Pope to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano

Pope Leo XIV will return to Genazzano, the small town located about forty kilometers (about twenty five miles) from Rome — a summer resort during the Roman Empire and, in the Middle Ages, a village that later became part of the fiefdom of the Colonna family. It is home to the Basilica Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel, which was originally a small church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was entrusted to the Augustinian religious in the 14th century.

The Pope made a private visit on May 10, 2025, two days after his election to the papacy. Over a year later, he will travel to the Marian shrine on September 7 at 6:00 p.m. to celebrate Mass on the eve of the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“I very much wanted to come here during these first days of the new ministry that the Church has entrusted to me, in order to continue the mission as Successor of Peter,” Pope Leo told the Augustinian friars and the faithful gathered outside the basilica during his first visit to Genazzano as Pope. In the shrine’s guest book, he added that he had “felt the duty and a deep desire” to come to “the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel.”

“Throughout my entire life, she has accompanied me with her maternal presence, with her wisdom, and with the example of her love for her Son, who is always at the center of my faith. The way, the truth and the life. Thank you, Mother, for your help; accompany me in this new mission,” the Pope wrote.

He had entered the Order of Saint Augustine in the Augustinian Province of Chicago, which is itself dedicated to Our Lady of Good Counsel.

The visit on May 10, 2025, was also Pope Leo’s first surprise outing.

As an Augustinian friar, he had visited the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Counsel for decades. He first visited it as a young student in Rome in the early 1980s; later, he returned frequently as Prior General, and subsequently as Bishop of Chiclayo and as a cardinal.