Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help

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The Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is a booklet containing a set of prayers including the Roman Catholic novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, that was originally published in Jaén, Spain in 1899. It was then widely republished by American Redemptorist priests in 1927, then ultimately revised by Irish and Australian Redemptorist priests on 23 June 1948.

The present booklet was mainly co-authored by the Australian priest The Rev Leo James English, C.Ss.R, and Fra Gerard O'Donnell, and is officially presently used at the Church of San Alphonsus Ligouri in Rome each week, where the original icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is permanently enshrined.^[1][2]

In the Catholic Church in the Philippines, the novena was first recited at the Redemptorist-run St. Clement's Church in La Paz, Iloilo following World War II^[3] and is still recited every Wednesday. The practice of Wednesday novena has since spread to the Baclaran Church, a Redemptorist-run church in Metro Manila, elsewhere in the Philippines, and in the Filipino diaspora. The popularity of the novena became known due to the authorisation granted by the Holy See to propagate the icon, along with prayers which addressed the strengthening of marriages, healing of sicknesses, and helping find employment, thus earning it a quick following from the masses.

In the United States, a 9-day televised novena is hosted at the Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help hosted by CatholicTV. The icon featured on the show does not bear its canonical crown.