Chapter 21

Ten Popular Shrines of the Saints

In This Chapter

Shrines in Europe

Shrines in the United States

Apopular form of piety in the Middle Ages involved making a pilgrimage — a journey to a religious place. Aside from obvious locations like the Holy Land where Jesus was born, lived, died, and rose from the dead, the traveling faithful often visit shrines of the saints. This chapter highlights ten such shrines, whether they be the actual burial site for an individual saint or a spot dedicated in his or her honor.

Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

The basilica of St. Francis is in the medieval Italian town of Assisi, 90 miles north of Rome. The basilica is dedicated to the saint who, along with St. Dominic in the 13th century, established the mendicant orders of the Franciscans and Dominicans, respectively.

Construction of the church began two years after Francis’s death in 1226; it wasn’t completed until 1253. It was built on land donated by Francis’s friend, Simone di Pucciarello. St. Francis’s remains are interred in the lower church. Southwest of the basilica is the Sacro Convento (Sacred Convent), which includes papal apartments for visiting popes and is not open to the public.

The basilica was damaged in an earthquake in 1997 in which four people died. The lower level was undamaged, and the upper level has been repaired.

Catedral de Santiago de Compostela

This Spanish cathedral in the northwest town of Santiago de Compostela was built over the grave of St. James the Greater after the earlier church was destroyed by the Moors. Construction of the structure, with its Baroque facade, started in 1060 and was completed in 1211. St. James’s remains were discovered in AD 819, and the earlier church was built over his grave.

The 12th-century Portico da Gloria, behind the western facade, is a central highlight of the cathedral. It follows the style of the Romanesque period and was built by Master Mateo between 1168 and 1188. Other features include the famous Botafumeiro, or incense burner; a pulley mechanism used to swing the burner is located in a dome above the crossing. The Botafumeiro, built by Jose Losada in 1851, is the largest censer in the world — it’s 5 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs 176 pounds.

One of the largest Romanesque churches of Spain (if not all of Europe), the Catedral de Santiago de Compostela is third only to Lourdes and Fatima in the number of pilgrims that visit each year and in popularity among the faithful. Before the Marian apparitions in those other locations, this was the premier pilgrimage site, second only to Rome itself.

Cologne Cathedral

The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany (the Kölner Dom), is dedicated to both St. Peter and the Virgin Mary. It’s believed that the church possesses the relics of the Magi who visited the Christ child, as recounted in the second chapter of the Gospel According to St. Matthew.

Construction of the cathedral was started in the 13th century on the ruins of a 4th-century Roman temple and took more than 600 years to complete. The cornerstone was laid on August 15, 1248, and the work was finally finished in 1880 in the presence of King of Prussia and first German Emperor Wilhelm I.

World War II aerial bombs hit the church 14 times, but the building survived.

Besides housing the relics of the Magi, the Cologne Cathedral also has the Gero Cross (Gero-Kreuz), carved in AD 976, the oldest surviving monumental crucifix north of the Alps. In the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, inside the cathedral, is the Madonna of Milan (Mailänder Madonna), an exquisite wooden sculpture depicting Mary and the child Jesus from the year 1290. Another jewel of the cathedral is the Chapel of the Virgin (Marienkapelle), where the painting of the Patron Saints of Köln by Stefan Lochner (1442) is displayed.

House of the Virgin Mary

According to pious tradition, the Virgin Mary lived under the care of St. John the Beloved (also known as John the Evangelist) in Ephesus (on the western coast of modern-day Turkey) until her Assumption into heaven sometime before the end of the first century. The Gospel of John tells of Jesus giving his mother to the care of the Beloved Disciple just before his death on the cross (John 19:26–27), and history records that John lived in Ephesus both before and after his exile to the island of Patmos.

Often confused with the Cathedral Meryem Kilisesi (Turkish for “Mary’s Church”), where the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus convened in AD 431, the House of the Virgin Mary (called Meryem Ana Evi in Turkish) in Ephesus is the home where believers contend the Virgin Mary lived in her later years. Now a shrine, it has an altar where Mass is celebrated in addition to a place of prayer and reflection for other religions.

Pope Paul VI visited the House of the Virgin Mary in 1967, Pope John Paul II came in 1979, and Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2006. Every year, pilgrims flock to this shrine, especially on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, which commemorates Mary’s body and soul being taken up to heaven by her Divine Son, Jesus. The Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholics call this the Feast of the Holy Dormition (or falling asleep) of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

La Madeleine

La Madeleine is a church dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene in Paris, France. Construction started during the reign of King Louis XV in 1764, and the church was first designed by Constant d’Ivry. A second architect who favored a design imitating the Roman Pantheon wasn’t well received, and work came to a halt from 1790 to 1806.

Emperor Napoleon decided to erect a “temple of glory” to his Grand Army, and he commissioned Pierre-Alexandre Vignon as imperial architect. Workers leveled what remained from the first efforts on the church and started building what was to be a Greek-like temple. King Louis XVIII ordered in 1814 that the Madeleine should be a church, but in 1837 it was almost designated the first railway station of Paris. The Madeleine was finally consecrated a church in 1842. The exterior is surrounded by large Corinthian columns and a frieze of the Last Judgment above the portico. A painting by Ziegler in the chancel depicts the history of Christianity, with the Emperor Napoleon conspicuously in the forefront.

St. Peter’s Basilica

Most of the liturgical celebrations in Rome take place in St. Peter’s Basilica, the residence of the Holy Father.

