In the heart of Vietnam, in an old forest of Quảng Trị province, stands the country's first Marian shrine: La Vang, the place where, according to tradition, the Virgin is said to have appeared in 1798 in the days of the persecutions, and which has become the national Marian centre of Vietnam.[1][2] The site is nothing like a great medieval pilgrimage place or a prestigious basilica: it is a place shaped by two centuries of building, destruction and rebuilding, mirroring the tormented history of Vietnamese Catholics.
The apparition itself was never formally recognised by the Church: what Rome and the bishops recognised is the shrine — the minor basilica erected by John XXIII in 1961, the national Marian centre designated by the bishops of Vietnam that same year — honoured moreover by Saint John Paul II's letter for the bicentenary (1997).[3]
This article deals with the place: the forest of La Vang and the churches that succeeded one another there from the early 19th century, its elevation to the rank of minor basilica by John XXIII in 1961, the destruction of the building during the 1972 Easter Offensive, the bell tower left standing alone, the monuments of the shrine (the Linh Đài of the three trees, the statue of the Virgin in áo dài, the well, the Rosary square), the new basilica by the architect Ngô Viết Thụ, the communities that guard the place and the organisation of the pilgrimages.[4]
The account itself of the 1798 apparition and the general history of Vietnamese Catholicism belong to separate dossiers; they are mentioned here only to explain how this isolated clearing became the shrine of a whole people. See the detailed articles: Our Lady of La Vang (1798) and The Church in Vietnam.
Where is La Vang?
A clearing in Quảng Trị
The shrine stands at La Vang, in Hải Lăng commune, Quảng Trị province, in the Central region (north-central coast) of Vietnam, a few kilometres south of the old town of Quảng Trị and some sixty kilometres north-west of Huế, the former imperial capital.[5] The place now belongs to the Archdiocese of Huế, which administers it.[6]
Originally, La Vang was merely an area of forest and sandy hills, away from the villages, where hunted Catholics came to take refuge at the end of the 18th century.[7] It is this secluded setting — a corner of jungle no one reached by chance — that made the place, from the outset, a refuge rather than a monument. Two centuries later, its proximity to the demilitarised zone separating the two Vietnams would place it, on the contrary, at the centre of the most violent fighting of the war.
Where does the name "La Vang" come from?
The place name La Vang has several explanations, none of them certain. According to one tradition, it comes from a medicinal plant, lá vằng, which grew in the forest and from which the refugees made herbal teas; according to another, from having to "shout" (la) to warn of the dangers of the jungle.[8] The very uncertainty of the name speaks of the modesty of its origins: Vietnam's most venerated shrine bears the name of a forest herb or a cry of alarm, not that of a king or a bishop.
A national shrine in mission territory
Vietnam counts only a Catholic minority — of the order of 7% of the population — heir to an evangelisation begun in the 17th century and marked by repeated persecutions that made tens of thousands of martyrs.[9] That the country's principal Marian shrine was born in a forest, in the days of a persecution, and that it was several times destroyed and then raised again, makes La Vang a distillation of that whole history: a place where the memory of shed blood and that of Marian protection meet.
The successive churches of La Vang (c. 1820-1928)
The material history of La Vang is that of a succession of buildings, each larger than the last, erected as the flow of pilgrims grew — and several times interrupted by persecution or war.
The first chapel near the three trees
After the end of the great persecutions of the time, Christians returned to pray at the place of the apparition, beneath the great trees of the forest where, according to tradition, the Virgin had shown herself. A first chapel was raised there around 1820, a modest structure of wood and thatch at the foot of the trees.[10] Sources differ on the details — some mention a first true church as early as 1825, funded by donations from neighbouring villages and enlarged around 1866 by the local bishop.[11] These variants reflect the poverty of documentation for the early days; what is constant is that worship remained fixed at the very place of the apparition, near the trees, from generation to generation.
Bishop Caspar's church (1886-1901)
The primitive buildings were destroyed in the course of the anti-Catholic troubles of the late 19th century, particularly during the violence of the Văn Thân movement (around 1885).[12] A new church was undertaken in 1886 and completed fifteen years later; it was consecrated in 1901 by Bishop Caspar (called Lộc in Vietnamese), Vicar Apostolic of Huế, under the title of Mary Help of Christians.[13] This consecration marks a turning point: it was on this occasion that the first great organised pilgrimage of La Vang was held, and the decision taken henceforth to gather the faithful every three years — the origin of the still-living triennial tradition.[14]
The great church of 1928 and the architect Carpentier
In the early 1920s, the 1901 church had become too small and dilapidated for the growing crowd of pilgrims.[15] It was decided to build a larger one, to the plans of the architect Carpentier. The works, begun around 1923-1924, produced a stone church with a two-storey square bell tower, standing amid the sandy hills and the forest.[16] The building was consecrated on 22 August 1928, in the presence of some twenty thousand pilgrims gathered for the national pilgrimage.[17] It is this church, and above all its bell tower, that would become the emblematic image of La Vang.
