During the Novena, a book will be located at the shrine to inscribe prayer intentions next to the perpetual votive dediated in gratitude for intercessory prayers for St. John’s parish during COVID.

As St. Ignatius worked to establish the Society of Jesus, he would pray before the late medieval mural of Mary, which was originally on an external wall of the small chapel of Santa Maria della Strada (Our Lady of the Way) in Rome. Ignatius would have known the image well and, throughout his life, had a particular devotion to Our Lady under whose patronage he placed the Society of Jesus. The small chapel of Madonna della Strada was demolished to make way for the Church of the Gesù, the first Jesuit church in Rome, which was begun in 1568 and consecrated in 1584. Ignatius left specific instructions that the image of Our Lady of the Way was to be preserved in the new church and today it is venerated in the north chapel of the Gesù.