POPE FRANCIS HAS TODAY elevated the Knock shrine in Mayo to international status.

The shrine is now to be known as an International Sanctuary of Special Eucharistic and Marian Devotion.

In 2018, Pope Francis paid a visit to Knock ahead of the main event of his Phoenix Park mass. 

In August 1879, fifteen villagers who gathered at the gable end of the parish church of Knock and testified that they had witnessed an apparition of the Virgin Mary at the site.

Not just Mary, though. They also told the local archbishop that St Joseph, the Lamb of God and St John the Evangelist were also there.

In a message this evening, Pope Francis said the Irish have always been a “missionary people”.

“The Irish people, wherever they have found themselves, have expressed their faith and devotion to Our Lady of Knock. You have been a missionary people. We cannot forget how many priests left their homeland in order to become missionaries of the Gospel.

“My dear brothers and sisters present at Knock, and all of you who may be watching from afar, the elevation of the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock to an International Sanctuary of Special Eucharistic and Marian Devotion is a great responsibility.”

Archbishop Michael Neary added: “This is a momentous event, and it is most fitting that it would be announced and celebrated on the Feast of Saint Joseph in the Year of Saint Joseph, because alongside Our Lady, Saint John the Evangelist and the Lamb of God, Saint Joseph also appeared here on that August evening in 1879.”