Mary
Apparitions
Our Lady of Lourdes. Our Lady of Fátima. Our Lady of Akita. Guadalupe, Knock, La Salette, Kibeho, Champion — every Marian sign the archive holds, from the ones the Church has crowned to the ones the Church has refused. Written so anyone can follow.
40 apparitions and images of Mary
40 entries
Our Lady of the Pillar
Caesaraugusta (Zaragoza)Tradition: 12 January AD 40
Spain’s founding Marian story: the Virgin, while still living in Jerusalem, appears to the Apostle James on the Ebro and leaves a jasper pillar. A small statue of mother and child stands on that column in Zaragoza. A basilica stands around it. It is apostolic legend, loved, not historically proved. The photograph is this statue on this pillar — not any other Madonna.
Our Lady of Walsingham
Walsingham, NorfolkTradition: 1061
Richeldis de Faverches is said to have been asked, in a vision, to build a replica of the Holy House. Medieval England made it one of Europe’s great pilgrimages. Henry VIII wrecked it. The twentieth century quietly put it back.
The Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel
Aylesford / Cambridge (the English Carmel)Traditionally 16 July 1251
The tradition: Mary gives St. Simon Stock a brown scapular as a pledge for the Carmelite order and for whoever dies wearing it in faith. History is tangled. The devotion is not. Popes have clothed the Church in it for centuries.
Our Lady of Guadalupe
Tepeyac, Mexico City1531
Mary appears to St. Juan Diego, asks for a church, and leaves her image on his cactus-fiber tilma — an image still visible, and still drawing millions, nearly five centuries later.
6 studied signs on this image
Our Lady of Leżajsk
Leżajsk1578
A pious woodcutter, Thomas Michałek, sees Mary in the forest asking for a church. The image of Leżajsk is crowned, the basilica a Bernardine jewel of the Polish baroque, still a working pilgrimage.
Our Lady of Good Success
Quito1594–1634
Mother Mariana de Jesús Torres, a Conceptionist nun, reports lengthy apparitions of Mary as “Good Success,” with prophecies about a later, corrupted age. A statue still stands in the choir. The diocese has permitted the cult of the image; the prophecies are more contested in popular retellings than in the archives.
Our Lady of Šiluva
Šiluva1608
In a village that had lost its Catholic church to the Reformation, children see a woman holding the Child and weeping. A buried chest of liturgical treasures is found. Lithuania’s great Marian shrine begins.
Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre
El Cobre, Santiago de Cubac. 1612–1613
Three men in a boat — two Indians, one African child — find a small statue on the water after a storm: “I am the Virgin of Charity.” She is Cuba’s patroness, the lady of a copper-mining town, of exiles, of a people who have had to carry her.
Our Lady of Luján
Luján, Buenos Aires Province1630
A small terracotta image of the Immaculate, being carried from Brazil, will not move from a spot on the Luján river until it is set down. A shrine grows. She is patroness of Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay.
Our Lady of Laus
Saint-Étienne-le-Laus1664–1718
For fifty-four years Benoîte Rencurel, a shepherdess, receives apparitions aimed at confession and reconciliation. In 2008 the bishop declared the events supernatural — one of the rare modern approvals of an old local cult.
Our Lady of La Vang
La Vang, Quảng Trịc. 1798
Christians hiding in the jungle from the Cảnh Thịnh persecution see a lady in áo dài, holding the Child, under a great tree. She tells them to boil the leaves for medicine. La Vang becomes the national Marian shrine of Vietnam.
The Miraculous Medal
Rue du Bac, Paris1830
St. Catherine Labouré, a novice of the Daughters of Charity, is shown a medal: Mary crushing the serpent, rays from her hands, a ring of prayer. Struck in 1832, it becomes the most widespread Marian sacramental in the world.
Our Lady of La Salette
La Salette-Fallavaux, Alps1846
On 19 September 1846, two poor children, Maximin Giraud and Mélanie Calvat, met a woman weeping on a mountain above La Salette. She spoke of people using her Son’s name as a swear-word, and of Sunday being spent as an ordinary market day instead of at Mass. The Bishop of Grenoble approved the apparition in 1851.
