Czechoslovakia was declared in 1918, and for the first time the pilgrims walking to Šaštín were walking inside a state in which Slovak was an official language. On 8 September 1924 the Salesians of Don Bosco — a teaching order that works with young people — arrived and took on the shrine and its buildings; it was one of their first houses in Slovakia. Then on 22 April 1927 Pope Pius XI, in a decree beginning Celebre apud Slovaccham gentem, confirmed Our Lady of Sorrows as patroness of Slovakia. It was proclaimed at Šaštín in front of three bishops and a reported forty thousand pilgrims. A village shrine had become a national one.V roku 1918 vzniklo Československo a pútnici kráčajúci do Šaštína po prvý raz kráčali v štáte, kde bola slovenčina úradným jazykom. Ôsmeho septembra 1924 sem prišli saleziáni dona Bosca — rehoľa, ktorá učí a pracuje s mládežou — a prevzali svätyňu aj jej budovy; bol to jeden z ich prvých domov na Slovensku. Dvadsiateho druhého apríla 1927 potom pápež Pius XI. dekrétom, ktorý sa začína slovami Celebre apud Slovaccham gentem, potvrdil Sedembolestnú Pannu Máriu za patrónku Slovenska. Vyhlásili to v Šaštíne pred tromi biskupmi a údajne štyridsiatimi tisícmi pútnikov. Z dedinskej svätyne sa stala svätyňa národná.
