One of the best known and most beloved icons in the Western Church is the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. It's featured in many Roman-rite Catholic churches, and many Catholics have a devotion to this "miracle" icon.
It has a fascinating history, one that involves its rescue from destruction by a group of Augustinian monks, the same religious order that Pope Leo XIV is a member of.
While the current church where it is located is staffed by the Redemptorists, previously the image was kept in a church that was run for many centuries by Augustinians.
Saved from destruction
When Napoleon invaded Rome in 1812, he destroyed the church of San Matteo, which was between St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. It was a church belonging to the Augustinian Order, and the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help had been venerated there for roughly 300 years.
To keep the icon from getting obliterated or stolen in the chaos, a few Augustinian monks took the icon from the church and hid it.
Here is an account of what happened, according to Fr. Michael Marchi, featured in the book Life of St. Alphonsus Ligouri:
"Between 1840 and 1853...I used to go and see an old lay brother named Austin Orsetti in the Augustinian monastery of Santa Maria in Posterula. He told me that when the church of St Matthew was destroyed the Augustinians had taken the Madonna of Perpetual Succor with them, to save it from profanation and had placed it, unknown to all, in the private oratory of their monastery. After the death of all the old Augustinian fathers, Brother Orsetti was the only witness of the past. Many a time he showed me the Madonna which had been venerated for ages at St. Matthew's saying, 'Never forget Michael, the miraculous Madonna of St Matthew's. Remember that it is here in this chapel.'"
What happened next is that the location of the miraculous icon was revealed to Pope Pius IX, who then ordered it to be placed in the church of the Redemptorists.
It was placed in their church as it was the only church remaining between St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran, and that location was favored by the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The icon was publicly venerated once again in 1866 and has remained in the custody of the Redemptorists ever since.
All of this was made possible by a few Augustinians who saved the icon from destruction.