Our Lady of Lourdes
Massabielle, Lourdes1858
Between 11 February and 16 July 1858, in a limestone cave on the edge of Lourdes that the town used as a rubbish dump, a fourteen-year-old miller’s daughter named Bernadette Soubirous saw a young woman in white eighteen times. The woman spoke the dialect of the valley. She asked for prayer, for penance, for a spring of water, for a chapel, and for a procession. On 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation, she gave a name the child had never been taught: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The bishop of Tarbes judged the apparitions worthy of belief in 1862. The spring still runs. The sick still come. Bernadette died at thirty-five, still ill, in a convent at Nevers.
Our Lady of Champion
Champion (Robinsonville), Wisconsin1859
The first (and so far only) Marian apparition in the United States approved by a bishop: Adele Brise, a Belgian immigrant, is told to “gather the children” and teach them the faith. A shrine stands where the Peshtigo fire later stopped.
Our Lady of Pontmain
Pontmain, Mayenne1871
In a village of the Franco-Prussian War, children see a smiling lady in the sky; adults mostly do not. A message forms letter by letter: “Pray, my children. God will hear you in a short time.” The Prussian advance stops.
Our Lady of Pellevoisin
Pellevoisin, Indre1876
Estelle Faguette, dying of tuberculosis, sees Mary fifteen times. She is healed. The lady shows a scapular of the Sacred Heart and asks for mercy to be believed. Rome approved the scapular; the archbishop approved the devotion.
Our Lady of Gietrzwałd
Gietrzwałd1877
Poland’s only approved Marian apparition of the modern era: two girls, during Bismarck’s Kulturkampf, hear Mary say in Polish that she wishes people to pray the rosary. A spring is blessed. The bishop approved in 1977.
Our Lady of Knock
Knock, County Mayo1879
On a wet evening, fifteen villagers see Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, and a Lamb on an altar against the parish gable. No word is spoken. The rain does not touch the vision.
Our Lady of the Cape
Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Québec1879 and 1888
A poor parish, an old statue, a bridge of ice in March that lets the stone for a new church cross the river — the “Bridge of Rosaries.” In 1888 the statue’s eyes are seen to open. Canada’s national Marian shrine.
Our Lady of China
Donglü, Hebei1900
During the Boxer Rising, villagers at Donglü see a lady in the sky, and the attackers fall back. A church is built. The image — Mary as a Chinese empress, the Child in her arms — is the face under which Chinese Catholics have prayed through a long century.
Our Lady of Fátima
Cova da Iria, Fátima1917
In 1917, in a hollow of pasture called the Cova da Iria, near the village of Fátima in Portugal, three shepherd children — Lúcia dos Santos, ten, and her cousins Francisco Marto, nine, and Jacinta Marto, seven — saw a lady brighter than the sun, six times, on the 13th of the month from May to October. She asked for the rosary every day, for the conversion of sinners, for devotion to her Immaculate Heart, and that a chapel be built. On 13 July she showed them hell and spoke of war and of Russia. On 13 October, before a crowd of tens of thousands standing in the rain, including reporters who had come to mock, the sun appeared to dance. Francisco and Jacinta died in the influenza. Lúcia lived until 2005 as a nun. The bishop of Leiria declared the apparitions worthy of belief on 13 October 1930.
The Apparitions of Pontevedra
Pontevedra, Galicia1925–1926
Sister Lúcia, already a Dorothean novice, sees Mary and the Child in her cell. They ask for the First Saturdays of reparation — confession, communion, rosary, a quarter-hour of company. Fátima’s program gets its weekday.
Our Lady of Beauraing
Beauraing1932–1933
Thirty-three apparitions to five children in a Belgian railway town. Mary asks for a chapel, for prayer, and shows a golden heart. The bishop approves in 1943.
Our Lady of Banneux
Banneux1933
Eight apparitions to Mariette Beco, 11. Mary leads her to a spring: “This spring is reserved for all nations — to relieve the sick.” She calls herself the Virgin of the Poor.
The Lady of All Nations
Amsterdam1945–1959
Ida Peerdeman reported 56 visions and a prayer naming Mary as “Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate.” Amsterdam’s bishop once showed favor; the CDF has repeatedly refused the title and, under the 2024 norms, the apparitions are not recognized as supernatural.
