04 APRIL - OUR MOTHER OF EPHESUS (USA)

 On this date in 2003, Giuseppe Bernardini, Archbishop of Izmir, Turkey, and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington, 

    dedicated an oratory to Our Mother of Ephesus in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Turkey having recently refused to participate in the American 

    invasion of Iraq, Bernardini prayed, "May Our Mother of Ephesus bring peace to the world.” Located in the rear of the crypt church, the mosaic of Our Mother of Ephesus is based 

    on Vermont resident Elizabeth Moore Fraser's vision during her 1959 pilgrimage to Ephesus, Turkey, where many believe Mary spent her last days. 

    Praying at Mary's House for her disabled nephews, Fraser heard Mary say, "The reward for suffering is so great that even if you were told you wouldn’t know.

    " Many years later, she engaged artist Robert Smith to paint the Blessed Mother as she had seen her.




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