Stone Font, Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré - Beaupré, QC
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N 47° 01.433 W 070° 55.712
19T E 353449 N 5209623
Stone Font, Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré
Waymark Code: WMT519
Location: Québec, Canada
Date Posted: 09/27/2016
Views: 17
The Basilica has been credited by the Catholic Church with many miracles of curing the sick and disabled. It is an important Catholic sanctuary which receives about a half-million pilgrims each year. The peak period of pilgrimage is around July 26, the feast of Saint Anne, the patron saint of Quebec.
St. Anne is believed, by the pious, to obtain miracles through her intercession. People from all around the world come to visit the basilica. Pillars in the front entrance are covered in crutches from people who are said by the parishioners to have been miraculously cured and saved.
The basilica in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré was initially a shrine to honour Saint Anne. On March 8, 1658, a man by the name of Etienne de Lessard donated two frontal acres from the West end of his property to the Catholic Church so that a chapel could be built. This chapel eventually became the site of the modern-day basilica. It was built for two reasons: to provide a place of worship for the new settlers in the area and to house a miraculous statue of St. Anne. The first reported miracle at the site happened during the shrine’s construction. A man named Louis Guimond was hired to help build the shrine even though he suffered from rheumatism. After placing three stones upon the shrine’s foundation, Guimond was cured of all his ailments. This was followed by other testimonies of healed people and the shrine soon grew in popularity.
Because of the popularity of the shrine, the building was enlarged several times to accommodate all the pilgrims. In 1876, the first basilica opened for worship. The former basilica was destroyed in a fire on March 29, 1922. The present-day basilica was built on the site of the prior church in 1926.
Architects Maxime Roisin, Louis N. Audet and Joseph-Égilde-Césaire Daoust collaborated on the project from 1923-1931. After the end of the financial recession, the work on the interior resumed in 1937, and was finally completed in 1946.
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