Throughout centuries of Christian devotion, the Mother of God has appeared to her children in every part of the world — in great cities and at the foot of mountains, to bishops and to shepherd children, in cathedrals and at small forest springs.
The places where she has come are now sanctuaries, and the prayer of pilgrims at these shrines never stops: somewhere, at every hour of the day and night, the Rosary is being prayed before her image. This page brings together more than thirty Marian shrines from every continent. Click any one to learn the story of her appearance there, the prayer of the sanctuary today, and how to visit or pray with the pilgrims who gather still.
The Major Marian Shrines
The shrines that draw the largest numbers of pilgrims year after year — places where the apparitions of Mary have been formally recognized by the Church, and where the daily Rosary has continued without pause for many decades or centuries.
Our Lady of Lourdes — Lourdes, France
In 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous experienced eighteen apparitions of the Virgin Mary at the Grotto of Massabielle.
Our Lady of Fátima — Fátima, Portugal
Between May and October 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared monthly to three shepherd children — Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto.
Our Lady of Guadalupe — Mexico City, Mexico
In December 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared to an indigenous peasant, Juan Diego, on Tepeyac Hill.
Our Lady of Częstochowa — Jasna Góra Monastery, Poland
The Black Madonna of Częstochowa is a revered icon believed by tradition to have been painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist.
Our Lady of Aparecida — Aparecida, Brazil
In 1717, three fishermen on the Paraíba River pulled up the body and head of a small clay statue of the Virgin Mary. Their nets came up overflowing.
Our Lady of Knock — Knock, Ireland
On August 21, 1879, fifteen villagers witnessed an apparition at the gable wall of the local church — Our Lady, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist, and a Lamb on an altar…
Our Lady of Walsingham — Norfolk, England
In 1061, the Virgin Mary appeared to Richeldis de Faverches, a noblewoman in Walsingham, asking her to build a replica of the Holy House of Nazareth.
Our Lady of Montserrat — Montserrat, Spain
The Black Madonna of Montserrat — “La Moreneta” — is honored at a Benedictine monastery set high in the saw-toothed mountains of Catalonia.
Mary Around the World
Smaller, beloved sanctuaries from every continent — places where the Mother of God has reached her children in the language and culture of their own land.
Our Lady of La Vang — Quảng Trị, Vietnam
In 1798, during a wave of persecution, Vietnamese Catholics hiding in the La Vang rainforest reported an apparition of the Virgin Mary, who comforted them in their own language…
Our Lady of Good Health — Vailankanni, India
In the sixteenth century, the Virgin Mary appeared on the southern Indian coast — first to a young milk-carrier, then to a lame buttermilk-seller whom she healed.
Our Lady of Kibeho — Kibeho, Rwanda
Beginning in 1981, students at Kibeho College reported visions of the Virgin Mary, who identified herself as “Mother of the Word.” She showed them rivers of blood — visions many…
Our Lady of the Pillar — Zaragoza, Spain
According to ancient tradition, in 40 AD the Virgin Mary appeared to the Apostle James the Greater while he was evangelizing in Spain — possibly the earliest Marian apparition.
Our Lady of Peace — Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire
The Basilica of Our Lady of Peace, consecrated in 1990, is the largest Christian basilica in the world by some measures.
Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal — Paris, France
In 1830, the Virgin Mary appeared to Saint Catherine Labouré in the chapel on the rue du Bac, asking that a medal be struck from the image of her standing on a globe with rays of…
Our Lady of Banneux — Banneux, Belgium
In the cold winter of 1933, Our Lady appeared eight times to eleven-year-old Mariette Beco. She called herself “the Virgin of the Poor” and led Mariette to a small spring she said…
Our Lady of Beauraing — Beauraing, Belgium
Between November 1932 and January 1933, the Virgin Mary appeared thirty-three times to five children at a convent school in Beauraing.
Historic Apparitions
Older apparitions whose witnesses are saints, blessed, or holy peasants and shepherds — voices the Church has tested and received.
Our Lady of Good Success — Quito, Ecuador
For forty years, between 1594 and 1634, the Virgin Mary appeared to a Spanish nun named Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres in a Conceptionist convent high in the Andes.
Our Lady of Laus — Saint-Étienne-le-Laus, France
For fifty-four years — from 1664 until her death in 1718 — the Virgin Mary appeared to a French shepherdess named Benoîte Rencurel in a hidden alpine valley.
Our Lady of Lebanon — Harissa, Lebanon
A great white statue of the Virgin Mary has stood since 1908 above the Bay of Jounieh, eight hundred meters above the Mediterranean.
Our Lady of Šiluva — Šiluva, Lithuania
In 1608, in a Lithuanian field where Catholic faith had been all but extinguished, the Virgin Mary appeared, weeping, to Calvinist shepherd children.
Our Lady of La Salette — La Salette, France (1846)
On September 19, 1846, two cowherding children at six thousand feet in the French Alps saw a beautiful Lady weeping bitterly upon a stone.
Our Lady of Pontmain — Pontmain, France (1871)
On a January night in 1871, with the Prussian army advancing, the Virgin Mary appeared in starlight over a barn to four French children. Three days later, the army halted.
Our Lady of Gietrzwałd — Gietrzwałd, Poland (1877)
In 1877, when Polish was being suppressed by the German imperial government, the Virgin Mary appeared to two Polish girls and spoke to them in their own forbidden language.
Our Lady of Leżajsk — Leżajsk, Poland (1578)
In a forest of southeastern Poland in 1578, the Virgin Mary appeared three times to a poor weaver named Tomasz Michałek and asked that a chapel be built on the spot.
Modern Apparitions and Lesser-Known Sanctuaries
More recent or less-traveled places of Marian devotion, including the only Vatican-recognized Marian apparition in the United States.
Our Lady of Zion — Rome, Italy (1842)
In a Roman church on a January afternoon in 1842, a young Jewish banker from Strasbourg named Alphonse Ratisbonne saw the Virgin Mary in the chapel of Saint Michael at Sant’Andrea…
Our Lady of the Rock — Belpasso, Italy (1986)
On the slopes of Mount Etna in 1986, a young Sicilian named Rosario Toscano reported seeing the Virgin Mary on a road of black volcanic stone.
Our Lady of Good Help — Champion, Wisconsin, USA (1859)
In 1859, the Virgin Mary appeared three times to a Belgian immigrant woman named Adele Brise in the woods of Wisconsin, asking her to teach the children of the wild country.
Our Lady of Cuapa — Cuapa, Nicaragua (1980)
In 1980, in the early years of the Sandinista revolution, the Virgin Mary appeared eight times to a poor Nicaraguan sacristan named Bernardo Martínez.
Our Lady of Itatí — Itatí, Argentina (1589)
For more than four centuries, an ancient wooden image of the Mother of God has been honored on the bank of the Paraná River — the patroness of the great Argentine northeast and a…
Our Lady of Luján — Luján, Argentina (1630)
In May 1630, an ox-cart hauling a small clay statue of the Immaculate Conception across the pampa would not move past the Luján River. The Mother had chosen her place.
Our Lady of Coromoto — Guanare, Venezuela (1652)
In 1652, the Virgin Mary appeared to the chief of the Cospes — a Coromoto Indian — in his own language, asking that he and his people be baptized.
Our Lady of Medjugorje — Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina (1981—Present)
On June 24, 1981, six young Croatians began to report visits from a beautiful young woman who said she was the Mother of God.
In all of these places, in many languages and at every hour, the Rosary continues. Pray with the pilgrims live →
Journey with Mary: A Path to Jesus 