Where heaven touched earth

Zaragoza, Spain

Our Lady of the Pillar

Tradition A long tradition of the Church, without a formal judgement

According to an ancient Spanish tradition, recorded in the Roman Breviary for 12 October, the Blessed Virgin appeared to St James the Apostle as he prayed on the banks of the Ebro at Zaragoza and asked him to build a church there. The venerated image of Our Lady stands on a pillar, which gives the shrine its name.

Seers

St James the Apostle

Shrine

Cathedral-Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar

Address

Plaza del Pilar, 50003 Zaragoza, Spain

Feast

12 October

Photo: Moahim · CC BY-SA 4.0

Rome, Italy

Our Lady of the Snows

Tradition A long tradition of the Church, without a formal judgement

Tradition tells that Mary asked for a church to be built where snow would fall in the heat of August. Snow covered the summit of the Esquiline Hill, and the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore — one of the oldest churches dedicated to Mary in the West — was raised on the spot.

Seers

Pope Liberius and the Roman patrician John

Shrine

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore

Address

Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore, 00100 Rome, Italy

Feast

5 August

Photo: NikonZ7II · CC BY-SA 4.0

Walsingham, United Kingdom

Our Lady of Walsingham

Tradition A long tradition of the Church, without a formal judgement

The Saxon noblewoman Richeldis was shown the Holy House of Nazareth in a vision and built a replica of it in Norfolk. ‘England’s Nazareth’ became one of the great pilgrimages of medieval Europe and today hosts the Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady.

Seers

Richeldis de Faverches

Shrine

Catholic National Shrine and Basilica of Our Lady (Slipper Chapel)

Address

Houghton St Giles, Walsingham NR22 6AL, United Kingdom

Feast

24 September

Photo: Thorvaldsson · CC BY 3.0

Aylesford, United Kingdom

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Tradition A long tradition of the Church, without a formal judgement

A pious tradition holds that on 16 July 1251 Mary appeared to the Carmelite prior general St Simon Stock holding the scapular of the order, and promised her protection to those who wear it; the Catholic Encyclopedia places the vision at Cambridge. Aylesford, where Simon Stock was elected prior general in 1247, is again a Carmelite friary and a place of pilgrimage.

Seers

St Simon Stock

Shrine

The Friars, Aylesford Priory

Address

The Friars, Aylesford, Kent ME20 7BX, United Kingdom

Feast

16 July

Photo: Ian Capper · CC BY-SA 2.0

Tepeyac, Mexico City, Mexico

Our Lady of Guadalupe

Approved Recognised by the Holy See

In December 1531 the Virgin appeared four times on the hill of Tepeyac to Juan Diego, an Indigenous convert, and sent him to Bishop Zumárraga to ask for a church. Her image, imprinted on his tilma, hangs in the basilica. Pope Benedict XIV declared Our Lady of Guadalupe patroness of Mexico and fixed her feast on 12 December.

Seers

St Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin

Shrine

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Address

Plaza de las Américas 1, Villa de Guadalupe, 07050 Mexico City, Mexico

Feast

12 December

Photo: Arne Müseler · CC BY-SA 3.0 de

Velankanni, India

Our Lady of Good Health

Tradition A long tradition of the Church, without a formal judgement

Ancient tradition tells of Mary appearing to poor and sick boys at Vailankanni, one of whom offered her milk for the Child in her arms, and of Portuguese sailors saved from a storm who then built her a church. In 2024 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith praised the shrine of Our Lady of Good Health, which draws millions of pilgrims, many of them not Christian.

Seers

A shepherd boy, a lame buttermilk vendor, and Portuguese sailors

Shrine

Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health

Address

Velankanni, Nagapattinam District, Tamil Nadu 611111, India

Feast

8 September

Photo: Rejoy2003 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Querrien, France

Our Lady of Toute Aide

Approved Approved by the local bishop

On 15 August 1652 Mary appeared to Jeanne Courtel, an eleven-year-old deaf and mute shepherd girl, who was healed and began to speak; Mary asked for a chapel to be built at Querrien. In September of the same year the bishop of Saint-Brieuc, Denis de La Barde, authenticated the apparition, and the sanctuary became a diocesan shrine in 2002.

