Photos by Julianna Leopold

ATLANTA—It was about a decade ago when Jenny Gustainis heard a devout friend use the term of endearment “Mama Mary.” Gustainis was a college student returning to the faith and while she did not share the same devotion to St. Mary, she felt a longing for it.  

Shortly before the start of Lent, Gustainis completed her own Marian pilgrimage to sacred spaces across the Archdiocese of Atlanta with a sense of peace and desire for more. 

“They all have different stories,” said Gustainis about her visits. “It felt to me like Mary was revealing herself, you know, like, ‘this is a little bit about me, this is another little piece about me.’ Like a puzzle piece and just an enveloping mantle of ‘I love you.’”  

It was not an exercise to check a box. Through these visits, she came to see Mary as a maternal figure who welcomes all as she points people to Jesus.  

Gustainis, 33, is a first-grade teacher at Holy Spirit Preparatory School. She and her young family worship at St. Peter Chanel Church, Roswell.  

Meeting on St. Patrick’s Day, she wears green earrings. Her golf shirt has splotches of slime from her classroom day. Around her neck is a medal of St. Mary and St. John Baptist de La Salle, the patron saint of teachers. Talking after school, she enjoys a piece of key lime pie with a glass of water. (She gave up coffee for Lent.) 

Her attraction for the Blessed Mother grew out of her time at the Catholic Center at Georgia Tech, where she studied business administration and earned other degrees. Early in college, she had stopped attending Mass but returned after a tough-love conversation with her sister and eucharistic adoration.  

With the encouragement of a spiritual director, she took a step toward that long-held desire from college that never weakened. She brainstormed how to learn more about the Blessed Mother in her own backyard. Gustainis planned just to visit one religious site, perhaps a second. But she followed the Spirit’s prompting and committed herself fully.  

She discovered there are 16 churches and missions dedicated to St. Mary in the 69-counties of north and central Georgia. Gustainis mapped out a plan to visit each of them. From Jasper’s Our Lady of the Mountains in the north to St. Mary Mother of God in the south, and every Marian religious site in between, she traveled most weekends to visit, putting close to 1,100 miles on her car. 

Gustainis started at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta, on Oct. 20, 2024, and finished at the Shrine of Immaculate Conception, Atlanta, on Feb. 8.  

More than half the churches were open, but when she arrived at locked doors, she was undeterred. She instead would stay at an outdoor statue for meditation and prayer. Using her phone’s Note app, she researched each of the titles honoring Mary.   

“Jesus, I surrender myself to you. Take care of everything,” she would say during the pilgrimage, often while standing in front of Marian statues. She saw it as a way of entrusting herself to “Mama Mary” and surrendering to Jesus. 

Gustainis said she found each of the titles of St. Mary opened a glimpse of God’s love for the world. Understanding the honorifics revealed to her an unknown piece of St. Mary’s love, she said.  

Stopping at each of the churches enriched her spiritual journey. The Church of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built in 1883, revealed Mary as a place of rest, silence and stillness. Gustainis saw it as a place to be quiet and allow Jesus to speak.  

Our Lady of Vietnam Church, Riverdale, features a massive statue of Our Lady of Lavang outside the church in a plaza with benches. Sitting there, Gustainis was inspired her to learn about Mary’s global significance.  

“I did not know any of her stories at all. I literally sat underneath in front of the statue. I looked up at ‘Mama Mary’ and I just was reading about her, and it felt like this surreal experience of “My love for the people reaches the whole world.” 

Carrollton’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help was special because the sanctuary’s stained-glass shows the diverse titles honoring the Blessed Mother. Every window tells a different story of St. Mary, Gustainis said, each revealing an aspect of her life and devotion.  

Her final visit to downtown Atlanta’s Shrine was moving because it revealed Mary’s love for all. She learned how “Mary loves different types of people, and she doesn’t leave out the poor.” The message she received there focused on Mary’s compassion for everyone, “especially the poor and the forgotten.” 

As a Millennial, she naturally took to social media to share the experience. On her Instagram account, she reserved photos of her visits. Close to 600 people have viewed her Reel of her nearly four-month effort.  

If her 10 years of growing in the faith has meant anything, it is Gustainis doesn’t want to rush what’s next on her journey. The pilgrimage revealed “this sense of peace and an understanding of the love that Mama Mary has, not just for me, but for everyone in different ways.”