Site and Chapel of the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary

In Zarasai district there is a place that draws thousands of pilgrims from Lithuania and abroad. It is the site of the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Kvintiškės, by Lake Ilgis. It is no ordinary place but a holy one, whose story began in 1967. According to accounts, on 30 June 1967 two young people saw a light on Lake Ilgis, and on a rotten post they saw a young girl of extraordinary beauty in a white dress with a cape. The teenagers were frightened and rode away. When she got home, Albina told her mother what had happened. Some time later the girl dreamed of the same young woman, who asked her why she was not telling anyone about what she had seen. When the parish priest of Imbradas, Father Jonas Jatulis, learned of the vision, he agreed that it had been the Virgin Mary. The news spread quickly through the area, and people began flocking to the lake, believing the place to be holy. They came here to pray, lay flowers and put up crosses. The Soviet authorities, who restricted religious freedom, did not like people coming here. The militia would not let people go to the site, tore down the crosses being put up, and put people on buses, drove them far away and let them out, just to stop them praying here. The site of the apparition could only be visited freely after Lithuania's independence was restored. To give meaning to the importance of this pilgrimage centre, a chapel was built here. In the summer of 2014 Bishop Emeritus Jonas Kauneckas consecrated the Kvintiškės Chapel of the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The chapel has a distinctive shape – it resembles a papal mitre. The site of the apparition recalls the Hill of Crosses, as there are many crosses of various shapes here. The water of Lake Ilgis is said to have healing properties, so people take lake water home from here. Every year on 30 June a feast in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary is held at the site of the apparition by Lake Ilgis.