Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - South Africa has many Marian Shrine. Some have even received the grace of a apparition of the Blessed Virgin May and are visited by believers from all over southern Africa. In 1952, during a Marian Congress held in Durban ZwaZulu-Natal province, to celebrate the arrival in South Africa of the first Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, Archbishop Martin H. Lucas, the then Apostolic Delegate for Southern Africa, proclaimed “Mary Queen assumed into Heaven”, patroness of South Africa.
One of the most famous Marian shrines in South Africa is that of Our Lady of Ngomé, situated in the diocese of Eshowe at the heart of the Zulu region, Zululand: Our Blessed Lady is said to have appeared here to a Benedictine nun Sr Reinolda who died on 1 April 1981. At this shrine Our Lady is venerated under the title of “Mary, Tabernacle of the Most High ”.
Another well known Marian Shrine in South Africa which attracts thousands of pilgrims is Kevelaer Parish in the diocese of Marianhill, Natal. We mention also the Shrine of Maria Ratschitz in the diocese of Dundee south of KwaZulu-Natal. Another place of Marian pilgrimage is at Tsheseng, in the diocese of Bethlehem again Natal province. Here Mary is honoured as the Immaculate Conception and called Our Lady of Bethlehem. Also in Natal, a few km from Durban, there is Ntshongweni parish dedicated to “Our Lady Mediatrix of All Graces”. Every year on May 31 there is an official pilgrimage to Our Lady of Ntshongweni. (J.M.) (Agenzia Fides 24/5/2007; righe 20, parole 275)
