On July 28, 2022, Pope Francis celebrates mass at the famous pilgrimage site of Saint Anne de Beaupre.
Newsroom (27/07/2022 9:10 PM Gaudium Press) St Anne de Beaupre is one of the eight national shrines of Canada. It receives about a half-million pilgrims each year. The peak pilgrimage period is around July 26 on the feast of Saint Anne.
Devotion to Saint Anne in Canada goes back to the beginning of New France and was brought over by the first settlers and early missionaries. The pioneers soon began to till the fertile soil of the Beaupre hillside; in the region which now forms the parish of Sainte Anne de Beaupre, the first houses date from 1650. Not much later, the settlers built themselves a chapel where they might meet for Divine worship. One of their numbers, the Sieur Etienne Lessard, offered to give the land required at the spot the church authorities should find suitable. On March 13, 1658, the missionary, Father Vignal, came to choose the site and bless the foundations of the proposed chapel, which, by general consent, was to be dedicated to St. Anne. That very day the Saint showed how favourably she viewed the undertaking by healing Louis Guimont, an inhabitant of Beaupre, who suffered terribly from rheumatism of the loins. Full of confidence in St. Anne, he came forward and placed three stones in the foundations of the new building, after which he found himself suddenly and completely cured of his ailment.
Picture Gallery: See More about St Anne de Beaupre Basilica: A Canadian Jewel
This first authentic miracle was the precursor of countless other graces and favours of all kinds. For two and a half centuries, the great wonderworker has ceaselessly and lavishly shown her kindness to all the sufferers from all parts of North America who flock every year to Beaupre to implore her help.
The old church was begun in 1676 and used for worship until 1876 when it was replaced by the present one, which opened in October of that year. This last was built of cut stone utilizing contributions from all the Catholics of Canada. The offerings made by pilgrims have defrayed the cost of fittings and decoration. Many pilgrims came to the shrine hoping to receive a miracle, while others, like Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII and Queen of France, supported the shrine from a distance. Because of the shrine’s popularity, the building was enlarged several times to accommodate all the pilgrims. It is two hundred feet long, and one hundred wide, including the side chapels.
Pope Leo XIII raised it to the rank of a minor basilica May 5, 1887; on May 19, 1889, it was solemnly consecrated by Cardinal Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec. The Redemptorists have served it since 1878. On either side of the central doorway are huge pyramids of crutches, walking sticks, bandages, and other appliances left behind by the disabled people, lame and sick, who, having prayed to St. Anne at her shrine, have gone home healed. The main wall at the entry into the Basilica is wholly covered with crutches.
Design
Joseph-Émile Brunet designed twenty-four capitals (1948) for the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, which depict 52 religious subjects reflecting the life of Jesus. He sculpted 14 “Stations of the Cross” lining the Cathedral’s walls, with stone statues of Saint Anne and Saints at the entrance of the Cathedral. Joseph-Émile Brunet also created the fountain in front of the Basilica and the 7′ 6″-high stone sculpture in niches that can be seen on entering the Basilica, “Marie de L’Incarnation,” “Saint Joseph,” “The Virgin with Jesus,” “François de Laval,” and “St. Joachim,” in addition to a bronze sculpture of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, 6′ 4″ high.
Relics
The canons of Carcassonne, at the request of Monseigneur de Laval, first Bishop of Quebec, sent to Beaupre a large relic of the finger-bone of Saint Anne, which was first exposed for veneration on March 12, 1670, and has ever since been an object of great devotion. Three other relics of the Saint have been added in later times to the treasures of this shrine. In 1892 Cardinal Taschereau presented the Great Relic to the Basilica, the wrist bone of St. Anne. It measures four inches in length and was brought from Rome by Msgr. Marquis, P.A.
Compiled by Raju Hasmukh