Marian Devotion

October 2, 2025

By Christina Gray
Lead writer, Catholic San Francisco
grayc@sfarch.org

Hail Mary, full of grace
Marian shrines a labor of love for San Francisco parish

It’s a Thursday morning in July, and the Daughters of Mary are on a road trip to San Francisco. The parishioners of St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Turlock who make up the parish ministry happily drove more than 120 miles for what awaited them at their destination: a guided tour of shrines to 16 Marian apparitions from around the world spanning more than 700 years.

Our Lady of Champion, (Wisconsin, 1859), Feast day Oct. 9

The Shrine to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary at Star of the Sea Parish is the collective name for the individual shrines that have reshaped the parish into an (as yet) unofficial pilgrimage site for Marian devotion. It was quietly launched by the parish over the past year or so, and has, mostly through word of mouth, attracted a regular stream of visitors.

“Our main goal is to help build Marian spirituality,” Mariella Zevallos told Catholic San Francisco. The director of communications and parish life leads tours, helps visitors over the phone who want to make a private pilgrimage to the shrine church and organizes Marian events at the parish.

She speaks with the love of a mother about the shrines, perhaps because in very real ways, she helped bring each of them into being. For the past four years, Zevallos, a fine artist, worked shoulder-to-shoulder with pastor Father Joseph Illo to create the parish’s Shrine to Our Lady of the Holy Rosary. The pair commissioned artisans in Colombia to make the majority of the custom-made statues and worked painstakingly to adjust prototypes to their exacting specifications based on a combination of historical facts and their own sensibilities. (Two of the 16 apparition shrines are represented by paintings, one by a wood carving).

“We cannot understand and love the Son without understanding and loving the Mother,” Father Illo tells visitors in a video overview of the Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary on the parish website. He told Catholic San Francisco he was inspired to build a major Marian shrine after visiting the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. The basilica features shrines to the “national Madonna” of more than 30 countries around the world.

“I thought we should have something like that in San Francisco,” he said.

Our Lady of La Vang, (Vietnam, 1798), Feast day Nov. 22

At Star of the Sea, the individual shrines are set into the left and right walls of the church like devotional gemstones. Artful lighting highlights details of each 48-inch statue or image, such as the glistening tears on the face of Our Lady of La Salette or the limpid gaze of Our Lady of Lourdes. The shrines represent approved apparitions in France, Portugal, Vietnam, China, Mexico, England, Ecuador, Philippines, Rwanda, Ireland, Belgium and the United States from the years 1251 to 1981.

Candles and kneelers are available at the foot of each shrine; a free pamphlet details not just the historical facts of the apparition, but its essential message – repentance, reconciliation, conversion, healing and steadfast faith, among them.

Father Illo said grouping 16 different apparition shrines together in one place helps pilgrims see the “common themes” in what Our Lady communicated “in different ways at different times to different cultures.”

“This helps to see a more holistic view of the apparitions,” he said.

Renovation and renewal

Ironically, the cultural indifference to God lamented by Our Lady in many of her appearances on earth seems to also be, in part, what made the Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary possible. When Father Illo was first assigned to the parish in 2014, he found the 131-year-old church in stark need of renovation and the Masses poorly attended.

“We had a 1,000-seat capacity and at best, we were less than half full,” he said.

Our Lady of La Salette, (France, 1846), Feast day Sept. 19

As part of a $1 million “top to bottom” restoration of the physical church, Father Illo removed the empty side pews on both sides of the nave to make room for the Marian shrines. His vision for Star of the Sea to be a shrine church, a church of devotions, is well underway.

The pews and kneelers of the once “low-energy” parish now have many more local families and visitors, according to Father Illo. In 2018, the aging St. Joseph Chapel in the church’s west wing was converted into a beautiful chapel of perpetual adoration. Three Masses are offered daily, with the rosary prayed after each one. A shrine to new St. Carlo Acutis went in this summer (see story page 22).

Embraced by parishioners and visitors

Zevallos said the parish community has been enthusiastic and supportive of the Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary. Each shrine was paid for in part by individual parish families who made a $5,000 donation toward its creation. Sponsors are named in plaques at each shrine.

Because the statues and shrines were not completed all at one time, Father Illo and Zevallos placed a sort of “coming soon” poster in its designated home along the walls. The shrines were unveiled one at a time at Sunday Mass as they were completed, with Father Illo building his message or homily around it.

Occasionally, on a Sunday after the 9:30 a.m. Family Mass, children are invited to gather in front of the sanctuary to listen to Father Illo talk about one of the Marian apparitions. Parish staff then offer each child a flower to place at the designated shrine.

“Seeing the children’s eagerness to participate is joyful,” said Zevallos.

Scan to learn more about the Shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary at Star of the Sea Parish, or visit starparish.com.

