March 17
Könnyezo Szuz Mária, Győr, Győr-Moson-Sopron, Hungary
After Cromwell's takeover in 1649, Walter Lynch, Catholic bishop of Clonfert, Ireland, took the painting of the Comforter of the Afflicted with him into exile. In Vienna he met the bishop of Győr, Hungary, who invited him there. Bishop Lynch served in Győr until his death in 1663. He was buried in the Cathedral and the painting was installed there. On March 17, 1697, the Irish Madonna began weeping at early mass in Győr Cathedral, where for three hours thousands of people watched her bloody tears fall on to the sleeping child below her praying hands. The weeping continued after the tears were wiped off and the picture removed from its frame. Some people connected this with a law passed later that year in Dublin banning Catholic bishops from Ireland. In 1767, the Weeping Virgin Mary was set in a magnificent baroque altarpiece. Information from the Diocese of Győr, www.gyor.egyhazmegye.hu, and other sources. Picture of Győr altarpiece from Jeffrey Smith's article on the copy in Toledo, "The Irish Madonna of St. Stephen's," December 18, 2006, Catholic Architecture and History of Toledo, Ohio, catholictoledo.blogspot.com.
Also commemorated this date:
 | Notre-Dame des Champs, Paris, France (Our Lady of the Fields). First stone of present church placed, 1867. |
| Gua Hati Tersuci Santa Perawan Maria, Bengkong Harapan, Batam, Riau, Indonesia. Grotto dedicated, 2002. |
| Mother of God that Rediscovered the Hidden Christians, Nagasaki, Kyushu, Japan. Annual feast commemorates French missionary's discovery of Nagasaki's secret Catholic community March 17, 1865. |
| Maica Domnului, Blaj, Alba, Transylvania, Romania (Mother of God). Icon wept, 1764. |