La Vang, autonomous parish (Bishop Allys, 1928)
Until then, La Vang had depended on the neighbouring parish of Cổ Vưu. In 1928, to meet the influx of pilgrims, Bishop Eugène Allys (Lý in Vietnamese), Vicar Apostolic of Huế, erected La Vang as an autonomous parish and blessed the new church.[18] The shrine thus ceased to be a mere annex and became a centre of worship in its own right, with its own administration and able to receive great gatherings.
The minor basilica and the national Marian centre
The mid-20th century consecrates the national stature of La Vang: within a few months of the year 1961, the shrine received in quick succession the recognition of the Vietnamese bishops and that of the pope.
The national Marian centre of Vietnam (1961)
In 1961, the bishops of Vietnam collectively designated La Vang as the national Marian centre — the reference shrine for the whole Church of the country.[19] Sources place this decision in a joint letter of the bishops (dated, according to versions, 8 August or 13 April 1961), some even tracing the "erection as a national shrine" back to 1959.[20] Beyond the exact dates, the meaning is clear: at a time when the country was already divided and the Church going through grave trials, the bishops chose a place born in persecution as the Marian heart of the nation.
"In the secret of their hearts, many people, of all origins and all conditions, come to entrust their troubles and hopes to their Mother in heaven." — Saint John Paul II, letter for the bicentenary of La Vang, 1997[21]
Elevation to the rank of minor basilica (1961)
On 22 August 1961, Pope John XXIII raised the church of La Vang to the rank of minor basilica, by the decree Magno Nos Solacio.[22] This distinction, rare in mission territory, officially attaches the shrine to the universal Church and recognises its devotional importance well beyond the borders of Vietnam. The date — 22 August, the anniversary of the consecration of the 1928 church — underscores the intended continuity between the building and its new status.
The great pilgrimages (Đại hội La Vang)
Since the first gathering of 1901, La Vang has organised a great pilgrimage every three years, the Đại hội La Vang, around the feast of the Assumption (15 August).[23] These gatherings, interrupted by wars and long hindered by the authorities, never entirely ceased. The following table sets out some milestones of this triennial tradition.
| Milestone | Date | Highlight |
|---|---|---|
| First great pilgrimage | 1901 | Consecration of Bishop Caspar's church; decision to gather the faithful every three years |
| Consecration pilgrimage | 22 August 1928 | Blessing of Carpentier's great church, ~20,000 pilgrims |
| National recognition | 1961 | National Marian centre; minor basilica (John XXIII) |
| 24th great pilgrimage | 13-15 August 1996 | Resumption of the great Đại hội after the years of restriction |
| Bicentenary of the apparition | 1998-1999 | Letter of John Paul II; exceptional crowds |
| Great pilgrimage and dedication | 14-15 August 2023 | Dedication of the new basilica |
The destruction of 1972
The most dramatic episode in the material history of the shrine is its destruction in the summer of 1972, at the height of the Vietnam War.
The Easter Offensive and the battle of Quảng Trị
In the spring of 1972, the Easter Offensive launched by the North turned Quảng Trị province into one of the deadliest battlefields of the entire war.[24] The town of Quảng Trị and its citadel were taken, then retaken, at the cost of massive bombardments. La Vang, lying in the thick of the combat zone, near the old border of the two Vietnams, came under fire.
A basilica in ruins, a bell tower standing
Under the bombardments of the summer of 1972, the 1928 basilica was razed to the ground.[25] Of the building consecrated forty-four years earlier, only part of the bell tower remained, pitted with shrapnel but still standing amid the rubble.[26] This mutilated tower has become, even more than the vanished church, the symbol of the shrine: an image of resistance and fidelity, carefully preserved as a memorial at the heart of the rebuilt site.
