Constructed 1889-1890
[ Panel 1: ]San Juan Parish's Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes was conceived as place of pilgrimage for those faithful wishing to honor Our Lady and to be given a glimpse of her place of apparition to St. Bernadette Soubirou in the Pyrenees Mountains of southern France beginning February 11, 1838.
In 1888, 15 years after Lourdes was declared an official Marian apparition by the Church, Fr. Camillo Seux (born in Lyon, France), our pastor from 1868-1922, erected the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that is on the pedestal in front of the church across the street. Large numbers of pilgrims came to pray on their knees on the pavement beneath the statue. Moved by this sight, Fr. Seux decided to use his family's inheritance to build the Shrine.
Working with San Juan Pueblo's governor, he obtained a deed for the property. Possibly influencing the site for
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the Shrine is the fact that it was on this approximate site on which the third parish church was built in 1645 and later destroyed in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
The Shrine was consecrated and blessed on April 19, 1890 by Archbishop Jean Baptiste Salpointe. We believe that the architect for the construction of the Shrine was Martin Mouley, the same architect who built the Basilica of St. Francis and the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe. The Shrine is built one-fifth scale to Sainte Chapelle in Paris which was built in 1248 and is the quintessential model of French Gothic church architecture.
The Shrine is one of only 19 buildings in the United States built entirely out of lava rock. It contains the original stained glass windows imported from Claremont, France. The golden stars and the gold on the altar in the apse are 23 carat gold. The statues of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Bernadette in the apse are part of the original Shrine.
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Our Shrine was renovated in 2004 and rededicated by Archbishop Michael Sheehan on December 8, 2004, the 150th anniversary of the issuance of the Dogma on Mary's Immaculate Conception, the name she gave to St. Bernadette when asked who she was. During renovation we decided not to install electricity but instead, Elvira Salazar, who had conserved one of the original chandeliers, donated it back to the church, and with donations from Sara Montoya, her sister, and from the family of Dominic Maestas, we replicated two other chandeliers. The original is nearest to the altar.
Fr. Seux, in the tradition of French burials of its famous priests, is buried under the floor boards of the main aisle, along with his assistant priest for many years, Fr. Alverline who also died in 1922.
Presently we celebrate daily Mass in the shrine from May to October. Please feel welcome to enter and to pray, and to share the experience of Lourdes.
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