Archbishop Martin Kmetec attends 20th anniversary celebration of Our Lady of Ephesus Church in Vermont

Archbishop Martin Kmetec attended the 20th anniversary celebration of the Our Lady of Ephesus Church in Jamaica, Vermont, on June 8, 2026. The Archbishop of Izmir and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Turkey joined local faithful to mark the anniversary of the church's dedication.

The celebration included local Archbishop John McDermott, Father Lucian Abalintoaiei, the general secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Turkey, and several local priests. The event highlighted the connection between the Vermont community and the Church in Izmir through their shared devotion to the site where the Virgin Mary spent her final years.

The prayer center in Vermont was established in 1994 by Mary Fraser Tarinelli. The site was inspired by the 1959 pilgrimage of Tarinelli's mother, Elizabeth Fraser, who reported a vision of the Virgin Mary in Ephesus, Turkey. Tarinelli later led the first official pilgrimage to the holy site in Ephesus in 1991.