A RETURN TO SAINT ANNE'S SHRINE

By John Santosuosso



My recent blog piece on Saint Anne's Shrine stirred up enough interest that I decided I needed to do some further research on this peaceful spot near Lake Wales, Florida. It was worth the time. There is more to the story than I first thought. Some of it is intriguing. Some of it is disturbing.

The most impressive thing at the site of the shrine is the grotto. I had believed this was erected to honor Saint Anne. In reality it was constructed for Our Lady of Lourdes. Lourdes is a place associated with miraculous healings, as is Saint Anne's Shrine, so perhaps this is not surprising. The primary memorial to Saint Anne was a full-size copy of the statue of her in the basilica at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre in Quebec. The copy was in the parish church. When the church was demolished, sometime between 1950 and 1960, it was removed. I do not know its ultimate fate. At the time the parish was closed and the church building destroyed nearly all of the statues on the property were removed. Some were relocated to the Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church in Lake Wales. The Diocese of Orlando has lost track of what happened to the rest. Ironically the removal of the Saint Anne statue means there is no present memorial to Saint Anne at Saint Anne's Shrine.

Another loss were the murals in the church that had been painted by a French artist in thanksgiving for the healing of his son. They were destroyed when the church was destroyed. In fact most everything in the church appears to have either been destroyed or disappeared. I have discovered that the church had erected a Biblical museum in a separate building a short distance away. Its contents may have met the same fate.

Although I believe that probably about 98% percent of them are probably not genuine, I must admit to a certain fascination with relics. Perhaps you remember that when Notre Dame in Paris caught fire there was a last minute rescue of the Crown of Thorns that supposedly Jesus wore at his crucifixion. I recall seeing that relic on a visit to the Notre Dame treasury. Saint Anne's had its own treasured relics. A piece of "True Cross" was housed in a reliquary located in a small outdoor shrine. Other relics were displayed either in the museum or the church. There were two relics said to be of Saint Anne, a thorn from the Crown of Thorns, and a reproduction of the True Nail. There was also a reproduction of the Holy Sepulcher. All of these things have disappeared.

There was one removal at the shrine site that was warranted. The body of the leader of the former local French Canadian community, Napoleon Palletier, was removed and relocated to Canada. His grave marker still remains a short distance away from the grotto.

The years have not been kind to Saint Anne's Shrine. What is left seems more like a shadow of what was once here. Still, they have been more generous than to another nearby site associated with religious activity. From 1953 through 1998 a nearby amphitheater was the winter home of the Black Hills Passion Play. It was quite a production, with live animals and an opportunity for local residents to be part of the cast. The depiction of the crucifixion was dramatic and very moving, the resurrection not so much. Time and hurricanes have all but obliterated the site, and today there is almost nothing to see. The location is on private property and cannot be visited.

I hope to do more research on Saint Anne's Shrine, and if it produces any results they will be presented in the Saint Peter's blog.

ADDENDUM: In my St. Peter's blog piece on the tomb of Jesus in discussing the Talipot Tomb, what is sometimes referred to as the "Jesus family tomb," unfortunately I accidentally omitted some words that could have led to confusion on the part of some readers. I wrote: An ossuary found in the tomb contains the inscription, "James son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." The omitted words were, another ossuary has the inscription, "Judah son of Jesus." My point was that since there is no credible evidence that Jesus ever married and was a father, this second inscription is one of several reasons why most scholars reject the Talipot Tomb as a possible burial site of Jesus Christ. The complete discussion of the Talipot tomb can be found in the blog piece.