Chapter 22
IN THIS CHAPTER
Seeing some miraculous shrines near and far
Discovering Catholic history, art, and architecture
Although some religions require their members to visit their holy and sacred places, the Catholic Church doesn’t. Catholics are simply encouraged to make pilgrimages — religious journeys to holy places. This chapter covers our picks for the top ten most popular places that Catholics like to visit sometime in their lives. Bon voyage!
Just as Jews want to visit Jerusalem and Muslims want to visit Mecca, many Catholics have a passion and desire to see Rome at some point in their lives. Since the conversion of the Roman Empire in the mid-fourth century, the Eternal City, as it’s often been called since it was founded in 753 B.c., has been the center of Catholicism. The first pope, St. Peter, and the great missionary and apostle St. Paul were both martyred in this city between A.d. 64 and 67.
During early Church history (see Appendix A for details), Christian men, women, and children suffered 300 years of violent and aggressive persecution; many martyrs are buried in Rome. The city is a place of remembrance and memorial for those who died for being Christian.
The Roman tradition was to burn dead bodies. But the Christians buried their dead, especially the remains of martyrs, in underground cemeteries called catacombs because they believed in the resurrection of the body at the end of the world. Five catacombs are open to the public in Rome:
Rome is also predominantly a city of churches — at least 900 of them. Of these, four are called papal basilicas or major basilicas:
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FIGURE 22-1: The Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican.
All basilicas have a special chair or throne for the pope to sit on whenever he celebrates Mass in that church, and only the pope may use it — no one else, not even a bishop or cardinal. A set of holy doors in each basilica is opened only during the Holy Year, which occurs every 25 years, and pilgrims pass through. Basilicas are considered either major or minor:
The Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City, Mexico, is the number two pilgrimage site for Catholics, after Rome. This basilica contains the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Catholics believe was imprinted by Mary on the cloak of an Aztec Indian, 57-year-old St. Juan Diego, on December 12, 1531.
Walking north of Mexico City in the Tepayac hill country, Juan Diego saw the Virgin Mary, but she had the appearance of an Aztec woman, not a European, and she was pregnant. She directed St. Juan Diego to go to the local bishop and tell him that she wanted a church built in her honor.
After waiting several hours to see the noble Spanish-born Bishop Fray Juan de Zumarraga, St. Juan Diego was granted an audience. The respectful yet incredulous bishop told St. Juan Diego that he needed a sign from heaven that this was indeed God’s will to build a church in that location. St. Juan Diego went back and told Mary what the bishop had requested, and she told him to gather roses from a bush that appeared out of nowhere. These Castilian roses weren’t indigenous to Mexico, and certainly not in cold December, but they were popular in Spain. It just so happened that the bishop’s hobby was gardening, and he’d been an official rose expert back in Spain before being sent to Mexico.
Juan Diego carried the roses in his tilma (cloak) to the bishop, opened his garment, and the bishop fell to his knees. Not only were the roses beautiful and rare, but also, a gorgeous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was on the tilma. She was like the scriptural passage that describes a woman who is “clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child” (Revelation 12:1–2).
The tilma remains on display in the Basilica Church in Mexico City. To this day, science can’t explain how that image got onto the tilma. It’s not painted, dyed, sewn, printed, or the product of any man-made process. Blessed Pope John Paul II canonized Juan Diego in 2002. Millions of people from around the world visit this holy place.
San Giovanni Rotondo is the resting place of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, affectionately known as Padre Pio. (Pietrelcina is the town where Padre Pio was born.) He was a humble, simple but holy Capuchin monk, a type of Franciscan. (We provide a brief bio of his life in Chapter 21, if you’re interested.)
While he was alive, thousands came to him for confession and his priestly blessing. Since his death, hundreds of thousands have made pilgrimages to this town to see where Padre Pio celebrated Mass and heard confessions, and to see the church where he’s buried. Most of all, they want to see the Church of Our Lady of Grace, where they believe he received the stigmata — the five wounds of Christ. Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza (House for the Relief of Suffering) is the hospital founded by him in the same town and visited by many pilgrims as well. In nearly every store, restaurant, and home in San Giovanni, you can see pictures and statues of local saint Padre Pio.
At the National Padre Pio Center in Barto, Pennsylvania, not far from Reading, Pennsylvania, you can see a replica of the chapel in San Giovanni. One of the bloodstained gloves that Padre Pio wore while he had the stigmata is on display in the chapel.
