Since 1866 the Redemptorists have spread devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the icon and title of Our Mother of Perpetual Help (also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Help). According to tradition, the ancient Byzantine icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help was stolen from a church in...

On August 22, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates a memorial in honor of the Queenship of Mary. This memorial is placed in the octave of the Assumption. Assumption and Coronation must be sharply distinguished. Whereas the assumption has been the object of dogmatic definition (1950), the coronation of Mary has...

The Holy Rosary (Latin rosarium, in the sense of “crown of roses” or “garland of roses”) refers to a set of prayers  used in the Catholic Church and to the string of knots or beads used to count the component prayers. The prayers that compose the Rosary are arranged in sets...

The title “Mother of God” is the Western church’s equivalent of the ancient Eastern title Theotokos. The usual Latin translations are Dei Genitrix. Familiar English translations are “Mother of God” or “God-bearer” – but these both have different literal equivalents in Greek: “who gave birth to one who was God”...

There are four solemnities honoring the Mother of Jesus that are kept throughout the Catholic church: The Immaculate conception (December 8), her divine Motherhood (January 1), the Annunciation (March 25), her Assumption (August 15). Like the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, the dogma of the Assumption is not explicitly stated...

In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was...

The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15, the day after the feast of the Holy Cross to show the close connection between Jesus’ Passion and Mary’s Sorrows. This advocation has its roots in the Gospel. This form of Marian piety goes back to...

The Easter Season closes with the great feast of Pentecost Sunday, traditionally called the “birthday” of the Church. The Blessed Virgin Mary was there: the “apostles were constantly at prayer together, and with them a group of women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus.” (Acts 1:14). She is the perfect...

The “feast of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field,” (Ex 23:16) was called “Pentecost” in Greek, because it was celebrated fifty days after the feast of the Pasch. It was also called the feast of weeks, because it fell true seven...

As a place of memory, The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii is a reminder of God’s powerful actions in history and in the lives of Italian immigrants to the Chicago area. It is where, for nearly 100 years, thousands have continually given thanks to God as they draw together in community...