Sainte-Anne de Beaupré is a small town on the shores of the St. Lawrence River, 20 miles above Quebec City in Canada. The village is home to the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, a major Catholic shrine and place of healing that attracts more than a million pilgrims per year.
Though dating from 1926, the present basilica contains a number of 18th-century sculptures and artworks. The 240 stained glass windows were created using a new technique that suffuses the light beautifully. The ceiling and sides of the church are covered in mosaics of the life of St. Anne, the saints of Canada, 88 scenes from the life of Jesus, and figurative and geometrical designs. However, the focus of pilgrims to Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré is not the architecture, but the miraculous statue of St. Anne. Carved from a massive single piece of oak, it is painted colorfully and wears a gold crown with diamonds, rubies and pearls. Anne is shown carrying her child, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Devotion to St. Anne developed in the West after the 8th century and was very popular in France at the time of the settlement of Quebec.
The Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré Shrine is a pilgrimage site that attracts over 1.5 million visitors each year.