Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Encyclopedia
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is a prominent Latin Rite Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...

 located in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, honoring the Blessed Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...

, the Patroness of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It is the largest Catholic church in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, the eighth largest religious structure in the world, and the tallest building in Washington, D.C. An estimated one million pilgrims
Pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey or search of great moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith...

 from around the country and the world visit the basilica each year. The basilica is located on Michigan Avenue in the northeast quadrant
Washington, D.C. (northeast)
Northeast is the northeastern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located north of East Capitol Street and east of North Capitol Street...

 of Washington, on land donated by The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America
The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...

.

Construction of this church, notable for its Neo-Byzantine architecture
Neo-Byzantine architecture
The Byzantine Revival was an architectural revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It emerged in 1840s in Western Europe and peaked in the last quarter of 19th century in the Russian Empire; an isolated Neo-Byzantine school was active in Yugoslavia...

, began in 1920 under Philadelphia contractor John McShain
John McShain
John McShain was a highly successful American building contractor known as "The Man Who Built Washington."...

 and opened unfinished in 1959. The Basilica is the Patronal Catholic Church of the United States, honoring Mary, Mother of God, under the title Immaculate Conception. It is not the cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...

 church of the Archdiocese of Washington; the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle
Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle
The Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington D.C., most commonly known as St. Matthew's Cathedral, is the seat of the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington. As St...

 serves as church of the Archdiocese. The Basilica is sometimes confused with the Washington National Cathedral
Washington National Cathedral
The Washington National Cathedral, officially named the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, is a cathedral of the Episcopal Church located in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Of neogothic design, it is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world, the second-largest in...

.

The Basilica does not have its own parish community, but it serves the adjacent University, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops and United States Catholic Conference, it is composed of all active and retired members of the Catholic...

 (located down the street), and hosts numerous Masses for organizations of the Church from across the United States.

Architecture

The Basilica houses 70 chapels honoring Mary and reflecting the origins of the Catholic immigrants and religious orders whose generosity erected them. Its Greek-styled interior is crowned with numerous domes decorated in mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

s, similar to the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice, Italy, but much larger. The mosaics feature American renditions of traditional Catholic images. Artist Jan Henryk De Rosen
Jan Henryk de Rosen
Jan Henryk de Rosen was a Polish painter and patriot, who became well known for his mural and mosaic works, in exile and active in the United States after 1939.-Overview:...

, who presided over the shrine's iconography committee was also responsible for much of its decor, including composing the large mosaic over the northern apse
Apse
In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome...

.

The exterior of the Basilica is 459 ft (139.9 m) long, 240 ft (73.2 m) wide, and 237 ft (72.2 m) tall to the top of the cross on the dome. The diameter of the main (Trinity) dome of the Basilica is only 7 feet (2.1 m) smaller than that of the dome of the United States Capitol. The shrine was built in the style of medieval churches, relying on masonry walls and columns in place of structural steel and reinforced concrete. It was designed to seat over 2,000 worshipers and includes modern amenities such as a basement cafeteria, hidden public address speakers to carry speech at the altar to the rear of the building, air conditioning and the largest (in 1959) radiant heating slab in the world.

Among the many works of art, Pewabic pottery
Pewabic Pottery
Pewabic Pottery is a studio and school located in Detroit, Michigan and founded in 1903. The studio is known for its iridescent glazes, some of which grace notable buildings such as the Shedd Aquarium and Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Pewabic Pottery is on display...

 was installed consisting of arches outlined with iridescent Pewabic tile, huge ceramic medallions set in the ceiling, and fourteen Stations of the Cross for the crypt.

History

In 1792, John Carroll, the bishop of Baltimore and America's first Roman Catholic bishop, consecrated the newly-created United States under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of The Immaculate Conception
Immaculate Conception
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church, according to which the Virgin Mary was conceived without any stain of original sin. It is one of the four dogmata in Roman Catholic Mariology...

. In 1847, Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...

 formalized Carroll's acclamation, proclaiming the Immaculate Conception as the Patroness of the United States. In subsequent years, priests imagined an elaborate shrine in honor of their country's patroness.

Bishop Thomas Joseph Shahan
Thomas Joseph Shahan
Thomas Joseph Shahan was an American Roman Catholic theologian and educator, born at Manchester, New Hampshire, educated at Montreal College at the Pontifical North American College, and at the Propaganda in Rome....

, the fourth rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...

 of the Catholic University of America in Washington, proposed the construction of a national shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....

 to commemorate the Immaculate Conception in the country's capital. Bishop Shahan took his appeal to Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...

 on August 15, 1913. Shahan received the pope's enthusiastic support and his personal contribution of $400. Shahan returned to the United States and persuaded the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of America to donate land at the southwest corner of the campus for his shrine.

In January 1914, Shahan published the first issue of Salve Regina, a newsletter meant to stir enthusiasm for his project. He wrote that the shrine would be a "monument of love and gratitude, a great hymn in stone as perfect as the art of man can make it and as holy as the intentions of its builders could wish it to be." His newsletter was circulated to dioceses throughout the country and financial donations began to pour into Washington. In 1915, Father Bernard McKenna of Philadelphia was appointed by Shahan as first director of the national shrine, bringing the bishop's dream one step closer to reality. Shahan oversaw the construction of the shrine until his death on March 9, 1932. His body is the only one interred at the national shrine.

