Knock Shrine
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The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, commonly referred to as Knock Shrine, is a
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a travel, journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin ''peregrinus'') is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) w ...
site and national shrine in the village of
Knock, County Mayo Knock (, meaning ''The Hill'' – but now more generally known in Irish as ''Cnoc Mhuire'', "Hill of (the Virgin) Mary") is a village in County Mayo, Ireland. Knock is also a civil parish in the ancient barony of Costello. It is notable a ...
, Ireland, where locals claimed to have seen an apparition in 1879 of the
Blessed Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
,
Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...
,
Saint John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( – ) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter, although there is no consensus on h ...
,
angels An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...
, and
Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...
(the
Lamb of God Lamb of God (; , ) is a Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at wikisource:Bible (American Standard)/John#1:29, John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, " ...
).


Apparition

The evening of Thursday, 21 August 1879, was a very wet night. At about 8 o'clock it was raining as Mary Byrne, who was from the village, was going home with the priest's housekeeper, Mary McLoughlin. Byrne stopped suddenly when she saw the gable of the church. She claimed she saw three life-size figures. She ran home to tell her parents and soon others from the village gathered. The witnesses said they saw an apparition of Our Lady,
Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...
and
Saint John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( – ) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter, although there is no consensus on h ...
at the south gable end of the Church of
Saint John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...
. Behind them and a little to the left of Saint John was a plain altar. On the altar was a cross and a lamb, with angels."The Story of Knock", Knock Shrine
/ref> A farmer, about half a mile away from the scene, later described what he saw as a large globe of golden light above and around the gable, circular in appearance. For nearly two hours a group that fluctuated between two and perhaps as many as twenty-five stood or kneeled, gazing at the figures. It was raining.White, John. "The Cusack Papers; new evidence on the Knock apparition", ''18th–19th Century Social Perspectives, 18th–19th – Century History'', Issue 4 (Winter 1996), Vol. 4
/ref> Those identified as witnesses (and relatives) were Mary Byrne/Margaret Beirne, aged 29, and her mother Margaret Beirne, aged 68, her younger adult sister Margaret Beirne, her younger adult brother Dominick Beirne, her eight-year-old niece Catherine Murray, and Dominick Beirne, who was an elder cousin, Dominick's five-year-old nephew John Curry, and Patrick Beirne, who was possibly also a relative. It was 11-year-old Patrick Hill who is thought to have given the most detailed description of the vision. The apparitions, for believing Catholics, held significant eschatological significance. Much work has been done to interpret the message received in the village by Catholic eschatological scholars such as Emmett O'Reagan.


Description

The vision of Mary was described as being beautiful, standing a few feet above the ground. She was described as wearing a white cloak, hanging in full folds and fastened at the neck. She was described as "deep in prayer", with her eyes raised to heaven, her hands raised to the shoulders or a little higher, the palms inclined slightly to the shoulders.
Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...
was described as wearing white robes and standing at the Virgin's right hand. His head was described as bent forward from the shoulders towards the Blessed Virgin.
Saint John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( – ) is the name traditionally given to the author of the Gospel of John. Christians have traditionally identified him with John the Apostle, John of Patmos, and John the Presbyter, although there is no consensus on h ...
stood to the left of the Blessed Virgin. He was dressed in a long robe and wore a
mitre The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of ...
. He was partly turned away from the other figures. Some witnesses reported that Saint John appeared to be preaching and that he held open a large book in his left hand. Others did not. To the left of Saint John some said there was an altar with a lamb on it with a cross standing on the altar behind the lamb."The Apparition at Knock", Knock Shrine Association of America
/ref> Those who witnessed the apparition stood in the rain for up to two hours reciting the
Rosary The Rosary (; , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), formally known as the Psalter of Jesus and Mary (Latin: Psalterium Jesu et Mariae), also known as the Dominican Rosary (as distinct from other forms of rosary such as the ...
. When the apparition began there was good light, but although it then became dark, witnesses said they could still see the figures. They said the apparitions did not flicker or move in any way. The witnesses reported that the ground around the figures remained completely dry during the apparition although the wind was blowing from the south.Fr. James OFM. "The Story of Knock", ''Knock Shrine Annual'', 1950
/ref> The entire apparition wall was soon torn apart by pilgrims chipping out the cement, mortar, and stones for souvenirs and to use for cures.
/ref>


Church Commissions of inquiry

An ecclesiastical Commission of inquiry was established by the
Archbishop of Tuam The Archbishop of Tuam ( ; ) is an Episcopal polity, archbishop which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Cathol ...
, Most Rev. Dr.
John MacHale John MacHale (; 6 March 1789 (or 1791) – 7 November 1881) was the Irish Roman Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, and Irish nationalist. He laboured and wrote to secure Catholic emancipation, legislative independence, justice for tenants and the ...
, on 8 October 1879. The Commission consisted of Irish scholar and historian, Canon
Ulick Bourke Ulick Joseph Bourke ( ; also known by his name in Irish, ''Uileog de Búrca''; 29 December 1829 – 22 November 1887) was an Irish scholar and writer who founded the Gaelic Union, which later developed into the Gaelic League (or ''Conradh na ...
, Canon
James Waldron James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince James ...
, as well as the parish priest of Ballyhaunis and Archdeacon
Bartholomew Aloysius Cavanagh Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Most scholars today identify Bartholomew as Nathanael, who appears in the Gospel of John (1:45–51; cf. 21:2). New Testament references The name ''Bartholomew ...
. Depositions of witnesses were taken in the ensuing months. The deliberations of the commission, referred only to the occurrence on 21 August 1879, which omitted "subsequent phenomena", and as a result, there exists no official record for events that occurred after that date. The evidence which was the commission's duty to record, satisfied all the members and was deemed trustworthy. Among the considerations were whether the apparition emanated from natural causes, and whether there was any positive fraud. In the first cited particular, it was reported that no solution as from natural causes could be offered; and in the second consideration, that such a suggestion had never, even remotely, been entertained. The commission's final verdict was that the testimony of all the witnesses taken as a whole was trustworthy and satisfactory. As most of the documents from the early years at Knock were assumed to have been lost, a second Commission of inquiry, in 1936, was forced to rely upon interviews with the last of the surviving witnesses (who confirmed the evidence they gave to the first Commission), their children, press reports and devotional works printed in the 1880s, which portrayed the original reports in a positive light. The surviving witnesses confirmed the evidence they gave to the first Commission. The growth of railways and the appearance of local and national newspapers fuelled interest in the small Mayo village. Reports of "strange occurrences in a small Irish village" were featured almost immediately in the international media, notably ''The Times'' (of London). Newspapers from as far away as Chicago sent reporters to cover the Knock phenomenon. Canon
Ulick Bourke Ulick Joseph Bourke ( ; also known by his name in Irish, ''Uileog de Búrca''; 29 December 1829 – 22 November 1887) was an Irish scholar and writer who founded the Gaelic Union, which later developed into the Gaelic League (or ''Conradh na ...
joined
Timothy Daniel Sullivan Timothy Daniel Sullivan (29 May 1827 – 31 March 1914) was an Irish nationalist, journalist, politician and poet who wrote the Irish national hymn "God Save Ireland", in 1867. He served as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1886 to 1888 and a Member ...
and
Margaret Anna Cusack Margaret Anna Cusack (in religion Mary Francis Clare Cusack; 6 May 1829 – 5 June 1899), also known as Mother Margaret and the Nun of Kenmare, was a former Irish Catholic nun who founded the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace before returning to A ...
in developing Knock as a national Marian pilgrimage site. Knock pilgrimages combined traditional Irish practices like rounds of the church and all-night vigils with devotions like the
Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, Way of Sorrows or the , are a series of fourteen images depicting Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and acc ...
, benediction, processions, and the recitation of litanies. Priests associated with the Fenian movement often led pilgrimages to Knock. John White sees the silence of the apparition related to a cultural change occurring at that time. "It was necessary for Cavanagh to preach in English and Irish each Sunday as the schools saw to the replacement of Irish with English as the language of the young. This linguistic crisis may be connected with the silence of the Knock visions, as the oldest witness, Bridget Trench, had no English, while the youngest, six-year-old John Curry, was being educated with no Irish."


