Lourdes, Fatima, Guadalupe and Champion all are part of a select group of places where the Blessed Virgin Mary is believed to have appeared.
In America, The National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion covers the peace-filled holy ground deemed ‘worthy of belief’ by authority of the Catholic Church, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared.
Identifying herself as ‘The Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners,’ Mary appeared in October 1859 to a Belgian immigrant woman called Adele Brise, on the grounds of Champion Shrine, when the town was known as Robinsonville.
Friday 8 June is now visible on the horizon and it’s all systems go at Worldpriest, working with our coordinators worldwide as we prepare to have the entire world praying the rosary again for one purpose – to pray for the sanctification of all the priests who minister to millions of Catholics around the world.
This year we believe we will exceed the incredible 10,000,000 participants who joined us in 2017 as we bring huge numbers of people from all cultural backgrounds together again to offer their prayers worldwide from a number of new prayer locations in various corner of the world.
The Gruta de Lourdes Shrine was inaugurated on January 6th (Epiphany day) 1925. It was a gift of a married couple, Angel Rivero and Manuela Boneta Babel, who had received a special grace in their 1922 visit to the French shrine of Lourdes. The original chapel was designed by one of the first Puerto Rican architects, Francisco Roldán, with Spanish Moorish decorative elements. In 1926 the couple erected the Grotto itself. On the feast day of the Sacred Heart in 1928 the monumental Carrara marble Via Crucis, made by the well-known Italian sculptor Enrico Arrighini was blessed. It still stands where the 14 life-sized statues were erected.
When Worldpriest founder Marion Mulhall was only two days old she was blessed by Father Patrick Peyton, who just happened to visit the nursing home in Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland, where Marion was born.
Father Peyton was holding a Rosary Rally at Our Lady’s Island in County Wexford during those days which Marion’s dear late father attended. This is something very special and of great providential importance to Marion, who has been the driving force behind the Annual Global Rosary Relay, which last year saw in the region of ten million people around the world join in praying the Rosary during a twenty-four hour period of special prayers for our priests. The event took place at 168 single church locations in sixty-eight countries. On 3 June 2016, the twenty-fourth anniversary of Father Peyton’s death, Marion was overwhelmed with joy to meet Pope Francis in Rome. That same day was also the day when the Annual Global Rosary Relay Day of prayer took place. So that was a day that became a great gift of grace . . . when three wonderful events came together.
As the time to celebrate the Holy Family and the birth of Jesus draws nearer we would like to wish all our many supporters, their friends and their families around the world a truly happy and peaceful Christmas season.
Sweden was once a Catholic country. Due to influences from religious orders such as the Cistercians, Franciscans, Dominicans and even some Carthusian convents, Sweden became a truly Catholic provenance during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. We had even our own founder of an order, Saint Bridget, patron of Europe.
Following on from Saint John Paul’s original invitation to Catholics to pray the Mysteries of Light or Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary on Thursdays, communities from every continent have been contemplating the public life of Jesus Christ, but with the launch of Rosary Thursday the lay faithful may additionally offer their prayers for the sanctification of priests around the world, which is the Worldpriest Annual Global Rosary Relay prayer intention.
On 14 November 2017, the feast of Saint Laurence O’Toole, Principal Patron of the Dublin Diocese,two young men – Bill O’Shaughnessy and James Daly – were raised to the priesthood in Dublin’s St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral.
There are several reasons why Svatý Hostýn is the favourite place of pilgrimage in the Czech Republic. The beautiful hilltop location that makes it one of the country’s highest situated shrines may be only one of them.
The mountain, rising up almost 400 metres above the surrounding landscape, has been an impressive reminder of the maternal care of Our Lady for many centuries.
1) The Site’s Location: At a distance of 26 kilometres from the capital, Beirut, Mount Harissa overlooks the Bay of Jounieh, where a small church was built. Above the church a statue of the Virgin Mary was placed. It is eight-and-half metres long and about five-and-a half metres wide, weighing fifteen tons. It was cast in bronze in France. The inauguration of the statue took place on 3 May 1908.