On April 17th, 1958, His Holiness, the Venerable Pope Pius XII has extended the devotion and approved the observance of the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus on Shrove Tuesday (Tuesday before Ash Wednesday). His Holiness granted this Feast to honor a request of Our Lord Himself to Blessed Pierina in 1938:

See how I suffer. Nevertheless, I am understood by so few. What gratitude on the part of those who say they love Me. I have given My Heart as a sensible object of My great love for man and I give My Face as a sensible object of My sorrow for the sins of man. I desire that it be honored by a special feast on Tuesday in Quinquagesima (Shrove Tuesday – the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, or Mardi Gras, or Carnivalé). The feast will be preceded by a novena in which the faithful make reparation with Me uniting themselves with My sorrow.