The Vatican has approved devotion at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Health in Vailankanni, India, the site of reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the 16th century.  

One month before the Sept. 8 feast day of Our Lady of Good Health in India, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) confirmed in a letter to Bishop Sagayaraj Thamburaj of Thanjavur that the action of God is present at the shrine.

“Through the centuries, Mary has continued to act in this place,” DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández wrote. “The millions of pilgrims who travel here out of faith, and the many spiritual fruits that are produced at this shrine, make us recognize the constant action of the Holy Spirit in this place.

According to a Thanjavur tourism website, approximately 20 million pilgrims from India and abroad visit the shrine each year, 3 million of whom visit during the 11-day festival held Aug. 29 to Sept. 8 in honor of Our Lady of Good Health. 

Devotion to Our Lady of Good Health began in the late 16th century following three different oral accounts of the apparition of the Virgin Mary in Vailankanni, a town in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. 

The first apparition account of the Virgin Mary acknowledged by the DDF is that of a local shepherd boy who, upon seeing the beautiful woman, offered the milk he was carrying with him for the child in her arms.

“This was an expression of the generosity of those who are willing to give something to others, in their own poverty. You do not need to have much in order to be generous. May this call to share, to assist, to be close to those who need us always resonate in this place,” the Aug. 1 letter reads. 

The DDF also specifically recognized the account of Portuguese merchant sailors who landed safely in Vailankanni after a violent storm at sea on Sept. 8, 1650. That day, which was also the feast of the Nativity of Mary, the sailors vowed to build a church in thanksgiving to Our Lady of Good Health.

More than 300 years after the construction of the original church, St. John XXIII raised the Marian shrine to the status of basilica on Nov. 3, 1962.

In 2002, Pope John Paul II celebrated the annual World Day of the Sick at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Health.

In the letter to the bishop of Thanjavur, Fernández said Pope Francis “extends his paternal blessings to all pilgrims” ahead of the shrine’s Sept. 8 feast day. 

“The Holy Father cares a lot about the popular piety of the faithful pilgrims, because they reflect the beauty of the Church on the move, which seeks Jesus in the arms of Mary and entrusts its pain and hope to the heart of his mother,” Fernández wrote.

This article was originally published on Catholic News Agency.