Marian Shrines and Patronages
Main article: Marian shrines See also: Roman Catholic Marian churchesIn the Roman Catholic Church a shrine is a church or sacred place which receives many faithful pilgrims for a specific pious reason. The local ordinary must approve the shrine.
Marian shrines account for major veneration centers and pilgrimage sites for Roman Catholics. According to Bishop Francesco Giogia, at the end of the 20th century, the most visited Catholic shrine in the world was that of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City. In third place was Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, with the non-Marian shrine of San Giovanni Rotondo in second place. The visual effect of Marian pilgrimages can be dramatic, e.g. on May 13 and October 13 of each year close to one million Catholic pilgrims walk the country road that leads to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima. Around 2 million pilgrim journey up Tepeyac hill on December 12 each year to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. While in 1968 Aparecida had about four million pilgrims, the number has since reached eight million pilgrims per year.
Major Marian shrines include:
- The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France
- The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico
- The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima in Fátima, Portugal
- The Basilica of the Holy House in Loreto, Italy
- The Shrine of Black Madonna of Częstochowa in Częstochowa, Poland
- The Basilica of Our Lady, Queen of Ireland in Knock, Ireland
There are other Marian pilgrimage sites such as Medjugorje, which is not considered a shrine by the Holy See, but yet receives a large number of pilgrims every year. The number of pilgrims who visit some of the approved shrines every year can be significant. E.g. Lourdes with a population of around 15,000 people, receives about 5,000,000 pilgrims every year. In 1881 a French priest, Julien Gouyet, led by the visions of Jesus and Mary of the Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (Klemens Brentano, 1852) discovered the House of the Virgin Mary near Ephesus in Turkey.
A number of countries, cities and professions consider the Blessed Virgin their patron saint. For a list, see Patronage of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Read more about this topic: Blessed Virgin Mary (Roman Catholic)
Famous quotes containing the word shrines:
“I don’t care very much for literary shrines and haunts ... I knew a woman in London who boasted that she had lodgings from the windows of which she could throw a stone into Carlyle’s yard. And when I said, “Why throw a stone into Carlyle’s yard?” she looked at me as if I were an imbecile and changed the subject.”
—Carolyn Wells (1862–1942)