Today’s The World Around Us will be presented in French, with subtitles in Arabic, Aulacese (Vietnamese), Chinese, English, French, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Thai.

The magnificence of pilgrimage places in the world has always reflected our earnest gratitude of God’s grace. Today, we will visit the awe-inspiring Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Canada, a spectacular sanctuary dedicated to Sainte Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, and known as the “Land of Miracles.”

Together with Sainte-Anne d’Aurey in France and Sainte-Anne-de-Jerusalem, Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré is one of just three existing sanctuaries devoted to Saint Anne. Now an astonishing Basilica at the outskirts of Quebec City, the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Shrine has been a place of prayer for the past 350 years.

About 1.5 million visitors from all over the world come annually to uphold their faith in Saint Anne. Why is there such great devotion to Sainte Anne? One answer lies in the affinity between the spiritual traditions that met in Canada, between the beliefs of the French pioneers and the culture of the First Nations. Father Guy Pilote, rector of the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, guides us through the sanctuary.

Sainte-Anne, of course is the mother of Virgin Mary, the grand-mother of Jesus. We don't talk about Sainte-Anne in the Bible, but one thing is sure, that is Virgin Mary had a mother, and the mother of the Virgin was certainly someone nice.

It was our French ancestors who came from France, and who already had this grand devotion. We know that in Brittany, where the majority of our ancestors came, there's a Saint Anne sanctuary in Auray. We consider it a little bit like the mother sanctuary of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.

So our ancestors came here with this devotion and the sailors who crossed the ocean. It was always risky, so these people had great devotion, They would pray to the blessed Sainte-Anne, especially to cross Cap Tourmente, where it was more difficult, more dangerous. And they also made promises to Saint Anne.

The First Nations, the Indians, they join wholeheartedly in this devotion because in their culture, a grandmother plays an important role. Saint Anne, being a grand-mother, they adopted her right away! And they always come to the sanctuary. From the beginning, the Indians were always very present here at the sanctuary.

Another, perhaps more important explanation to the wide devotion to Saint Anne is found in the few dozens of recorded miracles that took place at the sanctuary. “There, the paralytics walk, the blind can see, and the sick are healed of every kind of illness” – wrote an Ursuline nun Marie de L’Incarnation in the 17th century.

In 1658 when they started to build, there's a commemorative plate exactly where the first chapel was. It’s the decisions of the inhabitants. They were about 20 families living around here and they were the ones who wanted to have a chapel, a place of worship dedicated to Saint Anne.

And one of the inhabitants was very sick; he had a bad kidney sickness. He couldn’t work but he wanted to help with the construction. He came symbolically to throw a few rocks into the foundation and that's how he was cured instantly. It was the first miracle of Saint Anne, let’s say, which was notified here.

Just like that of Virgin Mary, the life of Saint Anne contained a miraculous story of birth-giving. An ordinary spiritual Jewish woman, she had married for 20 years without having a child.

Following the indication of an angel, however, Saint Anne met her husband again at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem and soon gave birth to Mary. Originally built by a French architect Maxime Roisin and a Quebec architect Louis-Napoléon Audet de Sherbrooke, the interior of the shrine displays the life and virtue of Saint Anne.

The big mosaic of the vault narrates to us the life of Saint Anne. Her life is told in the central part and in the two crossed arms. The basilica is in a cross shape, isn’t it? And at the crossing, in the middle, you have the virtues of Saint Anne and besides, just above the high altar, you have the glorification of Saint Anne. So Saint Anne’s life is recalled in this way.

Three pieces of Saint Anne’s relics are placed in the Shrine, including the important piece given to the Shrine by Pope John XXIII in 1960. We will continue our visit to the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré when we return. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Halo, joyful viewers, welcome back to The World Around Us featuring the Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré near Quebec City, Canada. Representing a sanctuary of 350 years of history, the grand basilica has been in constant renewal and expansion ever since it was built in 1923. Starting from the outer hall of the shrine, Father Guy Pilote began to show us the intricate designs of the basilica.

