Born in an anonymous town on the banks of the River Rhine in Germany, Schoenstatt has grown to be worldwide movement of consecrated people at the service of life – both in the Church and society at large.

On 18 October 1914, on the eve of World War I, Fr. Kentenich and a small group of seminarians at the Minor Seminary in Schoenstatt, made a Covenant of Love with the Blessed Mother to make her presence in a disused chapel. By making it her shrine, they asked her to “draw many youthful hearts” to herself and to distribute her graces to all who would visit this small chapel. In return they promised to bring Mary many small deeds of love and to work towards their self-sanctification.

Mary heard their plea and indeed transformed the abandoned chapel into a place of grace, which has been visited by hundreds of thousands of people in the last 100 years.