St. Anne Church in Waterbury, Conn., has been compelling passersby to pause and pray since 1922.

Admiring the church’s Gothic granite exterior, lofty twin towers and monumental dome from the elevated highway spanning the city, I always imagine I’m looking at a European cathedral from a low-flying plane.

A few generations ago, 7,000 parishioners packed the pews at this ethnic French-Canadian parish. By a year ago, the Sunday head count was down to just 100 or so souls. But there’s good news.

The church is breathing fresh air these days. This year, in the few months since it was named the Shrine of St. Anne for All Mothers, this church has seen weekly attendance climb to 500 as folks drive in from miles around to worship here. 

My wife Mary and I were already familiar with the resplendent Immaculate Conception Church just blocks away on the city’s green. Now, having heard about the re-naming, were eager to visit the “mother” we imagined was always looking at her “daughter” nearby.

Right away we noticed the signs of renewal: St. Anne’s is being transformed into a mecca for the pro-life movement; it’s now in the first stages of being restored to better-than-original grandeur.

Father Michael Hinkley, pastor and shrine rector, has applied to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for national shrine status. Meanwhile, on May 27, Hartford Archbishop Henry Mansell, who initiated this new archdiocesan pro-life shrine, celebrated Mass on the centennial of the laying of the cornerstone.

 “At the Shrine of St. Anne for All Mothers we’re going to [promote] the New Evangelization in three ways,” Father Hinkley told us before itemizing the initiatives: “beautiful liturgies for solemn Masses and great care in preaching; sacred music at Sunday Mass and concerts Gregorian choir and chamber orchestra; and service to the poor, primarily through a new ministry called Teen Mothers in Need. (See page B1 for this issue’s Prolife Profile.)

“There’s no better example of the importance of the motherly vocation than St. Anne and the Blessed Virgin,” says the priest. “God’s mercy and love and plan of salvation are really found through the role of these mothers, St. Anne and the Blessed Virgin.”

The pro-life work will focus on the celebration of the culture of life and love, he adds, and the shrine will also be a place where “people honor their mother, whether living or deceased, by praying for her and with her.”

There’s no better day to do that than July 26, feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne, parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. St. Anne is, along with Sts. Monica and Gerard Majella, patron of mothers.

Uncovered Jewel

And what a place the shrine already is — and promises to become. Father Hinkley envisions it as one of the most spectacular churches in the Northeast once it’s fully restored to better-than-original glory. Mary and I easily envisioned this, seeing past the walls whitewashed after a 1970s fire caused smoke damage. St. Anne’s is a rare Gothic design full of elegant details.

The cornerstone was laid in 1906 and the church completed in 1922, decorated in a unique “feminine gothic” style in deference to St Anne. Church restoration expert John Canning has meticulously uncovered layers of paint to reveal this style in the original decorations of pastel salmons and pinks elaborately gilded with silver.

Already the two small test-restoration areas are impressive and stunning with the jewel-like, delicate silver appointments.

Once it’s fully restored, some 1,400 people will be able to find a seat under the soaring ceiling and the colossal copper dome. St. Anne’s, by the way, is the only domed Catholic church in the state — a rarity for Gothic design.

The stained-glass windows are German in origin. Styled like Renaissance masterpieces at the Vatican, they depict the life of Anne’s daughter from her betrothal to Joseph to her coronation. Radiant with color, rich in symbolism and detail, they stirred us to stop and meditate on these motherly mysteries.

Prayers Pour In

For example, the Visitation window takes place in a colorful Renaissance setting with Joseph and Zechariah watching as Mary greets Elizabeth.

“It’s the first public witness of the Word,” reminded the shrine’s associate coordinator, Franciscan Sister of the Eucharist John Mary Sullivan. She pointed out how this and many other stained-glass scenes include curtains drawn back to reveal mysteries.

The original high altar with central tabernacle rises about 30 feet into elegant Gothic spires. It will fittingly accompany the yet-to-come new main altar that Father Hinkley plans to pattern after Italy’s St. Francis of Assisi Lower Basilica altar. The Waterbury one will have Gothic columns and arches built into its pastel salmon and sage marbles.

By the rows of newly designed votive stands along the altar rail, there’s an 1887 polychrome statue of St. Anne instructing Mary. Both figures are amazingly realistic, with sparkling eyes and a lifelike countenance that manages to convey earthiness as well as sanctity.

The best part is: Only God could have arranged how this statue got here.

The renovator of Father Hinkley’s second parish, Blessed Sacrament Church, recently discovered it while giving a remodeling estimate in the basement of a private home.

The standout statue was hand-carved in Italy for St. John Nepomucene Church in Bridgeport, Conn., New England’s first ethnic Slovak parish. That church closed in the early 1990s. The woman who obtained the statue was ready to give it away, but when the renovator told her about this shrine, she donated it here instead.

The story was particularly stirring for me: I grew up in St. John’s parish and remember this very statue of St. Anne and Mary, ever watchful of us from the right transept — and St. Anne’s packed annual novena.

To one side, the Sorrowful Mother Chapel will soon display a relic of the True Cross. Father Hinkley explained that this chapel will be a place where mothers whose children are facing problems in life or are crippled by vice or addiction can find strength in the cross. It will also be a place of solace for mothers who have lost their children, naturally or otherwise, and are in need of God’s healing.

“Who better can console a baby lost, possibly through a miscarriage,” says Father Hinkley, “than the Blessed Mother who cradled her own son on Calvary?”

To the other side, the Chapel of Good St. Anne — with the church’s original 100-year old Parisian porcelain statue of St. Anne with the Blessed Mother as a child — will soon display a relic of St. Anne.

By this chapel, early pilgrims are already writing prayer requests. Parents ask St. Anne’s intercession for daughters to find good husbands; another parent asks for prayers for a youngster to be spared from brain cancer because he wants to be a priest.

“Already we see in the shrine this beautiful devotion,” Father Hinkley told us. “People are finding a need to pray with and for their mothers through the intercession of Good St. Anne.”

Joseph Pronechen writes from

Trumbull, Connecticut.

Planning Your Visit

Sunday Mass is celebrated 10 a.m. and noon, with chamber music and choir. Daily Mass is at 12:15 p.m. Confessions are heard before all Masses. Presently the shrine is open around Mass times. Groups should call ahead for special programs. For more information, call (203) 756-4439 or visit Shrineofsaintanne.org.

Getting There

The shrine at

515 South Main St., Waterbury

, is easily reached via Interstate 84 (or Rte. 8 to I-84). From East or West, take Exit 22 and follow signage to South Main.