Novena to Our Lady Of La Leche

The novena to Our Lady of La Leche is nine days of prayer to the nursing Madonna — the ancient image of the Blessed Virgin nursing the Child Jesus — asking her intercession for a child conceived, a pregnancy carried safely, a happy delivery, and the grace to be a good mother. Under her Spanish title Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Buen Parto, "Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery," she is the sure refuge of expectant mothers, of nursing mothers, and of couples who long for a child. Her feast is kept on 11 October, and the nine days before it are the favoured time to make this novena. Below we give the whole devotion — the complete authentic prayers, said once each day — with the history of the oldest Marian shrine on American soil and answers to the questions the faithful most often ask.

The full novena to Our Lady of La Leche

This is the complete devotion. Begin each day with the Sign of the Cross, then say all of these prayers, in order, once each day for nine consecutive days, naming your own intention where the third prayer leaves room for it. The prayers are addressed first to Our Lady, then to her Divine Son, then to Our Lady again with your petition, and last as a mother dedicating her child.

Lovely Lady of La Leche, most loving Mother of the Child Jesus, and my Mother, listen to my humble prayer. Your motherly heart knows my every wish, my every need. To you only, His spotless Virgin Mother, has your Divine Son given to understand the sentiments which fill my soul. Yours was the sacred privilege of being the Mother of the Saviour. Intercede with Him now, my loving Mother, that, in accordance with His will, I may become the mother of other children of our heavenly Father. This I ask, O Lady of La Leche, in the Name of your Divine Son, my Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

O Lord Jesus Christ, through the intercession of Your tender Mother, Our Lady of La Leche, who bore You close to her heart during those long months before Your birth, I place my baby and myself entirely in Your Hands. Free me, I beseech You, from useless and consuming worry. Accept the sacrifice of my aches and pains, which I unite to Your sufferings on the Cross. Above all, most merciful and loving Jesus, protect this child You have given to me from all harm, bestowing the health and vigour every baby needs. Implant in my heart and on my lips the words and prayers of Your Mother and mine, our Lovely Lady of La Leche. All this I ask that my child and I may live to praise forever Your Holy Name. Amen.

Cherished Virgin, heaven's Queen, chosen before all women to be the mother of the Son of God, Mary, my mother, who in your maternity so sanctified the state of holy motherhood, imploringly I come to you; humbly I beseech you; confidently I trust in you. I know that, by your powerful intercession, you can help me in my need. In you I take refuge, dear Virgin. Poor and needy, I turn devoutly to you and place all confidently in your hands. Accept my humble trust, hear my petitions and come to my aid, (here mention your request), dear Mother of mothers. Amen.

For a Mother. To You, Lovely Lady of La Leche, and to your Divine Son, do I now dedicate this little baby whom our Father in heaven has given me. Grateful for the trust He has placed in me, I beg you to obtain for me the physical and spiritual graces I need to fulfil my duties at every moment. Inspire me with the motherly sentiments you felt during your days with the Child Jesus. Make it possible for me, in imitation of you, O Lady of La Leche, to nurse my child to perfect health. In all things help me to follow the example which you, as the perfect model of all mothers, have given to me. Let my family mirror the virtues of your Holy Family of Nazareth. Finally, I commend to your loving care all the mothers of earth, in whose hands He has entrusted the souls of His little children. Amen.

Close each day with an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be, and then the threefold invocation, ending with the Sign of the Cross:

Our Lady of La Leche, pray for us. (three times)

If you know you are not yet expecting — if you are praying to conceive — say the first and third prayers as they stand and simply omit the words proper to a mother already carrying or nursing a child; the devotion adapts to every season of a woman's hope. Many join to the novena a daily Rosary or the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is the Church's great treasury of Marian praise.

The "Lovely Lady of La Leche" prayer on its own

Where the whole novena cannot be said, the single Lovely Lady of La Leche prayer — the first prayer above — is itself the heart of the devotion and may be prayed alone, morning and evening, throughout a pregnancy or a season of waiting. It is short, tender, and asks exactly what a mother's heart most wants: that in accordance with God's will she may bear and raise children for heaven. This is the prayer most often called simply "the Our Lady of La Leche prayer," and it loses nothing when prayed by itself.

The novena for pregnancy, safe delivery, and nursing

The four prayers together trace the whole arc of motherhood, which is why the devotion is prayed at every stage:

• To conceive a child. Couples who long for a baby bring their hope to the Mother who alone sanctified motherhood, asking, as the first prayer says, to "become the mother of other children of our heavenly Father." For this intention the novena is often joined to a novena for fertility and to conceive a baby.
• For a safe pregnancy and happy delivery. This is the oldest use of the devotion — the very title Buen Parto, "happy delivery," names it. The second prayer places both mother and child in the Hands of Jesus and begs protection "from all harm." Expectant mothers also have recourse to St Gerard Majella, the patron of mothers with child; see our novena to St Gerard Majella.
• For a nursing mother and a healthy child. The fourth prayer asks Our Lady, who nursed the Christ Child, to help a mother "nurse my child to perfect health" and to make her family "mirror the virtues of your Holy Family of Nazareth."

Because these needs touch the health of mother and child, the devotion is close kin to the novena to Our Lady of Good Health, and to the intercession of the grandparents of Our Lord in the novena to Sts Joachim and Anne.