"La Vang... has now become a national Marian centre which has been able to keep alive the tradition of pilgrimages." — Saint John Paul II, letter for the bicentenary of La Vang, 1997[27]
The years of prohibition and the restitution of the grounds
After the reunification of 1975, the communist authorities long refused permission to rebuild the destroyed basilica.[28] The shrine remained in ruins for decades, reduced to its bell tower and a few makeshift fittings, even though pilgrims kept coming to pray among the rubble. It was only in 2008 that part of the shrine grounds was restored to the Church, finally opening the way to a vast reconstruction project.[29]
The shrine today: a place of prayer under construction
The present shrine is not a single building, but a group of monuments arranged around the place of the apparition: the historic bell tower, the memorial of the three trees, the statue of the Virgin, the well, the great esplanade and, recently, the new basilica nearing completion.
The historic bell tower, memorial of the shrine
The square bell tower of the 1928 church remains the most famous landmark of the site. Preserved as it survived 1972 — weathered, scarred, but "still keeping its majestic bearing" — it serves as a memorial of the whole history of the shrine: pilgrims photograph it, pray at its foot, and read in it the image of a faith the bombs did not erase.[30]
The Linh Đài and the three trees
At the place of the apparition stands the Linh Đài, the central monument of the shrine: a structure depicting three great trees — the cây đa (banyans) of tradition — recreated in concrete to a height of some twenty metres, at the centre of which stands the statue of the Virgin holding the Child Jesus.[31] This arrangement fixes the account in material form: people pray where, according to tradition, the Mother of God stood, among the trees of the forest.
The statue of Our Lady of La Vang in áo dài
The Marian figure proper to the place depicts the Virgin clothed in the áo dài, the traditional Vietnamese dress, holding the Child Jesus.[32] This inculturation is deliberate: at La Vang, Mary is not a European sovereign but a Vietnamese mother, dressed as the women of the country are. The image, spread throughout the world by the diaspora, has become one of the most recognisable symbols of Vietnamese Catholicism.
The Rosary square and the well
Before the shrine stretches a vast Rosary esplanade (Mân Côi square), bordered by fifteen marble stations depicting the mysteries of the Rosary, where the crowds of the great pilgrimages gather.[33] The site also includes a well (giếng nước), whose water pilgrims carry away as devotional water, in the manner of the springs of other Marian shrines.[34] These fittings — esplanade, stations, well, pilgrim house — make the place a veritable organised prayer complex able to receive tens of thousands of people.
The provisional church (1995-2004)
Before the new basilica, a church was built between 1995 and 2004, with a bell tower, a prayer esplanade and a pilgrim house, to make up for the loss of the 1928 building and to shelter everyday worship.[35] This transitional construction testifies to the resolve to restore a liturgical dignity to the shrine, pending permission for a great building project.
The new basilica by Ngô Viết Thụ
The great contemporary project is the construction of a new basilica, designed to become "the largest in Vietnam" and to express in stone the Vietnamese identity of the shrine.
A shrine in "Vietnamese style"
The plans were entrusted to the architect Ngô Viết Thụ, famous for having designed the Independence Palace (Dinh Độc Lập) in Saigon.[36] The approach is explicitly national: the basilica takes up tiled roofs, the forms of the house and the đình (the communal house of Vietnamese villages), and decorative motifs illustrating the blessings of God, so that the building "carries the Vietnamese soul".[37] Here we find the same intent of inculturation as in the statue in áo dài: to show that the Catholic Church can fully embody itself in the culture of the country.
"To express the Vietnamese soul through the shape of familiar tiled roofs, the look of Vietnamese houses and đình." — Intention expressed by the designers of the new basilica[38]
Dimensions and building site (2012-)
The foundation stone of the new basilica was laid on 15 August 2012.[39] The project plans a considerable building: a footprint of some 13,464 m², a length of 132 metres (north-south axis) by 102 metres wide (east-west axis), for a capacity of 5,000 seats.[40] The scale of the works — funded largely by donations from the faithful and the diaspora — explains their duration: begun in 2012, they stretched over more than a decade, slowed notably by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 2023 dedication and completion
Announced in 2022 by the Archbishop of Huế, Bishop Joseph Nguyễn Chí Linh, the dedication of the new basilica took place during the great pilgrimage of 14-15 August 2023.[41] Fitting-out and decoration works nevertheless continued beyond that date: several years after the dedication, the building was still not entirely finished.[42] The shrine thus lives today in a singular situation: a basilica dedicated but unfinished, at the foot of the bell tower of a basilica destroyed but preserved — two centuries of history condensed on a single esplanade.
