Scottish Catholic Observer

In May, the month of Mary, many holy pilgrims will travel to Marian Shrines. Untold thousands will travel in devotion to Guadalupe, Knock, Fatima and, of course, Lourdes apparition site. But there are Marian Shrines all over the world, some ancient, some little known, all testament to the huge reverence Catholics have for Mary, Mother of God.

If you don’t have the chance to go to one of the great pilgrimage sites, there are many others, you may not know about, that are well worth a visit. This week, we highlight some special Marian shrines you may not have heard of, all of which will richly repay a visit.

In Britain, you may not know about the Shrine of Our Lady of Penrhys, deep within the valleys of Wales, yet it is only  a mere 20 minutes or so by road from Cardiff.

The beginning of devotion to Mary at Penrhys is shrouded in legend but it is certain that from Medieval times there was a shrine to Our Lady on that spot that flourished for many years.

In 1179, the Cistercian monks founded an abbey at Llantarnam, and in 1205, Llantarnam Abbey and Margam Abbey agreed on a boundary between the two monasteries, which meant that Penrhys was within the boundary of Llantarnam, some 25 miles away. The monks built a grange there, enabling them to care for their land and sheep in the outer regions of their property. The original complex of buildings also included a hostelry maintained by the monks for the pilgrims, and possibly a grange farmhouse.

Tradition has it that an image of Mary was discovered in an oak tree and, as news spread, crowds of ordinary men and women flocked from far and wide. The statue was thought to have been immovable from the oak tree until a shrine chapel had been erected on top of Penrhys Mountain, just above the Holy Well. Over the well stands a small stone hut-like structure.

During the time of the Reformation in 1538, the shrine was destroyed and the image seized under cover of darkness. Thomas Cromwell instructed his emissaries to act ‘with quietness and secret manner as might be’ but were confronted by an ‘audience’ who we can assume had to be overawed before the image could be taken away to Chelsea and burned in the same fire as the images of Our Lady of Walsingham and Our Lady of Ipswich. Although the shrine was destroyed, it is recorded by William Llewellyn, writing in 1862, that in the previous 20 years, there were accounts of people making pilgrimages to the top of Penrhys Mountain. Archbishop Michael McGrath in the 1950s furthered the modern popularity of the shrine. He was anxious to purchase the land on the top of Penrhys Mountain for the Catholic Church in Wales. A statue of Our Lady of Penrhys was erected in 1953, which stands on the foundations of the former chapel.

Further afield, but also atop a mountain, pilgrims who enjoy cycling may be drawn to visit the Church of Madonna del Ghisallo on a hill in Magreglio, close to Lake Como in Italy.

According to the legend, the Medieval Count Ghisallo was being attacked by bandits when he saw an image of the Virgin Mary at a shrine. He ran to it and was saved from the robbers. The apparition became known as the Madonna del Ghisallo, and she became a patroness of local travellers. In later times, Madonna del Ghisallo was made part of the Giro di Lombardia bicycle race.

A local priest, Fr Ermelindo Vigano, proposed that Madonna del Ghisallo be declared the patroness of cyclists. This was confirmed by Pope Pius XII. Nowadays, the shrine of Madonna del Ghisallo contains a small cycling museum with photos and artefacts from the sport. There also burns an eternal flame for cyclists who have died. One particularly notable artefact is the crumpled bicycle that Fabio Casartelli—a native of the region—rode on the day that he died in a crash in the Tour de France.

Across the Adriatic from Italy, the red-roofed village of Marija Bistrica on the slopes of Medvednica mountain is the largest and most important pilgrimage site in Croatia.

The focus of interest is the parish church, which has a 16th-century wooden statue of the Madonna called ‘Our Lady of Bistrica.’ The statue is believed to have miraculous powers as it was not destroyed during many attacks by the Turks.

Although the original parish church dates back to 1334, it was rebuilt between 1879 and 1882. The Viennese architect grafted a neo-Renaissance style onto the old foundations, designed new arcades and enlarged the rectory. Religious paintings and sculptures were also added. During the rebuilding another miracle occurred when a fire destroyed the entire interior of the church except the altar and the miraculous statue of the Madonna.

The shrine in this scenic village attracts up to 800,000 visitors a year, many of whom mount the Way of the Cross behind the church. This arrangement of the 14 Stations of the Cross is adorned with sculptures created by Croatian artists and leads to Calvary Hill. Even with all the attention it receives, the shrine’s biggest celebration occurred in 1998 when Pope John Paul II visited to Beatify Croatian Archbishop Stepinac.

