LA VANG, Vietnam (UCAN) -- Veterans of the Vietnam War and their relatives have made pilgrimages to the national Marian shrine to express deep gratitude to the Blessed Mother for saving them during fierce battles around the shrine.

With the temperature hitting 39 degrees Celsius under a scorching sun, Jacob Tran Duc Tuan squeezed his way through the massive crowd at the Shrine of Our Lady of La Vang in Quang Tri province, 600 kilometers south of Ha Noi. He wanted to get as close as he could to the main statue.

"This is the second time we have visited the shrine to express our gratitude to Mother Mary, who saved my life in a battle 36 years ago," he told UCA News. The fighting happened several kilometers from the shrine, added Tuan, who served as a paratrooper in the armed forces of the former South Vietnam.

Now 61, the resident of Quy Nhon city, 465 kilometers south of the shrine, recalled that a North Vietnamese mortar attack killed three soldiers and injured two others, but he survived. "Mother Mary saved me, because at that time I was reciting the Hail Mary," he noted.

A father of six, Tuan makes fish sauce for a living. He and his wife visited the shrine and attended the Vietnamese Church's 28th Marian congress, held Aug. 13-15 to celebrate the feast of the Assumption.

Fifteen local archbishops and bishops, and 550 priests concelebrated Masses, heard confessions and led Eucharistic adoration for 500,000 pilgrims during the congress, which had the theme Mother Mary, Educator of the Faith. In June the government returned close to 14 hectares of former shrine land, effectively tripling the land available for Church use from 65,000 to 210,000 square meters.

Alfonse Bui Duy Hai, another former South Vietnamese soldier, told UCA News that during 1972's "fiery summer," North Vietnamese forces attacked South Vietnamese forces in Quang Tri province. Bombs destroyed the La Vang shrine, he added.

According to Hai, 63, tens of thousands of local people fleeing to Hue city were killed by gunfire from both sides. A great number of dead bodies lined a 10-kilometer stretch from Quang Tri town southward, known locally as the "Road of Fear," he added.

Hai, from Ho Chi Minh City, said he and other soldiers escaped death when they crossed a bridge just before it collapsed. In September that year, he said, they regained control of the town and shrine.

"I come here to thank Our Lady of La Vang for saving us," Hai said, noting that this was his sixth pilgrimage to the shrine since North and South Vietnam were reunified under communist rule in 1975. He said he also prays for peace in Vietnam.

Le Cuoc, a former Buddhist soldier from neighboring Thua Thien-Hue province, told UCA News he joined his Catholic friends to visit the shrine for the first time to pray for his family and his spinal disease. The father of five confided that he has kept a rosary he collected along the "Road of Fear" when he was on duty.

"I believe the rosary saved my life from a bomb attack by communists," he stated.

John Le Ba Muong, 65, a former communist soldier, visited the shrine to pray for his comrades who died during the 1972 fighting. Two years ago, he and other soldiers of varied religious backgrounds from Vinh, a northern city, visited the old battlefield including the shrine, he added.

Marie Nguyen Thi Hien, a widow from Kon Tum province, told UCA News she makes annual pilgrimages to the shrine to pray for her husband, who died in July 1972 fighting to regain control of the area from communist forces.

Archbishop Etienne Nguyen Nhu The of Hue told pilgrims at the opening congress Mass on Aug. 13, "We all gather here to pray for ourselves and our relatives and friends who could not come here, because we believe Mother Mary's words saying 'I receive your prayers'" when she appeared to local Catholics 210 years ago.

According to the Wikipedia online encyclopedia, the Vietnam War (1959-1975) claimed the lives of 1,396,000 soldiers from North and South Vietnam and wounded another 1,770,000, besides combatants from eight foreign countries. It says 1,581,000 South Vietnamese civilians and an unknown number of North Vietnamese civilians also died.

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