c. 2008 Religion News Service
CHANDLER, Ariz. _ As Eli Manning drove the Giants to a championship-winning touchdown in the final minute of Super Bowl XLII, television cameras peeked at nervous team president John Mara, reaching into his shirt pocket.
Was he searching for a monogrammed handkerchief to dab his eyes? Was there a new contract for coach Tom Coughlin? Maybe Mara was looking for a parking pass that needed validation, or trying to dig out a bothersome piece of lint.
Nope. Pacing in a luxury suite at University of Phoenix Stadium, Mara was saying a silent prayer and running his fingers over a religious medal sent to him by nuns who are Manning fans in his native Lousiana.
On Monday (Feb. 4), as the grinning, sleep-deprived Giants loaded their luggage and the Lombardi Trophy onto a team charter and flew back home for a Manhattan victory parade, Mara chuckled when asked what had been in his pocket.
“I had a little medal this nun sent me,” he said. “She sent me a great letter a couple of days ago with this medal of the Blessed Virgin, and she said, `I guarantee you this will bring you luck.’ I did reach in for that. Did they actually show that on TV?”
Tracked down in New Orleans, Sister Kathleen Finnerty, the superintendent of schools for the New Orleans Archdiocese, told the story behind the Our Lady of Prompt Succor medal she had sent to Mara a few days after the NFC Championship Game.
She said she hadn’t noticed Mara reaching into his pocket? “Are you kidding?” Finnerty said. “I was too busy looking for a Valium.”
Turns out, Finnerty’s order, the Ursuline Sisters, are fanatical football fans who watch or attend high school games on Friday nights, college games on Saturday, and NFL on Sunday. And because they are New Orleans natives, they have a soft spots for the Manning quarterbacks, who were reared there.
“Some of the sisters down here are 80 to 90 years old, and they are football addicts,” Finnerty said. “So when the Giants made the Super Bowl, one of them said to me, `We can’t let Eli down. We have to get Our Lady in on this.”’
Finnerty sent the medal off in the mail, and didn’t think about it much after that.
Before taking her job to rebuild the New Orleans Catholic School system, Finnerty had been principal for eight years at a New York Catholic school where Mara’s children have attended. While she appreciates Mara’s strong faith, Finnerty said she never promised the medal would produce a Super Bowl triumph.
“I don’t think I guaranteed a victory,” she said with a laugh. “I think I wrote that the Giants could use a little divine intervention.”
After all, they were playing the 18-0 New England Patriots. The Giants were 12-point underdogs. Heck, it would take a miracle.
“But Our Lady has provided miracles before,” Finnerty said.
Actually, two miracles have been attributed to the Virgin Mother under the name of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, which is French for “Quick Help.” During the Great Fire of 1812 in New Orleans, when flames were racing toward their convent in Jackson Square, the Ursuline nuns called upon Our Lady of Prompt Succor for help. The winds immediately shifted, blowing the fire in another direction and sparing the convent.
Then, in 1815, when general Andrew Jackson was tying to hold the British troops at bay and New Orleans appeared on the verge of capture, the Sisters again beckoned Our Lady of Prompt Succor. Jackson prevailed, with only 6,000 troops to fight 15,000 Brits. The city was saved.
Since then, New Orleans residents have prayed to Our Lady of Prompt Succor at the start of each hurricane season.
“We’re not exactly sure what happened two years ago with Katrina,” Finnerty said. “But we wanted the Giants to win. So, we prayed in a sort of full-court press. I know that’s not the right sports phrase for football, but you know what I mean. Besides, we always pray for the Manning brothers.”
And for one Super Bowl Sunday, “quick help” meant 83 yards on 12 plays in 2 minutes, 7 seconds.
“Wait until I tell the other Sisters that John had the medal in his pocket the whole time,” Finnerty said. “Oh, they’re going to love this.”
(Kevin Manahan writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)
KRE/CM END MANAHAN
700 words
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