Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn

Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn (Lithuanian: *Aušros Vartų Dievo Motina*; Polish: *Matka Boska Ostrobramska*) is a venerated title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a miraculous Renaissance painting in Vilnius, Lithuania. The image, painted around 1620-1630, depicts Mary without the infant Jesus—head gently tilted, eyes half-closed, hands crossed in prayer—portraying her as the humble handmaid listening to the angel's message and as a Mother of Mercy embracing sinners in her heart. The painting hangs in a chapel above the only surviving gate of Vilnius's medieval defensive walls, built between 1503 and 1514. When the tsarist government demolished the city walls in the early 19th century, the Gate of Dawn was preserved out of reverence for the beloved icon. The Discalced Carmelites built the first chapel over the gate in 1671, and a brick chapel replaced it in 1713-1715 after a fire. Pope Pius XI granted a canonical coronation on July 2, 1927, officially bestowing the title "Mother of Mercy" (*Mater Misericordiae*). Pope John Paul II prayed the rosary at the chapel on September 4, 1993, and Pope Francis visited on September 22, 2018. The image is part of the European Marian Network linking twenty significant Marian shrines across Europe. Significantly, the Gate of Dawn chapel was the site of the first public veneration of the Divine Mercy image in April 1935, connecting two streams of mercy devotion in this single sacred place. The feast of Our Lady, Mother of Mercy of the Gate of Dawn is celebrated on November 16.