Pope Leo XIV receives a box with butterflies as he arrives at the Basilica Sanctuary of the Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, central Italy, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

Pope Leo XIV returned Monday to a sanctuary where he prayed just after his election and revealed a permanent sign of his devotion to the place: a fresco depicting him praying that now adorns an upper cornice of the basilica.

Leo unveiled the portrait before celebrating Mass with his fellow Augustinian brothers at the Sanctuary of Our Mother of Good Counsel in the medieval village of Genazzano, south of Rome. He joins a handful of past popes whose visits to the sanctuary were commemorated with portraits that adorn its walls, going back to Pope Urban VIII in 1630.

Leo visited the sanctuary on May 10, 2025, just two days after his election and in his first outing as pope. The former Robert Prevost had been there many times before, since the place has special significance for the pope's Augustinian religious order.

The sanctuary is managed by Augustinian friars and has been a place of pilgrimage since the 15th century. Leo's namesake, Pope Leo XIII, elevated it to a minor basilica and expanded the adjacent convent in the early 1900s.

Leo referred to that 2025 outing during his homily at the basilica on Monday, which commemorates the birth of Mary. Leo recalled what he wrote then in the sanctuary's guest book.

The new pope wrote at the time that he felt the "need and profound desire" to come to the sanctuary after his election to pray before the Madonna of Good Counsel, "who has accompanied me all my life with her maternal presence, with her wisdom and example of love for her son who is always the center of my faith."

Leo and the Vatican are stepping up activities now that the summer lull is coming to a close. The Holy See's typically busy autumn conferences and audiences are taking shape, and Leo is gearing up for a trip to France at the end of the month and his much-awaited trip to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru in November.

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