Holy Sanctuary Tours (in Popenguine)

Popenguine 40 km from Saly, Notre-Dame-de-la-Délivrance basilica is a Catholic religious building located in Popenguine, 70 kilometers south of Dakar. It is accessible to all visitors from hotels on the small coast or from Dakar Started at the end of the 19th century, the church was not completed until 1988. Housing a Black Madonna, it has become a Marian shrine of great importance for the country. Very frequented pilgrimages take place there every year. The church was erected as a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II during his pastoral visit to Senegal in 1992. An Alsatian Spiritan missionary, Joseph Strub (1833-1890), settled in 1857 in Popenguine, a village on the small coast of Senegal, formerly animist, inhabited by Socè and Serreres, who became Muslims in the 16th century. His dispensary attracts crowds and conversions take place. A religious building was started by his successor in 1888 to house a statue of the Virgin Mary. It is thus one of the oldest Christian religious buildings in the country, and a high symbol of Senegalese Catholicism. From the end of the 19th century the church was a sanctuary of Marian devotion. Every year, on Pentecost Monday, a pilgrimage brings together a large number of pilgrims who walk from Dakar to Popenguine. It is the great national pilgrimage for Catholics in Senegal. Muslims, who in Popenguine outnumber Catholics, participate and help organize it. Here, in the town of Popenguine, we hear that the Blessed Virgin Mary would have appeared to a group of fishermen in Popenguine. And this would be at the origin of the blessing of this land of the Little Coast. In 1992 during his pastoral visit to Senegal, the statue of the Black Virgin was blessed by Pope John Paul II and the sanctuary was elevated to the rank of minor basilica. Providing great visibility to the basilica, this visit gave a new lease of life to the annual Marian pilgrimage. We will have a moment of meditation at the sacred grotto or at mass, then visit the cliffs of the nature reserve of this municipality.

We will stop by one of these waterfront restaurants before returning