Our Lady, Help of Christians

Our Lady, Help of Christians honors the Blessed Virgin Mary under an ancient title that hails her as the powerful protectress and helper of the Christian people in every need and danger. Invoked from early centuries as the defender of the faithful, she has been credited by the popes and by countless believers with deliverance in times of peril, and the title took on special meaning after great deliverances attributed to her intercession.

A feast under this title was established by Pope Pius VII in thanksgiving for his own release from captivity and his return to Rome in 1814, after years of imprisonment under Napoleon, a restoration the pope ascribed to the help of the Mother of God. The devotion was especially dear to St. John Bosco, who made Our Lady, Help of Christians the patroness of his work and of his Salesian family and built a great basilica in her honor at Turin. Her commemoration is kept on 24 May.