Saint Anne Church and Shrine

St. Anne Shrine

The lower church is known as St. Anne Shrine. A shrine is a place where people come to pray and ask for the help of a special saint. In the early church, the tombs of martyrs attracted the faithful. Sometimes churches or chapels were built over the tombs of martyrs. Later relics, that are remains from the body of a saint, were unearthed and reverently placed in an ornamented box or shrine and taken to various places for special respect. Sometimes a special church or shrine was built to 'enshrine' the relics of saints.

When this parish was founded in 1869 for the French Canadians who had come to Fall River, it was placed under the patronage of St. Anne, a popular saint among French-speaking people. The first parish church for the French-speaking people of Fall River was a small wooden building on Hope Street - now a Portuguese ethnic center. In 1892, the Dominican Fathers who had come from France and Canada decided to build a larger and more beautiful church for the growing French-speaking population, for pilgrims who would come in increasing numbers and also to show some of their ethnic pride.

The lower church was built in 1894-1895. For seven years the construction was suspended to collect sufficient funds. Then the upper church was built from 1902 to 1906. But the focus of pilgrims remained on the lower church.

Many of the Masses for the shrine and the parish are offered here in the shrine. Usual daily masses are at 7:15, 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. The altar has now returned to its original place in front of the shrine. The readings and homily are done from the pulpit.

The Blessed Sacrament is kept in the Blessed Sacrament chapel to your right. At Mass we believe that the bread and wine offered becomes the body and blood of Christ. At the end of Mass, the consecrated hosts that are left are kept in the tabernacle in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel primarily to be brought to the sick. The Eucharist is kept here so that pilgrims may pray in the presence of the Lord. We believe Jesus to be not just a holy man or prophet but the very Son of God. He is, we believe, God and man - the only Son of God and the Son of Mary. We adore Christ and we believe he is truly and especially present here in the Eucharist. That is why we genuflect as we pass by the tabernacle.

You will find the statue of St. Anne in the center of the Shrine. It was originally purchased when the parish was founded. Many people are not quite sure who St. Anne is. She is the Mother of Mary and therefore, the grandmother of Jesus. Her husband's name was Joachim. Her name is not mentioned in the Bible. We know of her through other writings of early Christians who were eager to know more about Jesus' family. When early Christians wanted to model their lives after saints, they could not pick Mary and Joseph as a model couple because they were just too special. So they picked Anne and Joachim. The only early icons of a couple are those of Anne and Joachim. St. Anne is usually shown as standing with a young girl (Mary) and showing her the scriptures. This particular statue is very old. It was bought for the early Hope Street church in 1882 (for $100 which was then a lot of money).

Surrounding the statue is a display of crutches. You often see such things in shrines where a lot of people come to pray, often to ask God for cures through the intercession of a particular saint and with the help of many other people, pilgrims like them. People who are cured often leave crutches or other mementos of their cure as a visible sign to others to show that God heard their prayers. There are many cases in the history of this shrine of certainly miraculous cures, that is, cures that are so extraordinary that only God could have performed them. In many other cases, people came to pray with faith and were eventually cured but it was a natural cure with the help of physicians and medicine. Even here pilgrims are convinced that God had something to do with their cure although it was not a miracle in the strictest sense.

Here at St. Anne's we do not attempt to determine whether a cure was miraculous or not. People come here to praise and thank God, to pray to and with St. Anne. We join them in their thanks. The hours of various novenas are as follows: St. Anne on Tuesday at 2 and 6:20 p.m., St. Jude on Thursday at 6:20 p.m. 

Also in the shrine is the statue of Our Lady of Fatima favored by the many immigrants who have come from Portugal and the Azores. We believe that Mary appeared in Fatima in 1917 telling us to pray and do penance that the world might be converted from its evil ways. She still assists us as she did for that embarrassed couple at Cana at the beginning of Christ's ministry.

