Pilgrimages

In July of 1888, eight months only after their arrival at Fall River, the Dominican Fathers organized with their confreres of Lewiston, Maine, a grand pilgrimage to Saint Anne de Beaupre in Canada. Nearly 200 persons of Fall River joined their compatriots of Maine to form an imposing group of between six and seven hundred pilgrims. This was not a mere pleasure excursion. It was first and above all a pilgrimage of faith and prayer. The fatigue, that was part of the trip, was the penitential aspect of the pilgrimage.

History of Christian Pilgrimages

A pilgrimage, as a manifestation of faith and piety, goes way back to Christian antiquity. You went on a pilgrimage to venerate a holy place. First in time were pilgrimages to the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem: the Holy Sepulchre. A little later, Christians visited the tombs of martyrs. One of the most famous shrines of the Middle Ages was that of St. James of Compostella in Spain where, according to a legend, the body of St. James the Greater, the brother of the Apostle John, was preserved. Whether the body was really that of the Apostle or not, devout Christians honored the memory of St. James in the sanctuary of Compostella. That is what mattered. The popular Shrine retained its value as a visible sign and underpinning for the devotion of the faithful.

Later, Christians built churches they dedicated to this or that saint. To make the memory of the saint more real, they began to secure "relics", which were bones taken from the body of a martyr or, eventually, of a saint who was not a martyr, and the pious folk came to venerate these relics. Often times the faith of these folks was rewarded by supernatural miracles and healings. This is how Shrines began to accumulate what we call "ex votos" most often stacks of crutches, silent witnesses to healings obtained and to the gratitude of the faithful.

Pilgrimages to Saint Anne in Fall River

From the early days, after the Dominican Fathers arrived at Fall River, they warmly encouraged the devotion to St. Anne. They soon obtained a relic of St. Anne and organized Pilgrimages to St. Anne. This appealed to the French Canadians of the area who could not easily go on pilgrimage to their national Shrine of St. Anne de Beaupre in Canada.

Father Sauval, who became pastor of St. Anne in 1891, soon realized the possibility of developing his church into a great shrine of pilgrimages. Accordingly, on January 24, 1892, he laid out before his parishioners a grand project: to build a new church that would be spacious, capable of welcoming large groups of pilgrims. Father Sauval dreamed of the future and could see multitudes of pilgrims who would come here some day to pray to Good St. Anne. This new shrine would, in his mind, become as famous in the United States as that of Beaupre in Canada. The Dominican Fathers stood behind him and erected the magnificent edifice we have today, admirably situated facing Kennedy Park.

Father Sauval was a dreamer, but also a man of action. Without any delay, he began to organize pilgrimages in 1892, in the old wooden church on Hunter Street. I say he "organized" pilgrimages. You see, pilgrimages just don't happen. It takes planning, it takes organization. They must be promoted.

That is what Fr. Sauval did, beginning with his own parishioners. The whole month of July that year was proclaimed the "month of pilgrimages." The parishioners will come by groups to pay homage to their beloved patroness. They will come by neighborhoods. Then it will be the religious sodalities of the parish, each in turn. On the 26th of July of that year, the Fathers were pleased to welcome the first outside group of pilgrims: the Ladies of St. Anne, with a few children of Mary, from Taunton.

Thereafter, a growing stream of pilgrimages began to come every year from the "Canadian" parishes of Fall River, New Bedford and Rhode Island. They came in large numbers: 300, 500, 1000, 1500 and more. They came as parish groups with their pastor and possibly an assistant. They came by train, by bus (horse-drawn in those days). 'They also came by tramways and even, for many years, by steamboat from Providence and Pawtucket. During the journey these devout people prayed, sang religious hymns. It is even recorded that on one occasion one of the priests delivered a sermon to the pilgrims on the boat. A clear sign that a pilgrimage was a spiritual exercise of faith and devotion.

A Spiritual Event

The Dominican Fathers did much to ensure that pilgrimages would be a spiritual event. They would often go and preach a triduum to prepare parishes for their annual pilgrimage to St. Anne. Several of our Fathers would go out to parishes in New Bedford and Rhode Island to preach such triduums. And the parishioners took their pilgrimage seriously. They expected great blessings from it. Oh, with what faith they came to pray to Good Saint Anne for all their needs.

And what did the exercise of the pilgrimage consist of? Upon arriving at St. Anne, the pilgrims usually attended a mass in the forenoon, then in the afternoon they had the usual devotions at the Shrine. These consisted of hymns, prayers, including the Rosary, a sermon, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and the service concluded with the veneration of the relic of Saint Anne. It often happened that healings occurred at that moment or after the veneration of the relic. I have innumerable testimonies of this. Even people coming in wheelchairs and on crutches, and walking out of the Shrine on their own power. It is not surprising that people came on their pilgrimage with great faith and expectation. They had what we call today "expectant faith."

Later Developments

Beginning in the early thirties, other ethnic groups joined the "French-Canadians" to make their annual pilgrimage to the Fall River Shrine. These were mostly Italians from Rhode Island and Connecticut, and the Portuguese of our area. Every year for many years, on the Feast of St. Anne, July 26, multitudes of pilgrims from all over invaded the Shrine from early morning till late in the evening.

In the last 20 years of so, all that has been on the decline. The older folks have died or are disabled, and the younger generations do not have the same devotion their parents and grandparents had. Yet, many come to St. Anne Shrine every year on St. Anne's Day. Many would not miss their annual pilgrimage to St. Anne. A pilgrimage continues to express and to increase their faith. It is a great blessing today as ever.

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