Prayer to Our Lady of Divine Love of Rome

O Mary, Virgin of Divine Love,
mother of mercy and our hope,
we turn to You with the trust of children.
You who kept in your immaculate heart
the wonders of divine love,
guide our steps on the paths of peace and charity.
To You we entrust our city of Rome,
the whole Church and humanity in need of salvation.
Obtain for us from your Son Jesus
the forgiveness of sins, strength in pain
and the light to bear witness to the Gospel.
Be our defense in moments of trial
and welcome us, O most tender Mother,
into the eternal embrace of your love. Amen.

Devotion to Our Lady of Divine Love represents one of the deepest spiritual and identity pillars of the city of Rome. The origins of this Marian cult are rooted in the 18th century, specifically in 1740, when a pilgrim, surprised by a violent storm and threatened by stray dogs near Castel di Leva, took refuge in a country shrine where the image of the Virgin with the Child and the dove of the Holy Spirit was painted. Turning to the Madonna with a desperate prayer, he was miraculously saved. This event began an unstoppable flow of pilgrimages that transformed the Roman countryside into an open-air sanctuary.

From a theological point of view, the invocation to the “Divine Love” indissolubly connects the figure of Mary to the Trinitarian mystery. The Virgin is not only an intercessor, but the one who first embodied and welcomed the perfect love of God through her “Fiat”. As highlighted by various Pontiffs, including Saint John Paul II who visited the sanctuary several times, Our Lady of Divine Love is the guardian of Christian hope, capable of reflecting divine tenderness onto a humanity often lost and wounded by historical and spiritual difficulties.

Over the centuries, this prayer and its associated sanctuary have taken on a special salvific value for the Romans. The most famous episode risked repeating itself in the collective memory during the Second World War, when Rome was declared an Open City: on June 4, 1944, as German troops were retreating and Allied troops were advancing, the Romans gathered in mass around the image of the Madonna, temporarily moved to the city for safety, invoking her with the title of *Salus Urbis*. Having obtained the city’s salvation from total destruction, Pope Pius XII officially attributed this title to her, cementing forever the bond between the population and this intense supplication.