It enshrines a venerated Black Madonna image of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje), and serves as the seat of the Bishop of Antipolo.

The church, meant to house the image of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage brought by then-Governor General Juan Niño de Tabora, was supposed to be built on a different plot of land.

Nevertheless, the church became a popular pilgrimage site as many devotees paid reverence to Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage,[5] including Philippine national hero and polymath José Rizal, who visited the shrine as a boy with his father, Francisco Mercado, on June 6, 1868.

[11] The decree makes it the first international shrine in the Philippines and the Southeast Asian region, the eleventh in the world, and the third in Asia after the St. Thomas Church Malayattoor in India, and the Haemi Martyrdom Holy Ground together with the Seoul Pilgrimage Routes in South Korea.

[15] On the day of the solemn declaration, the image of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage was first symbolically crowned by the Bishop of Antipolo, Ruperto Santos, beside Archbishop Charles John Brown, the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines.

[13] A Thanksgiving Mass (Misa de Gracia) was held on February 26, 2024, exactly a month after the solemn declaration, presided by the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Salvatore "Rino" Fisichella.