Seers

Jeanne Courtel

Shrine

Sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Toute Aide

Address

Hameau de Querrien, 22210 La Prénessaye, France

Photo: Auteur inconnu · Licence Ouverte

Saint-Étienne-le-Laus, France

Our Lady of Laus

Approved Approved by the local bishop

For fifty-four years the shepherdess Benoîte Rencurel received visits from Mary, who asked for a church to be built for the conversion of sinners and the gift of reconciliation. Oil from the sanctuary lamp has been associated with healings. The apparitions were approved in 2008.

Seers

Venerable Benoîte Rencurel

Shrine

Sanctuary of Notre-Dame du Laus

Address

Le Laus, 05130 Saint-Étienne-le-Laus, France

Photo: Octave 444 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Paris, France

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

Approved Approved by the local bishop

In 1830, in the chapel of the Daughters of Charity in the rue du Bac, Mary showed the novice Catherine Labouré the design of a medal bearing the words ‘O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee’. With the approval of the Archbishop of Paris the first medals were struck in 1832, and the devotion spread rapidly throughout the world.

Seers

St Catherine Labouré

Shrine

Chapel of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

Address

140 Rue du Bac, 75007 Paris, France

Feast

27 November

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La Salette-Fallavaux, France

Our Lady of La Salette

Approved Approved by the local bishop

High in the French Alps, a weeping ‘Beautiful Lady’ spoke to two young cowherds about the neglect of Sunday and blasphemy, and called her people to conversion. The bishop of Grenoble approved the apparition in 1851; the sanctuary stands at 1,800 metres.

Seers

Mélanie Calvat and Maximin Giraud

Shrine

Sanctuary of Our Lady of La Salette

Address

38970 La Salette-Fallavaux, France

Feast

19 September

Photo: Fr.Latreille · CC BY-SA 3.0

Lourdes, France

Our Lady of Lourdes

Approved Approved by the local bishop

In the grotto of Massabielle Mary appeared eighteen times to fourteen-year-old Bernadette, revealing a spring and naming herself ‘the Immaculate Conception’. Approved in 1862, Lourdes receives millions of pilgrims and the sick every year; around seventy healings have been recognised as miracles.

Seers

St Bernadette Soubirous

Shrine

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes

Address

1 Avenue Monseigneur Théas, 65108 Lourdes, France

Feast

11 February

Photo: Père Igor · CC BY-SA 3.0

Champion, Wisconsin, United States

Our Lady of Good Help

Approved Approved by the local bishop

Mary appeared to the young Belgian immigrant Adele Brise and asked her to teach children the faith. During the Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871 the flames stopped at the chapel grounds. Approved in 2010, it is the first Marian apparition approved in the United States.

Seers

Servant of God Adele Brice

Shrine

National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion

Address

4047 Chapel Drive, Champion, WI 54229, United States

Feast

9 October

Photo: Jpbri4444 · CC BY 4.0

Pontmain, France

Our Lady of Hope

Approved Approved by the local bishop

On the evening of 17 January 1871, during the Franco-Prussian War, children of this Mayenne village saw Mary in the night sky for about three hours, with the message ‘But pray, my children. God will hear you in a short time. My Son allows himself to be moved.’ The bishop of Laval officially recognised the apparition on 2 February 1872.

Seers

Eugène and Joseph Barbedette, Françoise Richer, Jeanne-Marie Lebossé

Shrine

Basilica of Our Lady of Pontmain

Address

3 rue Notre-Dame, 53220 Pontmain, France

Feast

17 January

Photo: GO69 · CC0

Pellevoisin, France

Our Lady of Mercy

Nihil obstat Devotion permitted; no ruling on the apparitions

Dying of an incurable illness, Estelle Faguette saw the Virgin Mary fifteen times in her room at Pellevoisin and was healed on 18 February 1876; the Archbishop of Bourges confirmed the healing as miraculous in 1983, with the consent of the Holy See. Leo XIII recognised the Scapular of the Sacred Heart in 1900, and in August 2024 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith opened the way to a nihil obstat, recommending the devotion to Our Lady of Mercy.

