Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec
This pilgrimage site (20 miles/32 km) northeast of the city of Quebec,
is the largest Roman Catholic shrine in North America. This famous shrine,
dedicated to Ste. Anne "the mother of the Mother of Christ",
attracts more than 1,000,000 persons per year, some merely curious,
some pious, some wracked by disease or deformity and hoping for a cure.
Thousands of crutches and braces are piled at the Miraculous Statue
of Saint Anne in the huge basilica. [Explore Canada, The Reader's Digest/CAA
Illustrated Guide, 1974]
In 1638 three shipwrecked French sailors washed ashore.
To acknowledge their deliverance they built a small wooden chapel. In
1658 Father Vignal came to bless the foundation of a proposed new chapel
dedicated to Ste. Anne. That very day an inhabitant of Beaupré,
suffering from crippling rheumatism, came forward to place three stones
in the foundation, whereupon he found himself suddenly and completely
cured. In 1676, the 
second
Church was built of both wood and stone. It was demolished in 1878 and
a Memorial Chapel was erected on part of the original foundation. In
1876 the first Basilica was built but it burnt down on March 29, 1922.
The next year construction started on a new Basilica, the present one.
It was constructed in 12th century Romanesque-Gothic style and was completed
in 1963. It can accommodate 9000 worshipers. Hundreds of cures have
been reported over the centuries, and some of them have been medically
confirmed. Mountains, a river, and falls near the village of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré
are also named for the saint. [www.ssadb.qc.ca]
(picture sources: http://www.moytura.com/stanne.htm
http://www.ssadb.qc.ca/en/histoire.htm
)