Our Lady of Good Counsel

<p>This title honouring Mary appears early in Christian history. In return for financial assistance in renovating the church of Saint Mary Major in Rome, Pope Sixtus III (432-440) granted land to the people of Genazzano, Italy. Eventually, a church consecrated to Our Lady of Good Counsel was built on this land and entrusted to the care of the Augustinian Order.</p>
<p>It was to this church that an Albanian icon, Our Lady of Shkodra (Good Counsel), mysteriously arrived in April 1467. The image depicts Mary and the Christ Child in the style of 'The Mother of Tenderness.' The painting, a fresco on an eggshell-thin layer of plaster, appears to float about 2.5 cm from the wall. Numerous healings and miracles have been attributed to the intervention of Our Lady of Good Counsel. She is a patron of many women's groups, including the Catholic Women's League of Canada and the Christian Mothers of America.©2011 <em>Living with Christ, </em>Novalis - Bayard Press Canada Inc., <strong>http://www.livingwithchrist.ca/</strong&gt;. Reprinted with permission.</p>