Most people riding the bus down Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn couldn’t tell me where the local basilica was. But a few offered helpfully, “If it’s on Fifth Avenue at 59th Street, it must be near the big church.”

The “big church,” of course, was the basilica: Our Lady of Perpetual Help, or OLPH, as it’s affectionately dubbed. A major architectural landmark and one of just 60 or so basilicas nationwide, the massive granite Romanesque structure towers above the neighborhood and is easily visible, especially from the nearby expressway.

Then, too, their befuddlement over its precise designation is understandable. There are lots of houses of worship in this big, bold borough dubbed the “City of Churches” as far back as the mid-1800s.

OLPH was founded as an Irish parish in 1893 by the Redemptorists, a society of missionary priests who are dedicated, in part, to keeping Mary in the forefront of people’s minds. The parish flourished, eventually being named a minor basilica in 1969 due to the large number of vocations from the parish (more than 500), the numerous daily Masses held, the large number of bishops consecrated in its sanctuaries, its wealth of societies and confraternities of laity, and the presence of both a grammar school and high school.

While vocations here are down today, just as they are elsewhere, the 3,000-family parish is still vibrant. But the number of Irish parishioners has dwindled; today, fewer than half of the parishioners are white. The majority are Hispanic, with a significant number of Chinese members and a small-but-growing number of Vietnamese families. Redemptorists still staff the basilica.

They’ll all have much to be thankful for come June 27, feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Cross-Cultural Appeal

When I stopped in one recent gray day, I was surprised by the interior, which was decidedly unimpressive for a basilica. Immense crimson pillars march down the nave toward the simple altar, while small alcoves line the walls featuring an international collection of statues and paintings, such as a Philippine rendition of the Christ Child. “Our parishioners donate them,” the sacristan, Anna Jannsen, explained. “They’re from their various cultures.”

As I gazed at the church’s blue-and-white checked floor, chipped and buckled with age, and the pews’ varnished finish, worn to a dull sheen from countless hands folded in prayer, I noted that the church exuded a feeling of warmth and serenity.

Maybe it wasn’t the most impressive edifice, but it was definitely a much-loved one.

Suddenly Jannsen asked if I wanted to see the Upper Church, or the “real” basilica. Smiling at my startled expression, she explained we were in the basilica’s Lower Church. Far less elegant than its showy sister upstairs, it’s nevertheless favored by parishioners because it’s more easily accessible (you have to climb many stairs to get into the Upper Church) and its temperatures are more moderate (it’s warmer in winter and cooler in summer).

Stepping into the cool interior of the Upper Church, which seats 1,700 — astonishingly, that’s 100 fewer than the Lower Church, which appears much smaller — I saw the grand basilica I was expecting. Crafted from fine white-gray granite and stone, it features a white altar backed by an intricate reredos-type piece crafted from the building’s original ornate altar and featuring a crucified Jesus flanked by the four Gospel writers.

More impressive is its setting in the spacious apse, where your attention is immediately drawn to the striking painting of the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the ceiling) ringed by saints.

One of the basilica’s highlights is an immense golden alcove just to the left of the altar. The inlet lovingly holds a framed copy of the famous Holy Mary of Perpetual Help icon, given to the OLPH Redemptorists in 1894 by Pope Leo XIII.

Icon Intrigue

The original icon is enshrined above the main altar of the Redemptorist church of San Alfonso in Rome and has a storied past.

An unknown artist painted the picture, which eventually fell into the hands of a Roman woman who had visions of Mary telling her to enshrine the picture in a small, local church for public veneration. So the picture was placed in the church, St. Matthew’s, where it inspired great devotion. In 1799, when Napoleon swept into the city and began destroying churches, the Augustinians quietly removed the picture and hid it in one of their monasteries.

Years passed. In 1855, the Redemptorists built a new church in Rome, which they learned was on the site of the former St. Matthew’s. Even more interesting, one of their own priests had often served Mass as a young boy in the Augustinian monastery where the famous Madonna icon was hidden. Eventually the miraculous picture was moved from the monastery and enshrined in San Alfonso, its original home, and the Redemptorists began talking about the Blessed Mother as part of their mission.

OLPH parishioners wanted to make sure their copy of the famous icon had a beautiful setting, so when the Upper Church was being constructed over the Lower Church in the 1920s, they sold their own jewelry to fund creation of the golden alcove. Once it was finished, the church instituted a Wednesday novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help after all Masses that’s still prayed today.

Finishing my tour, I learned the Diocese of Brooklyn, in which OLPH lies, is home to more than 1.8 million Catholics — and is the only totally urban diocese in the nation. Amazingly, Mass is said in 26 languages each week.

As the larger of the diocese’s two basilicas, OLPH hosts the diocese’s major events, such as ordinations, along with larger funerals, such as those for fallen police officers and firefighters.

Yet despite the basilica’s enormous physical size and its location in an immense diocese, it’s a very warm, welcoming place. So welcoming, in fact, that former parishioners are routinely flown back for burial here.

“Once you become a parishioner,” said Jannsen, “you never want to leave.”

Melanie Radzicki McManus

is based in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

526 59th St.

Brooklyn, N.Y. 11220

(718) 492-9200

olphbkny.org

Planning Your Visit

The basilica is about 20 minutes from midtown Manhattan by subway ($2 fare each way). Regular devotions include the Fatima Rosary, healing Masses and exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. For Mass times and other information in English, Spanish and Chinese, visit olphbkny.org.