Do you know the history and devotion to Our Lady of the emergency room?

In 1727, the French Ursuline nuns founded a monastery in New Orleans, Louisiana, and from it they organized their schools in the area. In 1763 Louisiana became a Spanish possession and Spanish sisters came to assist. In 1800 the territory returned to France, and the Spanish sisters fled the French front of anti - Catholicsm. In 1803, short of teachers, Mother Saint Andrew Madier asked for reinforcements in the form of more nuns from France. The relative to whom he wrote, Mother Saint Michel, ran a Catholic boarding school for girls. Bishop Fournier, short of hands due to the repression of the French Revolution, refused to send nuns. Mother Saint Michel was authorized to appeal to the pope. The pope was a prisoner of Napoleon and it seemed unlikely that he would even receive his petition letter. Mother Saint Michael prayed,

O Most Holy Virgin Mary, if you get me a prompt and favorable response to this letter, I promise to have honored you in New Orleans with the title of Our Lady of the Emergency Department.

and sent his letter on March 19, 1809. Against all odds, he received an answer on April 29, 1809. The pope granted his request and Mother Saint Michel commissioned a statue of Our Lady of the First Aid holding Baby Jesus in her arms. Bishop Fournier blessed the statue and the work of the mother.

Mother Saint Michel and several postulants came to New Orleans on December 31, 1810. They took the statue with them and placed it in the monastery chapel. Since then, Our Lady of the Emergency Room has intercepted for those who sought her help.

A great fire threatened the Ursuline monastery in 1812. A lay nun brought the statue to the window and Mother Saint Michel prayed

Our Lady of the Emergency Room, we are lost if you don't come to our aid.

The wind changed direction, put out the fire and saved the monastery.

Our Lady intervened again in the Battle of New Orleans in 1815. Many faithful, including wives and daughters of American soldiers, gathered in the Ursuline chapel in front of the statue of Our Lady of the Emergency Room and spent the night before the battle in prayer. They asked Our Lady for the victory of Andrew Jackson's forces over the British, which would save the city from pillage. Jackson and 200 men from across the south won a notable victory over a superior British force in a battle that lasted twenty-five minutes and saw few American casualties.

It is still customary for New Orleans devotees to pray in front of the statue of Our Lady of the Emergency Room whenever a hurricane threatens New Orleans.