The guardians of the place and the welcome of pilgrims
La Vang has no great chapter nor numerous clergy in residence: it is a place administered by the archdiocese and served by religious communities, above all women's congregations, which mobilise massively for the great gatherings.
The Archdiocese of Huế
The shrine is under the authority of the Archdiocese of Huế, whose archbishop is its head and its representative to Rome for the great celebrations.[43] He organises the solemn triduums, sets the programme of the pilgrimages and coordinates the welcome of bishops and crowds.
The congregations serving the shrine
For the great feasts, the service of the shrine rests on an impressive force of volunteers and religious sisters: as many as some 2,300 volunteers, including about 175 sisters from six congregations, have been mobilised for a single Assumption celebration.[44] The table below gives a glimpse of this organisation, as documented during a recent great pilgrimage.
| Congregation | Numbers (approx.) | Service rendered |
|---|---|---|
| Lovers of the Cross of Huế (Mến Thánh Giá Huế) | 80 sisters | Floral decoration, altars, lodging, entertainment |
| Daughters of Mary Immaculate | 60 sisters | Cleaning of the shrine, clergy meals, care, prayer intentions |
| Doctor sisters and public hospital | 30 sisters | Medical care (sunstroke, faintness, emergencies) |
| Saint Luke Missionary Society (Hwang Sok-tu) | 16 volunteers | Meals for 650 elderly, disabled or minority pilgrims |
| Lovers of the Cross of Hanoi | — | Cultural entertainment (430 Mường ethnic dancers) |
This overwhelmingly female presence is one of the marks of the place: it is congregations of sisters who, in concrete terms, keep the shrine alive, from daily upkeep to the care of the sick.[45]
The scale of the pilgrimages
The crowds give the measure of popular attachment to La Vang. For the feast of the Assumption alone, the Archdiocese of Huế has reported more than 50,000 faithful — including non-Catholics — gathered over two days.[46] The great triennial Đại hội and the major anniversaries (1998-1999 bicentenary, 2023 dedication) draw still larger crowds, from all over the country and from the Vietnamese diaspora in America, Australia and Europe.
La Vang in the eyes of the popes
The shrine has been recognised and encouraged by the 20th-century popes, who made it a point of reference for the whole Church in Vietnam.
John XXIII and basilica status
It was John XXIII who, in 1961, gave the place its highest canonical status by erecting it as a minor basilica (Magno Nos Solacio), shortly after the Vietnamese bishops had made it their national Marian centre.[47]
John Paul II and the bicentenary (1997-1999)
As the bicentenary of the apparition (1798-1998) approached, Saint John Paul II addressed, on 16 December 1997, a solemn letter to Cardinal Paul-Joseph Phạm Đình Tụng, in which he described La Vang as a national Marian centre and a place where "in the secret of their hearts, many people, of all origins and all conditions, come to entrust their troubles and hopes to their Mother in Heaven".[48] In it the pope also expressed the wish that the shrine might be raised again on the occasion of the bicentenary.[49]
"I hope that the faithful who will come to pray to Our Lady of La Vang at her shrine during this jubilee year will find a new apostolic impetus for their Christian life and receive comfort and strength, to face life's trials." — Saint John Paul II, 1997[50]
The link between La Vang and martyrdom is no accident: it was the same John Paul II who had canonised, on 19 June 1988, the 117 martyrs of Vietnam, sealing the memory of the persecutions from which La Vang was born.[51]
A shrine for the future of the Vietnamese Church
Roman recognition, popular attachment, reconstruction patiently wrested from circumstances: everything converges to make La Vang, in John Paul II's words, a place where the Church in Vietnam draws "the courage to give an admirable witness of Christian life in circumstances that are often difficult".[52] The unfinished new basilica, raised beside the old wounded bell tower, is its visible summary.
To go further
The present article deals with the place. For the account of the founding apparition and the ecclesial context, see:
- Our Lady of La Vang (1798) — the apparition of the Virgin to the Christians sheltered in the forest, during the persecution.
- The Church in Vietnam — evangelisation, persecutions and the Vietnamese martyrs.
- Akita Shrine — another great Marian shrine of Asia, in mission territory.
Notes and References
Our Lady of La Vang, en.wikipedia.org, and catholicshrinebasilica.com: shrine located at La Vang, Hải Lăng district, Quảng Trị province, in the Central region (north-central coast) of Vietnam, belonging to the Archdiocese of Huế; Marian apparition of 1798 in the days of the persecutions.
1 5On the status of the apparition: Melbourne Catholic (Our Lady around the world, Part 2, Archdiocese of Melbourne): "Although the apparitions of La Vang are not officially recognised by the Church (there are very few that are), the Church does recognise the importance and significance of this event for the Vietnamese faithful"; Catholic News Service (taken up by Catholic Courier and CatholicPhilly, 2019): "There has not been an official statement from the Vatican on La Vang". What the Church formally recognised is the shrine: minor basilica erected by John XXIII on 22 August 1961 (decree Magno Nos Solacio; en.wikipedia.org, catholicshrinebasilica.com, fsspx.news), national Marian centre designated by the bishops of Vietnam in 1961 (globalsistersreport.org, catholicculture.org), letter of Saint John Paul II to Cardinal Paul-Joseph Phạm Đình Tụng for the bicentenary, 16 December 1997 (vatican.va; ncregister.com).
2 3Scope of the article: the place and its buildings. The account of the 1798 apparition and the general history of the Church in Vietnam are the subject of separate Ignispedia dossiers.
4catholicculture.org (The Catholics of Viet Nam Pay Homage to Our Lady of La Vang) and globalsistersreport.org: the shrine is administered by the Archdiocese of Huế, which provides its celebrations and liaison with Rome.
6 43catholicshrinebasilica.com and sacredsites.com: La Vang was originally an area of forest and sandy hills, a refuge for persecuted Catholics at the end of the 18th century.
7marypages.com and devotional syntheses (roman-catholic-saints.com): the name "La Vang" is explained in various ways (medicinal plant lá vằng; cry of alarm la in the forest) without certainty.
8General data on Vietnamese Catholicism (≈ 7% of the population), heir to a 17th-century evangelisation and to persecutions that made many martyrs; cf. The Church in Vietnam.
9catholicshrinebasilica.com and encyclopedia.com (La Vang, Our Lady of): a first chapel was raised around 1820 on the place of the apparition, after the account spread from 1802.
10encyclopedia.com (La Vang, Our Lady of): mention of a first church built as early as 1825 thanks to donations from neighbouring villages, enlarged around 1866 by the local bishop. Sources differ on these early dates.
11encyclopedia.com and en.wikipedia.org: the primitive buildings were destroyed during the anti-Catholic troubles of the late 19th century (Văn Thân movement, around 1885).
12catholicshrinebasilica.com and en.wikipedia.org: a new church, begun in 1886, was consecrated in 1901 by Bishop Caspar (Lộc), Vicar Apostolic of Huế, under the title of Mary Help of Christians (Our Lady Help of Christians).
13catholicculture.org: national pilgrimages began in 1901 and were organised every three years from the outset.
14vi.wikipedia.org (Đức Mẹ La Vang): in 1924, the 1901 church, judged too narrow and dilapidated, was replaced by a new building.
15vi.wikipedia.org (Vương cung thánh đường Đức Mẹ La Vang): church built to the plans of the architect Carpentier (1923-1928), with a two-storey square bell tower overlooking the sandy hills and the forest.
16encyclopedia.com and en.wikipedia.org: building consecrated on 22 August 1928 (some sources: 20 August), in the presence of some 20,000 pilgrims.
17catholicculture.org and marypages.com: in 1928, Bishop Eugène Allys (Lý), Vicar Apostolic of Huế, erected La Vang — until then dependent on the parish of Cổ Vưu — as an autonomous parish and blessed the new church.
18globalsistersreport.org and catholicculture.org: in 1961, the bishops of Vietnam designated La Vang as the national Marian centre.
19Sources differ on the exact date: joint letter of the bishops of 8 August 1961 (catholicculture.org) or 13 April 1961 (globalsistersreport.org); encyclopedia.com mentions a declaration of a "national shrine of Our Lady of Vietnam" as early as 1959. The event is constant, the exact date debated.
20John Paul II, Letter to Cardinal Paul-Joseph Phạm Đình Tụng for the bicentenary of La Vang, 16 December 1997, vatican.va: "In the secret of their hearts, many people, of all origins and all conditions, come to entrust their troubles and hopes to their Mother in heaven."
21 48en.wikipedia.org, vi.wikipedia.org and catholicshrinebasilica.com: on 22 August 1961, Pope John XXIII raised the church of La Vang to the rank of minor basilica by the decree Magno Nos Solacio.
22 47catholicculture.org and globalsistersreport.org: great triennial pilgrimage (Đại hội La Vang) organised around the feast of the Assumption (15 August), in addition to the annual pilgrimage.