Pious tradition maintains that St. Luke the Evangelist painted an icon of the Virgin Mary (see Figure 22-2) sometime after Christ’s Crucifixion on the cross. Scholars believe Luke used the mother of Jesus as a primary source for the beginning of his Gospel where the infancy of Christ is told. And pious tradition also has it that St. Helena, the founder of the True Cross (see Appendix A) in the fourth century and the mother of Emperor Constantine, was the one who discovered this painting.
© Fred de Noyelle/Getty Images, Inc.
FIGURE 22-2: Many believe that St. Luke created this painting of Mary and baby Jesus, called the “Black Madonna of Czestochowa.”
No matter where the icon originally came from or who painted it, the fact remains that it has been one of the great spiritual treasures of Poland. Somehow during the Muslim invasions, the image made its way to Poland through Russia. Polish Prince St. Ladislaus, in the 15th century, kept it safe in his castle until the Tartar invaders threatened to overrun Poland. Intending to move it to his hometown of Opala, Prince Ladislaus stopped overnight in Jasna Gora near Czestochowa.
According to the tradition, the next morning, the horses refused to move while the image was in the carriage. The Prince took this as a sign from God that the icon should stay there. So he entrusted the icon, thereafter known as the “Black Madonna of Czestochowa,” to the Pauline Fathers who cared for the spiritual needs of Czestochowa and Jasna Gora.
Today, the Black Madonna resides in a magnificent basilica in Czestochowa. Some say her face is black from attempts to destroy her, claiming that the heretical Hussites set it on fire but it would not burn. Others maintain that it is from the pigmentation in the paint, which was affected by the dark smoke from the hundreds of candles burning in front of it for centuries.
On one occasion, it’s said that a Tartar soldier drew his sword and struck it twice, hence the two gashes to this day on her right cheek. The story continues that when he made a third attempt to strike the icon with his sword, before he could complete the swing of his arm, he yelled in pain and dropped dead of a massive heart attack.
Millions of pilgrims visit the town and Basilica of Czestochowa where the icon remains on display. Providentially, the painting survived the diabolical Nazi invasion and occupation and then the Communist takeover until Poland became independent again.
A replica of the icon adorns the National Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, not far from Philadelphia.
St. Bernadette (see Chapter 21) was a young girl in Lourdes, France, and Catholics believe that Mary appeared to her in 1858 — from February 11 to July 16. Mary instructed St. Bernadette to dig with her hands in the soil and uncover a miraculous spring of water. To this day, the spring has been the catalyst for hundreds of thousands of inexplicable, immediate, and total cures. The water from the grotto is freely available to the faithful to take home with them. Many use it to bless the sick and dying in the hopes a miraculous cure may be granted from God by the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes.
The original basilica, built above the grotto in 1876, eventually became overcrowded, and in 1958, a concrete church accommodating 20,000 was built. Today, 4 to 6 million pilgrims visit each year, and approximately 200 million have come since 1860. You can see hundreds of canes, crutches, and other artifacts used by the sick and disabled that were left at Lourdes following a miraculous cure. If you visit, you may participate in the praying of the Rosary in all languages, which occurs on-site each night, complete with a candlelight procession.
Catholics believe that Mary appeared to three small shepherd children, Lucia, Jacinta, and Francisco, in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. She visited the children six times on the 13th of the month from May to October, asking them to pray the Rosary and to do so for the conversion of sinners so that they might repent of their sins and seek God’s mercy and forgiveness. She said many souls were lost because no one prayed for them, and they lived evil lives.
The faithful believe that during her apparitions to the children in Fatima, she also predicted World War II and the expansion of Communism, especially the Soviet Union’s evil empire, which enslaved most of Eastern Europe throughout the Cold War. She asked that the pope and bishops of the world consecrate Russia to her Immaculate Heart and that the faithful receive Holy Communion on the First Saturday of the month.
In May 1982, one year after an assassination attempt nearly killed him, Pope John Paul II asked the world’s bishops to join him in consecrating Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in thanksgiving for saving his life on May 13, 1981. Seven years after the consecration, the Berlin Wall fell, and in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and ceased to exist. Russia survived. Many attribute the end of the Cold War to political forces like Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Some Catholics attribute it to the spiritual influence of Blessed Pope John Paul II and the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima.
On the last day of the apparitions in Fatima, October 13, 1917, what’s known as the Miracle of the Sun occurred. It had rained earlier, and the ground was wet, as was the clothing of the crowd. The sun began to shrink and expand and then rotate and spin as if it were going to impact the earth. Most of the crowd thought that it was the end of the world. It wasn’t. And when it was over, their clothes were dry. Astronomers to this day can’t explain what happened.
