Ngome Marian Shrine

TheNgome Marian Shrineis ashrinededicated to theBlessed Virgin MaryinNgome,KwaZulu-Natal, where Sister Reinolda May, member of theBenedictine Sisters of Tutzing, experienced ten visions between 22 August 1955 and 2 May 1971. In these apparitions, the Virgin Mary appeared to her and identified herself as "the Tabernacle of the Most High." Although veneration was not initially supported by the local bishop, the site became a popular destination for pilgrims, and in the 1990s was acknowledged by the diocese as a "place of prayer," with organized pilgrimage actively promoted. It is one of the most popular pilgrim's sites in southern Africa.
SisterReinolda Maywas born as Fraziska May on 21 October 1901 inPfahlheim, a small village in theRoman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. She was baptized as Francisca, and went to a boarding school in Hochaltingen, where she was taught domestic science byFranciscan Sisters. She entered the local convent and became interested in the mission. Her parish priest, Fr. Eugene Adis, suggested she join the Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, a missionary order, but this was disallowed on health grounds. She tried again and was accepted in 1922, andprofessedin 1925. She left for the mission inSouth Africain 1925 and it was there that she pronounced her final vows in 1928.  For ten years she worked inMbongolwanein KwaZulu-Natal and atInkamana Abbey. She learnedZuluand when the Sisters were allowed to assist inchildbirthshe began a study ofmidwifery, the first sister in Zululand to do so.She obtained her diploma in 1938 and in the same year opened the maternity section in the Benedictine Mission Hospital inNongoma.From then on, Sister Reinolda became a popular and well-known figure in the district, earning a nickname from the local Zulus (Sister Mashiyane, on account of her bushy eyebrows).She led the section until the government takeover of the hospital in 1976. During her tenure, 28,000 births were registered there. After retiring, she continued to visit the sick and the dying in the hospital, and in 1980 was diagnosed withcolon cancer.She died at Inkamana on 1 April 1981, and is buried at Inkamana Abbey.
Sr. Reinolda had a total of ten Marian visions, preceded by an unusual occurrence, in December 1954: she perceived two figures, a woman in white and a monk. The woman held something, covered, in her right hand; the monk held something like an offering. Something ascended like incense, then the figures disappeared. Eight months later, the visions of the Virgin began.
In the fourth vision, the apparition had asked for a shrine to be built near the abbey at a place where seven streams meet. After the seventh vision, Sr. Reinolda became certain that it should be built at Ngome, and indeed wells were found in the forest near the Ngome school.A chapel was built, and as it happened the site was also a place held sacred by the localZulu population. It was consecrated atPentecost1966. The picture of "Our Lady the Tabernacle of the Most High" was placed in the chapel.
Pilgrimage to the site began in March 1966, but soon afterward they were stopped by Bishop Bilgeri. From the first vision on, Sr. Reinolda shared her experiences with the local priests, who showed reluctance and referred her to the bishop, to whom she wrote a number of times in the next decade. He did not want the visions to be publicized, and while he consented to the painting and the small chapel he refused to have a bigger church built; he maintained this attitude until his death, in 1973. Popular veneration at the shrine continued unabated; people traveled from far and wide to pray at the chapel and collect water from the springs. A 1976 commission headed by two Benedictine priests decided that the use of Ngome as a site of pilgrimage would bring great benefits, and that pilgrimage and veneration (though not the use of the spring water) should be allowed. Then-Bishop Biyase, however, would not allow organized pilgrimages.
When St. Reinolda died, in 1981, interest again increased, and one local Catholic, Mrs. Rose-Marie Foxon, wrote the Vatican as well as other parishes in South Africa. People continued traveling privately, now in greater numbers, especially after Foxon also wrote to the local media speaking of the visions. In 1984 a new church was built at the site; it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary without any specific or additional titles. In 1988, the Ngome Shrine committee was formed from priests of the diocese. By that time, Bishop Biyase was wavering, saying he could and would not suppress the veneration. In 1989, the committee published a booklet, and postcards featuring the shrine were being printed, and the cult played an ever-increasing role in the local church.
Finally, in 1992, Bishop Biyase blessed an open-air altar, part of a bigger chapel that replaced the little shrine, and allowed for the Marian Shrine to be designated a place of prayer, so that organized pilgrimage was now actively promoted.Since then, the priest at Inkamana Abbey is also the custodian for the shrine. There are reports of miraculous and spontaneous healing at the shrine, and comparisons withLourdesare drawn.The water from the spring is still collected, and visitors dip their feet in the water during prayer. Four nuns live at the shrine to help receive visitors; local women cook food for pilgrims, who in turn leave old clothes for the locals.The shrine is one of the most popular Christian pilgrimage sites in Africa.Sister Reinolda May's apparitions were the first in a series of Marian visions in Africa; in the 1980s, visions of Mary were seen inKenya,Zaire,Mozambique,South Africa, andCameroon.