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Back of Card reads: Icons are painted with great care... everything has meaning. The gold background of the icon represents the Kingdom of God. The Greek letters are abbreviations for the words “Jesus, Mother of God, Archangel Michael, Archangel Gabriel”. The Archangels are holding the instruments of the future Passion and offering them to the Christ Child. Jesus is fearful, and runs immediately into the protective arms of His Mother. In His haste He nearly loses one of His sandals! Let us follow in Our Saviour’s footsteps... and before we take up our cross to follow Him, seek refuge first in Our Lady’s arms. There is a tradition that the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was originally painted by St. Luke, and that Our Lady gave it her blessing with the promise "My grace will accompany this icon." Though we don’t know for certain it’s origin, we do know the icon has been here since the 13th century. Pope Innocent III stated in 1207 that it seemed Our Lady’s soul had entered the icon, so beautiful and miraculous was it. The painting at some point was stolen by a merchant who had heard of the miracles surrounding it. He traveled with it to Rome, where he suddenly became ill, and confided his crime to the Roman caring for him. He asked this man to place the icon in a Church so Our Lady could once again help the people. However, after his death, the Roman kept the picture for his wife, hanging it in her bedroom. Our Lady appeared several times to this family, asking them to place the icon in St. Matthews, a small, humble, Church in Rome. They finally complied, and the icon was again properly honored for a time, until the French invaded Rome and the icon was lost and abandoned during the war. It was rediscovered 75 years later by the Redemptorists, and upon Pope Pius IX’s request, they made it their mission to make Our Lady of Perpetual Help known and loved throughout the world.
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