Our Lady of Lagrange
The Mother in the Jungle · Quħng Trħ, Vietnam · August 1798
La gran persecución de Scene Shing
In 1798, Emperor Cħnh Thħnh issued an anti-Christian decree of extreme severity: to possess a religious image, to house a priest or to gather to pray were crimes punishable by death. Hundreds of Catholic families from the region of Quussalam ng Trħfled inwards, entering the dense La Vang forest - a swamp, feral infestation and disease - to celebrate their prayers in secret.
Hungry, feverish and terrified, they gathered night after night under the trees to pray the rosary. A lot of people got sick without a chance. The community lived to the limit of despair.
The apparition of August 1798
On one of those nights of prayer, an unusual light illuminated the clearing of the forest. The faithful saw a woman of supernatural beauty, dressed in the traditional Vietnamese suit - the coat- who was carrying the Child Jesus in his arms and had two angels by his side. The woman spoke to them with sweetness, presented herself as the Mother of God and comforted them. He also told them to collect the leaves of the tree fern that grew around to boil them and relieve their ailments.
The apparitions were repeated in the successive nights. The sick got better. The news spread throughout all the Catholic villages of Vietnam, and since then the faithful began to pilgrim to the clearing of the La Vang forest.
Signs of devotion and fire
In 1820 the first chapel was erected at the place of apparition. The second wave of persecution (1830-1885) destroyed it. A third chapel was built in 1886; in 1901, Bishop Gaspar consecrated it as a minor basilica. In 1961, Pope John XXIII raised the sanctuary to the rank of the Minor Basilica. The Vietnam War destroyed the building in 1972. The present sanctuary, rebuilt with the support of the Vietnamese government, was opened in 2012.
On June 19, 1988, during the canonization of the 117 Martyrs of Vietnam, Pope John Paul II solemnly reaffirmed the importance of Our Lady of La Vang as Mother and Queen of the Vietnamese martyrs.
Queen of the martyrs of Vietnam,
He accompanies those who flee and comfort those who suffer
in the darkness of the jungle or the world. Amen.