Hand-painted icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

The original is an icon of the Cretan school, probably painted between the 14th and 15th centuries. It reached Rome at the end of the 15th century and was venerated for three centuries in the church of San Matteo in Merulana, destroyed in the Napoleonic era. Rediscovered, in 1865 Pope Pius IX entrusted it to the Redemptorist Missionaries, asking them to make it known throughout the world: since then it has been kept in the church of Sant'Alfonso on the Esquiline, in Rome, and its reproductions are found on every continent.

• ◆It belongs to the type called «of the Passion» (in Russian Strastnaya), a variant of the Hodegetria.
• ◆On the left the archangel Michael with the spear and sponge; on the right the archangel Gabriel with the cross and nails. The Greek inscriptions give their names.
• ◆The Child grasps his Mother's hand with both hands: in her he finds refuge.
• ◆The sandal hanging from his foot: according to a widespread interpretation, it is the sign of a person clinging to God with all their strength, even at the risk of losing something in the rush.
• ◆The Mother looks not at her Son but at the one who prays: she invites them, too, to take refuge in her.

It is an icon for those going through illness or trial, for an infirmary or clinic, for a family, for Redemptorist parishes and communities. Concetta Basile paints it following the traditional iconographic scheme, with its colours and inscriptions. Like every icon by Concetta Basile, it is fully gilded with 23¾ karat gold, with inscriptions in Greek or Latin, and is commissioned with an offering proportionate to the time and materials of the work.