Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - CAMEROON: Shrine of Our Lady of the Apostles in Mvolye Hill in Yaoundé.
REPUBLIC OF CONGO. At Linzolo, at one of the first missions opened in 1883 by Spiritan Missionaries a few km from the capital, a large Grotto of Lourdes, in the heart of a magnificent valley just right for great gatherings, has become the most important Marian meeting for Congolese Catholics, particularly since the Marian Year in 1987.
COTE D'IVOIRE - “Our Lady's African Palace”. The Marian shrine of Our Lady Mother of all Graces was inaugurated on 1 February 1987; the Basilica of Our Lady Queen of Peace at Yamoussoukro with an 11mt high painted concrete statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary; the Shrine of Our Lady of Liberation at Issia, in the diocese of Daloa; the Shrine of Ferké in the diocese of Katiola.
Situated on the west coast of Africa Cote d'Ivoire was evangelised in the last decade of the 19th century. Today the population is 50% Animist, 30% Muslim and 20% Catholic. There are many churches and chapels dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary but the most beautiful is the Basilica of Our Lady Queen of Peace in Yamoussoukro.
Our Lady of Yamoussoukro Basilica is a “Palace” offered to the Virgin Mary and it is visited by Christians from many other countries of Africa, hundreds of thousands every year. From her Palace in Cote d'Ivoire Our Lady of Peace watches over the African Continent of Hope.
EGYPT - “Mary and her people”. Devotion to Mary in Egypt dates back to the first Christian centuries. In a fresco in an underground 3rd century chapel in Alexandria the Virgin Mary is depicted talking to the servants at the Wedding Feast of Cana. The Copt calendar has about 30 Marian feasts in the year. But the most popular feast is that of the Assumption of Mary simply called “The Feast of Mary”. There is great devotion also to an icon of the Blessed Mother at the famous church of Al-Mou’allaqa. Apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Zeitoun (1968-1970) and in Shoubra (1983-1986) were recognised by the Copt Catholic authorities. At Zeitoun, in the outskirts of Cairo, where the apparitions ceased in 1971, Our Lady let herself be seen by Christians and by Muslims, the majority in the country.. (J.M.) (Agenzia Fides 28/5/2007; righe 34, parole 484)
