India On 8 September 1948, the Perpetual Succour Novena was started at
St. Michael's Church, Mumbai, India. Father Edward Fernandes brought back with him a copy of the image for public devotion from Ireland. The widespread devotion continues today in multiple dialects and languages at the shrine.
The Philippines Our Lady of Perpetual Help is widely venerated by
Filipino Catholics and
overseas Filipino communities. A German copy of the icon is venerated in the
National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in
Baclaran, Parañaque City,
Metro Manila—the country's centre of devotion to the icon. Since 1958, the Church has been authorized to remain open 24 hours a day.
Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła offered a
Catholic Mass at the shrine in February 1973 and later visited the country again as
Pope John Paul II on 17 February 1981. The veneration of this icon is culturally unique to Philippine religiosity due to the absolute fact that all Catholic churches and petite chapels in the Philippines have a replica of the icon, often enshrined in a
side altar. Similar to the archetype of the
Last Supper in a Filipino dining room, this enshrinement has been a culture phenomenon unique to all Filipino Catholic shrines and churches, even sometimes caricatured as a cultural satire. The areas enshrined in this icon are either found in the
foyer entrance of a church, a side altar or a freestanding chapel in a larger sized church. Copies of the icon can also be found in countless houses, businesses, and even public utility vehicles. draws thousands of devotees. Every Wednesday, many congregations hold services where they publicly recite the
rosary and
the icon's associated novena, along with a priest delivering
Benediction and celebrating a
votive Mass in its honor. Devotees today still use the same Novena booklet first published by Irish Redemptorists, who introduced the icon and its devotion to the Philippines in the early 1900s. The Filipino Diaspora continue keeping the Wednesday Novena, holding novena services in their respective parishes overseas. In Saint John the Baptist Church,
Garcia Hernandez, Bohol, the feast of the image is held on 27 April instead of the usual liturgical date. The 48 sub-chapels in the parish participate in the annual feast, while every 27th of the month has each chapel's respective congregations holding a procession of the icon. This form of devotion began in 1923 when two missionary priests, a Dutchman named Thomas and a German named Jorge, brought the icon to the town. The original icon can still be seen in a chapel of the parish; its reverse bears a Latin inscription attesting to its dedication.
Singapore The center of devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is the
Church of Saint Alphonsus, known locally as the Novena Church due to popular services that take place every Saturday. Beginning in 1949, pilgrims have been coming each week to give praise to the Mother of God and every week there are many prayers of petition and prayers of thanksgiving received. Each week, the Redemptorists offer six novena prayer services—five in English and one in Mandarin.
Ukraine Devotion to the Mother of God of Perpetual Help was propagated by the
Greek Catholic Redemptorists, who arrived in Ukraine in 1913 at the invitation of
Metropolitan Andrew Sheptytsky.
Hieromartyr Nicholas Charnetsky and Hieromartyr
Vasyl Velychkovsky were devoted to the Mother of God of Perpetual Help. Charnetsky was ordained on 8 February 1931 in the presence of the original icon in Rome and died while invoking the aid of the Mother of God of Perpetual Help. Velychkovsky wrote a book about the icon titled,
A History of the Miraculous Icon of our Mother of Perpetual Help in 1968, for the centennial of the public veneration of the icon in 1866. The city of Lviv had two crowned copies of Mother of God of Perpetual Help at one time. The first, crowned on 30 October, 1927, was taken to Poland on 14 October 1945 and placed in the chapel of the theological seminary in Warsaw. The second, crowned on 25 June, 1939, was taken to Poland in 1943. It is now kept at the Carmelite monastery in Kalisz-Niedźwiady. This copy was crowned a second time on 7 June, 1991, by
Pope John Paul II. An akathist composed by Roman Bachtalowsky, CSsR, was published in 1931. Another copy of the Perpetual Help icon was kept in the Redemptorist monastery in Lviv. In 1939, a Soviet soldier entered the monastery chapel and shot at the icon. The bullet pierced the board just above the head of the Christ Child. The soldier would later be shot and killed by a bullet of unknown origin. The icon was kept hidden during the years of persecution. On 7 April 2009, the icon was translated to the
Greek Catholic church of Saint Josaphat, where the relics of Nicholas Charnetsky are enshrined. On 24 June, 2015, a copy of the Mother of God of Perpetual Help was blessed by
Pope Francis and brought to Ukraine on pilgrimage. On 11 December 2017,
Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk proclaimed that the
Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church will celebrate the feast day of the Mother of God of Perpetual Help each year on the first Sunday of July.
United States The Redemptorist parish, Saint Mary's in Annapolis, Maryland, received a copy of the icon from Rome in 1868. The image is prominently displayed within the sanctuary of the parish. In 1878, the
Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in
Boston, Massachusetts, obtained a certified copy of the icon being the first in the United States. Between 1927 and 1935, the first American novena service dedicated to the icon was recited in
Saint Alphonsus "The Rock" church in
St. Louis, Missouri, and various other Redemptorist stations around the United States. There is a shrine
Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Manhattan; and at the
Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Brooklyn) and Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. == Patronage ==