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Our Lady of Prompt Succor
![[]](images/mary0015.jpg)
-
Also known as
- Notre Dame de Bon Secours; Our Lady of Quick Help
- Profile
- In
1727,
French Ursuline
nuns founded a
monastery in New Orleans,
Louisiana, and organized their area
schools from it. In
1763 Louisiana became a
Spanish possession, and Spanish sisters came to assist. In
1800 the territory reverted back to France, and the
Spanish sisters fled in the face of France anti-Catholicsm. In
1803, short on
teachers, Mother Saint Andre Madier requested reinforcements in the form
of more sisters from France. The relative to whom she write, Mother Saint
Michel, was running a Catholic boarding school for girls.
Bishop Fournier, short-handed due to the repressions of the French
Revolution, declined to send any sisters. Mother Saint Michel was given
permission to appeal to the
pope. The
pope was a
prisoner of Napoleon, and it seemed unlikely he would even receive her
letter of petition. Mother Saint Michel prayed,
O most Holy Virgin
Mary, if you obtain for me a prompt and favorable answer to this letter,
I promise to have you honored at New Orleans under the title of Our Lady of
Prompt Succor.
and sent her letter on
19 March
1809. Against all odds, she received a response on
29 April
1809. The
pope granted her request, and Mother Saint Michel, commissioned a statue
of Our Lady of Prompt Succor holding the Infant Jesus.
Bishop Fournier blessed the statue and Mother's work.
Mother Saint Michel and several postulants came to New Orleans on
31 December
1810. They brought the statue with them, and placed it in the
monastery chapel. Since then, Our Lady of Prompt Succor has
interceded for those who have sought her help.
A great fire threatened the Ursuline
monastery in
1812. A lay sister brought the statue to the window and Mother Saint
Michel prayed
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, we are lost if you do not come to our aid.
The wind changed direction, turned the fire away, and saved the
monastery.
Our Lady interceded again at the Battle of New Orleans in
1815. Many faithful, including wives and daughters of American soldiers,
gathered in the Ursuline chapel before the statue of Our Lady of Prompt
Succor, and spent the night before the battle in prayer. They asked
Our Lady for victory by Andrew Jackson’s forces over the British, which
would save the city from being sacked. Jackson and 200 men from around the
South won a remarkable victory over a superior British force in a battle that
lasted twenty-five minutes, and saw few American casualties.
It is still customary for the devout of New Orleans to pray before the statue
of Our Lady of Prompt Succor whenever a hurricane threatens
New Orleans.
- Patronage
-
Louisiana;
archdiocese of
New Orleans, Louisiana; city of
New Orleans, Louisiana
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