Knock Shrine

Knock Shrine (Irish: Cnoc Mhuire) is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site and National Shrine in the village of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland, where observers stated that there was an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist, angels, and Jesus Christ (the Lamb of God) in 1879.

Background

As at Lourdes and Fatima the visitations occurred at a time of immense cultural, social and economic change, and occurred to people whose traditional society was under threat from social change. In the 1870s, Ireland was experiencing a period of upheaval. Some parts of the island had experienced what proved to be the last waves of a famine. This brought back memories of the Great Irish Famine of the late 1840s that had decimated the countryside. Poverty, unemployment, evictions and emigration were not uncommon.