Our Lady of Consolation

The Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation is a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church and a shrine to the Virgin Mary, operated by the Conventual Franciscan Friars. It is located in Carey, a village in Northwest Ohio. It was made a national shrine by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

One of the two Roman Catholic basilicas in Ohio, it is one of some 60 basilicas in the United States. It is the site of an annual pilgrimage of Roman Catholics (primarily from the Middle East) to mark the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, celebrated 15 August of every year. The basilica is designated as a shrine to Our Lady of Consolation, Mary, Consoler of the Afflicted.

Devotion to Our Lady of Consolation spread to the United States, where the first shrine was built in Carey, Ohio. A replica statue was commissioned and arrived from Luxembourg in 1875. Cures and healings reportedly continue to take place at the shrine to the present day.

Bishop Joseph Schrembs, first bishop of the Diocese of Toledo, invited the Conventual Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception Province in Syracuse, New York to take charge of the shrine. In 1919, the railroads began offering reduced rates to Carey in summer during pilgrimage season.

In the summer of 1923 a contingent of Ku Klux Klan members arrived intent on holding a counter demonstration to the annual procession of the eve of the Feast of the Assumption, but ended holding a gathering on the outskirts of town.

The shrine complex includes the basilica, the original 1875 wooden parish church, the parish school, a rectory housing the pastor and other Franciscan priests, a provincial house which houses Franciscan friars, a convent for resident and itinerant nuns, a retreat center providing lodgings for lay and religious pilgrims, a gift shop, and a cafeteria.

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