class="apple-converted-space"> Knock Shrine, at which
the Virgin Mary, together with Saint Joseph and John
the Evangelist, supposedly appeared on 21 August 1879. In the 20th century
Knock became one of Europe's major Catholic Marian shrines, alongside Lourdes and Fatima.
One and a half million pilgrims visit Knock
Shrine annually. Pope John Paul II, a supporter of
devotion to the Virgin Mary, visited Knock in 1979 to commemorate the centenary
of the apparition.