St. Jude, one of the apostles and a cousin of Jesus, also holds a prominent place in the shrine. He is shown holding a picture of Christ and holding a club to show that he suffered martyrdom by being beaten to death. Devotion to St. Jude has practically always been part of the devotions here. In 1960 special devotions to St. Jude were held and a little chapel was built for this. In 1980 his statue was moved because devotion to St. Jude was growing and a weekly and an annual novena were added to the shrine schedule.

The little chapels that surround the main shrine mostly point to Mary, the daughter of Anne and Mother of Christ. The first one reminds us that the founders of the parish and shrine were French. It commemorates the shrine at Lourdes in France where Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. We also commemorate the examples given by three special women: St. Theresa, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini and St. Joan of Arc.

One of the chapels commemorates our neighbors in this hemisphere. Our Lady of Guadalupe is patroness of all the Spanish-speaking. Two Dominicans, St. Rose of Lima and St. Martin of Porres, are two Spanish saints dear to the hearts of our more recent Spanish-speaking immigrants. A statue of Blessed Brother Andre Bessette of Montreal connects pilgrims with the Canadian roots of the parish and shrine.

St. Joseph is also commemorated. He was the husband of Mary and the foster-father of Jesus. St. Anne was his mother-in-law. Joseph apparently died while Jesus was still with the family. He is honored as the patron of a happy death since he presumably died in the presence of Jesus and Mary. His humble service to Christ also makes him an example to emulate as members of the Church.

One of the statues, made of wax, was very precious to the early Dominicans. They brought the statue with them when they fled France. It represents St. Concorde, a teenage saint who as a pagan baby-sat for a Christian family. She learned the faith through their word and example. When the family was martyred, she too declared herself a Christian and died with them. Also among the saints is St. Vincent Ferrar, a great Dominican preacher who was the special patron of Father Vincent Marchildon, OP who directed the shrine here for many years.

On the wall are three other reminders of Christian faith. In the center is a replica of the Infant Jesus of Prague. To show that Jesus reigns he is dressed as a king teaching us that he was always Son of God, even as a child. Two other reminders are St. Gerard, patron of pregnant women, and St. Dominic Savio. Both young men were saints even in their teen years.

The lower church also contains a mortuary vault in which three Dominicans are buried. The first one to be buried here was Father Sauval, OP, the pastor who built this church. The people regarded him as a living saint and were profoundly attached to him. Upon his death they decided to bury him in the church wall. The last priest to be buried here was Father Vincent Marchildon, OP, who died in 1972. He spent 60 years of his priestly life in this shrine and died at the age of 95. It is most fitting that he should be buried here.

After administering the parish for more than 90 years, the Dominican Fathers gave parish administration to the Diocesan Clergy. There is now a statue of St. John Vianney, the patron of diocesan clergy in the shrine.

The Upper Church

In the upper church there is a beautiful statue of St. Anne. Those of you who have visited St. Anne de Beaupre near Quebec will notice the likeness of this statue and the one in the Canadian shrine. It is noted in our archives that the Pastor here wanted a statue nearly identical to that of the Canadian shrine. The statue is a true work of art. It was made in Belgium and delivered in 1893. During the same year it was displayed in the Chicago World's Fair at the Columbian Exhibition, which marked the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, by Christopher Columbus. You may be surprised to know that it is a woodcarving, one solid piece.

The upper church, as a shrine, has chapels all around the sanctuary and a passageway, called an "ambulatory" that enables you to walk around. This form of architecture is often found in the cathedrals of Europe. The Lady Chapel or Rosary Chapel has pride of place. Here the fifteen mysteries of the rosary -the joyful, sorrowful and glorious events in the life of Christ and Mary surround a statue which depicts Our Lady with St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Sienna, two very important members of the Dominican Order.

The first chapel is a tribute to the 90 years the Dominicans spent ministering in this parish. It honors St. Dominic, their founder. The next chapel is the chapel of the Sacred Heart.

Another chapel is dedicated to the Holy Family since there has always been a vibrant ministry to youth here. At one time the parish had five parochial schools and a commercial college. The college is gone but the schools were merged together in a large school that occupies two city blocks just behind the hospital founded by one of the Dominican pastors.

