During the month of May, the Church around the world is joining in a daily Rosary for the intention of the end of the pandemic, as well as a specific intention related to the various victims of the virus.
Each day of the month, a different shrine will lead the daily Rosary, according to local practice.
The beginning and the end of the Rosary Marathon (May 1 and May 31) are led by Pope Francis.
See below to follow the list of the Shrines.
Watch the Rosary live at 6 p.m. Rome time (12 noon EDT) by clicking here. The video screen at the top will go live at the designated time.
~
Day 27 intention: For all the unemployed
For today’s Rosary Relay, we travel to western Ukraine, to the Zarvanytsia shrine to the Mother of God.
The shrine dates back to a miraculous healing and an apparition of Our Lady.
A monk fleeing in the year 1240 from the invading Mongols was wounded and exhausted from the journey of some 500 kilometers.
The unnamed monk found a spring near the Strypa River and stopped to refresh himself. He lay down to rest, but the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him in a dream. Disrupted from sleep, he found an icon of Mary and the Christ Child in her arms.
The monk washed himself with the water from the spring and noticed his wounds were healed. Filled with gratitude, he built a chapel in which he prayed before the icon.
The current church, designated a minor basilica in 2019, was built in the year 2000.
Read below to learn about the many tragic and miraculous ups and downs of the shrine throughout history, including how, during the Soviet era, authorities blocked roads leading to Zarvanytsia on major holy days to prevent pilgrims coming to the shrine. The miraculous spring was wrapped in barbed wire and the KGB would pour diesel fuel into the well.
And today we celebrate...