Back in Northern Europe, the more adventurous pilgrim may be attracted to the Juditten Church in Russia, with the Russian exclave of Kalingrad.

One of the oldest churches of Sambia, the fortified church, was built in the Catholic state of the Teutonic Order between 1276 and 1294.

Juditten became a shrine to the Virgin Mary and a medieval Christian pilgrimage site for visitors from throughout the Holy Roman Empire, especially during the era of Grand Master Konrad von Jungingen.

The church’s frescoes displays the lives of Jesus and Mary, the 12 Apostles, chivalric stories, and legendary creatures. Its larger-than-life Madonna and Child above a crescent moon was made out of coloured wood by an unknown master before 1454. According to Friedrich Lahrs, the Madonna had previously been located in Königsberg Cathedral’s chapel. Its pearls were stolen from its crown by Königsberg rebels in 1454 during the Thirteen Years War, with the Teutonic Knights replacing them in 1504 and moving the art to the pilgrimage site Juditten in 1504.

The church was converted from Catholicism to Lutheranism in 1526 following the establishment of the Duchy of Prussia the previous year; pilgrimages were allowed to continue despite the Protestant Reformation. It also contained a cathedra from 1686, a Baroque altar, and an organ from 1840. Although the church was largely undamaged by fighting during the Second World War, it was plundered in April 1945, when it passed from German to Russian control. Services continued until 1948. It was neglected until the 1970s, with the roof and part of the walls collapsing in the 1960s. It was reconsecrated in October 1985 as a Russian Orthodox church and was eventually restored to serve as the main church of St Nicholas Orthodox Convent.

Heading back towards the UK, pilgrims with a yearning for the peaceful may want to visit  The Catholic Hermitage of Our Lady of the Garden Enclosed in the former parish church of Warfhuizen, a village in the extreme north of the Netherlands. It is the only Dutch hermitage currently inhabited by a hermit. The name draws upon the traditional epithet for the Virgin Mary (Our Lady) of hortus conclusus, or enclosed garden.

The hermitage was founded in 2001 as the dwelling of a Catholic consecrated hermit. As is typical of Dutch hermitages, it includes a public chapel that has a distinct role in popular devotions, here to the Virgin Mary, also known as Our Lady. It is the northernmost Marian shrine in the Netherlands.

The hermitage in Warfhuizen is a continuation of the tradition of hermits, which arose in Limburg and North Brabant following the Counter Reformation. The last brother of that tradition died in 1930 in de Schaelsberg hermitage in Valkenburg aan de Geul. Contrary to most hermitages abroad, these hermitages featured a public chapel, which often played a part in local devotions.

After a slow decline since the 1880s the number of Catholic hermits in Europe has started to increase again towards the end of the 20th century. There have always been members of religious orders who lived as hermits, but the ‘true hermits’ became extinct after 1930.

In 2001, the empty church of the village of Warfhuizen was acquired by local Catholics and a simple hermit’s dwelling was realised in the bay adjacent to the tower, which since then has been inhabited by a hermit (Brother Hugo). The rest of the building serves as a chapel. The hermit is part of the Groningen-Leeuwarden Diocese and has made his religious oaths to the bishop of that diocese.

Since the Second Vatican Council revitalised the hermetic ideal, a small amount of new legislation has been created. The Code of Canon Law requires hermits to be more secluded than was the custom in the Netherlands. As a result, there is an enclosed area in Warfhuizen in which the hermit lives and works. In the chapel this is created by the large rood screen, which separates the choir from the nave.

Similar to contemplative monasteries, the office is kept in Warfhuizen. In the West that is often prayed in accordance with the precepts of St Benedict, but in 2009 the hermit switched to the office of St John Cassian from the fifth century. Cassian based his schedule on the customs of the hermits in the Egyptian desert, the so-called Desert Fathers. As such it is very suitable for hermits.

Instead of the eight (usually short) offices of Benedict, Cassian prescribes two (longer) vigils, one at the start and one at the end of the night. In Warfhuizen, these vigils are sung softly in Latin. The other hours do not have an office with Psalms, but are prayed in silence by means of the Jesus Prayer.

Of course, this is just a taste of the hundreds of astonishing Marian shrines that exist around the world, nor forgetting our own Carfin, in Motherwell Diocese. Why not try and visit as many as you can?