Celebrating 67 Years at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent
Happy 67th Anniversary, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent!
On June 27, 1956, on the day of the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the Daughters of Wisdom purchased a house and 18 acres of property in Sound Beach, NY, from St. Charles Hospital for the sum of one dollar to use as a retirement community for the Sisters.
Over its 67 years, the house has undergone many transformations and renovations. It began in 1960 when a new wing was built onto the original home to accommodate more retired Sisters, and over the years since then, many enhancements and renovations have been made. Most recently, a 3-level wing was added, which includes a renovated nurses’ station. Over the years, the Sisters have been blessed with many generous donations, including a stained glass window for the chapel, an elevator for their ease of getting from floor to floor, and the replacement of the beach bulkhead.
Learn more about Our Lady of Perpetual Help in an essay by Andrea Morale, and take a journey through the transformation of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent with photos from the 50s, 60s, 80s, 90s, and recent times.
Marian Feast Day Marks the 67th Anniversary of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent
By Andrea Morale
Tuesday, June 27th, is the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and is also the 67th anniversary of the date that Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent in Sound Beach was founded by the Daughters of Wisdom.
This Marian devotion revolves around the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, painted in the thirteenth century. It shows Mary, the Mother of God, holding the Divine Child while the Archangels Michael and Gabriel are presenting Him the Instruments of His Passion. It was painted on wood, with a background of gold, in Byzantine style, and over the figures are Greek letters forming the abbreviated words of Mother of God, Jesus Christ, Archangel Michael, and Archangel Gabriel.
This icon was brought to Rome in the fifteenth century by a merchant, who was dying there, and asked his friend to place the picture in a church. His friend's wife wanted to keep the picture, but tradition relates that the Blessed Virgin appeared to the six-year-old daughter of this Roman family and told her to tell her mother and grandmother that the picture of Holy Mary of Perpetual Help should be placed in the Church of St. Matthew the Apostle, located between the basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran. The story continues that after many doubts and difficulties, the mother obeyed, and after consulting with the clergy in charge of the church, the picture of the Virgin was placed in St. Matthew's on March 27th, 1499. Crowds flocked to the famous Roman Street of Via Merulana, where it was being venerated at St. Matthew (San Matteo) Church. For nearly three hundred years, many miracles were witnessed through the intercession of the Blessed Mother. The picture was then called the Madonna di San Matteo, and Pope Pius IX, as a young boy, was among those who had prayed before it. The Hermits of Saint Augustine served the church for a time, and the Augustinians were still in charge when war destroyed the church during the early 1800s. Although the picture was saved from destruction, it disappeared from public view and was later rediscovered in an oratory of the Augustinian Fathers at Santa Maria in Posterula.
Upon the request of the Redemptorist priests who had built a new church on the site of the ruins of San Matteo, Pope Pius IX ordered the miraculous picture to be brought back there to St. Alphonsus Church. The icon was entrusted to the care of the Redemptorists, who had it cleaned and retouched by a Polish artist. Preparations were made to inaugurate the new public reign of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. On April 26th, 1866, the picture was carried in a grand procession through the Esquiline region of Rome. Upon returning to the church, the picture was enthroned over the high altar in a resplendent shrine. Reports of miraculous healings spread throughout Rome, and people came by the hundreds to visit the shrine. People left abandoned crutches and canes there, and soon several glass-covered cabinets were filled with gold and silver thanksgiving offerings in the shapes of miniature hearts, arms, legs, and other votive offerings. After the solemn exposition of the picture, Pope Pius IX visited the shine and exclaimed, "How beautiful she is!"
Pope Leo XII, the next Holy Father, had a copy of the picture on his desk so that he could see it throughout his working day. St. Pius X sent a copy of the icon to the Empress of Ethiopia and granted an indulgence of 100 days to anyone who repeated the phrase: "Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us." Pope Benedict XV had the picture placed immediately over his chair of state in the throne room.
Pope Pius IX had told the Redemptorists to "Make her known throughout the world!" The Redemptorists built the first Our Lady of Perpetual Help church in the United States in the Roxbury section of Boston. It was eventually raised to the honor of a "Papal Basilica" by Pope Pius XII.
In 1990, the Redemptorists had the picture of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in St. Alphonsus Church restored. The first part of the restoration consisted of a series of X-rays, infra-red images, qualitative and quantitative analyses of the paint, and other infra-red and ultra-violet tests. The results of these analyses, especially a Carbon-14 test, indicated that the wood of the icon of Perpetual Help could be safely dated from the years 1325-1480.
The second stage of the restoration consisted of the physical work of filling the cracks and perforations in the wood, cleaning the paint and retouching it, strengthening the structure that sustains the icon, etc. An artistic analysis showed the pigmentation of paint at a later date (after the 17th century); this explains why the icon shows a synthesis of oriental and Occidental elements, especially in its facial aspects.
In the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Mary appears sorrowful in her contemplation of her Son's suffering yet full of compassion and mercy as she looks upon us. Every year, Novenas are said throughout the Universal Church, in the days leading up to the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help – June 27th, asking for the Blessed Mother's intercession to her Son on behalf of the sick and suffering.
We, the Daughters of Wisdom, trace our beginnings and spirituality back to 18th-century France, where St. Louis de Montfort walked among the poor and abandoned, telling the story of Jesus. He shared his vision of Jesus as "Wisdom made flesh" and an emphasis on seeking God - Divine Wisdom, through Marian devotion. Following in the footsteps of Louis de Montfort and Marie Louise Trichet, we Daughters of Wisdom have ministered in education, health care, and social and pastoral outreach, with a special concern for those neglected by society.
In 1904, the Daughters of Wisdom were forced by the secularization laws of France to seek ministries elsewhere. The first Daughters of Wisdom arrived in the United States in northern Maine in 1904. Our Lady of Perpetual Help Convent in Sound Beach was acquired on June 27th, 1956. The convent presently serves as a home for our aging sisters, and their prayer ministries, with daily Mass celebrated inside the convent's chapel. We, Daughters of Wisdom presently serve in the United States, North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. We humbly pray with gratitude, for God's blessings, through the intercession of his Mother Mary, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, on our ministries, our sisters, family, friends, the Montfort Missionaries, The Universal Church, and all we serve.