Seers

Estelle Faguette

Shrine

Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy

Address

Pellevoisin, 36180 Indre, France

Feast

9 September

Photo: Esves-37240 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Gietrzwałd, Poland

Our Lady of Gietrzwałd

Approved Approved by the local bishop

Over three months Mary appeared to two girls preparing for their First Communion, speaking in Polish at a time when the language was suppressed, and asked for the daily Rosary. It is the only Marian apparition in Poland approved by the Church (1977).

Seers

Justyna Szafryńska and Barbara Samulowska

Shrine

Basilica of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Address

Gietrzwałd 22, 11-036 Gietrzwałd, Poland

Feast

8 September

Photo: Albertyanks - Albert Jankowski · Public domain

Knock, County Mayo, Ireland

Our Lady of Knock

Approved Approved by the local bishop

On a rainy August evening fifteen people saw Mary, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist, with a Lamb on an altar, at the gable wall of the parish church. Not a word was spoken. Two Church commissions found the testimony trustworthy, and Knock is Ireland’s national Marian shrine.

Seers

Fifteen villagers, aged 6 to 75

Shrine

Knock Shrine

Address

Knock, County Mayo, Ireland

Feast

17 August

Photo: Paul Cowan · CC BY-SA 2.0

Fátima, Portugal

Our Lady of Fátima

Approved Approved by the local bishop

From May to October 1917 Mary appeared to three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria, asking them to pray the Rosary every day to obtain peace and the end of the war. Between 50,000 and 70,000 people witnessed the Miracle of the Sun on 13 October. The bishop of Leiria declared the apparitions worthy of belief in 1930.

Seers

Lúcia dos Santos, St Francisco and St Jacinta Marto

Shrine

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima

Address

Cova da Iria, 2495-402 Fátima, Portugal

Feast

13 May

Photo: Berthold Werner · CC BY-SA 4.0

Beauraing, Belgium

Our Lady of Beauraing

Approved Approved by the local bishop

Thirty-three times Mary appeared to five children near a hawthorn tree in a convent garden, showing them her golden heart and asking ‘Do you love my Son? Do you love me? Then sacrifice yourselves for me.’ Approved in 1949.

Seers

Fernande, Gilberte and Albert Voisin; Andrée and Gilberte Degeimbre

Shrine

Sanctuaries of Beauraing

Address

Rue de l’Aubépine 6, 5570 Beauraing, Belgium

Photo: Donarreiskoffer · CC BY-SA 4.0

Banneux, Belgium

Virgin of the Poor

Approved Approved by the local bishop

Eight times Mary appeared to eleven-year-old Mariette Beco in the garden of her poor family’s home, leading her to a spring ‘reserved for all nations, to relieve the sick’. Approved in 1949, Banneux is a shrine especially for the sick and the poor.

Seers

Mariette Beco

Shrine

Sanctuary of Banneux Notre-Dame

Address

Rue de l’Esplanade 57, 4141 Banneux, Belgium

Photo: (Brothers of Christ) · CC BY-SA 4.0

La Codosera, Spain

Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila

Nihil obstat Devotion permitted; no ruling on the apparitions

In the summer of 1945, at the end of the Second World War, two girls separately saw the Virgin of Sorrows at Chandavila, near the Portuguese border; one of them felt her embrace and her kiss on the forehead. In August 2024 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith consented to a nihil obstat for the shrine, a place of interior peace, consolation and conversion.

Seers

Marcelina Barroso Expósito and Afra Brígido Blanco

Shrine

Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows of Chandavila

Address

Chandavila, 06518 La Codosera, Badajoz, Spain

Montichiari, Italy

Maria Rosa Mistica

Sound in doctrine The Holy See found nothing contrary to faith or morals; no ruling on the apparitions

Pierina Gilli wrote in her diaries of seeing the Virgin Mary as the ‘Mystical Rose’, robed in white among white, red and yellow roses; the devotion has its centre at Fontanelle di Montichiari. In July 2024 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith told the Bishop of Brescia that it found nothing in her messages contrary to the Church’s teaching on faith and morals, and many positive aspects, leaving him to conclude his discernment. It did not rule on the apparitions themselves.

