Blessed Mary Visits Lithuania, Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn

Join John Carpenter, Donald Hartley, and the Deeper Truth research team as they investigate Mary's visit to Lithuania in 1608.

First Widely Known Apparition of the Mother of God in Europe

Lithuania becomes the youngest daughter of the Church

In 1251, Lithuania was the last European nation to accept Christianity, becoming the youngest daughter of the Church.

There was a time when Lithuania came very close to leaving the Catholic faith. Something happened in 1608 in the little village of Siluva which turned back, once and for all, the tide of the Reformation heresy which was sweeping over Europe and threatening to engulf this little country.

Two hundred fifty years before Lourdes and Fatima the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in the village of Siluva, Lithuania.

The story begins in 1457

The story of Our Lady of Siluva actually began in 1457, when Peter Giedgaudas, a diplomat for Vytautas the Great, built the first church in the area and gave the land to the Catholic Church. On one of his many travels he went to Rome and there obtained a magnificent painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus. He brought the painting back to Lithuania and put it in the sanctuary of the new church in Siluva.

For several generations the faithful worshiped God and honored the Blessed Mother in their little shrine church.