Why do Marian sites become pilgrim shrines - Essay Example

is that Marian sites, those places where it is held or believed that a Holy Christian supernatural presence, that of Mary, Mother of Jesus, has revealed itself, soon become sites to where an influx of people travel on a regular basis satisfy their need for a religious experience. They are, too, sites that take on a significance in the iconology and doctrine of the Catholic Church; and this document will attempt to explore the reasons why Marian sites become pilgrim shrines for the various groups and individuals who make pilgrimages to those places.

Considering for a moment one of the modern day sites, Medjugorje, a place where, in June, 1981, six young teenagers reported to villagers and local church authorities their shared experience taking place atop a hill located near their village. The experience the children reported was that of having seen the vision of the Mother of Jesus, the Holy Mother of the Catholic Church, Mary, atop the hill where, dressed in a veil, she “hovered” initially advising the children to pray for “personal and world peace, payer, faith, conversion Christianity, fasting, penance, and the necessity of praying the rosary to avert world disaster.”’.1 A simple enough message, “pray for peace,” which, in June, 1981, could be interpreted to apply to any number of current world events, but at the time, at the forefront of international concern, in 1981, was the subject HIV/AIDS, the disease that has yet to be cured today, and that since that time spread and devastated populations around the world regardless of the socio-economic status of those populations.

2 1981 marked the year that Lady Diana Spencer would wed England’s Prince Charles, subsequently becoming the Princess of Wales and, after that, one of the most influential and controversial figures in the royal family.3 And while there was no shortage of events about which to be concerned or that would call for prayers of peace in 1981, there would come to be, some 10