The world is discovering Pope Leo XIV long-standing love for Our Lady of Good Counsel. However, Leo XIII already had it, and a lot of it.
Newsdesk (12/05/2025 16:00, Gaudium Press) After the unexpected and moving visit of Leo XIV to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano, many are discovering with admiration the love that the new Pontiff has long had for the miraculous fresco, which one day crossed the Adriatic to settle in this small and charming village in the Roman suburbs.
Likewise, evidence is emerging of the very close relationship that his predecessor, Leo XIII, had with this devotion. Some have wondered whether, in addition to the reasons already given by Pope Leo XIV for choosing his name, there might also be a connection between Pope Leo XIII and this image in the custody of the Augustinians. Even if Pope Leo XIV did not have this in mind, we know that there are no coincidences, especially in the life of a Pope.
Indeed, Leo XIII’s bond with Mater Boni Consilii and the Augustinian Order was very deep.
Mosaic in the sanctuary of the Mother of Good Counsel, depicting Leo XIII next to the fresco
Leo XIII was born in 1810 in Carpineto Romano, a papal territory that was under Napoleonic occupation, whose laws suppressing religious orders forced the confiscation of the convent of Saint Augustine in the city. But the efforts of Ludovico Pecci, father of the future Leo, allowed the convent to be recovered, which came under the custody of the Pecci family. Later, under Leo XIII pontificate, the Augustinians were able to return to Carpineto.
Elevated to the papacy in 1878, Leo XIII chose the Augustinian Guglielmo Pifferi as his confessor, and it was on his advice that Pope Leo XIII introduced the invocation Mater Boni Consilii into the Loreto litanies.
Although Leo XIII never visited the sanctuary of the tender Madonna outside Rome, his sincere union with the Mother of Good Counsel has other very important elements.
As Monsignor João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP, reports in his book Mother of Good Counsel , (1) Leo XIII granted several indulgences to the scapular of this devotion and elevated the Shrine of Genazzano to the category of Minor Basilica in 1903. He also “using his own resources, restored the convent and had the upper floor built” to house the priests who, on feast days, went to the shrine to serve the pilgrims.
Furthermore, as Bishop GF Dillon narrates in the compilation of his work, entitled Our Lady of Good Counsel , when he was still a young ecclesiastic, Leo XIII had already demonstrated excellent proof of his love for Our Lady of Good Counsel, probably being a member of her “Pious Union”.
Leo XIII could often be found absorbed in prayer before the copy of the original painting, which was enthroned above the altar of the Pauline Chapel by order of Blessed Pius XI, who also loved the Mother of Good Counsel very much, as did several other popes. In fact, there was a time when Our Lady of Good Counsel came to be called the Pope’s Madonna. In his own hand, Pope XIII wrote words taken from the Scriptures to encourage everyone to entrust themselves as children to the Mother of Good Counsel.
In reality, it seems that the theme of the Mother of God as the good counselor of the Christian was always present in Pope LEo XIIIs mind, permeating especially his Marian documents.
In the encyclical Adiutricem, on the Rosary, Leo XIII states (n. 6) that since Christ ascended into heaven, Mary Most Holy “nourished the first Christians with admirable care by her holy example, her authoritative counsel, her sweet consolation and her fruitful prayers.” As a model and counselor, she is also the “Mother of the Church, the Teacher and Queen of the Apostles.”
In the mind of Pope Leo XIII, the Virgin always exercised the role of Mother of the Church and Mother of her Apostles, praying for them and advising them in the many decisions that had to be made for the cause of Christ. Certainly with the intention of consecrating his Petrine ministry to Mater Boni Consilii Genazzano, but also to ask for her constant counsel, Leo XIV went to this beloved shrine a few hours after being elected Pope.
Mary Mother, Mary Counselor, Mary Teacher, Mary Queen: all this is the Mother of Good Counsel, the Madonna of the Popes, under whose patronage Leo XIV placed his pontificate, following in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessor.
May She guide you in your ministry and encourage a new generation of missionaries, of Apostles of these last times who, as Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort describes them, are burning torches that set the earth ablaze with the fire of divine love.
From Gaudium Press Portuguese
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