Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré

The Côte-de-Beaupré, on the St. Lawrence

The shrine stands in the town of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, on the Côte-de-Beaupré, a narrow inhabited strip wedged between the St. Lawrence River and the first foothills of the Laurentians, about thirty kilometres north-east of Quebec City, facing the eastern tip of the Île d'Orléans.^[3] The region now belongs to the Archdiocese of Quebec, the oldest episcopal see in Canada.

The Côte-de-Beaupré is one of the oldest French lands in America: a seigneury since the mid-17th century, settled by colonists chiefly from western France, it borders the road leading toward Cap Tourmente and the mouth of the river. It was on this shoreline, exposed to spring floods and ice, that the cult of Saint Anne took root.

The oldest shrine in French America

Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré is not a great medieval pilgrimage like Compostela, nor a prestigious Roman basilica: it is a settlement shrine, born together with New France itself. Founded in 1658, it slightly predates the erection of the Diocese of Quebec (1674) and has accompanied the entire history of French-Canadian Catholicism ever since.^[4] This unbroken antiquity — continuous worship since the 17th century, on the same spot — is what makes it unique: few shrines in the Americas can claim a devotion as old as the European presence on the continent.

Why Saint Anne in Canada?

Devotion to Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin, was especially fervent in western France — Brittany, Anjou, Aunis — whence came many of the first settlers and the sailors who crossed the Atlantic.^[5] Patroness of sailors, seafarers and families, Saint Anne was the natural recourse of those who braved river and ocean. Transplanted to New France, this Breton devotion found its American home at Beaupré — to the point that Jesus' grandmother would become one of the most beloved figures of Quebec Catholicism, and then of the converted Indigenous nations, who venerate her as "the grandmother".^[6]

The sailors' vow and Étienne de Lessard's gift

According to the tradition reported by the chronicles of New France, Breton sailors caught in a storm on the St. Lawrence made a vow to raise a chapel to Saint Anne if they were saved; rescued, they are said to have fulfilled their promise on the Côte-de-Beaupré.^[7] That same year, 1658, a local settler, Étienne de Lessard, granted part of his land for the building of the first shrine.^[8] The project was led by the colony's first priests, under the authority of the abbé of Quebec, the future Bishop François de Laval.

The first wooden chapel (1658)

The first chapel, a modest wooden building, was raised in 1658 close to the river.^[9] It was a pioneers' shrine: a few settlers, a visiting priest, a statue of Saint Anne. Outwardly nothing distinguished this place from the other chapels along the coast — except what happened there from the very building works.

The founding miracle of Louis Guimont

The event that made the place famous occurred during construction itself. Louis Guimont, a resident of the coast afflicted with a kidney ailment that caused him cruel suffering, insisted on taking part in the work: he laid, so tradition says, three stones in the chapel's foundations — and found himself instantly healed.^[10] This healing, the first of a long series, was recorded by the priests of the time, notably Abbé Thomas Morel.^[11]

Word spread quickly along the river. From then on, pilgrimages never ceased: people came from all over the colony to pray to Saint Anne at Beaupré, and within a few years the place had acquired the status of a recognised shrine.^[12] Local tradition reports an early great pilgrimage — a procession setting out from Château-Richer — for 26 July 1663, the feast of Saint Anne.^[13]

"Saint Anne, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the women of Easter morning point out to us a new path of reconciliation: the maternal tenderness of so many women can accompany us — as Church — toward times that are fruitful once more." — Pope Francis, homily at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, 28 July 2022^[14]

A chapel too close to the river

Built flush with the shoreline, the 1658 chapel suffered from spring flooding and its closeness to the St. Lawrence. As early as 1661, it was rebuilt slightly further east, on ground better sheltered from the waters.^[15] This initial move foreshadows the whole material history of the shrine: a place endlessly enlarged, relocated, rebuilt, keeping pace with the growing crowds of pilgrims and the blows of fate.

The 1676 stone church

As crowds grew, the wooden chapel became inadequate. In 1676, a true stone church was built to replace the primitive structures — the site's first lasting shrine, a sign that the pilgrimage was now firmly established in the life of the colony.^[16] It was in this church that the first relic of Saint Anne was placed, brought six years earlier by Bishop de Laval (see below).

The 1872–1876 church

The 1676 church served for nearly two centuries. In the 19th century, faced with an ever denser flow of pilgrims, a new, larger shrine was undertaken at the initiative of the local parish priest: the 1872–1876 church.^[17] This stone edifice, crowned with a gilded statue of Saint Anne, became the great pilgrimage church of the late 19th century — the one the Redemptorists would find on their arrival, and the one the 1922 fire would reduce to ashes.

