Our Lady of Prompt Succor

The crowned statues - the jewels were donated by the people of New Orleans

Our Lady of Prompt Succor

 (French: Notre Dame du Prompt Secours) is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a wooden devotional image enshrined in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America. The famed image is closely associated with Mother Saint Michel, the Superior of the New Orleans Ursulines.

Pope Pius IX authorized the public devotion to the Marian title on 21 September 1851 and designated the 8th of January as its feast day of thanksgiving. Pope Leo XIII granted a Canonical Coronation to the image through Archbishop Francis Janssens on 10 November 1895.

The image is also known by its connection to President Andrew Jackson who was present before the controversial image during and after the Battle of New Orleans against the British invasion. Under this Marian title, the Virgin Mary is designated as the Principal Patroness of Louisiana and the Archdiocese of New Orleans dating from a 1928 Papal bull from the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

History

French Ursuline nuns first arrived in Louisiana in 1727. The nuns established a convent and founded what is the oldest school for girls in the territory of the modern-day U.S., Ursuline Academy, which educated the children of European colonists, Native Americans, and those of the local Creole people, slave or free.  Spanish sisters came to assist the growing school in 1763 after Louisiana fell under Spanish control.

In 1800 the territory came back under French possession, and in 1803, most of the sisters, fearing the anti-clerical sentiment of the French Revolution, fled to Havana, Cuba. When Louisiana passed into the control of the United States, the sisters sent the President a letter asking if their property rights would be honored by the new government. The response from President Thomas Jefferson is still kept at the convent to this day:

'...I have received, holy sisters, the letter you have written me wherein you express anxiety for the property vested in your institutions by the former governments of Louisiana. The principles of the Constitution and government of the United States are a sure guarantee to you that it will be preserved to you sacred and inviolate, and that your institution will be permitted to govern itself according to its own voluntary rules, without interference from the civil authority.... Be assured it will meet all the protection which my office can give it.'

Short of teachers, Mother Saint Andre Madier requested sisters from France to come to America to aid the struggling convent. She wrote to her cousin, Mother Saint Michel Gensoul, who was running a Catholic girls boarding school in France at the time. The Catholic Church was suffering the wrath of the revolution under Napoleon. Mother Saint Michel, knowing that the Church was in distress in both her homeland and abroad, approached Bishop Fournier of Montpelier to request a transfer. Bishop Fournier felt unable to afford the loss of another nun, as many had been killed or fled during the revolution, and advised Mother St. Michel that only the Pope could give this authorization.
Pope Pius VII was a prisoner of Napoleon at the time, and Mother St. Michel knew the unlikelihood of the Pope even receiving her letter.

 She prayed before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and said: "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."

Sending her petition on March 19, 1809, Mother St. Michel received a letter from the Pope Pius VII granting her request on 29 April 1809. Mother St. Michel commissioned a statue of the Virgin Mary holding the Infant Jesus. The workman carved her flowing robes so that she would appear to be moving quickly. Bishop Fournier blessed the statue and Mother St. Michel's work.  Mother St. Michel arrived in New Orleans with the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor on December 31, 1810, with several postulants. The statue was placed in the monastery chapel of the Old Ursuline Convent on Chartres Street in the French Quarter.

The Ursuline Convent, Chartres Street. Circa 1902.

Miracles

Many miracles have been attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. Two historical events are especially associated with the Virgin. The first occurred in 1812 during the eruption of a great fire in New Orleans devastating the Vieux Carré. The Ursuline convent was facing imminent destruction as the winds blew the terrible fire toward the Plaza de Armas. An order was given to evacuate the convent, however at that moment, a nun named Sr. St. Anthony (Marthe Delatre, daughter of Antoine Delatre) placed a small statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor on a window seat and Mother St. Michel began to pray aloud, "Our Lady of Prompt Succor, we are lost unless you hasten to our aid!" Immediately, the wind shifted direction, blowing the flames away from the convent allowing for the fire to be extinguished. The Ursuline convent was one of the few buildings spared from destruction.

