Our Lady of Prompt Succor is the patroness of Louisiana. She is invoked by all Louisianans during hurricane season which begins in July and ends in October.
She has a shrine in New Orleans which is where the Ursuline nuns first brought her here and where she has always been since the 1800s.
History of Our Lady of Prompt Succor
The first Ursuline nuns came to Louisiana in the 1700s. Our Lady of Prompt Succor was brought over by them in the 1800s.
After the French Revolution, the Ursuline nuns were short on teachers, so the Mother Superior, Mother Saint Andre Madier, requested sisters from France come to aid them. She wrote specifically to her cousin, Mother Saint Michel Gensoul, who was running a boarding school in France at the time.
Mother Saint Michel went to her bishop, Bishop Fournier, to request a transfer to Louisiana.
Bishop Fournier felt like it wasn’t a good time for any nuns to leave France and so he told Mother Saint Michel that she would need to get permission from Pope Pius VII.
This was during the revolution and Pope Pius VII was a prisoner of Napoleon.
Mother Saint Michel knew that the chances of the Pope receiving her letter were almost nonexistent.
So she prayed to Our Lady and said that if she would obtain for her a “prompt and favorable” answer to her letter, then she would have her honored in New Orleans under the title Our Lady of Prompt Succor.
A little over a month after she sent her letter, she received an answer from the Pope granting her transfer.
She had a statue of Our Lady commissioned and the bishop blessed the statue and the work of the nuns, and Mother Saint Michel and a few others arrived in New Orleans on December 31, 1810.
The statue of Our Lady of Prompt Succor was given canonical coronation by Pope Leo XIII in 1894.
Miracles
There are two miracles that Our Lady of Prompt Succor is known for.
In 1812, a fire broke out at the convent and was determined to destroy it.
One sister put Our Lady’s statue in the window while Mother Saint Michel prayed to her to spare the convent. Almost immediately, the fire died down, sparing the convent.
The other miracle is from the battle of New Orleans on January 8th, 1815.
The British fleet had arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi, putting the city in grave danger. That Sunday morning, the convent chapel of Our Lady of Prompt Succor was packed with nuns and visitors all begging for prompt aid for their city.
It was a foggy day on the battlefield and all of a sudden, the wind changed, shifting the fog and giving General Jackson and his men the advantage, allowing them to defeat the British.
After the battle, General Jackson went to the convent to thank the nuns for their fervent prayers.
Invoke Our Lady of Prompt Succor
Every year we deal with the threat of one or many hurricanes in Louisiana and we always ask Our Lady for protection, but she is eager to help for more than hurricanes.
She is always willing to help those who trustingly reach out to her as their mother.
On her feast day, January 15th, let us remember to turn to her and ask her help for whatever we are dealing with.
Our Lady of Prompt Succor, hasten to help us.
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