s[edit]

Monument with a representation of an apparition of Our Lady to Benoîte Rencurel, the shepherdess visionary from Saint-Étienne-le-Laus, France.
While Marian apparitions may at times seem like fanciful tales even to devout Catholics, factual analysis indicates that the effect of apparitions on the Roman Catholic Church has been significant. Marian apparitions have led to, or affected, the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Mariology and the lives of millions of Roman Catholics in several ways:

The conversion of millions of people to Roman Catholicism.
The construction of some of the largest Roman Catholic Marian churches ever.
The formation of the largest Marian Movements and Societies ever.
The spread of Marian devotions (such as the rosary) to millions of people.
The declaration of specific Marian dogmas and doctrines.
Hundreds of millions of Marian pilgrimages.
A few cases can illustrate these items.

Conversions and shrines[edit]

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
By all accounts, when Juan Diego, age 57, reported the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac hill in Mexico in 1531, he did not receive a lot of attention in Rome, since the Church was busy with the challenges of the Protestant Reformation of 1521 to 1579 and perhaps very few Cardinals in Rome had ever heard the details of Mexico and its environs. Yet, just as a large number of people were leaving the Catholic Church in Europe as a result of the Reformation, Our Lady of Guadalupe was instrumental in adding almost 8 million people to the ranks of Catholics in the Americas between 1532 and 1538. The number of Catholics in South America has grown significantly over the centuries. Eventually with tens of millions of followers, Juan Diego had an effect on Mariology in the Americas and beyond, and was eventually declared venerable in 1987. Juan Diego was declared a saint in 2002. Furthermore, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on Tepeyac hill in Mexico is now the third largest Catholic Church in the world, after Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome and the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil. Recent reported apparitions such as Medjugorje have also attracted a large following.

Societies and devotions[edit]