"I have already answered your prayers!"

An oral tradition says that in 1798, 60 km from Hue in central Vietnam, the Virgin Mary, surrounded by two angels, appeared to a group of Christians hiding in a forest to escape persecution. According to a witness, she was dressed “in a beautiful oriental-style cloak and was holding the Child Jesus in her arms. She was simply standing on the grass, like a mother visiting her children ... She told everyone to be glad that they were suffering for their faith."

She said: "I have already answered your prayers. From now on, all those who will come to pray to me in this place will have their wishes granted," she said.

According to some, Mary appeared there several times, granting healings and conversions. Since then, people have come on pilgrimage and prayed there continually over two centuries.

In 1886, a small chapel was built on the site of the apparition, and in 1901, a larger church was built and blessed in the presence of 12,000 pilgrims! On this occasion, Our Lady of La Vang was declared patroness of the Catholics of Vietnam. The church was enlarged in 1928, and a national pilgrimage takes place there every three years.

In 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the church to the rank of minor basilica. This shrine was destroyed during the Vietnam War of 1972-1975.

On June 19, 1988, John Paul II canonized 117 Vietnamese martyrs. On that occasion he evoked the former shrine and called for its rebuilding, "in a spirit of freedom, peace, and gratitude toward the Woman whom all generations have called blessed. In this way, this shrine will be an instrument of national unity, and of civic and moral progress for the country."

The shrine was indeed rebuilt. On August 15, 1998, about 70,000 faithful prayed together at La Vang for the 200th anniversary of the apparition.

Source: Patrick Sbalchiero, article "La Vang I," in: René Laurentin and Patrick Sbalchiero, Dictionnaire encyclopédique des apparitions de la Vierge. 

And: Marian Encyclopedia