marian anniversaries     may

May 28

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Roxbury, Massachusetts, USA

In 1866, Pope Pius IX entrusted the rediscovered icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help to the Redemptorist Order in Rome, with the mandate to "make her known." Incorporating prayers to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in their preaching missions around the world, the Redemptorists began fulfilling this mandate at once. On May 28, 1871, they solemnly enthroned a copy of her icon above the main altar of their church in the Boston suburb of Roxbury, Massachusetts. In 1878, the image moved to a new church dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Like the original icon in Rome, it soon became a focus of devotion linked to miracles and answered prayers. As in Rome, the mission fathers held weekly Novena services where people would come to petition Our Lady for help with special needs. Although the novena was originally a nine-day prayer period corresponding to the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost, it now became a "perpetual" devotion, which individuals could attend for nine weeks or as desired. The Redemptorists also distributed prayer cards encouraging personal nine-day novenas to Our Lady. In 1883, not long after being designated a parish church, the shrine became famous when a young woman's spectacular recovery from crippling bone disease followed a series of novenas there. In 1954, Pius XII gave the Mission Church of Boston the status of Minor Basilica. The Redemptorists still hold daily Masses there, with three Novena services on Wednesdays. 

Also commemorated this date:

Notre-Dame des Ardents, Arras, Hauts-de-France, France. Apparition and healings, 1105.
Notre Dame de la Confiance, Saint Paul d'Eyjeaux, Haute-Vienne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. Oratory blessed, 1950. Feast Sunday near September 8.
Notre-Dame-de-Celles, Celles, Ariège, Occitanie, France. Apparition, 1686. Pilgrimage 3rd Sunday in July.
Madonna dell'Oro di Ferruta, Borgosesia, Vercelli, Piedmont, Italy (Golden Madonna). First stone of church placed, 1685.
Madonna del Canale, Massa Marittima, Grosseto, Tuscany, Italy, Prata village. Festa every three years: 2024, 2027, 2030; mass, procession, concert, fireworks.
Santa Maria Liberatrice, Viterbo, Viterbo, Latium, Italy. The Madonna appeared in the sky, calming a storm, May 28, 1380. Festa on Pentecost.
Santa Maria della Luce, Rome, Italy (St. Mary of the Light). Suicidal man changed his mind after seeing St. Mary's luminous image, 1730.
Nostra Signora di Gonare, Sarule, Nuoro, Sardinia, Italy. White marble statue, c1600, crowned, 1972. Festa September 8.
Vrouweputje, Goes, Zeeland, Netherlands, near 's-Heer Arendskerke village (Lady Well). Abandoned, rediscovered, and renovated shrine reopened as meditation center, 2007. Procession around August 15.
Matka Boża Pocieszenia, Wrocław, Lower Silesia, Poland (Mother of God of Consolation). Painting crowned, 1905.
 

Where We Walked ~~~ Mary Ann Daly