Mary leads us to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Every morning, a young girl of about 12—a sweet, silent figure—visits the Church of the Sacred Heart in Basra, southern Iraq. She stands in quiet prayer, for quite a long time, in front of a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. Then she lights a candle and kisses the statue of Mary. She exits the church, quietly. She does that every morning.

Bishop Atanasios Firas Dardar, Patriarchal Vicar of Basra for Syrian Catholics, took notice. So one day he decided to make her acquaintance. Her name is Sarah, she lives in Abo Sker, one of the most popular Shiite neighborhoods in Basra, and she sells plastic bags for a living. As evidenced by her clothes, Sarah is a Shiite Muslim. Yet she comes to pray every day at the Church of the Sacred Heart. "I don't really know who Mary is. But this woman never leaves you empty-handed," she says. "The simple faith of this child is the type of faith in God that every person should have," Bishop Atanasios wrote on his Facebook page, where he shared this story.

In the deep Shiite south, many Muslims pray to Mary, and sometimes even attend festivals in her honor. This popular devotion among Muslims seems to have been revived by the recent visit of Pope Francis to Iraq in early March 2021 (1).

Translated and adapted from: Avvenire 

(1) Muslims do differentiate the Christian figure of Mary from the 'Myriam' of the Koran, who is the sister of Moses