Origins of the Basilica

In the 17th century, industrial development began along Stony Brook. Several of the owners were from Catholic families. Around 1869, these pioneering men of God asked Boston's Archbishop William to invite the German Order of St Alphonsus (Redemptorists) to preach their hallmark parish missions. Less than two years later, a frame church was erected and dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (a faithful copy of the original hanging in St Alphonsus Church in Rome) was formally inducted, above the high altar on Pentecost Sunday, 1871.

It was at first a mission church, so the people just called it that, "Mission Church." On December 8, 1954, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, through the request of Boston's Cardinal Cushing, His Holiness Pope Pius XII conferred to it the honor of becoming a basilica, one of only 43 in the United States of America.

The famous icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the Shrine

This painting depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary holding the Holy Child Jesus. Jesus has run to the arms of his mother, frightened by the vision of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel holding the instruments of the Passion. In his haste, he has almost lost one of his small sandals. Mary's hand comforts her Son; she is his refuge although she cannot remove the suffering which he must undergo for us. The fallen sandal is perhaps the symbol of a soul clinging to Christ by one last thread--devotion to Mary.

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Adapted from Official Website: https://dan.com/buy-domain/themissionchurch.com