Although veneration was not initially supported by the local bishop, the site became a popular destination for pilgrims, and in the 1990s was acknowledged by the diocese as a "place of prayer," with organized pilgrimage actively promoted.
Sister Reinolda May was born as Fraziska May on 21 October 1901 in Pfahlheim, a small village in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
Eugene Adis, suggested she join the Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, a missionary order, but this was disallowed on health grounds.
[3] Sr. Reinolda had a total of ten Marian visions, preceded by an unusual occurrence, in December 1954: she perceived two figures, a woman in white and a monk.
From the first vision on, Sr. Reinolda shared her experiences with the local priests, who showed reluctance and referred her to the bishop, to whom she wrote a number of times in the next decade.
He did not want the visions to be publicized, and while he consented to the painting and the small chapel he refused to have a bigger church built; he maintained this attitude until his death, in 1973.
Popular veneration at the shrine continued unabated; people traveled from far and wide to pray at the chapel and collect water from the springs.
[4] When St. Reinolda died, in 1981, interest again increased, and one local Catholic, Mrs. Rose-Marie Foxon, wrote the Vatican as well as other parishes in South Africa.
In 1989, the committee published a booklet, and postcards featuring the shrine were being printed, and the cult played an ever-increasing role in the local church.