The Lebanese Shrine of Our Lady of Waiting

Our Lady of Mantara, south of Sidon, in the Greek-Melkite-Catholic archdiocese of Saida and Deir-Al-Kamar in Lebanon, is attracting ever increasing crowds!

"Mantara" comes from the root of the Arabic verb "natara" which means to wait. According to tradition, the Virgin Mary was "waiting" for Jesus in a cave while he was preaching in Sidon, the present-day Saida. This is because Jewish women were forbidden to enter pagan cities. The coming of Christ to Sidon, where he healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman, is attested by the Gospels: Mt 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-31.

In the 18th century, when the bishop of Tyre, Saida and Marjaium (Philip of Caesarea) had just proclaimed the unity of his Greek-Melkite diocese with Rome, a shepherd was tending his flock, sitting under an oak tree and playing his flute, when suddenly he heard the painful bleating of one of his kids. He ran over and saw that a kid had fallen into a well. He cleared the area and discovered a narrow path leading to the bottom of a cave! His anguish turned to joy when he found an icon of the Virgin Mary on an ancient altar at the bottom of the cave. He quickly exited the cave, left his flock and went to tell the good news to the people of Maghdouche.

The crowds came running at once! Bells rang to announce that the Cave of the Waiting was found and processions were organized in the village. This is how worship resumed at the grotto, as evoked by a long tradition attesting that the Virgin was waiting there for her Son when he preached in Sidon.

Many cures are attributed to Our Lady of Mantara. Two booklets, written by a bishop of Saida in the 1910s, describe 16 miracles, including one in which a nun of St. Joseph recovered her sight. Nearly half of these miracles concern children and barren women, so she is sometimes called "Our Lady of Children". 

To this day, many children are baptized in the grotto. They are then consecrated to the Virgin.

Source: Marian Encyclopedia