Our Lady Of Africa
Country : Algiers
Year : 1876
The statue of Our Lady of Africa venerated in Algiers, is a bronze image, very dark in color, but with European features. It was brought from France in 1840 and was for long entrusted to the Cistercian monks of Staueli; then Cardinal Lavigiers, founder of the White Sisters, enshrined it in the new basilica at Algiers, where in 1876 the image was crowned.
At this and other North African shrines the veneration given to Mary by Mohammedans is very marked. The full name of Cardinal Lavigiers’ congregation of White sisters is Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa; and there is an indulgenced prayer to Mary under that title for the conversion of the Africans. There is a proper feast commemorated for the crowning of the Algiers statue on April 30.
