History of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Icon

There is a tradition from the sixteenth century that tells about a merchant from the isle of  Crete who stole a miraculous picture from a church.  The merchant kept the picture among his belongings and headed towards Rome. 

The merchant arrived in Rome and became gravely ill. He asked a friend to care for him.  At the hour of his death, the merchant revealed to his Roman friend how he had stolen the picture and pleaded that it be returned to a church.

The merchant died and the icon was not returned to the church.

The Blessed Mother appeared to the six-year old daughter of the merchant's friend and instructed her to tell her mother and grandmother to place the icon in the Church of St. Matthew the Apostle.  The mother and grandmother brought the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help to the church where it was venerated for over three hundred years.

In 1866, Pope Pius IX made the Redemptorists the custodians of the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help and told them "to make her known throughout the world."