Subsequent attempts by the Catholics to regain the property through legal proceedings against the Calvinists were hindered by the fact that the exact location of the documents pertaining to the church were unknown.

Some Catholics believed that the Blessed Virgin Mary miraculously intervened in the matter by appearing at the church and holding the baby Jesus in her arms and weeping bitterly.

The Soviet regime failed to completely suppress the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary although the KGB routinely sabotaged the pilgrimages.

An example of the Soviet interference occurred during the pilgrimage in 1979, when the government blocked all of the roads to Šiluva under the pretext that an epidemic of swine fever was rampant in the vicinity.

Pope John Paul II made a special pilgrimage to pray at the National Shrine of Our Lady in Šiluva, during his visit to Lithuania in 1993.