Mary: “all those who come to pray to me in this place will see their wishes granted”

In 1798, some Christians had sought refuge in the rainforests of the Quang Tri Province to escape government persecution in Vietnam. While hiding in the jungle, the community gathered every night at the foot of a tree to pray. One night in 1798, in the branches of the tree, a lady appeared, wearing the traditional Vietnamese dress and holding a child in her arms, with two angels beside her. They said that Our Lady comforted them and told them to boil leaves from the trees for medicine to cure their ills.

There are no written records of these apparitions, but oral tradition has it that the Blessed Mother stood among the people on the grass, simply like a mother among her children. She asked everyone to be joyful at having to suffer for their faith, and promised: 

"I have already answered your prayers. From now on, all those who come to pray to me in this place will see their wishes granted." According to some, the Virgin Mary appeared several times. 

Since then, pilgrimages have never ceased. This is the origin of the Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang, halfway between North and South Vietnam.

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

In 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the church to the rank of minor basilica, but it was destroyed in 1972-1975, during the Vietnam war.

On June 19, 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized 117 Vietnamese martyrs, remembering the shrine and wishing for its reconstruction “in a climate of freedom and peace, and of gratitude to her whom all generations call blessed. So that this shrine may promote national unity and the civil and moral progress of the country."

The shrine was eventually rebuilt. On August 15, 1998, some 70,000 faithful (100,000 according to some sources) prayed together at La Vang for the 200th anniversary of the apparitions.

Encyclopédie Mariale