Our Lady of Šiluva (Archdiocese of Cincinnati/Holy Cross Lithuanian Roman Catholic Church)
By Gina Christian • Posted July 22, 2021
Amid religious and social divisions, a little-known Marian apparition offers fresh hope for healing, says a local Catholic – and he even wrote a hymn to spread the word.
While serving as music director at the former St. George Parish in Philadelphia, Joseph Pokorny wrote “Our Lady of Šiluva,” which commemorates a 17th-century visitation by Mary to a small village in Lithuania.
A statue of Our Lady of Šiluva at St. George (which closed and merged with St. John Paul II in 2019) so impressed Pokorny – who admits he’s “actually Austro-Hungarian” – that in addition to his hymn, he wrote an entire “musical cantata all about Lithuania.”