Our Lady of Good Counsel

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Our Lady of Good Counsel (Mater boni consilii) is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary, after a miraculous painting now found in the Augustinian church at Genazzano, Italy. The church had been entrusted to the order in 1356, and it was the Augustinian Order which subsequently contributed most to the spread of this particlular devotion internationally.

According to tradition, in the year 1467, in the midst of the festivities for the Feast of St Mark, the townfolk suddenly heard "exquisite music." A mysterious cloud was then said to have descended and obliterated an unfinished wall of the parish church. In front of the populace, the cloud dissipated and a beautiful fresco, no thicker than a carte-de-visite and no more than eighteen inches square, of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Christ Child was revealed. Many miracles are said to have occurred in the portrait's presence, and it was widely believed that it had been miraculously transported from a church in Albania.

Such was the holy image's reputation that Pope Urban VIII made a "glittering" pilgrimage there in 1630, invoking the protection of the Queen of Heaven, as did Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1864. On November 17, 1682, Blessed Pope Innocent XI had the picture solemnly crowned. Among her noted clients have been St Aloysius Gonzaga, St Alphonsus Liguori and Blessed Stephen Bellesini. Pope Pius XII dedicated his reign to her and composed a prayer to her. Her Feast is celebrated on April 26^th.

The small Scapular of Our Lady of Good Counsel (the White Scapular) was presented by the Hermits of St. Augustine to Pope Leo XIII, who, in December 1893, approved it and endowed it with indulgences. On April 22, 1903, that same Pope included the invocation "Mater boni consilii" in the Litany of Loreto.

Through the years, various institutions have been named in honor of Mary under the title of Our Lady of Good Counsel. These institutions include a college, high schools, and churches.

[edit] Bibliography

The Virgin Mother of Good Counsel, by Monsignor George F. Dillon, M. H. Gill and Son, 1888.
The Mother of Good Counsel of Genazzano, by João S. Clá Dias, Western Hemisphere Cultural Society, Inc, 1992. ISBN 1-8810-0803
Miraculous Images of Our Lady, by Joan Carroll Cruz, OCDS, TAN Books and Publishers, Inc, 1993. ISBN 0-89555-484-4