The Circus of Nero, the site of St. Peter’s death in AD 64, was held on the site where St. Peter’s Basilica now stands. St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, convinced her son to build a church in AD 324 over the tomb of this special saint.

Pope Nicholas V decided in the mid-15th century that the old basilica should be rebuilt and hired architect Bernardo Rossellino to start renovating the old church. Both died before completion, and Pope Sixtus IV had the Sistine Chapel built instead.

Pope Julius II commissioned construction on the existing basilica in 1506, and it was completed in 1626 under Pope Paul V. The first chief architect was Donato Bramante, followed by Raphael. Michelangelo then served as main architect and designed the famous dome, while Bernini designed the great colonnade, with 140 statues atop, circling the piazza of St. Peter’s Square.

A crypt containing the remains of St. Peter and other popes — including Pope John Paul the Great — is located under the main church. Over the actual tomb is a 927-ton bronze baldacchino (canopy) reaching 90 feet tall; under this canopy is the altar at which the pope celebrates Holy Mass.

St. Peter’s is the largest church in the world, covering 5.7 acres and capable of holding 60,000 people inside. The basilica welcomes the greatest number of visitors each year and hosted the largest number of heads of state, presidents, prime ministers, and monarchs gathered together during the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

The pope has general audiences with the public outside in the piazza in front of the basilica when the weather allows. When the weather is bad, audiences are held inside the Pope Paul VI hall, adjacent to the Vatican.

St. Peter’s Basilica lies inside the independent nation of Vatican City, the smallest sovereign nation on earth (100 acres and 900 citizens).

St. Stephen’s Basilica

This church honoring St. Stephen, king and now patron saint of Hungary, is the largest in the nation. Construction of the church, which holds the incorrupt right hand of the saintly monarch, was started in 1855 and completed 50 years later, in 1905. The basilica is said to hold 8,500 people and is second in size only to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Visitors can see the city of Budapest from the top of the basilica. A statue of St. Stephen, made of white Carrara marble by Alajos Strobl, stands in the middle of the high altar. The church is also home to the largest bell in the country, weighing in at 9 tons.

Sanctuaire d’Ars

Pope Benedict XVI declared St. John Vianney patron of all priests in his “Year for Priests” letter in June 2009; prior to that time, he had been the patron saint of diocesan parish priests. His final resting place in a small town in France has become a popular shrine for millions of pilgrims.

Ars, a small community northwest of Lyons and 250 miles south of Paris, was a spiritually desolate place at the time of St. John Vianney (see Chapter 5). The would-be saint was unsure of his direction when traveling to Ars and stopped to ask a young boy for help. When the boy told him the proper road to follow, John thanked the boy and said, “You have shown me the way to Ars; now I will show you the way to heaven.”

The original church John served now stands as the nave of the basilica built after his death. His incorrupt body is located in the shrine in his honor. Several side chapels John had built onto the church still remain, and a separate chapel — the Chapel of the Heart — houses the relic of John’s heart, which was removed from his body.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

The building that now stands as St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City replaced an earlier and smaller church. Old St. Patrick’s, the earlier church, is the oldest Catholic building in New York and remains a functioning parish. The new St. Patrick’s Cathedral was designed by American architect James Renwick. Construction started in 1858 but was interrupted by the Civil War. It was finally opened and consecrated in 1879.

The original proposed site for the cathedral was a countryside area thought to be too far from the inner city. Then-Archbishop Hughes persevered in his vision of building the most beautiful Gothic cathedral in the New World, in what eventually would become the heart of the city.

The cathedral is dedicated to the patron saint of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New York and the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick. Many Irish immigrants helped fund and build the current church, and most of the archbishops who served as spiritual shepherds of the archdiocese were of Irish ancestry. More than 100 parishioners pledged $1,000 each, and thousands of Irish Americans donated their pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to pay for this elegant house of worship.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral is a Gothic building made of white marble and stone that seats approximately 2,400 people. The St. Michael and St. Louis altar was designed by Tiffany’s, and the St. Elizabeth altar was designed by Paolo Medici of Rome. The cathedral also contains a statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first American-born saint.

The stained-glass windows came from Chartres, France; Birmingham, England; and Boston, Massachusetts. The cathedral’s replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta statue is three times larger than the original in Rome.

More than 3 million people visit St. Patrick’s Cathedral every year. Pope Paul VI visited in 1964, Pope John Paul II visited in 1979, and Pope Benedict XVI visited in 2008. St. Patrick’s hosted the most funerals of the firefighters who died during the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Wakes and/or funeral masses were also held there for Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Governor Alfred E. Smith, and Prime Minister Jan Ignace Paderewski of Poland, as well as for Babe Ruth, Vince Lombardi, and Joe DiMaggio.

St. Spiridon Orthodox Cathedral

St. Spiridon was an Eastern Orthodox Christian saint who lived in the fourth century. This cathedral dedicated in his honor is in Seattle, Washington, and was built by the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) in 1895 to minister to the needs of Greek, Russian, and Serbian immigrants of the Orthodox faith.

The Greeks formed their own church in 1918 and built St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in 1921. An estimated 6,000 Russian refugees fled Communist persecution and traveled to Seattle in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. The current cathedral was built in 1941 and resembles the famous onion-domed Russian churches, whereas the old St. Spiridon looked more like the typical New England Puritan-style meetinghouses.