On April 19, Pope Leo XIV prayed at Angola's shrine to “Mamã Muxima,” the "Mother of the Heart" of the Angolan people at the country’s most important Marian shrine. From this place of pilgrimage, situated in the middle of the wooded savannah in the Kwanza River valley, he invited the faithful to "offer everything to Mary."
In Angola, the Pope is speaking in Portuguese, but at this beloved shrine, he also ventured into the local language:
Mamã Muxima, tueza kokué, Mamã Muxima, tutambululé: “Mother of the Heart, we come to you to offer you everything.”
The visit to the shrine came on the 2nd day of the Pope's time in Angola (he leaves for Equatorial Guinea on Tuesday morning). He took a helicopter to the town of Muxima, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of the capital Luanda. Amidst the fields and baobab trees, a crowd had been waiting there fervently for days: thousands of people had camped there over the past few nights in makeshift tents, so they could have a front-row view of the visit from the Successor of Peter.
Upon landing, he was greeted by an official delegation on the red carpet – a simple square of red fabric where he stepped as he alighted from the helicopter, smiling under the still-scorching late-afternoon sun. Transported in an armoured Chevrolet, the Pope – who has been covering considerable distances since the start of his tour of Africa – arrived at the shrine to the cheers of a crowd of some 30,000 people, mostly women.
The first stop on the itinerary: the Pope was taken to a room housing a model of the future site, currently under construction amidst cranes and scaffolding. He looked closely at what will be the fulfilment of a promise made to his predecessor, John Paul II. During the Polish Pope's visit in 1992, the Angolan government pledged to build a basilica on this site. According to the Vatican, work on this building, which will be able to accommodate 4,600 people within its walls and 200,000 on its forecourt, is due to be completed in 2027. The foundation stone was laid in 2022 by the President of the Republic.
The “Mother of the Heart” in the Kimbundu language
The Pontiff then knelt in prayer in the chapel of Mamã Muxima and laid a bouquet of white roses at the foot of the statue of the Virgin Mary, crowned and draped in a blue mantle.
The origins of this place of devotion, dating back to the 17th century, are indelibly marked by the dark history of colonial Angola: as Muxima lies on a route linking the interior of the country to the coast, African captives were baptized here before their deportation into the Atlantic slave trade.
Despite this tragic past, the Angolans have nurtured a faithful devotion to “Mamã Muxima.” Indeed, it was they who, spontaneously started calling her "Mama" instead of the official name of the shrine, the Immaculate Conception of Mary -- Mama, the “Mother of the Heart” in the Kimbundu language. As early as 1833, the Bishop of the Diocese of Viana, Emílio Sumbeleloes, told the Pope, Christians from all regions began making the five-day pilgrimage that has since become a tradition. Thanks to accounts of miraculous events attributed to the Virgin, devotion grew and took the form of a “relationship of familiarity, […] of closeness” and “intimacy” -- “as one speaks to a living person.”
Taken to the podium in a golf cart, Leo XIV prayed the Rosary with the faithful, who took turns at the microphone, including a little boy wearing a bow tie. The Pope then reflected on the solicitude of Mary’s maternal heart, inviting Catholics to devote themselves to the concrete needs of our neighbors -- food, health care, peace. "A mother thinks of all these things. Indeed, Mary thinks of all these things.”
Here is the full translation of his address:
Dear brothers and sisters,
Dear young people, members of the Legion of Mary, and those devoted to Mamã Muxima, the Mother of the Heart, I am pleased to share this moment of Marian prayer with you.
Together we have recited the holy Rosary, an ancient and simple devotion that originated in the Church as a form of prayer for everyone. Saint John Paul II described it as the prayer of a Christianity that has preserved the “freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to ‘set out into the deep’... to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior” (Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 1).
As I look upon all of you and share in this intense and fervent moment with the living and young Church of Angola, it seems to me that the words of my saintly predecessor are particularly fitting for this great community, where one can truly feel the freshness of faith and the power of the Spirit.
We are in a sanctuary where, for centuries, many men and women have prayed in times of joy and also in moments of sorrow and great suffering in the history of this country. For a long time now, Mamã Muxima has quietly worked to keep the heart of the Church alive and beating. Her heart contains a multitude of hearts: yours, and those of many people who love, pray, celebrate, weep, and sometimes — even when unable to come in person — entrust their requests and petitions to letters and postal messages, as His Excellency has mentioned. Mamã Muxima welcomes everyone, listens to everyone and prays for everyone.
We have meditated on the Glorious Mysteries of Jesus’ life, contemplating our destiny in his exaltation and our mission in his love. At Easter, Christ conquered death, showing us the way back to the Father. And so that we too may walk this luminous and demanding path, sharing its beauty with the whole world, he has given us his Spirit, who animates and sustains us on our journey and in our mission. Like Mary, we too are made for heaven. As we journey toward heaven with joy, we look to her as our good Mother and model of holiness. Following her example, we bring the light of the risen One to the brothers and sisters we meet. We expressed this symbolically at the beginning of each decade of the Rosary, represented by people of every vocation and age.
As Bishop Sumbelelo pointed out, this shrine, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, has been spontaneously “renamed” by the faithful Shrine of the “Mother of the Heart.” It is a beautiful title, which makes us reflect on the heart of Mary: a pure and wise heart, capable of treasuring and pondering the extraordinary events in the life of the Son of God (cf. Lk 2:19, 51). Praying together, we have done the same, allowing ourselves to be guided by Mary in meditating on Jesus. We retraced with her the various moments in the life of her Son, to nurture within us a love as universal as hers (cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 11).
Praying the Rosary, then, commits us to loving every person with a mother’s heart — concretely and generously — and to dedicating ourselves to the good of one another, especially the poorest. A mother loves all her children in the same way and with her whole heart, even though each one is different. In the presence of the Mother of the Heart, we too want to promise to do likewise. We strive without measure so that no one may lack love. We also seek to provide the necessities for living with dignity and happiness: that the hungry may have enough to eat, that the sick may receive the necessary care, that children may be guaranteed a proper education, and that the elderly may live their later years in peace. A mother thinks of all these things. Indeed, Mary thinks of all these things, and she also invites us to share in her maternal concern.
Dear young people, members of the Legion of Mary, brothers and sisters, Our Lady asks us to let ourselves be moved by the sentiments of her heart, so that like her, we may be workers for justice and bearers of peace. Here, a great project is underway: the construction of a new shrine, able to welcome all who come on pilgrimage. Everyone — especially you young people — should take this as a sign. For the Mother of Heaven entrusts a great project to you as well: to build a better, welcoming world, where there is no more war, injustice, poverty or dishonesty, and where the principles of the Gospel increasingly inspire and shape hearts, structures and programs, for the good of all.
It is love that must triumph, not war! This is what the heart of Mary — the heart of the Mother of all — teaches us. Let us set out, then, from this shrine as “messenger angels” of life, bringing Mary’s tender embrace and God’s blessing to everyone.
Mamã Muxima, tueza kokué, Mamã Muxima, tutambululé: “Mother of the Heart, we come to you to offer you everything.” So says the hymn to Mamã Muxima, and it continues: “We come to ask for your blessing.”
Dearest friends, let us offer everything to Mary, giving ourselves entirely to our brothers and sisters, and let us joyfully receive, through her intercession, the Lord’s blessing, so that we may bring it to everyone we meet. Amen.
