Every 27th of the month, we can find groups who come on pilgrimage to the Marienkirche church Clemens Hofbauer-Platz to the city of Vienna-Hernals. With this it seems that resumes an old Redemptorist tradition.
For decades, from the early years of the decade of the 1950s, many pilgrims from Vienna and other places went to the church of the Order of the Redemptorists to pray around the ancient and famous “Icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help”.
Encouraged by the Jubilee of 2016, this tradition seems to have come back to life and enthusiasm, they have informed the Redemptorists of the diocese in a press release.
Through popular missions the “Icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help” has become one of the most venerated images of Mary in the world, including Austria and southern Germany. Today, in many private homes and small chapels, as can be seen also in Salzburg, or the Cathedral of Bressanone there is this picture of Mother Mary. In Austria, the Marienkirche in Wien-Hernals and the Basilica Maria Puchheim are dedicated to this image. The original image is venerated in Rome in the church of St. Alphonsus, next to the Basilica of Mary Major.
For this 2017, the first pilgrimage in Vienna will be Friday, January 27, at 18:30 led by Fr. Lorenz Voith, pastor of the Church of Santa Maria and also the Episcopal Vicar of the Diocese Eisenstadt. Monday, February 27 will be guided by Hernalser Dechant Karl Engelmann.
(www.erzdioezese-wien.at)
