Page 232 - DK Eyewitness Travel Guides - The World's Must-See Places

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ST. ANNE MUSEUM
The shnne's museum displays works of art that
attest to the early Quebec settlers' devot1on
to St. Anne, w1th wax figures, paintings, and
educational artifacts illustrating her life and cult
in North America. One of the most important
pieces I S an 18th-century sailor painting,
wh1ch depicts the French mariners who prayed
to St. AAne to save them from a storm, ....rten
they SUrviVed, they built a st-me in her ronor
on the barks of the St. la'Mence River

IN AND AROUND THE BASILIC A
There are two chapels on the lower level the
blue-painted Immaculate Conception Chapel
and the B lessed Sacrament Chapel, Also
on the lower level is a copy of Michelangelo's 1 Basilica
Piet~, and the tomb of Venerable Father Alfred 2 Monastery
Pampalon ( 1867 -96), patron saint of al cohoh cs 3 Church store
4 Museum
and drug addicts. The main church is on the 5 Bles9ngs Clfice
upper level, ....rtere hundreds of crutches,
braces, and artJfiaallimbs attest to m1raculous
cures The earliest healing here, in 1658, IS said
to have been that of Louis Guimond, a cnppled
man who Insisted on carrying stones for the
construct1 on of the first church despite h1 s
affliction, and who was cured before the other
workers' eyes. Pilgrims gather on the wooded
hill side beside the shrine to foil ow the Way
of the Cross and to ascend the Santa Scala, or
"Holy Staws," a replica of the staircase that
Jesus d1mbed to meet Pontius Pilate

lHE LIFE OF S T . ANNE
Although the Btble makes no mentton of the
mother of the Virgin Mary, early Chnst1ans
had an 1nterest in knowing more about Jesus'
family, espec1 ally his mother and grandmother.
A 3rd-century Greek manuscript called the
Reve l a tjon of James tells the story of Jesus'
grandparents, naming them Anne (from
H annah) and Joachim_ According to this
accrunt, AAne of Bethlehem and Joachim of
Nazareth, a shepherd, were childless after 20
years of marnage Each cried out separately
to God, asktng ....rty they were childess, and
vo\11/lng to dedtcate al'o/ offspring to h1s work.
An angel came to Joachim and Anne, and they
learned that they were to have a child, Mary,
who became the mother of Christ.