The image of the Virgin of Ireland in the Cathedral of Gyor, Hungary. / Credit: Diocese of GyorACI Prensa Staff, Mar 17, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).On March 17, 1697, on the feast day of St. Patrick and in the same year penal laws were enacted in Ireland banning Catholic bishops and priests from the country, an image of the Virgin Mary known as the Weeping Irish Madonna shed tears of blood for three hours.The painting is now kept in the cathedral of Gyor, Hungary, where it was taken by the bishop of Clonfert, Walter Lynch, when he fled from Ireland due to the English persecution of the Catholic Church led by Oliver Cromwell. The image, whose original name was Our Lady Consoler of the Afflicted, shows the Mother of God with her hands folded in prayer as she looks down upon the Infant Jesus, who is lying in a little bed.Bishop Lynch removed the image from the Clonfert cathedral to keep it out of impious hands and fled with it to Vienna, Austria, where he met the bishop of Gyor, H.
The image of the Virgin of Ireland in the Cathedral of Gyor, Hungary. / Credit: Diocese of Gyor
ACI Prensa Staff, Mar 17, 2023 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
On March 17, 1697, on the feast day of St. Patrick and in the same year penal laws were enacted in .