A Catholic shrine in Algeria is drawing attention after the Vatican highlighted the unusual appointment of a consecrated woman as its rector, a position traditionally held by priests.
Anna Medeossi, an Italian architect and consecrated virgin living in the Diocese of Oran, serves as rector of the Shrine of Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz in Oran. According to LifeSiteNews, Vatican News recently profiled Medeossi as the first woman in the world to serve as rector of a shrine.
Rectors ordinarily oversee churches or shrines in a religious and administrative capacity when there is no permanent pastor, and such positions are typically entrusted to priests.
Medeossi’s connection to Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz began not through an ecclesiastical appointment, but through her work as an architect. According to Vatican News, she came to the shrine after the bishop of Oran asked her to assist with its renovation.
She later helped organize the 2018 beatification of the Martyrs of Algeria, which coincided with the reopening of the restored shrine.
Her eventual appointment as rector by Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, bishop of Oran, arose from the need for someone to permanently “care for the site,” Medeossi explained. The shrine previously had no rector because of its limited activity.
Notre-Dame de Santa Cruz has a significant place in Oran’s Catholic history. According to the accounts cited by LifeSiteNews and Vatican News, its origins are connected to the cholera epidemic that struck Oran in 1847. The bishop processed with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary while Catholics prayed for her intercession, asking for protection from the epidemic and for rain. Rain followed, and the chapel was later built at the site.
Today, however, the shrine operates within an overwhelmingly Muslim society.
“When all goes well,” Medeossi said, Mass is celebrated at the shrine once a month. Much of the sanctuary’s regular traffic instead comes from Muslim visitors and tourists.
“It is a shrine for Muslims,” Medeossi told Vatican News. “They come to visit it in their tens and hundreds during the summer and at weekends.”
She said her presence allows visitors to be welcomed and introduced to the meaning of the Catholic site while encouraging peaceful relations between Christians and Muslims.
“It is therefore important to have someone there to welcome them, help them discover what a church is, show that we are brothers and sisters, and bear witness to the world that it is possible to live together in peace,” she said.
Medeossi also described the Blessed Virgin Mary as a “path of dialogue” between Christians and Muslims because Mary is also honored within the Muslim tradition.
The shrine itself has become a place where Medeossi believes beauty can open opportunities for encounters between people of different faiths.
“It is wonderful to see how the beauty of the place – including the inside of the chapel – and that moment of wonder at the beauty of the setting help people enter into dialogue and find peace,” she told Vatican News, according to LifeSiteNews. “From there, we can begin to encounter one another.”
That cooperation extends to the shrine’s maintenance and artwork. Medeossi said Muslim Algerian women artists painted the scenes from the life of Mary displayed there, while local Muslim businesses also participate in maintaining the Catholic site.
“I believe fraternity also begins there,” she said. “They agree to collaborate and to work in a church. That cannot be taken for granted.”
Medeossi described her approach to Christian witness as one centered primarily on living the Gospel through her actions rather than direct evangelization.
“For me, we bear witness in exactly the same way as in Europe or anywhere else: by being ourselves and trying to live the Gospel fully with the person before us – not through words but through actions,” she said.
Her appointment remains highly unusual in Catholic life, where shrine and church rectors have traditionally been priests. In Oran, however, Medeossi’s role has placed a consecrated Catholic woman at the center of the daily care of a historic Marian sanctuary visited largely by Muslims.
For Medeossi, that daily encounter ultimately comes down to the Christian commandment of love.
“You must know that you are always judged on love,” she told Vatican News. “People recognize whether you speak truthfully, whether you are smiling and whether you are understanding.”
Your support brings the truth to the world.
Catholic Online News exists because of donors like you. We are 100% funded by people who believe the world deserves real, uncensored news rooted in faith and truth — not corporate agendas. Your gift ensures millions can continue to access the news they can trust — stories that defend life, faith, family, and freedom.
When truth is silenced, your support speaks louder.
