Succour" (Latin: Sancta Mater de Perpetuo Succursu). The same decorative style is reconstructed in its current original shrine.