On the morning of March 17, 1697 — the feast of St. Patrick — a small Marian icon on the north wall of Győr's cathedral began to weep tears of blood. For three hours, from six until nine, the tears fell in view of the bishop, the cathedral canons, Count Seigebert Hester, and the rest of the Mass congregation.
The icon itself was Irish. Bishop Walter Lynch of Clonfert had carried it out of Ireland in the early 1650s, fleeing Cromwell's persecution of the Catholic Church, and settled in Győr at the invitation of the local bishop. He served there until his death in 1663 and was buried in the cathedral crypt, leaving the image behind him on the wall near the altar of St. Anne.
Today the cathedral on Cathedral Hill holds two further treasures alongside the weeping icon: the gilded reliquary bust of a medieval Hungarian king, and the tomb of a bishop martyred within living memory. Győr itself sits almost exactly midway between Vienna and Budapest, and every March 17 pilgrims gather at that same north wall where the tears fell in 1697.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
The Diocese of Győr traces its founding to King (St.) Stephen I in 1001, one of Hungary's earliest bishoprics. Its cathedral rose on Cathedral Hill (Káptalandomb), where the Rába River meets the Danube, and was rebuilt across several centuries: a Gothic transformation under Bishop Kálmán, between 1337 and 1375, added the chapel later known by the name of Bishop János Héderváry, who completed it; a Baroque campaign under Bishop Ferenc Zichy, from 1743 to 1783, brought in the architect Melchior Hefele and the painter Franz Anton Maulbertsch.
Walter Lynch, Bishop of Clonfert in the west of Ireland, fled the Cromwellian persecution of the Church in the early 1650s. He met Bishop János Püsky of Győr in Vienna and settled in Győr at his invitation, carrying with him a small image of the Virgin and Child. Lynch served as auxiliary bishop of Győr until his death in 1663 and was buried in the cathedral crypt. The image remained in the city after him, eventually placed for public veneration on the wall of the Chapel of St. Anne.
On March 17, 1697, the feast of St. Patrick, that image began to weep tears of blood during the six o'clock Mass, and continued for about three hours. Hundreds of witnesses, including Count Seigebert Hester, the bishop, and the cathedral clergy, later gave testimony to what they had seen. Pope Pius IX granted a plenary indulgence for the feast in 1874, and Pope Paul VI issued a further indulgence rescript on February 19, 1968.
Bishop Vilmos Apor was killed on Good Friday, 1945, shot while shielding women from Soviet soldiers who had forced their way into the episcopal palace in the closing weeks of the Second World War. He was buried first in the crypt of the Carmelite church and reinterred in the cathedral's Héderváry Chapel in 1986. Pope John Paul II beatified him in St. Peter's Square on November 9, 1997.
Pope John Paul II had prayed at Apor's tomb the year before, during his visit to Győr on September 7, 1996, part of a wider apostolic journey to Hungary that also took him to Pannonhalma. In the Marian Year of 1997, a papal legate came to Győr and the cathedral was raised to the rank of minor basilica.
The Herm of St. Ladislaus, a twelfth-century gilded silver reliquary bust holding the skull of King (St.) Ladislaus I, is kept in the Héderváry Chapel and carried through the streets of Győr each June 27. The cathedral underwent a comprehensive restoration between 2017 and 2022, which included a new organ.
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Győr
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady
Nagyboldogasszony-székesegyház
The cream-and-ochre cathedral crowns Cathedral Hill above Győr's old town, its profile shaped by six centuries of building: a Gothic core from the fourteenth century, wrapped in the Baroque work commissioned by Bishop Ferenc Zichy in the eighteenth. Inside, on the north wall near the altar of St. Anne, hangs the Weeping Icon of Győr — the small image Bishop Walter Lynch carried out of Cromwellian Ireland, which wept tears of blood on March 17, 1697.
The Héderváry Chapel, the cathedral's Gothic showpiece, holds two further treasures: the gilded Herm of St. Ladislaus, a twelfth-century reliquary bust containing the skull of King (St.) Ladislaus I, and the tomb of Blessed Vilmos Apor, the bishop martyred in 1945 and beatified in 1997. Pope John Paul II prayed here during his 1996 visit to Hungary; the cathedral was raised to the rank of minor basilica the following year.
Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Karmelita templom
The Discalced Carmelites arrived in Győr in 1697, funded by a bequest from Primate György Szelepchényi, and built their church and monastery in stages: the cornerstone was laid in 1721, the church consecrated in 1725, and the monastery finished in 1732, to designs by the Carmelite lay brother Athanasius Wittwer. Martino Altomonte painted the altarpieces between 1726 and 1729.
A small Loreto Chapel — a "dark chapel" replica of the Holy House of Nazareth, built in 1717–18 before the main church — houses a Black Madonna statue; the original was lost in a fire, and the copy venerated today dates from the chapel's restoration. Blessed Vilmos Apor was buried in the church's crypt from his 1945 martyrdom until his 1986 reinterment in the cathedral, and the Discalced Carmelite priest St. Raphael Kalinowski lived at the adjoining monastery from 1878 to 1881.
Benedictine Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola
Loyolai Szent Ignác bencés templom
Built by the Jesuits between 1634 and 1641 on land donated by Bishop Miklós Dallos, this is Hungary's earliest Baroque church, designed by the Italian architect Baccio del Bianco. When the Jesuit order was suppressed in Hungary in 1773, the church passed to the Benedictines, who have staffed it, in connection with the archabbey of Pannonhalma, since 1802.
Paul Troger's ceiling frescoes — "The Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius" over the sanctuary and an "Annunciation" over the nave — date from the 1740s. The red limestone main altar, carved by the local craftsman János Götzelmayer with gilded figures by the Viennese sculptor Johann Joseph Rössler, glorifies St. Ignatius; seven side chapels hold altarpieces of Hungarian saints.
Győr Calvary and Church of St. Camillus
Győri Kálvária
Seven roadside chapels climb Kálvária utca to a hilltop crowned by two domed chapels — one dedicated to the penitent thief St. Dismas, the other built on an unusual three-lobed floor plan for the Deposition — and a Golgotha sculpture group, all raised between 1714 and 1725 on ground that had served, centuries earlier, as a public execution site. French and Baden troops plundered the chapels and decapitated their sculptures in 1809; restoration took six years.
The adjoining Camillian parish church was built by the Order of Camillian nursing brothers in the 1760s and 1770s and became an independent parish in 1789. A modern Way of the Cross, installed in 2019 with contemporary artists' work in glass and concrete, links the Cathedral Basilica to this hill across fourteen stations.
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
Feast of the Weeping Virgin Mary of Győr — March 17
The anniversary of the 1697 miracle is marked with a three-day pilgrimage festival (búcsú) from March 15 to 17, organized by the Diocese of Győr. On the feast itself, the day includes an early Mass at six in the morning — the hour the tears began — further Masses through the day, a pilgrims' blessing in the afternoon, and a candlelit procession. Since 2023 the diocese has also kept a monthly Mass in honor of the Weeping Virgin on the seventeenth of every month.
Procession of the Herm of St. Ladislaus — June 27
The gilded reliquary bust of King (St.) Ladislaus I is carried in procession through the streets of Győr, out from its usual place in the cathedral's Héderváry Chapel.
Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola — July 31
The patronal feast of the Benedictine church on Széchenyi tér is marked with a cultural and religious walk through the city tracing the Jesuit heritage of Győr.
🛏️ Where to Stay
Hotel Domus Collis ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Housed in a renovated building at the eastern gate of Cathedral Hill, on the same historic complex as the basilica. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
Domus Peregrini Apartmanok (apartment) — Self-catering apartments on Cathedral Hill marketed explicitly to pilgrims and groups; the name is Latin for "Pilgrim's House." Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
Hotel Capitulum ⭐⭐⭐ (also listed as 4-star on some booking platforms) — Forty-four air-conditioned rooms in a pedestrian old-town location close to the basilica, with a private underground garage. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
Barokk Hotel Promenád ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — In Győr's Baroque old town, within walking distance of the train and bus station. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
🚗 Getting There
By Train: Győr sits on the MÁV/ÖBB main line between Budapest-Keleti and Wien Hauptbahnhof, served by joint Railjet and EuroCity international trains as well as domestic InterCity services. The fastest Budapest–Győr run takes just over an hour; the fastest Vienna–Győr run takes about an hour and a quarter. Reaching Győr from Bratislava by train means a change, commonly at Hegyeshalom or Rajka, on a regional line partly operated by GySEV.
