Leo XIV is now part of the gallery of Popes represented in the Basilica Sanctuary of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, one of the places of Marian devotion most closely linked to his life as an Augustinian. During his visit last Monday, September 7, the Pontiff unveiled a new fresco depicting him kneeling in prayer before the venerated icon of the Virgin.
The work, created by Italian painter and engraver Marco Innocenzi, former restorer at the Vatican Museums, occupies the last available space on the walls of the Virgin’s chapel and continues a tradition that recalls the pilgrimages of various pontiffs to the sanctuary located about 40 kilometers from Rome.
Painted five meters high
The new portrait was executed following the traditional fresco technique, which requires the artist to work directly on still-wet plaster so that the pigments become incorporated into the surface as it dries.
The work was divided into twelve sections of plaster, each of which had to be painted in a single day. Its location, about five meters high, added another difficulty: Innocenzi had to calculate the perspective so that the figure would maintain the proper proportions when viewed from the chapel floor.
The artist was assisted by Fabiola Mercandetti and by Massimo Ambrosini for the modifications to the scaffolding. The work was carried out over several months under the supervision of a commission headed by the director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta.
“In these months I have realized that a fresco artist is never alone. Help is always needed,” explained Innocenzi, who during the creation of the work lived closely with the Augustinian community of the sanctuary.
Leo XIV, kneeling before the Virgin
The fresco shows the Pope in profile, kneeling before a prie-dieu and directing his gaze toward the icon of the Mother of Good Counsel.
One of the details of the composition is precisely on the prie-dieu, where the coat of arms of Leo XIII appears. That Pontiff was especially linked to this Marian devotion and elevated the sanctuary to the status of minor basilica in 1903.
Leo XIV unveiled the fresco before celebrating Mass with his Augustinian brothers on the eve of the Nativity of the Virgin. During the visit he also presented a three-stemmed golden rose to the Mother of Good Counsel.
A sanctuary especially linked to Prevost
The choice of Genazzano to house this portrait has particular significance in the biography of Robert Francis Prevost. His devotion to the Mother of Good Counsel dates back to his early years as an Augustinian: the Midwestern Province of the United States, to which he belonged, has precisely this devotion as its patroness.
During his years of theological formation in Rome, Prevost frequently visited the sanctuary. The bond became especially evident at the beginning of his pontificate: on May 10, 2025, just two days after his election as Successor of Peter, he chose Genazzano for his first outing outside the Vatican as Pope.
At that time he wrote in the guestbook that the Virgin had accompanied him throughout his life “with her maternal presence, with her wisdom and the example of her love for the Son, who is always the center of my faith. Way, truth and life.”
Alongside Urban VIII, Pius IX, John XXIII and John Paul II
The fresco now incorporates Leo XIV into an iconographic tradition spanning nearly four centuries. The chapel preserves representations of other Popes who made pilgrimages to the Virgin of Good Counsel.
Among them are Urban VIII, who came in 1630 to ask for the Virgin’s protection during the plague that struck Italy; Blessed Pius IX, a pilgrim in 1864; John XXIII, who visited Genazzano in 1959; and Saint John Paul II, who prayed there in April 1993, shortly before his apostolic journey to Albania.
The chapel also preserves a plaque commemorating the Mass celebrated there by Saint John Bosco in 1858.
The portrait in Genazzano joins another representation of Leo XIV recently created following a papal tradition: the mosaic destined for the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, made with some 15,000 tesserae of enamel and gold.
Read also: Leo XIV receives his mosaic portrait to be placed in Saint Paul Outside the Walls