Baclaran Church

The National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, also known as the Redemptorist Church and colloquially as Baclaran Church, is a prominent national shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help along Roxas Boulevard in Baclaran, Parañaque, a city in the southern part of Metro Manila, the capital of the Philippines.The church enshrines the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, and is one of the largest Marian churches in the Philippines. Devotion to Our Mother of Perpetual Help is popular amongst Filipino Catholics, and gave rise to the throngs of devotees who flood the church every Wednesday to attend Mass and pray the Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help. In Manila, Wednesdays are popularly called "Baclaran Day" due to congested roads brought on by pilgrims to the shrine.

The original icon enshrined above the main altar came from Germany, and passed through Ireland and Australia before priests of the Redemptorist Order brought it to what was then the United States territory of…