Sainte Anne de Beaupré Québec City, Québec, Canada

And that Catholic faith takes us north of the city where there is a shrine dedicated to a very important grandmother. And it's along the St. Lawrence River for a very curious reason. Just a few miles away from the city is a shrine dedicated to the patron saint of Quebec, Saint Anne. The original shrine was built in 1658 and then this glorious basilica was built nearby in the 1920s on a much grander scale. Why so large? Well to accommodate all the pilgrims. What pilgrims you say? Thousands of believers from around the world come here to the basilica to venerate a female saint who is very important to Christianity, although you may not be familiar with her. Who was Saint Anne? Saint Anne is the mother of Mary, so therefore the grandmother of Jesus. What we know about Saint Anne comes not from the Bible, but the Proto-Evangelium of James, which means the first draft of his gospel. And there's where we find a lot of information about Saint Anne and what was useful for the piety of the faithful was kind of extracted out of that book and used to promote the veneration of Saint Anne. Saint Anne is venerated around the world, but why especially so here in Quebec, in this exact location? Well in the 1650s, French settlers and missionaries were beginning to explore this region just north of present-day Quebec City. Then it all starts in 1658. A number of the settlers, the Breton settlers, were on a boat in the Saint Lawrence River and a bad storm came up. And so they prayed to Saint Anne, their favorite patroness, to save them. And if she would save them, they would build her a chapel. And she did. And so they did. And to the northwest of the facade here, there's a historical marker where they believe the first chapel was built. And as these thankful believers were building the first shrine, legend says a miracle happened. During the laying of the foundation of the chapel, a local fellow by the name of Louis Guimond had suffered an accident on his farm and needed crutches to get around, whatever the accident was. And because of his disability, he couldn't do a lot to help with the building of the chapel, so he laid some stones in the foundation with love for good Saint Anne, who had saved his friends in their distress. And he was miraculously cured. And that's what started it all back in 1658. And to this day, there are believers in Saint Anne's ability to cure the ill and the weak, and explains why you will see these crutches displayed here inside the basilica. But that's just the beginning of the curiosities here. Look up at the ceiling and there's a mosaic telling the life story of Saint Anne. But doesn't it look a little different than a traditional European church ceiling? Well, because the basilica was built in the 20th century, the art style is very 20th century. It's modern art deco and dare I say, pretty cool. And on the lower level, the coolness continues with fantastical multicolored geometric patterns and lights. And this modern church now hosts more than 100,000 modern day pilgrims each year. Although the definition of pilgrim has changed slightly since the 1600s. When you think of pilgrim, you think of somebody walking a very long distance to get to the destination. Is that the case here? Are people walking from from far away? Or is it a little bit of a blend? It's interesting you pose that question because a number of years ago, maybe 15 ish years ago, walking pilgrims started again. Some of these modern day pilgrims walk all the way from Montreal to St. Anne de Beaupre, taking about two to three weeks to get here. They get a little booklet that they have to have stamped. A little passport stamp. But the vast majority of our pilgrims come either by car or by bus. And it still counts. It's still nobody's judging. They have to walk from their car to the basilica. There's still some walking.