Knock has been recognised as an International Marian and Eucharistic Shrine.
The unique status was conferred on the revered shrine yesterday, the feast day of St Joseph.
The Co Mayo shrine has been a place of importance and pilgrimage for Catholics since a group of local people claimed to have seen an apparition on the gable wall of the local church in August 1879.
The vision is said to have included the Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist.
It is also said to have included a lamb standing before a cross on a plain alter and surrounded by angels.
Pre Covid-19 huge numbers of people regularly made the journey from all parts of Ireland to the popular place of worship.
Saint John Paul II visited the holy site as Pope in 1979 while Saint Teresa of Calcutta also made the trip in 1993.
In 2018 Pope Francis attended the shrine during his visit to Ireland as part of the World Meeting of Families.
He deliver a message via video link during a virtual Mass held last night which was celebrated by Archbishop Neary and concelebrated by parish priest and rector Fr Richard Gibbons.
Apostolic Nuncio Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo was also in attendance.
In his homily Pope Francis described the Irish as a "missionary people".
"How many families in the course of almost a century and a half have handed on the faith to their children and gathered their daily labours around the prayer of the Rosary, with the image of Our Lady of Knock at its centre," he said.
"The arms of the Virgin, outstretched in prayer, continue to show us the importance of prayer as the message of hope which goes out from this shrine."
The Pope said that with Knock's new status comes responsibility.
"My dear brothers and sisters present at Knock, and all of you who may be watching from afar, the elevation of the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock to an International Sanctuary of Special Eucharistic and Marian Devotion is a great responsibility.
"You accept to always have your arms wide open as a sign of welcome to every pilgrim who may arrive from any part of the world, asking nothing in return but only recognizing him as a brother or a sister who desires to share the same experience of fraternal prayer."
Archbishop Neary voiced his gratitude to the Pope for granting the site with its new status.
"This is a momentous event, and it is most fitting that it would be announced and celebrated on the Feast of Saint Joseph in the Year of Saint Joseph, because alongside Our Lady, Saint John the Evangelist and the Lamb of God, Saint Joseph also appeared here on that August evening in 1879," he said.
In a special video message Archbishop Eamon Martin has invited people to attend knock once the coronavurus pandemic restrictions ease.
