“Jesus said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother and from that hour the disciple took her into his own home (John 19: 27)’”
After their arrival the Redemptorists chose a beautiful house perched atop a hill in Kandy which was then known as ‘Mount School as their permanent residence. They named it ‘Sancta Maria’ after the first two words of the Latin for our Mother of Perpetual Help which was: ‘Sancta Maria de Perpetuo Succursu’
This devotion to our Mother of Perpetual Help has been so popular to such an extent that today it is very difficult if not almost impossible to find a Church, even in the remotest of areas in Sri Lanka, without an icon of our Mother of Perpetual Help. Thousands of Catholic families have this miraculous picture adorning their homes. They lovingly gaze on her whose motherly love has assured them of her perpetual help and protection.