St. Anne Shrine of Fall River

Fr. Edward Murphy, Chaplain of St. Anne Shrine and Pastor of St. Andrew’s of Taunton, celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi with a procession through the streets of Fall River on Sunday, June 6, 2021.

Over 150 pilgrims from the area braved the unusually warm temperatures and brilliant sunshine and joined the procession starting in the Shrine Crypt of St. Anne’s, with exposition from a temporary altar on the front steps of the church, around the upper end of Kennedy Park, accompanied by the St. Cecilia’s Philharmonic Band providing the pace and music. The procession ended back at the Shrine with the public recital of the Divine Praises, and retired to the lower church for the closing ceremonies.

With the relaxing of public assembly restrictions and the improvement in the health and welfare of our city and diocese, this procession and praise of Our Lord is especially important; giving thanks for his mercy and asking for continued guidance and protection as life in the Fall River diocese returns to normal was thought a suitable and necessary step for the Society to take, and in keeping with traditions of our faith.

Please join us at St. Anne Shrine this coming Thursday, May 27, for our last Healing Mass until September.
Fr. Edward Murphy, Shrine Chaplain, will be the celebrant.

The evening will begin at 6:00 PM with the recitation of the Holy Rosary (Confession will be available). Mass will begin at 6:30 PM after the blessing of the St. Anne statue which was recently returned to the Shrine, followed by a healing service with Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Again, this will be the LAST Healing Mass at St. Anne Shrine until September 2021.

Courtesy of Trevor Santana, a local photographer, a view of our shrine from Kennedy Park in the spring.

Early this morning, the original statue of St. Anne, hand-carved in Austria in 1892, who graced the upper nave from both the original high altar and, later, from a place of honor to the left of the sanctuary, returned to her home at the Shrine.

The professional movers from M&M Movers, who’ve helped us with many moves of our acquisitions over the last two years, were again on hand to move this priceless artifact carefully from St. Mary’s Cathedral down South Main to St. Anne’s, where she was installed on the side altar in the lower church.

Carefully moving her into position on the side altar…

Lifting her into position…

And replacing the Heart, which contains petitions for loved ones, and crowns befitting the grandmother of our Lord and her daughter, who is truly the Queen of Heaven:

The Shrine is grateful to Fr. Washburn, rector of the Cathedral, for his generosity in allowing the Preservation Society to protect this priceless artifact of the Shrine, and for those whose support made the move possible.