Pope marks 1500 years of veneration of ancient Marian image

By Francesca Merlo

July 17th, 2024, marks the 1500th anniversary of the veneration of the image of Santa Maria in Portico – Romanae Portus Securitatis, or protector of the Eternal City.

“This happy occasion”, the Pope wrote in a letter to Fr Antonio Piccolo, Rector General of the Order of the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God, “is for me a joyful opportunity to join in prayer with your religious Family, to whom the custody has been entrusted since 1601”.

The cult of Santa Maria in Portico

Pope Francis then recounts that devotion to Santa Maria in Portico began with a miraculous appearance of the Mother of God on 17 July, 524, in the home of Santa Galla, a Roman noblewoman. It was witnessed by Pope Saint John I, who transformed the Portico into a Marian Sanctuary and a charity hospice.

“This is an invitation for you, spiritual heirs of Saint Leonardi, to care for and promote the practice of welcoming the poor and the marginalised, so that the places we inhabit and the churches themselves can be an open portico to the world, offering consolation and assistance to the many forms of poverty that characterise our lives”, says the Pope.

A revelation in difficult times

He added that the Holy Virgin revealed herself in what was a particularly difficult moment for the Church, “extending her mantle over Pope John I, who would suffer and die for peace without renouncing his faith, becoming a hostage to political conspiracies and fratricidal wars”.

Given the current scenario, the Pope asks, “how can we not grasp the urgency of promoting peace, to pray for peace?”

Pope Francis notes that the example of fraternal life should be “evangelically attractive to the faithful to whom you offer pastoral service” and thus urges the Order of Clerics Regular of the Mother of God “to look to Mary as a sign of consolation and sure hope, the maternal face of God and a refuge in which to seek shelter”.

The evangelizing work of Saint Leonardi

Bringing his letter to an end, Pope Francis notes that the Jubilee celebrations the Order are about to embark on, under the gaze of the Virgin of the Portico, “recall the evangelising work of Saint Giovanni Leonardi”, who also wrote the first Constitutions of the Urban College of Propaganda Fide, to train priests capable of meeting the missionary challenges of the time.

Therefore, concludes the Pope, “I encourage you to also care for the integral formation of Religious, in a path of progressive conformation to the Risen Crucified, the firstfruits of redeemed humanity and, looking to Mary, disciple of Christ and Mother of the Church, may your apostolate be a channel of grace and an instrument for the joyful proclamation of the Gospel”.