Introduction: the power of Marian pilgrimage

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, disregarding trends of secularization, Mary, the mother of Jesus, has become a megastar. Both old and new sacred sites dedicated to the Virgin Mary are attracting growing numbers of pilgrims, both in Europe and the United States. Old shrines seem to attract new groups—devout elderly women and patients seeking spiritual or physical healing now mingle with tourists, hikers, migrants, anti-abortion activists, and soldiers—and become sites of new traditions that often eclectically borrow from the past in creating new sources of spiritual engagement. Old pilgrimage sites also use modern approaches and apply the technological innovations of the World Wide Web to reach pilgrims at home with webcam images, online religious stores, and interactive prayer sites. Sanctuaries globally distribute and receive religious messages, prayers, artifacts, and replicas of statues. These sacred words and objects spread across the world on an unprecedented scale to activate Marian devotion in different cultural contexts. New sanctuaries arise in urban spaces or unexpected places. In Clearwater, Florida in the United States, a modern commercial building was transformed into a pilgrim site after an image of Mary was seen on its windows. In these new sanctuaries, replicas, for example, of Lourdes or Guadalupe, effect new devotions. In addition, people keep meeting Mary in visions or dreams as she moves over the entire globe with the times and the needs of her devotees. The question is, what is happening here? Why are so many people around the world ‘moved by Mary’?