Send CathInfo's owner Matthew a gift from his Amazon wish list:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/25M2B8RERL1UO

Author Topic: When does a stolen object cease to belong to someone?  (Read 820 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Cryptinox

  • Supporter
When does a stolen object cease to belong to someone?
« on: August 16, 2021, 01:08:22 AM »
I heard that the Icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was stolen from a Greek Orthodox monastery centuries before the image was publicly venerated. However I also heard a girl had a vision to place it a certain place and it wasn't the Greek Orthodox monastery it came from. This case makes me curious when God would regard a long stolen object as someone else's. Would the Shroud of Turin rightfully belong to Italy rather than Constantinople even though it was stolen there? 

Re: When does a stolen object cease to belong to someone?
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2021, 01:32:13 AM »
Where did you hear that? I don’t believe you got your story straight.

According to popular tradition, a merchant acquired the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help from the island of Crete and had it shipped to Rome towards the end of the fifteenth century.  During the voyage, a terrible storm arose, threatening the lives of all on ship.  The passengers and crew prayed to our Blessed Mother, and were saved.
Once in Rome, the merchant, dying, ordered that the image should be displayed for public veneration.  His friend, who retained the image, received further instructions: in a dream to his little daughter, the Blessed Mother appeared and expressed the desire for the image to be venerated in a Church between the Basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran in Rome.  The image, consequently, was housed at the Church of St. Matthew, and became known as “The Madonna of Saint Matthew.”  Pilgrims flocked to the church for the next three hundred years, and great graces were bestowed upon the faithful.
After Napoleon’s troops destroyed the Church of St. Matthew in 1812, the image was transferred to the Church of St. Mary in Posterula, and remained there for nearly forty years.  There, the image was neglected and forgotten.
By divine providence, the forgotten image was rediscovered.  In 1866, Blessed Pope Pius IX entrusted the image to the Redemptorists, who had just built the Church of St. Alphonsus, down the street from St. Mary Major.  As a boy, the Holy Father had prayed before the image in the Church of St. Matthew.  He ordered the public display and veneration of the image, and fixed the feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help as the Sunday before the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist.  In 1867, when the image was being carried in a solemn procession through the streets, a young child was cured, the first of many recorded miracles attributed to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
To this day, the Church of St. Alphonsus displays the icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and welcome pilgrims for prayer.  May each of us never hesitate to invoke the prayers and intercession of Our Blessed Mother in time of need.


https://catholicstraightanswers.com/what-is-the-story-behind-the-image-of-our-lady-of-perpetual-help/



Re: When does a stolen object cease to belong to someone?
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2021, 01:45:23 AM »
Would the Shroud of Turin rightfully belong to Italy rather than Constantinople even though it was stolen there?
The Shroud was first found in France, then sold to Italian royalty, for which the seller was excommunicated. How do you know it ever was in Constantinople? Or that it was stolen from there? It would not be safe there at any rate. I wouldn’t say that it belongs to Italy, rather that it is housed in Italy.

https://www.history.com/news/shroud-turin-facts



Re: When does a stolen object cease to belong to someone?
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2021, 04:15:23 AM »
olor=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.921569)]“In 1918 during the Spanish Influenza epidemic the pastor of St Peter’s church in Philadelphia, which has the Shrine of St John Neumann, asked Our Lady of Perpetual Help to spare the parishioners from the flu.  St Peter’s was one of the few churches that was able to remain open during the epidemic and no parishioners died of the flu.  Let us, then, invoke Our Lady of Perpetual Help’s intercession during this epidemic.[/color]


To