How to pray this novena

A novena is nine days of persevering prayer, in imitation of the Apostles and Our Lady, who prayed together for nine days between the Ascension and Pentecost; if the custom itself is new to you, see what is a novena. To make the novena to Our Lady of La Leche:

1. Choose your nine days. The traditional time is the nine days leading to her feast. Begin on 3 October so that the ninth day falls on 11 October, the feast of Our Lady of La Leche. But the novena may be prayed at any time a need presses — on learning of a pregnancy, before a delivery, or through a long hope to conceive.
2. Pray all four prayers each day, in order, once a day, naming your particular request in the third prayer.
3. Keep a fixed hour — before a favourite image of the nursing Madonna if you have one, or before a Rosary — so the nine days form one steady act of trust.
4. Ask in submission. Every prayer above adds, in its own words, "in accordance with His will." A true novena does not demand; it entrusts. We ask boldly for the child, the safe birth, the health we long for, and we leave the outcome in the Hands that hold both mother and infant.

The story of Our Lady of La Leche

The image of Mary nursing her Son is among the most ancient in all Christian art. It is found already on the walls of the Roman catacombs, where the first Christians painted the Virgin giving her breast to the Infant God — a silent confession that He who feeds all creatures was Himself fed at a mother's breast, true God and true man. From that root the devotion grew across the centuries into the Spanish title Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Buen Parto, "Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery."

The devotion took its lasting form in sixteenth-century Madrid. Tradition holds that a husband, whose wife and unborn child were both given up to die in a hard labour, prayed with all his heart before an image of the nursing Virgin and begged a safe delivery; mother and child were spared, and the fame of the favour spread. King Philip III of Spain took up the devotion and had a shrine raised in the Virgin's honour, and the nursing Madonna became the beloved advocate of every Spanish mother awaiting her hour.

It was Spanish settlers who carried this devotion across the ocean. In 1565, Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés landed on the coast of Florida and founded St Augustine, the oldest city in what is now the United States; his chaplain offered there the first Mass on the soil of the present nation. Within a generation the colonists had raised a small shrine to Nuestra Señora de la Leche at the Mission of Nombre de Dios ("the Name of God") — the first shrine to Our Lady anywhere in what would become the United States. There the Spanish mothers of the New World brought their pregnancies and their little ones, exactly as their grandmothers had in Madrid.

The little shrine has suffered much. It was burned when the mission was destroyed in war in 1702, and again in 1728, and rebuilt more than once; the present ivy-covered chapel dates from 1914. In our own time the sanctuary was raised to the rank of National Shrine and the venerable image received a canonical coronation — a solemn crowning granted by the authority of the Church to a Marian image of proven and enduring devotion. Yet the heart of the shrine is unchanged since 1565: mothers still kneel there, and before her image throughout the world, to ask the Mother of God for a child, for a safe birth, and for milk to nourish it.

She is invoked for these things because of who she is in the image itself. The Word was made flesh and had need of a mother; He who clothes the lilies was wrapped in swaddling bands; He who gives every creature its food in due season hungered at Mary's breast. In venerating the nursing Madonna the Church confesses the whole mystery of the Incarnation — and finds, in the Mother who fed God, the surest patroness of every mother who must conceive, carry, bear, and feed a child. For the wider glory of her motherhood, see also our reflection on the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the novena to Our Lady of La Leche prayed for?

It is prayed above all for the graces of motherhood: to conceive a child, for a safe pregnancy and happy delivery, for the health of the baby, and for the grace to be a good and nursing mother. Because she is the Mother who bore and nursed the Son of God, Our Lady of La Leche is the natural refuge of expectant mothers, nursing mothers, and couples who long for children. Any need touching the family may be brought to her in the third prayer.

When do you pray the novena to Our Lady of La Leche?

Traditionally in the nine days before her feast on 11 October — beginning on 3 October so that the last day falls on the feast itself. But it need not wait for October: the novena may be made at any time a need presses, such as on learning of a pregnancy, in the days before a delivery, or during a long hope to conceive. A novena may also be prayed on the same day of nine successive weeks or months if a mother prefers.

When is the feast of Our Lady of La Leche?

Her feast is kept on 11 October. At the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche at the Mission of Nombre de Dios in St Augustine, Florida, and among her devotees everywhere, it is a day of special prayer for mothers and children.

What is the origin of the name "La Leche"?

La Leche is Spanish for "the milk," and the title comes from the image it names: the Blessed Virgin nursing the Infant Jesus at her breast. The full Spanish title is Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Buen Parto, "Our Lady of the Milk and Happy Delivery." The image is one of the most ancient in Christian art, found already on the walls of the Roman catacombs.

Where is the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche?

At the Mission of Nombre de Dios in St Augustine, Florida — the site where the Spanish founded the oldest city in the United States in 1565 and raised the first shrine to Our Lady on American soil. The small chapel standing there today dates from 1914, and the shrine has since been raised to the rank of a National Shrine with a canonically crowned image.

Can I pray the novena if I am trying to conceive rather than already pregnant?

Yes. The first and third prayers ask precisely "that I may become the mother of other children of our heavenly Father," which is the prayer of a woman hoping to conceive. Pray those prayers as they stand and simply set aside the phrases proper to a mother already carrying or nursing a child. Many couples also join a novena to conceive a baby to their prayer to Our Lady of La Leche.

Is Our Lady of La Leche a separate person from the Blessed Virgin Mary?

No. Our Lady of La Leche is not a different woman but a title of the one Blessed Virgin Mary, honouring her under the aspect of the nursing Mother of the Child Jesus — just as Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Our Lady of Sorrows all name the same Mother of God under different mysteries and images of her one life.

Pray this novena with day-by-day reminders, the full prayers, and audio in the Iter Fidei app. Download it here.

Sources. The novena and the Lovely Lady of La Leche prayers as carried in the devotional books of the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche; the Gospel witness to the Incarnation and the Virgin's motherhood (Luke 1–2; John 1:14); the Spanish title Nuestra Señora de la Leche y Buen Parto and the traditional history of the devotion at Madrid and at the Mission of Nombre de Dios, St Augustine (founded 1565); the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary.