Our Lady of Perpetual Help & St. George & The Dragon

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Also known as

Our Lady of Perpetual Succour

Memorial

27 June

Profile

The picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour is painted on wood, with background of gold. It is Byzantine in style and is supposed to have been painted in the thirteenth century. It represents the Mother of God holding the Divine Child while the Archangels Michael and Gabriel present before Him the instruments of His Passion. Over the figures in the picture are some Greek letters which form the abbreviated words Mother of God, Jesus Christ, Archangel Michael, and Archangel Gabriel respectively.

It was brought to Rome towards the end of the fifteenth century by a pious merchant, who, dying there, ordered by his will that the picture should be exposed in a church for public veneration. It was exposed in the church of San Matteo, Via Merulana, between Saint Mary Major and Saint John Lateran. Crowds flocked to this church, and for nearly three hundred years many graces were obtained through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. The picture was then popularly called the Madonna di San Matteo. The church was served for a time by the Hermits of Saint Augustine, who had sheltered their Irish brethren in their distress.

These Augustinians were still in charge when the French invaded Rome (1812) and destroyed the church. The picture disappeared; it remained hidden and neglected for over forty years, but a series of providential circumstances between 1863 and 1865 led to its discovery in an oratory of the Augustinian Fathers at Santa Maria in Posterula. The pope, Pius IX, who as a boy had prayed before the picture in San Matteo, became interested in the discovery and in a letter dated 11 Dececember 1865 to Father General Mauron, C.SS.R., ordered that Our Lady of Perpetual Succour should be again publicly venerated in Via Merulana, and this time at the new church of Saint Alphonsus. The ruins of San Matteo were in the grounds of the Redemptorist Convent. This was but the first favour of the Holy Father towards the picture. He approved of the solemn translation of the picture (26 April 1866), and its coronation by the Vatican Chapter (23 June 1867). He fixed the feast as duplex secundae classis, on the Sunday before the Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, and by a decree dated May 1876, approved of a special office and Mass for the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. This favour later on was also granted to others. Learning that the devotion to Our Lady under this title had spread far and wide, Pius IX raised a confraternity of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour and Saint Alphonsus, which had been erected in Rome, to the rank of an arch-confraternity and enriched it with many privileges and indulgences. He was among the first to visit the picture in its new home, and his name is the first in the register of the arch-confraternity.

Two thousand three hundred facsimiles of the Holy Picture have been sent from Saint Alphonsus's church in Rome to every part of the world. At the present day not only altars, but churches and dioceses (e.g. in England, Leeds and Middlesborough; in the United States, Savannah) are dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. In some places, as in the United States, the title has been translated Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Saint George

Also known as

• Victory Bringer

Memorial

• 23 April (Roman Catholic)
• 3 November (Russian Orthodox)
• fourth Sunday in June (Malta)
• third Sunday in July (Gozo)
• 23 November (Geogia)

Profile

Soldier. Martyr. That’s all we know for sure.

Several stories have been attached to Saint George, the best known of which is the Golden Legend. In it, a dragon lived in a lake near Silena, Libya. Whole armies had gone up against this fierce creature, and had gone down in painful defeat. The monster ate two sheep each day; when mutton was scarce, lots were drawn in local villages, and maidens were substituted for sheep. Into this country came Saint George. Hearing the story on a day when a princess was to be eaten, he crossed himself, rode to battle against the serpent, and killed it with a single blow with his lance. George then held forth with a magnificent sermon, and converted the locals. Given a large reward by the king, George distributed it to the poor, then rode away.

Due to his chivalrous behavior (protecting women, fighting evil, dependence on faith and might of arms, largesse to the poor), devotion to Saint George became popular in the Europe after the 10th century. In the 15th century his feast day was as popular and important as Christmas. Many of his areas of patronage have to do with life as a knight on horseback. The celebrated Knights of the Garter are actually Knights of the Order of Saint George. The shrine built for his relics at Lydda, Palestine was a popular point of pilgrimage for centuries. One of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

Died

• tortured and beheaded c.304 at Lydda, Palestine

Patronage

• against herpes
• against leprosy
• against plague
• against skin diseases
• against skin rashes
• against syphilis
• Amersfoort, Netherlands
• Appignano del Tronto, Italy
• Aragon, Spain
• agricultural workers
• archers
• Arcole, Italy
• armourers
• Beirut, Lebanon
• Boy Scouts
• butchers
• Canada
• Cappadocia
• Carpeneto, Italy
• Catalonia
• cavalry
• Cerreto Grue, Alessandria, Italy
• chivalry
• Constantinople
• Crusaders
• England (by Pope Benedict XIV)
• equestrians
• Ethiopia
• farmers
• Ferrara, Italy
• field hands
• field workers
• Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• Genoa, Italy
• Georgia
• Germany
• Gozo, Malta
• Greece
• Haldern, Germany
• Heide, Germany
• Hone, Italy
• horsemen
• horses
• husbandmen
• Istanbul, Turkey
• knights
• lepers
• Limburg, Germany, diocese of
• Lithuania
• Malta
• Modica, Sicily, Italy
• Moscow, Russia
• Nerola, Italy
• Order of the Garter
• Palestine
• Palestinian Christians
• Portugal
• Ptuj, Slovenia
• Qormi, Malta
• Riano, Italy
• riders
• saddle makers
• saddlers
• Senj, Croatia
• sheep
• shepherds
• soldiers
• Teutonic Knights
• Venice, Italy
• Victoria, Gozo, Malta

Prayers

• Novena in honour of Saint George

Representation

• armor
• banner
• buckler
• dragon
• horse

Images

• Gallery of images of Saint George

Storefront

• Commercial Links related to Saint George
• Commercial Links related to military religious items

Additional Information

• Abba Theodotus
• Book of Saints, by the Monks of Ramsgate
• Catholic Encyclopedia
• Christian Biographies, by James Keifer
• Columbia Encyclopedia, by Herbert Thurston
• Domestic Church, by Catherine Fournier
• Ethiopic Miracles of Saint George
• For All The Saints, by Katherine Rabenstein
• Google Directory
• Greek Miracles of Saint George, by J Aufhauser
• In God’s Garden, by Amy Steedman
• Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
• Military Martyrs, by David Woods
• New Catholic Dictionary
• Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints, by Matthew Bunson, Margaret Bunson, and Stephen Bunson
• Passion of Saint George, by E A W Budge
• Russian Scouting and Saint George [russian]
• Saint George and Scouting, by Lewis P Orans
• Saint George Greek Orthodox Church, Des Moines, Iowa, USA
• Saints: A Concise Biographical Dictionary, by John Coulson
• Saint George Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
• Saint Theododius
• Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Society

Readings

Saint George was a man who abandoned one army for another: he gave up the rank of tribune to enlist as a soldier for Christ. Eager to encounter the enemy, he first stripped away his worldly wealth by giving all he had to he poor. Then, free and unencumbered, bearing the shield of faith, he plunged into the think of the battle, an ardent soldier for Christ. Clearly what he did serves to teach us a valuable lesson: if we are afraid to strip ourselves of out worldly possessions, then we are unfit to make a strong defense of the faith. Dear brothers, let us not only admire the courage of this fighter in heaven’s army, but follow his example. Let us be inspired to strive for the reward of heavenly glory. We must now cleanse ourselves, as Saint Paul tells us, from all defilement of body and spirit, so that one day we too may deserve to enter that temple of blessedness to which we now aspire. - from a sermon by Saint Peter Damian, priest

Category: Canonized Pre-Congregation, Emblem: Armor, Emblem: Banner or Flag, Emblem: Dragon, Emblem: Horse, Emblem: Shield or Buckler, Fourteen Holy Helpers, Name: George, Saints Beati and Venerables, Saints who were Martyrs, Saints who were Soldiers  |  Trackback

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