Our Lady of the Lake of Togoville

Marian vocation of Togoville (Togo)

According to the local traditionthe Virgin Mary would have appeared on the waters of Lake Togonear Togoville, some fishermen, around the late 1970s. Various popular testimonies speak of a visible apparition for many people, even to circulate the account of photographs taken of the phenomenon, although these images are not officially recorded or taken up by the Church as public evidence. This tradition maintains that, in memory of this Marian intervention, a sanctuary was erected on the lake bank to honor the Virgin as Our Lady of the Lake.

Main data

Origin and history

According to the local traditionthe Virgin Mary would have appeared on the waters of Lake Togonear Togoville, some fishermen, around the late 1970s. Various popular testimonies speak of a visible apparition for many people, even to circulate the account of photographs taken of the phenomenon, although these images are not officially recorded or taken up by the Church as public evidence. This tradition maintains that, in memory of this Marian intervention, a sanctuary was erected on the lake bank to honor the Virgin as Our Lady of the Lake.

As for the documented history, the place is recognized as a Catholic Marian sanctuary and is officially quoted in the program of the Apostolic Journey of Saint Juan Pablo II a Africa in 1985. On 9 August 1985 the Pope visited the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lake Togo, in Togovillewhere he presided over an act of consecration to the Virgin. Various cultural and pastoral itineraries today describe Togoville as an "emblematic town" located in Lake Togo, known for its Marian sanctuary that commemorates the apparition of the Virgin in late 1970. The available documentation does not contain an official recognition of the apparition in the form of a decree of the Holy See or of the Episcopal Conference; it is a local devotion very deeply rooted, sustained by the tradition of the faithful and the pastoral significance given by the papal visit.

The image and the sanctuary

The advocation is venerated in the church / Marian sanctuary of Our Lady of the Lake in Togoville, described as a Catholic church and pilgrimage place where visitors come to pray. The tourist and travel sources mention it as "Marian sanctuary of the Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Lake," underlining its character as a temple dedicated to the Virgin in a largely Catholic context within the people. It is not recorded in the consulted sources that the temple has been elevated to minor basilicaor having the explicit title of "national sanctuary"; it is simply presented as Marian sanctuary or local Marian iglesia.

On the image In itself, the available sources do not accurately describe the specific material or iconography (size, painting, round-package sculpture, etc.), nor do they distinguish their own iconographic features (e.g. secondary titles, particular symbols). There are generic references to Marian paintings in churches in Togo and in the Marian sanctuary itself, but without detailed description or unequivocal identification of a concrete work as the main image of Our Lady of the Lake. Therefore, no consta with safety the type of image (wood, plaster, canvas, etc.) nor an iconographic program of its own beyond the usual representation of the Virgin with the Child Jesus.

Sponsorship and coronation

La advocación de Our Lady of the Lake of Togoville has a strong local roots in the city of Togoville and in the surroundings of Lake Togo, and is presented as a prominent Marian reference in the country. However, the available documentation does not contain an official decree or proclamation that the name formally patron of Togovillethe corresponding diocese or the whole nation; it is, rather, an emblematic sanctuary which is symbolically linked to the history of the country and to its consecration to Mary during the visit of John Paul II. Therefore, at a strictly canonical level, no consta an officially defined and promulgated patronage.

As for the canonical coronationthere is no reference in ecclesial, historical or journalistic sources to a rite of canonical coronation of the image by the mandate of the Holy See or of the episcopal authority. No date, no decree, no pontifical delegate mentioned. Therefore, in the light of the information available, does not contain a documented canonical coronation.

Party and devotion

The sources consulted do not indicate a specific liturgical holiday date for Our Lady of the Lake of Togoville (for example, day and month set in a diocesan or national calendar); therefore, no consta with certainty an official date of celebration of this advocation. The main celebrations are likely to focus on local Marian days and the anniversary of the visit of St. John Paul II (August 9, 1985), but this is not officially formulated as a feast of the advocation in the documents accessible.

El santuario has been consolidated as place of pilgrimage: the tourist and cultural itineraries to Togoville explicitly include the visit to the Marian sanctuary "which commemorates the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Lake Togo," and propose to stop there to pray. It mentions the practice of praying in the sanctuary as part of the visits, as well as the spiritual importance of the place within the region, in an environment where Christian traditions and African religious practices live together. There are no numerical data on the influx of pilgrims or official statistics, but the sanctuary appears regularly in travel programs and in descriptions of Togoville as one of its most significant benchmarks.

Link to the Rosary

The specific sources on Our Lady of the Lake of Togoville do not mention a explicit and own relationship of this advocation with the prayer of Rosary (for example, the Rosary's co-fradies, particular promises about this prayer or messages of the apparition referred directly to the Marian crown). Therefore, no consta a special documented link between this advocation and the Rosary beyond common practice in Marian shrines.

However, in the Christian life of the Togolese faithful, the Rosary often accompanied the pilgrimages and acts of prayer in the Marian shrines, also in Togoville, as a way of contemplating the mysteries of Christ with Mary. In a place marked by the memory of a presence of the Virgin on the lake and by the consecration of the country to Mary, the Rosary is presented as a privileged prayer for:

– meditar el plan de salvación en la historia concreta de los pueblos; – pedir la protección de la Virgen sobre las familias y las comunidades; – fortalecer la fe en medio de la convivencia de distintas tradiciones religiosas.

Thus, even if there is no specific legal or devotional link in official documents, the prayer of the Rosary is naturally integrated into the spirituality of pilgrims who come to the sanctuary of Our Lady of Lake Togoville, as is the case in so many other Marian shrines of the world.