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.
On a hill where many South Koreans gave their lives for their faith in Christ, we find today The Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Namyang.
This site, also known as Rosary Hill, memorializes the Great Byungin Persecution of 1866 and following. This was the fourth round of severe persecution of the Church in Korea, which in total left some 10,000 martyrs.
Due to such widespread persecution, and the official recognition of some of them as martyrs, Korea has the fourth largest number of saints in the Catholic world.
"The Korean Church is unique because it was founded entirely by lay people," Pope John Paul II said at the canonization of one group of martyrs. "This fledgling Church, so young and yet so strong in faith, withstood wave after wave of fierce persecution. Thus, in less than a century, it could boast of 10,000 martyrs. The death of these martyrs became the leaven of the Church and led to today's splendid flowering of the Church in Korea."
Namyang was inaugurated on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7) in 1991.
The complex includes the Rosary Road, the Garden of the Merciful Jesus, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary, and other places of devotion.
Many say a miracle is at the heart of the whole physical structure. From an aerial view, the complex looks to have the outline of the Byzantine icon the Virgin of Vladimir — depicting the Virgin and Child.