We come now to the chapel of St. John the Baptist. This is where the baptistry stood until the latest liturgical directives asked that it be placed where the entire congregation may witness baptisms. The chapel is now a memorial to the Franco-American tradition since the parish was founded for the French-speaking immigrants to our land. St. John the Baptist is the patron of Franco-Americans.

It is good to note here the stained-glass windows. They surround the congregation with warm colors. Each window speaks of a theme: the Sacraments, the Old and New Testaments. You can examine them even more closely in the little corridor that leads to the sacristy. They were made in France according to a modern technique. The glass is almost one inch thick and each piece is of one solid color. Each piece is chipped and forms different shapes to better refract the sun's rays. You will also notice many air bubbles in the glass. Artists who made stained glass windows in the cathedrals of Europe during the Middle Ages were so successful that artists of ages later wondered how they could make their stained glass in such vivid colors. They were unable to duplicate the work. During the Second World War, many of these old Cathedral windows were taken down to protect them against the bombings. When they took the windows down, what did they find? ... Air bubbles... Artists are not convinced that these bubbles had much to do in producing brilliant colors. But now they are putting bubbles deliberately in the glass whereas in the past it was something the artists possibly could not avoid.

If you open one of the small windows onto the courtyard you will see the stonework of the monastery. It is the same kind of stone as the outside of the church - local granite for the base. We had an abundance of granite in Fall River as our many mills can attest. The upper part of the outside of the church is of Vermont Blue Marble from Proctor, Vermont. This stone has such fine grain that it does not collect dust and dirt. The marble of the church has never been cleaned.

Fr. John Folster renovated the sanctuary to highlight the liturgical directives of the Second Vatican Council. The altar is near the center of the great dome so that it can be appreciated as a family table. The pulpit is reserved for the scriptures and homilies. Fr. Marc Bergeron built on Fr. Folster's initiatives by returning the main altar to its original beauty as the place of reservation of the Blessed Sacrament. A new carpet has been installed. We also have new antependia for the altar.

If you look up to the ceiling you can see the beautiful woodwork. These carved decorations are made of red oak and are a signature of Canadian artists. Above the congregations are statues that remind us of the love and testimony of the past. In the sanctuary are the statues of the twelve apostles and St. Paul. Here on the edge are the statues of St. Augustine, a special patron of Dominicans, and St. Joachim, husband of St. Anne. Around the church at the same level, you will find saints who remind us of French and Dominican history. The statues do not stand out but are part of the architecture. The whole architecture really focuses on the altar and the surrounding parish family. They remind us clearly that we are members of the communion of the saints.

We are especially proud of our Casavant organ, installed in 1963. It was made in Canada and installed here under the direction of Mr. Normand Gingras. It contains 4,512 pipes. He continues as our parish organist, holding this position for more than forty years.

The seating capacity of the upper church is about 2000. With the development of the suburbs, the parish membership was reduced to about half of what it was formerly. This was the first French-speaking parish in the area. Many of its outlying missions have since become large parishes.

We must remember that great changes occurred in Fall River. Before the depression, it numbered at least 130,000. Today the suburbs are thriving communities and the population of Fall River is under 100,000. Fall River was prosperous, the textile capital of the world. Unfortunately, it was a city of one sole industry. All the large factories you see are no longer cotton mills. There is not one left. Now they house the businesses of many "entrepreneurs".

This beautiful church is the work of a Canadian architect, Napoleon Bourassa. It compares well with the finest churches in this country and Europe. "We don't build churches like this anymore." In the old days it was more than practical centers that were intended. They wanted to build monuments to the glory of God but also to reflect their own pride and culture. This is a monument to French Canadian ethnicity.

How much did it cost? The contract for the basement church was $75,000; the upper church cost $225,000 and the furnishings were another $200,000. That adds up to about a half million dollars. It is amazing to remember that it was built by poor immigrants who were making $7 to $10 per week in the mills. However, an immigrant people's pride was in it and they were going to add to the glory of their new country. Their entire social life rotated around their parish.

Revised: August 2, 2003