By 1919, architectural drawings were chosen by Shahan and McKenna for the construction of the national shrine by the Boston firm of Maginnis & Walsh
Maginnis & Walsh
Maginnis & Walsh was an architecture firm started by Charles Donagh Maginnis and Timothy Walsh in 1905. It was known for its innovative design of churches in Boston in the first half of the twentieth century....

. At first a traditional Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 architectural style was considered. Bishop Shahan wanted his shrine to be bold and glorious and opted instead for a Byzantine
Byzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...

-Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

 design, very slightly resembling the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...

. Cardinal James Gibbons, archbishop of Baltimore, blessed the foundation stone on September 23, 1920. More than 10,000 people attended the Mass, including foreign ambassadors, United States government officials, military officers, and other dignitaries. In 1929, the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 halted the construction above the crypt
Crypt
In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....

 level. The beginning of American involvement in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 stalled plans even further.

After the war, in 1953, American bishops under the leadership of John Noll, archbishop ad personam of Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Fort Wayne is a city in the US state of Indiana and the county seat of Allen County. The population was 253,691 at the 2010 Census making it the 74th largest city in the United States and the second largest in Indiana...

, and Patrick O'Boyle, archbishop of Washington, pledged to raise the funds necessary to complete the upper church of the national shrine. On November 20, 1959, thousands of Catholics gathered with their bishops for the dedication of the Great Upper Church.

The crypt has displayed the Papal Tiara
Papal Tiara
The Papal Tiara, also known incorrectly as the Triple Tiara, or in Latin as the Triregnum, in Italian as the Triregno and as the Trirègne in French, is the three-tiered jewelled papal crown, supposedly of Byzantine and Persian origin, that is a prominent symbol of the papacy...

 of Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...

 since 1968. In 1990, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

 named the national shrine as the U.S.'s 36th minor basilica. In August 2006, work was completed on a mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...

 covering the Redemption Dome in the Upper Church. This is the first new work to be done in many years and was part of the original architectural plan
Architectural plan
An architectural plan is a plan for architecture, and the documentation of written and graphic descriptions of the architectural elements of a building project including sketches, drawings and details.- Overview :...

s. Following its completion in the summer of 2007, the Incarnation Dome was blessed on November 17, 2007. In 2009, the Catholic University of America held a competition to design the mosaic for the Trinity Dome. The competition was won by three freshmen. Although their design will not be the exact mosaic implemented in the dome, the artist chosen to create it will use the design as a guideline. Plans for the actual mosaic construction have not been announced. A small chapel on the crypt level honoring Our Lady of La Vang
Our Lady of La Vang
Our Lady of La Vang refers to a reported Marian apparition at a time when Catholics were persecuted and killed in Vietnam. The Shrine of our Lady of La Vang is situated in what is today Hai Phu commune in Hai Lang District of Quang Tri Province in Central Vietnam.- History :Fearing the spread of...

 (Vietnam) was completed in 2006.

In 2008, during his apostolic pilgrimage to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...

 bestowed the Golden Rose
Golden Rose
The Golden Rose is a gold ornament, which popes of the Catholic Church have traditionally blessed annually. It is occasionally conferred as a token of reverence or affection...

 upon the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Priests

  • The Reverend Monsignor Walter R. Rossi, Rector
  • The Reverend Vito A. Buonanno, Associate Rector & Director of Pilgrimages
  • The Reverend Michael D. Weston, Associate Rector & Director of Liturgy
  • The Reverend Raymond A. Lebrun, O.M.I., Spiritual Director

See also

  • Mary, Protector of Faith Sculpture
    Mary, Protector of Faith (Russo)
    Mary, Protector of Faith is a public artwork by American artist Jon-Joseph Russo, located at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., United States. "Mary, Protector of Faith" stands in Mary's Garden at the Basilica....

     in Mary's Garden
  • Roman Catholic Marian churches
    Roman Catholic Marian churches
    Throughout history, Roman Catholics have built churches to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today, a large number of Roman Catholic churches dedicated to the Blessed Virgin exist on all continents...

  • Tiara of Pope Paul VI
    Tiara of Pope Paul VI
    The Tiara of Pope Paul VI was the last papal tiara worn to date. It was donated by the see of Milan when its cardinal, Giovanni Montini, was elected Pope Paul VI in the 1963 papal conclave. It was this tiara that was used to crown Pope Paul VI in 1963, which was the last papal coronation to date...

  • Top eight Catholic pilgrimage destinations in the US
  • Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family
    Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family
    The Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine is a Catholic church located at 4250 Harewood Rd. NE, Washington, D. C., and a member of one of the sui juris Eastern Catholic churches in communion with the Bishop of Rome....

  • List of basilicas
  • List of the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States
  • List of the Roman Catholic cathedrals of the United States
  • List of the Roman Catholic dioceses of the United States
  • :Category:Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States (including ecclesiastical provinces)

Literature

  • Gregory W. Tucker, America's Church: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Our Sunday Visitor, 2000; ISBN 13-978-0879737009.

External links


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