HUE, Vietnam (UCAN) -- When Catholic mothers in northern Vietnam visited a national Marian shrine in late May, they danced and prayed to express their devotion to the Blessed Mother.

On May 28, upon arriving at the Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang in Quang Tri province, about 600 kilometers south of Ha Noi, Marie Dinh Thi Nhien tearfully told UCA News, "Mother Mary gave me a miracle before I came here."

The 32-year-old mother of three explained that her alcoholic husband has a violent temper and "treats me badly." He threatened to keep her from going to the shrine, but Nhien said she "prayed silently to Mother Mary and finally he allowed me to go on the pilgrimage with my friends. I believe Mother Mary always offers her graces to unhappy women who regularly pray to her."

In all, about 100 mothers from two neighboring parishes in Nam Dinh province went on the pilgrimage in sweltering 36-degree-Celsius heat. Their parishes in Hoanh Dong and Thien Giao are about 700 kilometers north of La Vang.

Father Pierre Nguyen Van Doi, pastor of both parishes, accompanied the pilgrims, all of them members of parish-based Catholic associations for mothers. Some brought along their mothers, and husbands and children.

The mothers, dressed in blue or pink ao dai (Vietnamese dress) and holding flowers and fans in their hands, danced beside the Marian statue as their husbands and children sang Marian hymns. They then put flowers around the foot of the statue and collected water to take home from a well in the shrine. Before leaving, Father Doi presided at a Mass for them there.

It is a common tradition for Vietnamese Catholic women to dance in front of a Marian statue and offer flowers, particularly during the Marian months of May and October. For them, dancing before the religious statue is a form of worship and an expression of their devotion.

Marie Nguyen Thi Thom, 32, told UCA News, "I find inner peace and happiness when I offer all my sufferings to Mother Mary." Life in her home village is stressful, she admitted, because rumors abound that her husband is living with another woman while working in another province. Neighbors gossip that he does so because she has been unfaithful to him.

In fact, she said, village jobs are scarce and her husband has to work away from home to support their children while she grows rice on their farm and cares for her parents and three children. "I am happy that my husband encouraged me to go on the pilgrimage and gave me pocket money," Thom said.

Marie Tran Thi Muoi, another pilgrim, knelt near the statue as she prayed for the education and faith of her four children. She later told UCA News she had prayed that, "Mother Mary will lead one of them to Religious life."

Muoi added that she also prayed for her alcoholic husband. Like other jobless village men, she said, he drinks because he has no regular work.

Local Sacred Heart brothers hosted the group during the May 28-30 pilgrimage and took them to the Benedictine Abbey, Buddhist temples and the ancient Nguyen royal palace in Hue, about 60 kilometers south of La Vang. The pilgrims each paid 150,000 dong (about US$9) to cover the cost of the pilgrimage.

Marie Tran Thi Soi, head of the mothers' association in her parish, told UCA News, "Catholic women are passionately devoted to the Blessed Mother and follow her example in overcoming challenges and difficulties in daily life."

Association members, Soi continued, visit women who suffer domestic violence and provide spiritual and material support to them. Besides meeting each week throughout the year, the association members dance and offer flowers to the Marian statue at the parish grotto in May and October.

The Blessed Mother is believed to have appeared in La Vang in 1798 to console persecuted Vietnamese Catholics during feudal times. In 1961, Vietnam's bishops declared the site as the national Marian shrine.

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(Accompanying photos available at here)