Knock (An Cnoc in Irish, meaning The Hill – but now more generally known in Irish as Cnoc Mhuire, "Hill of (the Virgin) Mary") is a small town in County Mayo in Ireland. Knock's notability derives from the Apparition of 1879, when, at 8.00PM on 21 August, it was reported that the Virgin Mary, together with St Joseph and St John the Evangelist, appeared to local people. In the 20th century it became one of Europe's major Roman Catholic Marian shrines, alongside Lourdes and Fatima. One and a half million pilgrims visit Knock Shrine annually.