Our Lady of Revelation
Tre Fontane, Rome1947
A Protestant, anti-Catholic tram driver, Bruno Cornacchiola, takes his children to a grove to prepare a speech against Mary. She comes. He converts. The grotto at the Three Fountains is a Roman pilgrimage with papal visits and a cautious local reception.
Our Lady, Mediatrix of All Grace (Lipa)
Lipa, Batangas1948
A Carmelite postulant, Teresita Castillo, reported apparitions and a rain of rose petals. A 1951 local declaration of “no supernatural origin” was later contested; in 2015 the Archbishop of Lipa declared them authentic, and Rome promptly voided that declaration. The case remains wounded and unfinished.
Our Lady of Ngome
Ngome, KwaZulu-Natal1955–1971
Sr. Reinolda May, a Benedictine missionary, sees Mary as Tabernacle of the Most High — a Eucharistic title — and is told a shrine will rise at a deserted spring. The bishop of Eshowe has permitted the sanctuary.
Our Lady of America
Rome City, Indiana / Fostoria, Ohio1956–1959
Sr. Mary Ephrem Neuzil reports a lady calling herself Our Lady of America, asking for purity in the American Church and a statue in the National Shrine. In 2020 the bishops of the relevant dioceses, with the CDF, judged there was no evidence of a supernatural origin.
Garabandal
San Sebastián de Garabandal, Cantabria1961–1965
Four girls report visions of an angel and of Mary, ecstatic walks, a promised great miracle, a warning, and a permanent sign. No Spanish bishop has approved the apparitions. Rome has allowed private devotion without authenticating the events.
Our Lady of Zeitoun
Zeitoun, Cairo1968–1971
For three years a luminous woman — Mary, the crowds said — stood on the roof of a Coptic church in a Muslim city. Mechanics saw her first. Then tens of thousands. Muslims and Christians. Cameras. Silence. Blessing. Then she faded.
Bayside / “Our Lady of the Roses”
Bayside, Queens, then Flushing Meadows1970–1995
Veronica Lueken claimed messages from Mary and Jesus for decades, often accusing the hierarchy of error. The Diocese of Brooklyn declared in 1986 that no credibility should be given to the events.
Our Lady of Akita
Akita1973–1981
Sr. Agnes Sasagawa hears a voice from a wooden statue; the statue weeps 101 times; a cross-shaped wound appears on the sister’s hand. Bishop Ito declared the events supernatural in 1984. Rome has been more reserved in later comments.
Our Lady of Betania
Betania, near Cúa1976–1990
María Esperanza de Bianchini reports apparitions of Mary as Reconciler of all Peoples and Nations. In 1984 many visitors claim to see Mary. Bishop Pío Bello Ricardo declared the apparitions authentic in 1987.
Our Lady of Cuapa
San Francisco de Cuapa, Chontales1980
A sacristan, Bernardo Martínez, sees Mary by an old tree in a war-torn Nicaragua. She asks for the rosary prayed well, for peace, for the first Saturdays. The bishop of Juigalpa approved the apparitions in 1994.
Our Lady of Kibeho
Kibeho1981–1989 (approved visions)
The only Vatican-approved Marian apparition in Africa. Schoolgirls see Mary and, later, Jesus. They are shown a river of blood — years before the 1994 genocide. The message is conversion, prayer, and the rosary of the Seven Sorrows.
Medjugorje
Medjugorje1981 – ongoing claims
The most visited unapproved apparition site in the world. Six young people claimed daily visions from 1981. In 2024 Rome issued a “nihil obstat”: the Holy See finds no contradiction of faith and morals in the spiritual fruits, but does not declare the apparitions supernatural.
Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolás
San Nicolás de los Arroyos1983–1990
A housewife, Gladys Quiroga de Motta, reports apparitions and 1,800 messages centered on the rosary, Scripture, and a church to be built. In 2016 the Bishop of San Nicolás declared the apparitions worthy of belief.
Our Lady of Litmanová
Zvir mountain, Litmanová1990–1995
Two girls, Katka and Ivetka, report Mary on a mountain in the newly free Slovakia. A spring, crowds, a call to prayer. The bishop has allowed the pilgrimage and has not issued a final decree on the origin.