JANUARY 8TH, OUR LADY OF PROMPT SUCCOR, PATRONESS OF LOUISIANA

(elsewhere: Feria of Epiphanytide or, Pre-55, Day in the Octave of Epiphany)

Month in honor of the Most Holy Name of OLJC.

Devotion to Our Lady under her title of Prompt Succor (French for “quick help”) goes all the way back to the early days of the establishment of Louisiana and is an integral part of the foundation of this State. The original statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor was brought from France to the first Ursuline convent in New Orleans. Among the many graces she has poured out upon us, her powerful intercession and quick help was attested to in three great fires in New Orleans (1788, 1794, and 1812), as well as in the unexpected but decisive defeat of the British forces in the Battle of New Orleans in AD 1815. When the British Army threatened New Orleans in 1815, the Ursuline Sisters and the relatives of the American soldiers implored the help of Our Lady of Prompt Succor. The subsequent American victory caused General Andrew Jackson to visit the convent to thank the Sisters for their prayers.

Devotion to Our Lady under this title was first authorized by His Holiness, Pius IX, in September, 1851, and January 8th was fixed as her feast day by the same decree. The image of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in the Ursuline Covent in New Orleans was granted a canonical coronation by His Holiness, Leo XIII, on November 10th, 1895, through the Most Reverend Francis Janssens, the Archbishop of New Orleans. At the request of the three Bishops of the then-existing Dioceses in Louisiana, their Excellencies, the Most Reverend John William Shaw (Archbishop of New Orleans), the Most Reverend Cornelius Van de Ven (Bishop of Alexandria), and the Most Reverend Jules B. Jeanmard (Bishop of Lafayette), on June 13th, AD 1928, the Holy see approved and confirmed the choice of Our Lady under her title of Prompt Succor as the Principal Patroness of the State (and ecclesiastical Province) of Louisiana. Her feast is to be celebrated each year on January 8th, the anniversary of the victory of the Americans at the Battle of New Orleans.