Mary, Woman of the New Covenant

Mary has always played an important role in the life of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. Don Beniamino Conti has already explained the place of Our Lady of the Precious Blood—or the Madonna of the Chalice, as she is also known—in the mission preaching of St. Gaspar and the early Missionaries. In the course of the Congregation’s history, Mary has been honored under a variety of titles. We know, for
example, of the importance of the title “Mary, Help of Christians” to the Venerable Giovanni Merlini. For Fr. Francis Brunner, the veneration of Mary was promoted under the titles of Mother of God and the Sorrowful Mother. Fr. Brunner set up a shrine to the Sorrowful Mother in northwest Ohio in 1850, a shrine which continues under the care of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood this day.