Nestled in a side altar at Our Lady of Fatima Church, 2751 W. 38th Place, is a shrine to St. Anne where, for 126 years, the faithful have brought their prayers asking for the intercession of Jesus’ grandmother.
Crutches and baby shoes hang from one side of the shrine as testaments to answered prayers. Blessed water pours from a font for people to drink or fill bottles to take home. Dozens of candles lit by those seeking intercession fill the space.
Immigrants from Quebec, Canada, established the shrine, which houses what is believed to be the largest relic of St. Anne in North America.
Each year, thousands of people visit the shrine to request St. Anne’s intercession, particularly around the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne on July 26.
St. Anne continues to intercede for people, said Father Nestor Sáenz, pastor of Our Lady of Fatima-St. Pancratius Parish.
On the eve of the feast day this year, a woman gave her testimony about how she believed the Lord healed her unborn baby 14 years ago after she prayed for St. Anne’s intercession at the shrine.
Sáenz explained that several doctors told the woman to abort her baby because its cranium was not fused in utero.
After she shared the story with Sáenz, he suggested she visit the shrine and pray for St. Anne’s intercession.
“She got her miracle,” Sáenz said.
The baby was born with her cranium healed, and both the mother and the now 14-year-old daughter shared their story during the novena.
Since Sáenz arrived at the parish 15 years ago, he has increased devotion to St. Anne among the Latino community who make up the majority of the neighborhood today, he said.
“You’re seeing the French Canadian community that started all this, now they’re getting older and older. There are less and less people in the English Mass, more in the Spanish,” Sáenz said through a translator. “Fifteen years ago, the bishop said, ‘Father Nestor, maybe you should do it in Spanish.’ But then I didn’t think it would be popular.”
Spanish speakers have embraced the novena. In fact, people packed the church an hour before Mass on the feast day to pray the novena. Auxiliary Bishop José María Garcia-Maldonado celebrated the Mass and carried the relic of St. Anne in a short procession through the neighborhood.
“A lot of Hispanic people bring their children to spread this devotion and love for St. Anne,” Sáenz said.
He stresses to them that St. Anne is our grandmother.
“She’ll intercede with her grandson,” he said.
In 2021, Pope Francis established the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly on the fourth Sunday of July, close to the feast day of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the grandparents of Jesus. This year it fell on the feast day.
The observance encourages Catholics to respect and love their elders, he said.
“Jesus had a mom and a dad and had a grandmother and a grandfather. It’s a family just like our families,” Sáenz said. “And they are close to us and always taking care of us.”
Cardinal Cupich credits St. Anne for bringing his parents together, something he wrote about in his Chicago Catholic column in the Dec. 17, 2023, issue.
“They met on July 26, 1942, the feast of St. Ann, when Dad was home on leave. Dad’s sisters connived to get him to the closing of St. Ann’s novena, knowing my mother would be there,” the cardinal wrote. “A lot of matchmaking was done that summer. Mom liked to tell us that as girls prayed the novena prayers, they would whisper, ‘Ann, Ann, find me a man.’”
Marianne Hamilton also credits that popular prayer to St. Anne with bringing her and her husband, Wayne, together 53 years ago.
Hamilton, 83, has attended the novena every year since she was born.
“My mother’s name was Anna, and her grandmother was Anna. My mother never missed a novena,” she said.
“It’s like a presence of heaven, a touch of heaven,” she said of the shrine. “It’s a special place for sure. I remember as a little girl, the canes and crutches that are on the right side of the shrine. I was just amazed by that to think that all those prayers were answered.”
Amelia Mendez, a parishioner at Our Lady of Fatima-St. Pancratius, has been attending the novena for 37 years. She said she had her own miracle attributed to St. Anne’s intercession when she suffered a stroke 26 years ago. Her family prayed to St. Anne, and she did not suffer long term effects of the stroke.
This year, she was praying for the healing of her daughter and husband who have cancer.
“I was taught this is the Virgin Mary’s mom and we should ask her for favors as well and have a strong devotion to her,” she said through a translator.
Juanita More is a parishioner at St. Pius X Parish and learned about the shrine three years ago from a woman at her hair salon.
More stopped by and introduced herself to Sáenz before kneeling in prayer before the Our Lady of Guadalupe altar in the church. Sáenz came back and tapped her on the shoulder, More said, asking if she knew of anyone going to Mexico who could bring back a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe for the parish’s St. Pancratius worship site. They had been praying for that intention.
It so happened that More was going to Mexico and she said she would get the statue and donate it.
“That’s how I think St. Anne pulled me,” said More. “I love coming here and asking her for different favors, and she always comes through. There was a lady that I just saw recently that brought in a baby’s actual pacifier because she said, ‘Last novena, I asked St. Anne for my daughter to get pregnant and now we have a baby.’”