“I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners.”

Our Lady of Champion

Champion, Wisconsin | October 1859

In three separate apparitions, a young woman from a devout farming family in Wisconsin encountered a beautiful lady dressed in a white robe with a crown of stars. In Champion, Belgium, her hometown, a young Adele Brise had promised Our Lady that she would one day become an Ursuline nun. But her family needed her to stay to help on the farm near Green Bay after they emigrated.

“In God’s name, who are you and what do you want of me?” she asked the lady upon the advice of a priest after the second apparition. “I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same.”

Our Lady urged Adele, 28, to “gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for their salvation,” she said. She spent the rest of her life catechizing families along the Green Bay peninsula, building a Catholic chapel, school and convent on the site of her encounter with Mary.

Our Lady of Champion is the only approved Marian apparition in the U.S.

“Graces will be shed on all who ask for them.”

Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal

Paris, France | 1830

A young novice named Catherine Laboure at the Sisters of Charity motherhouse was awakened one night by a young boy calling her name. “Come to chapel, the Blessed Virgin is waiting for you,” he whispered. Catherine heard the rustle of silk and watched as a beautiful lady in a cream-colored dress and blue mantle entered the room. “The times are evil,” said Our Lady, and the “cross will be trampled.” A week later, riots broke out in Paris and the king was dethroned. Churches were sacked and clergy beaten and killed, including the archbishop of Paris. The Vincentian order and Sisters of Charity were spared.

Our Lady of The Miraculous Medal, (Paris, 1830), Feast day Nov. 27

Four months later, Our Lady appeared to Catherine again to show her the form for what would become the Miraculous Medal. Rays shone down from precious stones on Mary’s fingers. “These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them,” she said. “The jewels which give no rays symbolize the graces that are not given because they are not asked for.”

The Miraculous Medal is credited with many miracles of conversion and healing.

“Water the flowers, my child”

Our Lady of Kibeho

Kibeho, Rwanda | 1981-1983

Twelve years before Rwanda erupted in a civil war that ultimately took the lives of more than 1 million tribespeople, Our Lady appeared multiple times to three young visionaries to preach repentance.

“My child, I am the Mother of the Word,” Our Lady said in her first appearance to Alphonsine Mumurek, 16, in the school cafeteria. “People have turned from God and the love of my son,” she told Anathalie Mukamazimpaka, 17. Marie-Claire Mukangango, 21, was a skeptic who became a believer after she awoke in darkness and beheld visions of violence and death. She followed a light and she found herself in the chapel.

The girls were urged by Our Lady to “water the flowers,” and would do this by sprinkling holy water upon the growing number of pilgrims that came to Kibeho. In 1982, Our Lady appeared to Alphonsine during a massive church picnic. She cried and told her, “I opened the door, but they refused to come in.” Alphonsine saw a series of horrifying visions; rivers of blood, trees exploding in flames and rotting corpses. The visions became a reality in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Marie-Claire was among the victims.

“I will answer those who come here seeking my help, and I will bless them.”

Our Lady of La Vang

La Vang Rainforest, Vietnam | 1798

Catholicism was ruled illegal in Vietnam around 1790. A group of Vietnamese Catholics suffering severe persecution fled to the rainforest of La Vang, named for its large jasmine trees. Life was very difficult as a refugee in the jungle, and there was much sickness. Yet, every evening the people would gather at the foot of a large jasmine tree to pray the rosary.

One evening a woman dressed in a traditional Vietnamese gown appeared at the front of the tree, a child in her arms, angels to her left and right.

“I have received your prayers,” she told them. “From now on I will answer those who come here seeking my help.” She told them to boil the leaves of the jasmine tree, and it would heal their sicknesses. The refugees did, were healed and eventually returned to their homes.

In 1998, St. John Paul II expressed a desire for a large shrine that now stands in La Vang, a national Marian center.

“I am here to tell you important things.”

Our Lady of La Salette

La Salette, France | 1846

Our Lady appeared to Melanie Calvat, 14, and Maximin Giraud, 11, on a grassy slope in one of the poor hamlets of La Salette in southeastern France. The children saw a bright light and a beautiful lady with a noblewoman’s headdress. She sat with her face buried in her hands, weeping.

“Come near, my children, be not afraid,” she told them. “I am here to tell you important things.” She said she was powerless to stop the consequences that would soon befall the faithless.

She begged the children to tell the villagers to be reconciled with God and with each other. The faith had grown cold in France since the revolution of 1789. France had become an “enemy of Christ,” and it seemed most people lived as if God did not exist.

“The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my son’s name,” she said. “There is yet time to be reconciled to God, but we must be serious about conversion.”

Mary in our Midst

The Shrine honors 16 Marian apparitions spanning more than 700 years: