Our Lady of La Vang
No fixed feast day in the calendar
Our Lady of La Vang, who by tradition comforted persecuted Catholics in 1798, Mother of Vietnamese Catholics.
Who is Mary?
Our Lady of La Vang is Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother too, whom Vietnamese Catholics call on by a title linked with the forest of La Vang, in Quảng Trị province. The statue of Our Lady of La Vang wears an áo dài and a khăn đóng and holds the Child Jesus, like a gentle Vietnamese mother.
The story
In 1798, under King Cảnh Thịnh, Catholics were persecuted. Many families in the Quảng Trị area had to leave their homes and hide in the forest of La Vang. The deep forest was full of wild animals; there was little food, it was cold, and many people fell sick.
According to the tradition handed down by word of mouth, the faithful often gathered under a large banyan tree to pray the Rosary. One night, a very beautiful Lady appeared, holding a Child, with two angels attending her. She comforted them, taught them to pick the leaves of the plants nearby and boil them to drink as medicine, and promised to answer the prayers of those who came to pray in this place. Everyone understood that she was Mary.
When the persecution was over, people built a small chapel of thatch and bamboo where Mary had appeared. Later, larger churches were built. In 1961, the Bishops of Vietnam chose La Vang as the National Marian Shrine, and Pope John XXIII raised the church to the rank of a Minor Basilica. The La Vang pilgrimage is usually held every three years around the feast of the Assumption (15/8), with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from everywhere.
Why does the Church honor Mary by this title?
The Church has not made an official declaration about Mary appearing at La Vang, so this is a devout tradition, not something we are required to believe. But the Church has allowed and encouraged pilgrimages, because at La Vang the faithful grow in faith, pray and turn back to God. The title Our Lady of La Vang reminds us that Mary is always beside her children who are suffering, just as Jesus on the cross gave her to us (cf. Jn 19:26-27).
A lesson for you
- When you are sad, afraid or something is hard, run to Mary with a Hail Mary.
- Pray the Rosary with your family, just as the Catholics long ago prayed together under the banyan tree.
- Thank God for the faith your ancestors kept, sometimes at a very high price, so that they could hand it on to you.
Identifying marks
- A white áo dài and a sky-blue mantle: Mary wears Vietnamese clothes, like the statues of Our Lady of La Vang in Vietnamese churches today, to say that she is the Mother of this people.
- A golden khăn đóng: the round yellow Vietnamese headdress takes the place of a Western-style crown, and still says that she is a Queen.
- Mary holding the Child Jesus in a yellow áo dài: Mary always brings Jesus to her children; the Child raises his hand in blessing and has a halo with a cross.
- A banyan tree in the forest: according to tradition, the Catholics hiding in the forest of La Vang were praying under a banyan tree when Mary appeared.
- Two angels holding lamps (*): some pictures and statues show two angels standing on either side of Mary, as the traditional story tells.
(*) Only in some pictures and statues.
The text on this page is the saint card in the Catholic Information app, word for word.
Collect this card and read more about the saints in the app