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New statue at shrine carries on a tradition
HUMAN CONDITION
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The Rev. Peter R. Precourt, pastor of St. Anne-St. Patrick Parish and director of the St. Anne Shrine in Sturbridge, stands next to a marble statue of St. Augustine that will be unveiled and dedicated tonight at St. Anne Church. (T&G Staff/DAN GOULD)
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At about 5:10 p.m. on June 9, 1953, the whirlwind that came to be known as the “Worcester Tornado” crashed into Assumption College in Worcester , shrouding it with menacing, black-ink clouds and furiously pummeling it with fist-sized hail, driving rain and train-roaring winds.
When the skies abruptly cleared, the Greendale campus lay in ruin.
A priest and two nuns were killed.
Given the damage from the storm and the cost to rebuild, it looked like the decades-old presence of the Augustinians of the Assumption Order in Worcester was over.
“The campus was devastated and there wasn’t a lot of hope for the future,” said the Rev. Dennis Gallagher, Assumptionist regional superior of the North American Province.
However, then-Bishop John J. Wright felt the Assumptionists’ work in Central Massachusetts was too important and decided to lend a hand to the order.
He placed St. Anne-St. Patrick Parish in Sturbridge and its shrine, which was dedicated to St. Anne, under the pastoral care of the Assumptionists.
The act “miraculously” helped the order’s members rebound from the 1953 tragedy.
That’s because, over the years, thousands have visited the shrine, and the income generated through donations and gift shop sales helped the Assumptionists regroup and build a new campus on upper Salisbury Street in Worcester .
“Shrines in the 1950s drew a lot of people and there’s no question that visitors to Sturbridge significantly helped us to rebuild the college,” said Father Gallagher.
The association between St. Anne-St. Patrick and the order is still in place, and parishioners are so appreciative of the order’s stewardship that they have purchased a marble statue of St. Augustine to recognize the efforts by the Assumptionists.
There will be a dedication service and Mass beginning at 7 tonight at St. Anne Church at 16 Church St. in Sturbridge’s Fiskdale section.
“There’s always been a good relationship between the order and the people of St. Anne-St. Patrick’s,” said the Rev. Peter R. Precourt, who’s served as parish pastor and shrine director the past three years.
Though not unique, it is rare for an order to manage a diocesan parish.
For example, there are only two other churches in the roughly 120-parish Diocese of Worcester that are administered by orders, rather than diocesan priests.
Sacred Heart Church in Milford is operated by the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata and St. Joseph ’s Church in Fitchburg is under the auspices of the La Salette Fathers.
Raymond L. Delisle, a diocesan spokesman, said many orders have returned control of churches to diocesan authorities because of dwindling membership.
He also noted that some orders, such as the Jesuits at the College of the Holy Cross, aid local parishes by celebrating Mass and providing other help, though they do not operate the churches.
Still others work with certain ethnic groups.
The Redemptorists, for example, minister to the needs of Brazilians who are members of St. Stephen’s Church in Worcester , Mr. Delisle said.
Father Precourt said the shrine’s history dates back to the founding in 1883 of St. Patrick’s and St. Anne’s as mission churches of Notre Dame Parish in Southbridge .
The two missions were merged in 1887 when, around the feast day of St. Anne, a parishioner was partially healed of dropsy as she approached the altar at St. Anne’s.
On the same Sunday a year later, the woman was reportedly healed completely. That afternoon, parishioners gathered at the church to give thanksgiving for the favor obtained through the intercession of St. Anne.
Work then began on a shrine, and in 1893 a relic of St. Anne was donated by the Shrine of Saint Anne de Beaupré in Quebec .
Father Precourt , who served for a time as dean of students at Assumption, said pilgrims began to flock to the shrine looking for a place to pray, meditate or be healed of physical or emotional ills.
Over the years, a number of attractions of religious interest were added to the 35-acre complex.
There are now grottos to Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima and an area where people may perform the Way of the Cross.
There’s also a nondenominational place where parents who’ve lost their children may seek solace. Stones with the names of the deceased children surround the bronzed Angel of Hope statue.
The Assumptionists also served from the 1930s to 1989 as chaplains to the French and American embassies in Moscow . Icons from those facilities may also be viewed at the complex.
Father Precourt said the shrine is so popular that weekend Masses are held in the parish center rather than St. Anne’s, which can seat only about 150. The much-smaller St. Patrick’s was razed several years ago because of its physical condition.
Rev. Gallagher said the Assumptionists serve in about 30 countries and have a broad mission.
“We follow the rule of St. Augustine , our spiritual father,” he explained. “He emphasized common life and charity.”
Besides serving as educators and missionaries, the Assumptionists operate Bayard Press in France , which publishes La Croix, the world’s only daily Catholic newspaper. It also produces the Catholic Digest magazine in the United States .
Contact Bronislaus B. Kush by e-mail at bkush@telegram.com
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