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Pope Francis blessing the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Icon in Rome on Holy Thursday with Redemptorist Fr Seamus Enright, Rector, Mount St Alphonsus, Limerick. PICTURE: OBSERVATOIRE ROMANO
 

 
THE Our Lady of Perpetual Help Icon is visiting St Mary’s Cathedral today and tomorrow. The icon’s pilgrimage to Roman Catholic Cathedrals in Ireland commenced in Limerick on Monday after the Pilgrim Icon was blessed by Pope Francis in Rome on Holy Thursday and taken back to Ireland by the Irish Redemptorists the following day.
This pilgrimage is being organised by the Redemptorist order in conjunction with all 26 Cathedrals and will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help and its custodianship by the Redemptorists during this time.
The icon visits St Mary’s Cathedral, Killarney, today, Wednesday, where a Mass of Welcome will be celebrated by Bishop of Kerry Ray Browne at 6.15pm.
After that the faithful will have the chance to venerate the icon with petition writing opportunities also available. A healing service takes place at 8pm followed by prayer.
Tomorrow, Thursday, Mass at 7am will be followed at 9.15am by a prayer service for secondary school children and Mass at 10.30am. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be available afterwards. From Killarney, the icon travels to Cobh.
The original “Mother of Perpetual Help” icon was presented to the Redemptorists in Rome by Pope Pius IX in 1865. It was installed in the Church of St Alphonsus Liguori in 1866 and one of the first copies of the icon was received at the Redemptorists Mount St Alphonsus Monastery in Limerick in 1867. The devotion to our “Mother of Perpetual Help” quickly spread to all parts of Ireland and continues to be an important part of the lives of many Irish people and others all around the world; see www.followtheicon.ie for updates.