Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
In 1847 the bishops of the United States chose the Blessed Virgin Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, as patroness of the nation. In the early twentieth century Bishop Thomas Shahan, rector of the Catholic University of America, proposed a national shrine in her honour. Pope Pius X gave the first donation. The foundation stone was laid in 1920, and the crypt church was finished in 1926. After the interruptions of the Depression and the war, the Great Upper Church was dedicated in 1959.
It is the largest Catholic church in North America and one of the ten largest in the world. Its blue-and-gold dome and slender bell tower stand on the edge of the university campus. Around the nave, more than eighty chapels and oratories honour Our Lady under titles loved by the many peoples who built America. The Trinity Dome mosaic, finished in 2017, completed the interior.
Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis all came here. In 2015 Pope Francis canonized Saint Junípero Serra on its east portico. Pope John Paul II named it a minor basilica in 1990.
- Built
- 1920–1959 (Trinity Dome finished 2017)
- Style
- Byzantine-Romanesque Revival
- Where
- Washington, District of Columbia, United States
- Map
- Find it on OpenStreetMap
- Read about
- The Blessed Virgin Mary