Consolation’s Many Faces

The Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio, has been a pilgrimage site since the late nineteenth century. Waves of immigrants have come to the shrine to seek the Virgin Mary's help. Western Europeans, who founded the shrine, were the earliest immigrants, followed by Eastern and Southern Europeans in the first half of the twentieth century. From the mid-twentieth century to today, Latino, Asian, and Middle Eastern newcomers (especially Chaldeans from Iraq) make the pilgrimage in large numbers. The intersection of ethnic identities evidences Our Lady of Consolation's devotional flexibility as immigrants cultivate spheres of faith and kinship that remind them of home and help them navigate the process of “becoming American.”