Catholic traditions of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Our Lady of Tears

Religious traditions surrounding the devotions of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Our Lady of Tears highlight significant historical and miraculous narratives within Catholicism.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help centers on a 13th-century Byzantine painting. Tradition states the icon was brought from Crete to Rome in the 15th century. After being lost for 30 years following the destruction of the Church of Saint Matthew, the icon was rediscovered and eventually entrusted to the Redemptorists by Pope Pius IX in 1866. The original painting is currently housed in the Church of Saint Alphonsus in Rome.

Our Lady of Tears refers to a devotion originating in Syracuse, Italy, involving an image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that reportedly shed tears. A similar reported event occurred in Brazil in 1953 involving a plaster image in the home of Angelo Lannuso and Antonina Lucia Giusti. In the Italian case, scientific analysis conducted by a commission, including atheist Dr. Michele Cassola, concluded the liquid matched human tears. Following this, Sicilian bishops unanimously declared the event, and Pope Pius XII later referenced the phenomenon.