Asia

Asia is the native continent of the Blessed Virgin herself!

Doesn't Mary come from Galilee, in Palestine, in the Middle East located on the western border of Asia, sometimes referred to as Asia Minor?

Asia corresponds to today's Iraq, where over 4 thousand years ago, Abraham - the father of all believers - left the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur, in Chaldea, to follow God's call...

A Christian minority survives in Iraq and these descendants of Abraham are fervent lovers of Our Lady. For instance, before the recent war between the United States and Saddam Hussein, the entire Catholic community of Baghdad placed itself under the protection of Mary with a special prayer of consecration (in a downtown Baghdad church that had received a Pilgrim Virgin from France).

Let's not forget that St Thomas, the Apostle, one of the Twelve, traveled to southern India, in the middle of the first century A.D., to evangelize the coast of Madras.

Therefore, the first shrines dedicated to the Virgin Mary sprang up on this immense continent at the very dawn of Christian times.

One well-known shrine is Our Lady of Velankanni in India where the Virgin appeared in 1580.

Asia includes Japan, where Our Lady of Akita started appearing in 1973...

Asia means Vietnam, which has witnessed a recrudescence of places of Marian devotion despite all the frightful persecutions against Christians by the Communist regime. Shrines dedicated to the Blessed Mother abound, such as Our Lady of Lavang...

Of course a large part of Asia is Orthodox, especially Russia, the land of Marian devotion "par excellence."

Additionally, we all know that Constantinople (today's Istanbul on the Bosphorus) was the capital of the Byzantine Empire, which received the name "Constantinople" in honor of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who converted to Christianity in the third century.

Everybody also knows the extent to which Mary is present in the Orthodox Church: the Virgin "Theotokos" (Mother of God) is celebrated in all Orthodox liturgies.

Last but not least, we should mention the icons of the Blessed Virgin (an art technique that dates back to the Evangelist St Luke!), which are dispersed as much throughout the Christian East as in the Middle East and are the origin of many Marian shrines.