Seers

Pierina Gilli

Shrine

Diocesan Shrine of Rosa Mistica – Mother of the Church

Address

Fontanelle, 25018 Montichiari (Brescia), Italy

Photo: Koichi Yokota · CC0

Akita, Japan

Our Lady of Akita

Approved Approved by the local bishop

A wooden statue of Mary in a small convent wept 101 times, and Sr Agnes received three messages calling for prayer and reparation. The bishop of Niigata approved the events in 1984 after years of investigation.

Seers

Sr Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa

Shrine

Seitai Hoshikai Convent

Address

Yuzawadai, Soegawa, Akita 010-0822, Japan

Photo: SICDAMNOME · CC BY-SA 4.0

Cúa, Venezuela

Mary, Reconciler of Peoples

Approved Approved by the local bishop

At the farm of Betania near Cúa, Mary appeared to María Esperanza Medrano de Bianchini from 25 March 1976, and on 25 March 1984 more than a hundred pilgrims saw her at once. In his pastoral instruction of 21 November 1987 the bishop of Los Teques declared the apparitions authentic; Mary is venerated there as ‘Reconciler of Nations’.

Seers

Servant of God María Esperanza Medrano de Bianchini and many pilgrims

Shrine

Sanctuary of Betania

Address

Finca Betania, Cúa, Miranda, Venezuela

Feast

25 March

Kibeho, Rwanda

Our Lady of Kibeho

Approved Approved by the local bishop

From 28 November 1981 Mary appeared to students at a girls’ school as ‘Nyina wa Jambo’, Mother of the Word, calling for conversion and prayer; the seers also described terrible visions later understood as a warning of the 1994 genocide. After consulting the Holy See, the bishop of Gikongoro recognised the apparitions to the first three seers on 29 June 2001.

Seers

Alphonsine Mumureke, Nathalie Mukamazimpaka, Marie Claire Mukangango

Shrine

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Kibeho

Address

Kibeho, Nyaruguru District, Rwanda

Feast

28 November

Photo: Celestin KANUMA · CC BY-SA 4.0

Medjugorje, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Queen of Peace

Nihil obstat Devotion permitted; no ruling on the apparitions

Reported apparitions to six young people began in 1981 and are said to continue. In 2024 the Holy See gave its nihil obstat to the spiritual experience and the abundant fruits of conversion at Medjugorje, without declaring the apparitions supernatural.

Seers

Six young people from the parish

Shrine

Parish Church of St James

Address

Medjugorje 88266, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Photo: Janmad · CC BY 3.0

San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Argentina

Mary of the Rosary of San Nicolás

Approved Approved by the local bishop

A housewife with little schooling received some 1,800 messages calling for prayer, the Rosary and a return to God, and a sanctuary was built where Mary had indicated. The bishop of San Nicolás approved the apparitions in 2016.

Seers

Gladys Quiroga de Motta

Shrine

Sanctuary of Mary of the Rosary of San Nicolás

Address

Av. Central (El Campito), San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Feast

25 September

Photo: Fernando de Gorocica · CC BY-SA 4.0

Litmanová, Slovakia

Mount Zvir

Nihil obstat Devotion permitted; no ruling on the apparitions

Between 1990 and 1995 the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared on Mount Zvir above the village of Litmanová, in a Greek Catholic parish, calling for conversion and for the freedom and joy that Christ gives. In July 2025 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith accepted the Archbishop of Prešov’s proposal of a nihil obstat: public devotion is approved, without a judgement on the supernatural origin of the events.

Shrine

Shrine on Mount Zvir

Address

Litmanová, Stará Ľubovňa District, Slovakia

Photo: Jerzy Opioła · CC BY 3.0