The arrival of the Redemptorists (1877–1878)

In 1877, Cardinal Elzéar-Alexandre Taschereau, Archbishop of Quebec, entrusted the care of the shrine to the Redemptorist Fathers (Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer), come first from Baltimore and then from Belgium.^[18] They are still entrusted with the shrine's life and pilgrimages today, but with a greatly reduced community: in 2018, the Redemptorists left their historic monastery adjoining the shrine for nearby residences, keeping only a small presence on site.^[19] The great 1876 church, opened for worship in October 1876, was solemnly consecrated on 19 May 1889 by Cardinal Taschereau.^[20]

Minor basilica (Leo XIII, 5 May 1887)

A few years later, Pope Leo XIII raised the church to the rank of minor basilica on 5 May 1887 — a distinction sealing the shrine's influence across North American Catholicism.^[21] (A few secondary sources give 1886, but the Catholic Encyclopedia retains 5 May 1887.^[22]) The year 1887 also saw the crowning of the statue of Saint Anne, a mark of honour granted to the most venerated devotional images.^[23]

The monastery, the Scala Santa and the seminary

As masters of the place, the Redemptorists equipped the shrine with the fittings of a great pilgrimage. In 1891, they built their monastery and a replica of the Scala Santa — the "Holy Staircase" which pilgrims climb on their knees, in memory of Pilate's praetorium staircase venerated in Rome.^[24] In 1896 the Saint-Alphonse Seminary opened, named after the Redemptorists' founder.^[25] The place was no longer a mere shoreline chapel, but a true pilgrimage complex: church, monastery, holy staircase, retreat house.

The disaster

On 29 March 1922, a fire broke out in the great pilgrimage church and destroyed it entirely.^[26] Within hours, the late-19th-century shrine, the goal of hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, was gone. The loss was immense, but it did not interrupt the pilgrimage: temporary facilities were set up, and it was at once decided to rebuild on a grander scale.

The gilded statue saved from the flames

One detail struck contemporaries: the gilded statue of Saint Anne (1885) crowning the façade of the burned church was spared by the fire.^[27] Recovered intact, it was later placed atop the new basilica, where it still keeps watch. For pilgrims, this rescue of the statue amid the blaze took on the value of a sign — a visible continuity between the old shrine and the new.

The building works: Roisin, Daoust, Audet

Reconstruction began in 1923. The plans were first entrusted to the Parisian architect Maxime Roisin, who designed a Beaux-Arts monument of ample proportions in the neo-Romanesque style.^[28] He was assisted by the Sherbrooke architect Louis-Napoléon Audet, who directed the works on site and adapted the plans to the North American context; the Montreal architect Joseph-Égide-Césaire Daoust also took part in the work.^[29] The structural works stretched over decades: the spires crowning the bell towers were only completed in 1962, and some niches and cornices remain unfinished to this day.^[30]

A neo-Romanesque granite edifice

The basilica takes the form of a vast Latin-cross vessel with three naves, transept, radiating chapels and a semicircular apse ringed by an ambulatory opening onto some ten apsidioles.^[31] The exterior is clad in dressed silvery granite, with copper roofing; façade and portals display the round arches, broad splays and sculpted archivolts characteristic of the Romanesque style.^[32] Two towers rise over 90 metres high, dominating the Côte-de-Beaupré and the river.^[33]

Stained glass, mosaics and interior decoration

The interior is one of the richest in Quebec. The basilica holds 240 stained-glass windows from the Parisian workshops of Auguste Labouret; the vaults are covered with mosaics by Labouret and other workshops (Gaudin, Del Mistro), unfolding the life of Saint Anne and the history of salvation.^[34] The granite high altar is surmounted by a gilded bronze baldachin, and twelve monumental statues of apostles frame the great rose window.^[35] Together they make the basilica a picture book offered to pilgrims, in the great tradition of medieval Romanesque churches.

The 1976 consecration

The edifice was officially consecrated in 1976 by Cardinal Maurice Roy, Archbishop of Quebec.^[36] More than half a century after the fire, the shrine had regained a church worthy of its pilgrimage. The basilica has since been recognised as a heritage property by the municipality of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.^[37]

The shrine keeps three relics of Saint Anne, arriving three centuries apart, which punctuate its entire history.^[38]

The 1670 relic (Bishop de Laval)

The oldest is a fragment of a finger bone of Saint Anne, obtained from the chapter of Carcassonne and brought to the shrine on 12 March 1670 by Bishop François de Laval, first Bishop of Quebec.^[39] It is the site's first relic, deposited in the stone church a few years before its final construction.

The major relic of 1892 (Leo XIII)

In 1892, the shrine received a more important relic: a fragment of about four inches of the forearm (the wrist bone) of Saint Anne, from the Roman basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls — a gift of Pope Leo XIII, presented by Cardinal Taschereau, brought from Rome by Bishop Joseph-Calixte Canac-Marquis and enthroned on 26 July 1892, the feast of Saint Anne.^[40]

The Great Relic of 1960 (John XXIII)

The most venerated is the Great Relic: a fragment of Saint Anne's forearm, likewise from Saint Paul Outside the Walls, given by Pope John XXIII and solemnly enthroned on 3 July 1960.^[41] Presented to the faithful in a rich reliquary, it is now the central object of pilgrims' devotion, who come to touch and venerate it.

