Marian devotion
Our Lady of Levoča
The great Slovak national sanctuary
On the historical city of Levoča, in eastern Slovakia, the hill of Marianska hour each summer welcomes crowds of pilgrims on one of the largest national Marian pilgrimages in Central Europe.
Origin and history
Levoča is a historic city in eastern Slovakia, famous for its Gothic basilica of Santiago. The Marian sanctuary is located outside the city centre, on the hill of Marianska hour, which eventually became the great national pilgrimage centre of Slovak Catholics.
The local tradition speaks of an ancient Marian image venerated on the hill, associated with the protection of the Virgin over the region of Spiš and the Slovak nation. The precise dating of the first church and other details largely belong to local historiography. Today Marianska hour is one of the main Marian shrines of Central Europe, a goal of walking pilgrimages, especially in summer.
Several sources point to a coronation of the image by John Paul II in 1984, a fact that is not recorded in detail in the sources in Spanish consulted; it is therefore offered with caution.
Documentary update
The page of the bishopric of Spiš states that the tradition of the shrine of Marianska hour goes back to a chapel of 1247, linked to the gratitude of the inhabitants after the Tatar invasion; the source itself presents this data as tradition. The institutional history then documents the arrival of the minor Franciscans to Levoča in 1311 and the reconstruction of the chapel as a Gothic church in 1470. After reforms of 1688 and 1819, the temple acquired its current neo-Gothic aspect in a reconstruction directed between 1906 and 1914 by the architect Anton Müller, and was blessed on July 2, 1922 by Bishop Ján Vojtaššák.
The same diocesan source identifies as the main piece a Gothic size of the Virgin in the second half of the 15th century, preserved on the main altar. It also documents a great procession since 1671 and the privilege granted by Pope Clement X in 1673 to obtain plenary indulgence in the church. The wooden chapel raised in 1847 for the liturgy of the Greek-Catholic faithful shows the shared dimension, east and west, of the pilgrimage.
The ecclesial data that is confirmed is the elevation to by decree of John Paul II of 26 January 1984. The same bishopric records the Pope's visit to Marianska on July 3, 1995 and a celebration with more than 650,000 faithful. The source consulted confirms the basic dignity and the pilgrimage; it does not provide, on this page, a decree of canonical coronation, so the reference to a coronation should continue to be treated with the caution indicated in the previous text.
Source of this update: Bishop of Spiš, Basilica of the Visitation of Levoča.
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