By Bus: FlixBus connects Győr directly with Budapest, Vienna, and Bratislava. The Bratislava route, at under an hour, is the fastest way to reach Győr from Slovakia.
By Car: The M1 motorway runs from Budapest through Győr to the Austrian border at Hegyeshalom, continuing as the A4 into Vienna; Győr sits close to the motorway's midpoint between the two capitals. An e-vignette is required on Hungarian motorways. Bratislava is reached by a direct cross-border road.
By Air: Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport (BUD) and Vienna International Airport (VIE) are the two realistic gateways, each requiring a transfer by train or bus into Győr. Bratislava Airport (BTS) is smaller but closer, connected by the direct Győr–Bratislava FlixBus route.
Local Transport: Győr's railway station sits centrally, a walk of fifteen to twenty minutes from the old town and the Cathedral Basilica.
📚 Further Reading
Joan Carroll Cruz. Miraculous Images of Our Lady: 100 Famous Catholic Portraits and Statues — A survey of 100 Church-recognized miraculous Marian images, including an entry on "The Comforter of the Afflicted," the historical devotional title of the Győr icon.
Patrick Francis Moran. Historical Sketch of the Persecutions Suffered by the Catholics of Ireland Under the Rule of Cromwell and the Puritans — Background on the Cromwellian persecution that drove Bishop Walter Lynch of Clonfert into the exile that ended in Győr.
Kevin J. Wright. Catholic Shrines of Central and Eastern Europe: A Pilgrim's Travel Guide — Guidebook covering 70+ shrines across Central and Eastern Europe, including Hungary.
🎥 Recommended Videos
Az együttérző szeretet boldogságunk záloga – A Könnyező Szűzanya búcsúja Győrben — Official coverage from the Diocese of Győr's video channel of the annual pilgrimage feast of the Weeping Virgin. In Hungarian.
Irish Madonna: Our Lady of Györ — Short heritage documentary from the Galway County Heritage Office on the icon's journey from Clonfert Cathedral to Győr.
When Our Lady Cried Tears of Blood for Ireland — Devotional account of the 1697 miracle and the Irish-Hungarian connection, from Catholic content creator Decrevi.
🔗 Useful Links
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady — Cathedral Hill Visitor Center — Official visitor-center page for the cathedral and its relics.
Diocese of Győr — Official diocesan homepage.
Discalced Carmelite Order in Hungary — Győr House and Church — Official order page for the Carmelite church and Loreto Chapel.
Benedictine Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola — St. Maurus Priory — Official parish and priory page.
MÁV — Hungarian State Railways — Train schedules for travel within Hungary.
🥾 Pilgrim Routes
Camino Húngaro (Way of St. James) — Győr–Lébény stage — A 25 km stage of the Hungarian Camino de Santiago begins at Győr's Széchenyi tér and ends at the Church of St. James in Lébény, part of a longer route running from Budapest through Tata and Pannonhalma toward Bratislava and Wolfsthal, Austria.
Mária Út (Via Mariae) — Sokorópátka–Tényő–Győr-Ménfő stage — A 20.7 km stage of this Central European Marian pilgrimage network ends at the Nagyboldogasszony church in Győr-Ménfő, a district on the city's western edge.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
Frauenkirchen, Austria (57 km) — Marian basilica in the Burgenland countryside.
Marianka, Slovakia (76 km) — Slovakia's oldest and most important Marian shrine.
Nitra, Slovakia (77 km) — Cathedral city and seat of Slovakia's oldest diocese.
Trnava, Slovakia (77 km) — Known as "Little Rome," a major basilica and diocesan seat.
Eisenstadt, Austria (87 km) — The Haydnkirche and its Bergkirche Marian pilgrimage site.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"For in them we see Mary personify the closeness and compassion of God himself. In the silence of her tears, she calls out to us and to our entire world — no matter what, never lose hope; never yield to despair; God is with you; God is powerfully on your side." — Most Rev. Dr. Michael Duignan, Bishop of Clonfert, Homily for the Anniversary of the Miracle of the Irish Madonna, March 19, 2023
Bishop Duignan's own see is the one Walter Lynch held before his exile — the Diocese of Clonfert, on the far side of the journey that left an Irish Madonna weeping tears of blood in a Hungarian cathedral. Lynch is buried in that cathedral's crypt, a few meters from the image he carried out of Ireland three and a half centuries ago.