The two miraculous statues

The shrine honours two statues reputed miraculous. The first, in gilded wood, adorned the façade of the burned church: it is the one that survived the flames of 1922 and was set upon the new basilica.^[42] The second, inside, is the great statue of Saint Anne carrying the child Virgin, placed in the north transept on an onyx column: sculpted in 1927 by Jules de Vischer of Brussels, it follows an earlier version by the workshop of Mathias Zens (c. 1881).^[43] It is before this statue that pilgrims seeking graces pray.

The pillar of crutches

At the entrance of the basilica, one sight is striking: crutches, canes and braces hung on pillars, left by sufferers who claim to have been healed.^[44] These material ex-votos, accumulated since the 19th century, are the visible memory of the healings attributed to Saint Anne's intercession — a custom already attested in the lifetime of the first pilgrims.

Attested healings

The shrine continues to receive accounts of favours and healings: it reports some forty declared graces each year, collected by the shrine and published notably in the Annales de Sainte-Anne.^[45] Without prejudging the Church's discernment — no canonical inquiry is cited for each of these recent favours — these accounts extend, unbroken, the founding miracle of Louis Guimont: since 1658, the place has presented itself first and foremost as a shrine of healing, where people come to ask Jesus' grandmother for health of body and soul.

The objections, and the answers

Three difficulties are often raised, and they must be faced squarely. First, the two forearm relics (1892 and 1960) come from the same Roman basilica, Saint Paul Outside the Walls: their authenticity rests on the documented chain of pontifical gifts and solemn enthronements (1892, 1960), not on laboratory examination — the Church offers them for the veneration of the faithful, not as certified archaeological specimens.^[46] Second, the healings: the crutches on the pillars are ex-votos, not medical files, and the favours published each year have not, one by one, been the object of a cited canonical inquiry; they stand as collected testimonies, leaving discernment to the Church.^[47] Third, the cult of saints and relics itself: the Catholic Church defined it at the Council of Trent (Session XXV, 1563) — God alone is adored; saints and their relics are venerated as God's friends whose intercession is sought.^[48]

Around the basilica, the shrine forms an extensive devotional ensemble, the fruit of the Redemptorists' landscaping.

The memorial chapel

The memorial chapel (1878) was built on the site of the transept of the 1676 church, reusing elements of it: it preserves the memory of the vanished early shrines.^[49]

The Scala Santa (Holy Staircase)

The Scala Santa, built in 1891, houses a replica of Rome's holy staircase; pilgrims climb it on their knees, step by step, meditating on the Passion.^[50] Pope Francis himself, during his 2022 visit, joined this practice in spirit:

"Allow me, then, to join spiritually the many pilgrims who climb the 'Scala Santa' here, which recalls Jesus' ascent to Pilate's praetorium, and to accompany you as Church in these questions that arise from hearts laden with sorrow: why did all this happen? How could this have occurred in the community of those who follow Jesus?" — Pope Francis, homily at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, 28 July 2022^[51]

The Way of the Cross and the Cyclorama

The grounds also include a Way of the Cross with life-size bronze stations, terraced up the hill behind the basilica.^[52] In the immediate vicinity of the shrine stands the Cyclorama of Jerusalem, a vast late-19th-century painted panorama depicting the Holy City on the day of the Crucifixion — a private attraction born of the pilgrim flow.^[53]

The 26 July feast and the novena

The shrine attracts several hundred thousand pilgrims each year — up to nearly a million visitors by some estimates.^[54] The high point of the liturgical year is the feast of Saint Anne on 26 July, preceded by a novena of nine days of prayer, Masses and processions, notably the evening torchlight procession.^[55] These great summer days perpetuate the tradition of the first 17th-century pilgrimages.

Indigenous pilgrimages

Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré has, since its origins, been a place dear to the Indigenous nations. As early as the 17th century, converts joined the settlers there, and devotion to Saint Anne — venerated as "the grandmother" — took deep root among the Innu, the Huron-Wendat and other First Nations communities.^[56] To this day, great Indigenous pilgrimages mark the July feast, making the shrine a meeting point between the Catholic faith and Canada's First Peoples.

The great papal visits

Two popes have come to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. Saint John Paul II visited on 10 September 1984: he prayed there before the statue and delivered an address, without celebrating Mass.^[57] Pope Francis celebrated Mass there on 28 July 2022, during his journey of reconciliation with Indigenous peoples — the first pope to preside over the Eucharistic celebration in the basilica itself.^[58] In his homily, he meditated on the road to Emmaus as an image of the Church in Canada, and entrusted pilgrims to Saint Anne and the Virgin.

The Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré belongs to Ignispedia's family of great shrines. For the life and figure of Saint Anne, see the dossier devoted to her: Saint Anne, Mother of the Virgin Mary. For other comparable pilgrimage sites, see in particular the Shrine of La Vang (Vietnam), Mariazell (Austria) and Kibeho (Rwanda). For the Roman relics from which the fragments of Saint Anne come, see the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls.