Photos of the Week: Arbaeen pilgrims, Assumption of Mary

By Kit Doyle · August 19, 2025

(RNS) — Each week RNS presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes millions of pilgrims participating in Arbaeen, the Assumption of Mary feast day and more.

People gather outside the Kiruna Church, a Sami style wooden Swedish Lutheran church, called Kiruna Kyrka in Swedish, in Kiruna, Sweden, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, during its move along a 3-mile route east to a new city center as part of the town's relocation. (AP Photo/Malin Haarala)

Shiite pilgrims participate in Arbaeen at the holy shrine of Imam Hussein, which marks the end of the 40-day mourning period following Ashoura, in Karbala, Iraq, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)

Water misters to help with heat spray above pilgrims participating in Arbaeen, which marks the end of the 40-day mourning period following Ashoura, in Karbala, Iraq, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)

Shiite pilgrims participate in Arbaeen, which marks the end of the 40-day mourning period following Ashoura, in Karbala, Iraq, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ammar Khalil)

People take part in a protest demanding the end of the war, the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Demonstrators gather during a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and calling for the Israeli government to reverse its decision to take over Gaza City and other areas in the Gaza Strip, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Police use a water canon to disperse demonstrators blocking a road during a protest demanding the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas and calling for the Israeli government to reverse its decision to take over Gaza City and other areas in the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Women check their veils before a procession honoring the patron saint of Guatemala City, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Catholics carry a statue of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary during a procession honoring the patron saint of Guatemala City, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Catholics attend a Mass during the feast day of the Assumption of Mary at the Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Krekenava, some 100 miles northwest of the capital, Vilnius, Lithuania, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

Catholic sisters participating in the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ “Outdoor Pilgrimage of Hope" walk through downtown Atlanta, Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025. (Photo courtesy Sr. Annmarie Sanders/LCWR)

Russian Orthodox Archpriest Rev. Ioann Sirota, rector of the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Serebryaniki, center left, blesses grapes and other fruits during celebration of the Transfiguration of the Lord in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Archival Photos

Seven-hundred-thousand Polish Catholics gather in Częstochowa, Poland, outside the famous monastery of Jasna Gora, to participate in the dedication of their country to the Virgin Mary in September 1946. Cardinal August Hlond, primate of Poland, and Adam Cardinal Sapieha, archbishop of Kraków, celebrated the Mass at which formal consecration took place, asking the Virgin to "give this Polish land, saturated in blood and tears, a tranquil and honorable existence in truth, justice and freedom." (RNS archive photo by Ernest Zaugg. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)

Good Samaritans rescue Pat Morales, an elderly resident of Bishop, Texas, from his home on Aug. 11, 1980, where he had been trapped by floodwaters from Hurricane Allen. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)

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