23navyhistory.org (Vietnam 1972: Quang Tri — The Easter Offensive) and en.wikipedia.org: in spring-summer 1972, the Easter Offensive made Quảng Trị province one of the principal battlefields of the war; the town and its citadel were taken then retaken.
24en.wikipedia.org and fsspx.news: the 1928 basilica was destroyed during the Easter Offensive of summer 1972.
25en.wikipedia.org and catholicshrinebasilica.com: only part of the bell tower of the 1928 church remained standing after the 1972 bombardments.
26John Paul II, Letter for the bicentenary of La Vang, 16 December 1997, vatican.va: "Despite the great trials that marked it in the course of its history, this Marian Centre, now a national one, has kept alive the tradition of pilgrimages."
27catholicshrinebasilica.com: after 1975, the authorities long refused permission to rebuild the destroyed basilica.
28Catholic press syntheses (taken up by catholicshrinebasilica.com): part of the shrine grounds was restored to the Church in 2008, allowing the reconstruction project.
29culturephamtravel.com and catholicshrinebasilica.com: the old bell tower, preserved as it survived, "still keeps its majestic bearing" and serves as a memorial at the heart of the site.
30catholicshrinebasilica.com and sovaba.travel: at the place of the apparition, the Linh Đài depicts three great trees (cây đa) recreated (≈ 20 m) at the centre of which stands the statue of the Virgin and Child.
31en.wikipedia.org and marypages.com: the Virgin of La Vang is depicted clothed in the Vietnamese áo dài, holding the Child Jesus — an image of inculturation that has become an emblem of Vietnamese Catholicism.
32catholicshrinebasilica.com and sovaba.travel: before the shrine, a vast Rosary esplanade (Mân Côi square) is bordered by fifteen marble statues depicting the mysteries of the Rosary.
33vi.wikipedia.org and devotional sources: the shrine includes a well (giếng nước) whose water pilgrims carry away as devotional water.
34marypages.com: a church was built between 1995 and 2004, with a bell tower, a prayer esplanade and a pilgrim house.
35vi.wikipedia.org and thanhnien.vn: the new basilica was designed to the plans of the architect Ngô Viết Thụ, also the author of the Independence Palace (Dinh Độc Lập) in Saigon.
36vi.wikipedia.org and sovaba.travel: the new basilica adopts a Vietnamese style — tiled roofs, forms of the house and the đình (communal house), motifs illustrating the blessings of God — to "carry the Vietnamese soul".
37 38vi.wikipedia.org and catholicshrinebasilica.com: the foundation stone of the new basilica was laid on 15 August 2012.
39vi.wikipedia.org and catholicshrinebasilica.com: footprint of some 13,464 m², length 132 m (north-south), width 102 m (east-west), capacity 5,000 seats.
40catholicshrinebasilica.com: dedication announced by Bishop Joseph Nguyễn Chí Linh, Archbishop of Huế, for the great pilgrimage of 14-15 August 2023.
41catholicshrinebasilica.com (2025 update): several years after the 2023 dedication, the building was still not entirely finished, for various reasons.
42globalsistersreport.org (Vietnamese sisters serve at national Marian pilgrimage center): some 2,300 volunteers, including about 175 religious sisters from six congregations, served during an Assumption celebration.
44globalsistersreport.org: detail of the congregations and their services (Lovers of the Cross of Huế and Hanoi, Daughters of Mary Immaculate, doctor sisters, Saint Luke Missionary Society, etc.).
45globalsistersreport.org: more than 50,000 faithful, including non-Catholics, gathered over two days (14-15 August) for the feast of the Assumption.
46ncregister.com (John Paul II's Letter on La Vang) and syntheses: John Paul II, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the apparition (1998), expressed the wish that the shrine might be rebuilt.
49John Paul II, Letter for the bicentenary of La Vang, 16 December 1997, vatican.va: "I hope that the faithful who will come to pray to Our Lady of La Vang at her shrine during this jubilee year [...] will find a new apostolic impetus for their Christian life and receive comfort and strength, to face life's trials."
50vatican.va and ncregister.com: Saint John Paul II canonised the 117 martyrs of Vietnam on 19 June 1988.
51John Paul II, Letter for the bicentenary of La Vang, 16 December 1997, vatican.va: "Bishops, priests, men and women religious, and lay people like to find here the welcoming presence of Her who gives them the courage to give an admirable witness of Christian life in circumstances that are often difficult."
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