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Knock
Irish: Cnoc Mhuire | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 The roundabout at Knock | |
  Knock Location in Ireland | |
| Coordinates: 53°47′00″N 8°55′00″W / 53.7833°N 8.91667°W | |
| Country | Ireland |
| Province | Connacht |
| County | County Mayo |
| Elevation | 78 m (256 ft) |
| Population | |
• Total | 972 |
| Time zone | UTC+0 (WET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-1 (IST (WEST)) |
| Eircode | F12 |
| Irish Grid Reference | M396818 |
Knock (Irish: An Cnoc, meaning The Hill – but now more generally known in Irish as Cnoc Mhuire, "Hill of (the Virgin) Mary")[2] is a village in County Mayo, Ireland.
Knock is also a civil parish in the ancient barony of Costello.
It is notable as the location of Knock Shrine - a Marian shrine and place of pilgrimage. According to Catholic beliefs, Mary, mother of Jesus, Saint Joseph and Saint John the Evangelist appeared to witnesses in the village on 21 August 1879. There is international skepticism of this event due to the age of the witnesses and the lack of evidence supporting the event. In the 20th century, Knock became one of Europe's most visited shrines to the Virgin Mary, along with Lourdes and Fatima. It was a focus of peace pilgrimages in Ireland during the Second World War, when the faithful prayed for peace.[3] One and a half million pilgrims visit the shrine annually.
In 1979, on the centenary of the apparition, Pope John Paul II visited the shrine. On 26 August 2018, Pope Francis visited the basilica while in Ireland for the 9th World Meeting of Families.
- ^ "Census 2016 Sapmap Area: Settlements Knock". Central Statistics Office (Ireland). Retrieved 19 July 2018.
- ^ "Cnoc Mhuire/Knock". Placenames Database of Ireland. Government of Ireland - Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Dublin City University. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
- ^ Hurlock, Kathryn (2 January 2022). "Peace, Politics, and Piety: Catholic Pilgrimage in Wartime Europe, 1939–1945". War & Society. 41 (1): 36–52. doi:10.1080/07292473.2022.2021754. ISSN 0729-2473. S2CID 246695850.