Most Popular Catholic Shrines
A ZENIT DAILY DISPATCH
SHRINE OF GUADALUPE MOST POPULAR IN WORLD
Followed by Shrines in Italy, Brazil, and France
VATICAN CITY, 13 JUN 1999 (ZENIT).
A report of the Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People reveals the number and affluence of pilgrims to Catholic shrines. The text, which was written by Bishop Francesco Giogia, secretary of the Council, points out that the most visited shrine is that of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Patroness of all America, in Mexico City.
Guadalupe is followed by San Giovanni Rotondo in the south of Italy, where Capuchin Padre Pio of Pietrelcina's body lies; it receives 6 or 7 million visitors a year. In third place is the shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil, where a black image of the Virgin, found on the shores of the Sao Paulo river in 1717, is venerated.
Next is the basilica dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, built on a hill in Montmartre, Paris, between 1876 and 1919. It is followed by Czestochowa in Poland, Lourdes in France, Luján in Argentina, Fatima in Portugal, the basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua, Italy, and Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Additional popular places of worship are: Assisi, Pompeii, and Loreto in Italy; Mariatzell in Austria; Knock in Ireland; Saint John of the Valley in Texas; the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington; and Yamaoussoukro in the Ivory Coast. ZE99061303
This article has been selected from the ZENIT Daily Dispatch
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