Jacinta and Francisco died shortly afterward, but the oldest of the three children entered a cloistered convent of the Carmelite order. Sr. Lucia died in 2005. Blessed Pope John Paul II beatified Jacinta and Francisco on May 13, 2000.
Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia are all buried at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. Weather permitting, today’s pilgrims pray the Rosary every evening where Our Lady of Fatima appeared. Pilgrims may also attend one of the outdoor Masses that are held on-site.
Assisi is located in the hills of Umbria, about three hours north of Rome. Medieval in design, it is known for two of its famous natives; Saint Francis and Saint Clare. Beautiful churches were built on either side of town in honor of these saints.
The basilica was begun in 1228 and consecrated in 1253. Built on the side of a hill, it has two buildings, called the Upper Church and the Lower Church, and a crypt where the relics of the St. Francis are venerated. Composed of Gothic architecture, the basilica is adorned with frescoes by Giotto, Cimbue, Lorenzetti, and Martini.
A major earthquake hit Assisi in 1997. The basilica was not destroyed, but the ceiling collapsed and four people died. Considered a very holy shrine, pilgrims pilfered stones from the quake, and the Italian government had to ask people to return them so the restoration of church could be done with original material.
You don’t need to go to Europe to see large and beautiful churches. Many Catholics visit the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception every day in Washington, D.C. (Take a look at Figure 22-3.)
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FIGURE 22-3: The National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Since 1847, the Patroness of the United States of America has been Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. On August 15, 1913, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, Bishop Thomas J. Shahan, Rector of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., had a papal audience with Pope St. Pius X and asked for permission to build a national shrine in the United States in honor of Mary. The pope not only gave his permission and blessing but also a personal check for $400 to start the contribution campaign. James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, blessed the cornerstone on September 23, 1920, but the Depression and World War II slowed progress.
In 1953, the nation’s bishops pledged their support to finish the Great Upper Church, which is the main body of the shrine. (It’s called the Upper Church to distinguish it from the basement or lower church, which is much smaller.) The largest Roman Catholic Church in the United States and the eighth largest in the world, the shrine was completed on November 20, 1959.
The oldest pilgrimage site in North America is the Minor Basilica of St. Anne de Beaupré in Quebec, Canada. The original church was built in 1658, followed by two more. The first basilica was erected in 1876, but a fire destroyed it in 1922. A second basilica and the fourth church were consecrated in 1976.
The church is built in honor of St. Anne, the mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus Christ. The French settlers who came to Canada had a strong devotion to St. Anne, so it was natural for them to name it after her. It’s the pride and joy of French Canadians and English Canadians alike. Numerous miraculous healings have been associated with pilgrimages to this fantastic shrine. Every year, more than 1 million people visit this holy place.
Mother Angelica (see Chapter 20), who founded the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in Irondale, Alabama, also built the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama.
Mother Angelica says that while on a pilgrimage in Bogota, Columbia, she saw a statue of the Child Jesus come alive and speak to her: “Build me a temple, and I will help those who help you.” She says that she was puzzled because Catholics aren’t accustomed to using the word temple. The words church, cathedral, basilica, and shrine are familiar and used often, but not temple. Later, Mother Angelica, visiting St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, saw the word temple chiseled in the marble. She says that she knew then that it had to be impressive.
It took 200 workers — 99 percent of them non-Catholic — to build the temple in five years with donations from five millionaire families who demanded anonymity. Not one penny of the contributions collected from viewers for the EWTN network went to the project, which is calculated to have cost somewhere between $25 and $30 million.
“Nothing but the best for Jesus,” was Mother Angelica’s motto. “If the President of the United States has the White House and the Queen of England has Buckingham Palace, then Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, present in the Blessed Sacrament, deserves the very best for His house.” The Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament may be in Hanceville, Alabama, but the materials used to build it came from all over the world. The ceramic tile came from South America, the stones from Canada, and the bronze from Madrid, Spain. The floors, columns, and pillars are made of marble from Italy. And a rare red Jasper marble came from Turkey that was used for the red crosses in the floor. The wood for the pews, doors, and confessionals is cedar imported from Paraguay. The stained glass windows were imported from Munich, Germany. The most striking and moving feature, however, is the seven-foot monstrance (ornamental vessel) containing the Blessed Sacrament (see Chapter 19).