Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica, Chicago, IL

Our Lady of Sorrows is not only a Basilica, but a National Shrine by order of Pius XII.  Not the greatest neighborhood but it's right off of the interstate by only a couple blocks.  They have a parking lot in the back that's kind of fenced off so that wasn't a big worry.   A beautiful church.... with some funny business going on.  If you look at the full set, you see the strange arrangement they have in front of the altar.  They had some St. Peregrine devotion going on there that day I think so it may have been arranged that way just for this day.  The kind maintenance man turned the lights on for us. 

From Wiki: The church was designed in an Italian Renaissance architectural style by Henry Engelbert, John F. Pope, and William J. Brinkmann. It features a barrel-vaulted ceiling that wraps around a high altar made entirely of Carrara marble. It was declared a basilica by the Vatican in 1956.

Fun fact: The Basilica was used for a brief scene in the 1987 film The Untouchables in which Sean Connery's character explains "The Chicago Way" to Kevin Costner's character.





Somehow I doubt this picture to the left is still accurate.....






I really liked this crucifix, but I wasn't able to get a much better picture than this.

3 comments:

PBR Photography said...

Beautiful photos! Reminds me I need to make it up to Chicago sometime soon.

Father G said...

One of the many still beautiful churches in Chicago. This one was amazingly kept pretty much intact and not wrecked after Vat.II...high altar, altar rail, sedilia (moved to the opposite side), pulpit still there. Alas it's now less than a shadow of what this glorious church and thriving parish once was. Tens of thousands of faithful Catholics and non-Catholics alike made the Lady of Sorrows novena regularly in the '20's, 30's and 1940's. Even more important than the brief scene in the movie "The Untouchables", Our Lady of Sorrows was home to the well known film "the Immemorial Tridentine Mass" filmed on Easter Sunday 1941 and narrated by then Msgr. Fulton J. Sheen.

Badger Catholic said...

Very cool, thanks for the info!