Our Lady of Siluva

In 1608, in the village of Siluva in central Lithuania, a group of children reported seeing a young woman weeping and holding an infant on a large rock in a meadow. The apparition recurred and drew adult witnesses. The woman wept because the place where she had once been honored was now used for entertainment — the local Catholic church had been seized during the Reformation. The rock was found to mark the location of a buried chest containing a painting of the Virgin, a chalice, and liturgical items hidden by Catholics during the takeover. The chest was unearthed in the presence of a Calvinist minister, who subsequently converted. A Catholic church was rebuilt at the site, and the image from the chest became the focal point of renewed devotion. Our Lady of Siluva is the patronal image of Lithuania and among the earliest Marian apparitions in modern Church history to receive formal recognition.