Kevelaer

Kevelaer (Low Rhenish: Käwela) is a town in the district of Kleve, in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is the largest Catholic pilgrimage location within north-western Europe. Over one million Marian devotees, mostly from Germany and the Netherlands, visit the Basilica of Kevelaer every year to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary. The population in 2019 was 28,021.

History
Kevelaer is a center of veneration and pilgrimage to Our Lady, Comforter of the Afflicted (also known as Our Lady of Consolation. According to tradition, a merchant named Hendrik Busman, in the days before Christmas, 1641, three times heard a voice saying "Here thou shalt build me a chapel". He began to set money aside but feared his wife, Mechel, wouldn't approve. She, however, had a vision, around Pentecost, in which she saw a little chapel containing a print of Our Lady of Consolation, all bathed in light. The story was confirmed by two passing soldiers, who saw the house light up at night. Days before, two soldiers had tried to sell her two copperplate engravings with the same image on it, but she found it too expensive. Hendrik began building the chapel while Mechel tried to obtain the print.

The chapel was consecrated and on 1 June 1642, the Sunday after Assumption of Mary, the print was displayed in it, and the chapel became such a popular destination for pilgrims that a church was built for them between 1643 and 1645. The little chapel was replaced in 1654 with a larger one, the Gnadenkapelle, which still houses the print.

It is one of the best visited Catholic pilgrimage locations in north-western Europe. The Gnadenkapelle (English: Chapel of Mercy) has drawn pilgrims to the Lower Rhine Region from all over the world for more than 360 years.

Pope Leo XIII issued a Pontifical decree of coronation towards the venerated Marian image on 20 July 1890. The rite of coronation was executed on 1 June 1892.

Pope Pius XI issued a Pontifical decree In Civitate Appellata which raised her shrine to the status of Minor Basilica on 23 April 1923, signed and notarized by the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Gasparri.

Pope John Paul II visited the basilica in 2 May 1987.

References in literature
Kevelaer is the setting of the 1822 ballad Die Wallfahrt nach Kevlaar (The Kevelaer Pilgrimage) by the German poet Heinrich Heine.

Twin towns – sister cities
Kevelaer is twinned with:
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Bury St Edmunds, England, United Kingdom

Notable people

 * Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst (born 1959), prelate of the Catholic Church and theologian
 * Markus Meurer (born 1959), outsider artist