We find on the left the Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil chapel, adorned with a painting painted in 1856 by Eugène Van Maldegem, born in Dentergem in 1813 and died in Ixelles in 1867. Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil is surrounded by Saint Joseph , Saint Alphonse and the venerable Father Joseph Passerat, superior of the Redemptorists at that time.
The apparition of Our Lady of Good Counsel is so famous, her image so widespread and honored in the Church, that it is appropriate to give space to this form of devotion. From the 5th century, the small town of Genazzano, about fifty kilometers from Rome, on the Sabina mountains, honored the Blessed Virgin under the title of Our Lady of Good Counsel. In the 15th century, the church was in danger of ruin. A pious woman, named Petruccia, undertook to rebuild it, despite her eighty years; she employed her fortune there, which was not enough to complete it. Petruccia predicted that the Blessed Virgin would complete the work. Now, on April 25, 1467, at the hour of vespers, a celestial harmony was heard in the air; the crowd saw a brilliant cloud descending and resting on the altar of the chapel of Saint-Blaise, where the restoration of the church had begun. At the same time, all the bells in the country rang their merriest peals. When the cloud disappeared, the amazed crowd saw an image of Mary carrying the Child Jesus, painted on plaster and standing at the back of the altar, near the wall, without natural support. It was duly noted that this painting had been miraculously transported from a church in Scutari, a town in Albania. Providence had wished to save it from the profanations of the Turks, masters of this country, and to send it to Genazzano as a reward for the faith of Petruccia and the inhabitants. The history of the wonders of all kinds accomplished since that time around the miraculous image would require entire volumes. Often we have seen the image change in appearance and the eyes of the Blessed Virgin express joy or pain. How many diseases and infirmities were healed! What spiritual graces were obtained! The popes showered devotion to Our Lady of Good Counsel with indulgences, and Leo XIII inserted into the Litanies of the Blessed Virgin the title “Mother of Good Counsel”.