Sceptical analysis

According to
Joe Nickell Joe Herman Nickell (December 1, 1944 – March 4, 2025) was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, '' Skeptic ...
, in addition to "serious discrepancies" in the witnesses' accounts, it is possible for natural phenomena to account for the apparition. With the help of an astronomer who recreated the sky of the time via computer, it was determined that the evening sun was above the horizon for the duration of the event. There was also a school near the site with a wall angled toward the south gable of the church. The suggestion is that the sun served as the light source, which reflected off the school's windows (presumed to have been there) and produced a "natural version of a magic-lantern effect". Nickell explains that "odd shapes rom diffuse reflectionscould produce the requisite
pareidolia Pareidolia (; ) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus (physiology), stimulus, usually visual, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Pareidolia is a specific bu ...
... effects in susceptible individuals, especially those who were motivated to see something "miraculous" and were familiar with similar holy pictures." Investigator Melvin Harris suggested that a priest may have used a mirror to reflect a magic lantern projection onto the wall from the upper window of the chapel rather than from outside.


Modern era

People who claim to have been cured at Knock still leave crutches and sticks at the spot where the apparition is believed to have occurred.Geraghty, Joan. "Knock Shrine, the holy site", Mayo News, 18 July 2012
/ref> Each Irish diocese makes an annual pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine and the nine-day Knock novena attracts pilgrims every August."Ireland: new Parish Priest for National Shrine at Knock", Independent Catholic News, 3 February 2012
/ref> The miracle is also known as Our Lady of Knock by the church. * On
All Saints' Day All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, the Feast of All Saints, the Feast of All Hallows, the Solemnity of All Saints, and Hallowmas, is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honour of all the saints of the Church, whether they are know ...
1945,
Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
blessed the banner of Knock from St Peter's Basilica in Rome and decorated it with a special medal. * On
Candlemas Day Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Feast of the Holy Encounter, is a Christian feast day commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temp ...
in 1960,
Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...
presented a special candle to Knock. * On 6 June 1974, the foundation stone for the Basilica of Our Lady, Queen of Ireland, at Knock, was blessed by
Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...
. * On 30 September 1979, Pope John Paul II visited the shrine to commemorate the centenary of the apparition. During that historic visit, the Pope addressed the sick and nursing staff, celebrated Mass, established the shrine church as a basilica, presented a candle and the
Golden Rose The Golden Rose (, ) is a gold ornament, which popes of the Catholic Church have traditionally blessed annually. It is occasionally conferred as a token of reverence or affection. Recipients have included churches and sanctuaries, royalty, mili ...
to the shrine and knelt in prayer at the apparition wall. * On 26 August 2018
Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...
visited the shrine at Knock as part of a visit to Ireland for the 9th World Meeting of Families * On 14 April 2023 US President
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
visited the shrine which was closed to the public during his visit The complex incorporates five churches including the Apparition Chapel, Parish Church and Basilica, a Religious Books' Centre, Caravan and Camping Park, Knock Museum, Café le Chéile and Knock House Hotel. Services at the Shrine include organised pilgrimages, daily Masses and Confessions, Anointing of the Sick, Counselling Service, Prayer Guidance and Youth Ministry. While the original church still stands, a new Apparition chapel with statues of Our Lady, St Joseph, the Lamb and St John the Evangelist, has been built next to it. Knock Basilica is a separate building showing a tapestry of the apparition.


Recent history

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...
of Calcutta visited the Shrine in June 1993."Knock, Ireland's National Marian Shrine", Mayo, Ireland
/ref> Ireland's National Eucharistic Congress was held at the Marian Shrine in Knock over 25 and 26 June in 2011. An estimated 13,000 pilgrims attended. Though it remained for almost 100 years a major Irish pilgrimage site, Knock established itself as a world religious site in large measure during the last quarter of the twentieth century, largely due to the work of its longtime parish priest Monsignor James Horan. Horan presided over a major rebuilding of the site, with the provision of a new large Knock Basilica (the second in Ireland) alongside the old church. Horan secured from the
Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...
(prime minister),
Charles Haughey Charles James Haughey (; 16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who led four governments as Taoiseach: December 1979 to June 1981, March to December 1982, March 1987 to June 1989, and June 1989 to February 1992 ...
, millions of pounds of state aid to build an airport 19 kilometres away, near Charlestown. On 13 May 2017, Cardinal Archbishop
Timothy M. Dolan Timothy Michael Dolan (born February 6, 1950) is an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic prelate who has served as Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Archbishop of New York since 2009 and as a Cardinal (Catholic Church) , ...
celebrated a
requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...
mass when John Curry, the youngest witness to the Knock apparition, was reinterred in St. Patrick's Old Cathedral cemetery in
Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...
after being disinterred from an unmarked grave on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
.


