Our Lady of Betania

The Story

Our Lady of Betania refers to apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary reported at Finca Betania, a rural property on the road between Cua and San Casimiro in Miranda State, Venezuela. The apparitions are associated with Maria Esperanza Medrano de Bianchini, a Venezuelan wife, mother, and mystic, who reported the first apparition there on March 25, 1976. According to the accounts gathered by the Church, Mary appeared under the title "Mary, Virgin and Mother, Reconciler of All Peoples," with a message of reconciliation, conversion, and peace among peoples and within families. On March 25, 1984, an apparition at the site was reportedly witnessed by more than a hundred people, and further reports followed from many pilgrims in the months afterward. Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo of Los Teques, a trained psychologist, personally interviewed hundreds of witnesses. On November 21, 1987, he issued a pastoral instruction declaring the apparitions authentic and supernatural in character, and he designated Betania a place of pilgrimage and prayer, making it one of the few twentieth-century apparition sites to receive such formal recognition from the local Church. Pilgrims continue to visit the sanctuary's grotto, spring, and outdoor altar to pray for reconciliation and healing; a Eucharistic host that reportedly bled during Mass at Betania in 1991 is kept in Los Teques. Maria Esperanza died in 2004, and the cause for her beatification was opened in 2010, giving her the title Servant of God.

Church Recognition

Recognized as authentic by the local Bishop of Los Teques (Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo) in 1987.

Catholic Teaching

A message of reconciliation, peace, and Eucharistic devotion.

Plan Your Visit

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Practical

1 Additional Information ▾

Finca Betania near Cua is a Venezuelan Marian pilgrimage site.

Go Deeper

Read Bishop Pio Bello Ricardo's 1987 pastoral instruction on the apparitions at Finca Betania, available through the EWTN document library, and see the Catechism of the Catholic Church on private revelation (CCC 67).