You have the columns, which are in the color of water, because at baptism you have water that gives you birth into a new life. The little sculptures above the columns, with all kind of fishes. These are symbols, it is life coming out of the water and the symbols of the new life you receive at baptism, like the seashells on the vault or the algae on the sculpted arch. So all these symbols remind us of the richness of the new life we receive at the time of baptism.

You have a big mosaic at the back in two parts, the baptism of Christ in the Jordan, the baptism in spirit. And from one side to the other of the portico, you have at the other end, it will be death. You have birth here and at the other end, death. And in between we have a period of time given to us, a period of time to discover, to live. It's the lifetime. We don't know how long it will last.

It's a precious time and it was given to us to discover God; God reveals Himself to us. You have mosaics above the door. This one, the central one and the other door, where God is represented on the father, the son and the spirit; and God entrusted to men the care of the creation. It's God revealing Himself in nature. This nature is invoked in the arch with all the plants, all the animals, all in the same size to show that the small one is as important as the big one.

Father Guy Pilote further explained the relation between God’s creation and the appearance of time.

Time was evoked here in the portico in a very, very obvious way. First, you have the Creator here in the center, with the solar system above the vault in mosaics. And just above us here at the entrance, you have the sun in the center with the 24 hours of day and night.

The vault is divided in four sections evoking the four seasons with a little scenery for each season, which is our way of organizing time. As we have divided the year into twelve months, so the twelve months are recalled in twelve little arches, six on each side with the zodiac signs. When we come in, the first thing the people see is a couple dancing on the floor; so dance is an expression of joy.

As we entered the main hall, we see that the altar of Saint Anne is next to the main altar of celebrating of the mass.

You also have, just in the middle, in the stained glass above the high altar in red, the personality of Christ. He is in the center and He is surrounded by other stained glasses of patriarchs and prophets in the Old Testament, who had announced Him. And in the second series of stained glass, behind the columns, we don't see them well from here, the apostles of Jesus Christ are represented. I just want to signal one important thing in the basilica, it is the sculpture of the capitals.

You see the sculptures above at the top of the round columns.

These capitals were made by a Quebecer, a very famous sculptor of Quebec, Mr. Emile Brunet, and they narrate the life of Christ.

So we have the life of Saint Anne, we have the life of Christ. You have all the stained glasses that we see there. The ones on top we don't see, but they are magnificent also. Those we see are all the places where there are sanctuaries for Saint Anne.

You have animals sculpted on every bench. There are 260 benches so 260 animals. Look, they are all different.

What do these animals represent?

It's nature, it’s the creation of God, which is a great richness, a great variety. You also have a plant, they all look the same but they are all different. So the fauna and flora are represented in a discreet way, but they are there. And the seashell is the symbol of the pilgrim.

It is also in the central altar that the sacred bond between Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ is represented.

Here we can see very well, above the high altar, in the big mosaic, Saint Anne with the Virgin Mary and child Jesus. And we see the good Saint Anne gives Jesus a fruit. It's not only a treat from a grandmother, but a symbol of his mission that she presents to him. And his mission is to be the Savior of the world, to come to redeem the world, to repair the original mistake, which is evoked here in the tree of Genesis, the fault of Adam and Eve. So there's a link between the two – the mission of Jesus.

Finally, Father Guy Pilote discussed the arts and techniques invented for sanctuaries as we approached the Immaculate Conception Chapel. It is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception. That's why there is a statue of her amidst the organs, right in the middle, a statue of the Immaculate Conception. That's why all the colors of the chapel are in different tints of blue, of various kinds, in the mosaic, in the paintings also. It's the Marian color par excellence. This chapel was made in the beginning of the 80's, the wall-covering, the finishing.

Another particularity of the Immaculate chapel is the small mosaics. We can see on top of the small columns, there are 176 of these small mosaics. They are all butterflies, birds, flowers; they are magnificent.

May the blessed Shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré continue to help bring its visitors closer to God.

Thank you for being with us on today’s The World Around Us. Coming up next is Words of Wisdom, after Noteworthy News, here on Supreme Master Television. May Heaven shower you with miracles each and every day.

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