CELEBRATING 100 YEARS
Noted iconologist Br. Dan Korn stands in front of the Perpetual Help Shrine at the “Rock” Church. He will lead the triduum on June 21-23. He will discuss the strong Marian devotion of St. Alphonsus Liguori, and share the mission of redemption as well as the significance of the elements depicted in the icon.
The parish will welcome Redemptorist Bishop Bruce Lewandowski of Baltimore, a champion of social justice, to celebrate the feast day Mass on June 26. Historians credit the humble start of the weekly perpetual novena at the “Rock” in 1922 with catapulting the fulfillment of Pope Pius IX’s mandate to “make her known.” The City of St. Louis established bus routes specifically so that the tens of thousands of faithful Catholics could get to one of the 11 services the Redemptorists led on a single day. Historical records indicate that more than a million people attended the Solemn Novena between 1923 and 1934.
Redemptorist confreres spread the devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help to virtually every church in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, and then to parishes throughout the entire country. Redemptorist missionaries serving as military chaplains and those working in developing countries around the world also introduced and fostered devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help.