The second major miracle occurred in 1815, three years after the disastrous fire. General Andrew Jackson's 6,000 American troops faced 15,000 British soldiers on the plains of Chalmette. On the eve of the Battle of New Orleans, New Orleans residents joined the Ursuline sisters at their convent in the French Quarter to pray throughout the night, imploring the help of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. On the morning of January 8, the Very Rev. William Dubourg, Vicar General, offered Mass at the altar on which the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor had been placed. Cannon fire could be heard from the chapel. The Prioress of the Ursuline convent, Mother Ste. Marie Olivier de Vezin, made a vow to have a Mass of Thanksgiving sung annually should the American forces win. At the very moment of communion, a courier ran into the chapel to inform all those present that the British had been defeated. They had become confused by a fog and wandered into a swamp. The Mass ended with the singing of the Te Deum. An annual Mass of Thanksgiving has been held January 8 ever since. The 200 anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans occurred in 2015, and commemorative events were held.

Pontifical approbations

A mosaic of Our Lady of Prompt Succor at the Old Ursuline Convent complex, French Quarter, New Orleans.

• On 21 September 1851, Pope Pius IX authorized the devotion and celebration of the Feast of Our Lady of Prompt Succor and the singing of the yearly Mass of Thanksgiving on January 8.

• On 21 June 1894, Pope Leo XIII approved the Canonical Coronation of the wooden image with an accompanying Papal bull from the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide and was carried out by Archbishop Francis Janssens on 10 November 1895. The gold and precious stones for the crowns were donated by the people of New Orleans. On 28 April 1897, same Pontiff issued a papal document erecting the Confraternity of Our Lady of Prompt Succor elevating their status to the rank of Archconfraternity.

• On 13 June 1928, Pope Pius XI declared the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor as the Patroness of Louisiana. The request was granted from a petition by Archbishop of New Orleans, John William Shaw, Bishop of Alexandria, Cornelius Van de Ven Jules B. Jeanmard, Bishop of Lafayette. The papal decree was executed and signed by Cardinal Camillo Laurenti of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

Interpretation

According to Michael Pasquier, promotion of devotion to the Marian title of Our Lady of Prompt Succor was an attempt by the Catholic hierarchy to ease tensions in a Catholic population divided over a French Creole Catholicism and an Anglo-Catholic hierarchy in Baltimore. He maintains that the devotion never garnered a widespread following due to its "lack of multi-ethnic appeal" to minority groups at the time. The cultus of Our Lady of Prompt Succor was a devotion particular to the French Ursulines, which involved neither a miraculous apparition nor a particular message to engage the imaginations of the laity.

Veneration

Our Lady of Prompt Succor is the patroness of the state of Louisiana, and of the city of New Orleans.
Pious believers of New Orleans pray before the statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, asking for her intercession whenever a hurricane threatens the city. During hurricane season, prayers are said at every Mass in the city during the Prayers of the Faithful requesting Our Lady of Prompt Succor's intercession and protection. After Hurricane Katrina, prayers were made to Our Lady of Prompt Succor asking for the quick recovery of the damaged city and surrounding area.

Litany of Our Lady of Prompt Succor
 

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, pray for us.
Mother of the Infant Jesus, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of all who invoke you with confidence, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of all who are devout toward the Infant Jesus, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor for obtaining a lively faith, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor for sustaining the hope of Christians, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor for obtaining and persevering in charity, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor for observing the law of God, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor for observing perseverance in virtue and good works, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor in every spiritual necessity, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor against the revolt of self-will, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor in the occasion of sin, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor in every temptation, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor against the evil spirit, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor for obtaining contrition, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of those wishing to re-enter the path of salvation, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor for the conversion of sinners, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor in every temporal necessity, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor in every affliction, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of afflicted families, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of the sick and the poor, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor against contagious diseases and epidemics, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor in every accident, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor against destruction by fire, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor against lightning and tempest, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor against destruction by flood, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of travelers, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of navigators, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of the shipwrecked, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor against the enemies of our country, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor in time of war, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of those aspiring to the holy priesthood and the religious life, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of laborers in the Lord's vineyard, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of missionaries who spread the faith, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor of our Holy Father the Pope, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor for those searching for the faith, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor against the enemies of the Church, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor at the hour of death, pray for us.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor for the deliverance of the Souls in Purgatory, pray for us.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

V: Our Lady of Prompt Succor, pray for us.
R: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
           
O Almighty and Eternal God, Who sees us surrounded by so many dangers and miseries, grant in Thine infinite goodness that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Thy Divine Son, may defend us from the evil spirit and protect us against all adversities, that always and with prompt succor she may deliver us from every evil of soul and body, and safely guide us to the kingdom of Heaven, through the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

Contemplation:
If our eyes are always on Heaven and God, at the end of life we will find ourselves in His Presence.

[Recitation of the Rosary]

Imprimatur:
Joseph F. Rummel
Archbishop of New Orleans
February 11, 1936