Parish priest

The parish priest at the time of the apparition was The Very Reverend Bartholomew Aloysius Cavanagh, who was also
Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denomina ...
of the
diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...
.Archdeacon Cavanagh
/ref> He was appointed parish priest of Knock-Aghamore in 1867, and was about 58 at the time of the apparition. He died in 1897 and is buried in the Old Church.


See also

* Hymn: " Lady of Knock" *
Marian apparition A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance of Mary, the mother of Jesus. While sometimes described as a type of vision, apparitions are generally regarded as external manifestations, whereas visions are more often understood as ...
s *
Knock, County Mayo Knock (, meaning ''The Hill'' – but now more generally known in Irish as ''Cnoc Mhuire'', "Hill of (the Virgin) Mary") is a village in County Mayo, Ireland. Knock is also a civil parish in the ancient barony of Costello. It is notable a ...
*
Moving statues The moving statues () phenomenon occurred during the summer of 1985 in Ireland, where, in several different parts of the country, statues of the Virgin Mary were reported to move spontaneously. In Ballinspittle, County Cork, in July 1985, an obs ...
*
Walsingham Walsingham () is a civil parish in North Norfolk, England, famous for its religious shrines in honour of Mary, mother of Jesus. It also contains the ruins of two medieval Christian monasticism, monastic houses.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Expl ...
*
Shrines to the Virgin Mary A shrine to the Virgin Mary, or Marian shrine, is a shrine marking an apparition or other miracle ascribed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a site on which is centered a historically strong Marian devotion. Such locales are often the destinatio ...
*
Our Lady of Fátima Our Lady of Fátima (, ; formally known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Fátima) is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus, based on the Marian apparitions reported in 1917 by three shepherd children at the Cova da Iria in Fátima, Portu ...
*
Our Lady of Lourdes Our Lady of Lourdes (; ) is one the Marian devotions, devotional names or titles under which the Catholic Church venerates the Mary, mother of Jesus, Virgin Mary. The name commemorates a series of Lourdes apparitions, 18 apparitions reported by ...
*
Templemore apparitions Templemore () is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is a civil parish in the historical barony of Eliogarty. It is part of the parish of Templemore, Clonmore and Killea in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. The town's p ...
*
The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland The Most Holy Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland (; also translated as Our Lady, Queen of Poland or Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland) is an honorary title for Mary, mother of Jesus, used by Polish Catholics. The Catholic Church in Poland is sin ...


References


Further reading

* John MacPhilpin.
The Apparitions and Miracles at Knock
'. PJ Kennedy. 1904. Als
here
* Sister Mary Francis Clare. ''Three Visits to Knock.'' PJ Kennedy. 1904 * Neary, Tom. ''I Saw Our Lady''


External links


Official website of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock

The Marian hymn ''Lady of Knock''
by
Dana Rosemary Scallon Dana Rosemary Scallon (born Rosemary Brown; 30 August 1950) known professionally as Dana (), is an Irish singer, songwriter and politician. While still a schoolgirl she won the Eurovision Song Contest 1970, 1970 Eurovision Song Contest with "A ...
{{Authority control Angelic apparitions Basilica churches in the Republic of Ireland Catholic pilgrimage sites History museums in the Republic of Ireland
Shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...
Knock Museums in County Mayo Religious museums in Ireland Roman Catholic churches in County Mayo Roman Catholic pilgrimage sites in Ireland Roman Catholic shrines in the Republic of Ireland Saint Joseph (husband of Mary) Marian apparitions John the Apostle ga:Cnoc Mhuire