National Shrine of the Little Flower

 

 

As noted elsewhere on this site, the 12th Call To Holiness conference will be held at the Shrine of the Little Flower, located at 12 Mile and Woodward Avenue in Royal Oak on Saturday October 10, 2009.  Perhaps you did not know these facts about the Shrine which are contained in the Shrine of the Little Flower Souvenir Book prepared by Reverend A. M. Hutting. assistant to Father Charles E. Coughlin:

 

 

Bishop Gallagher commissioned Father Coughlin in 1926 to establish a new parish in Royal Oak.

 

A tiny church was erected where the tower now stands to serve 28 families.

 

Father Coughlin established the Radio Shrine of the Little Flower in 1926 as St. Therese of Lisieux had always desired to become a missionary.  Father Coughlin believed that the radio was a means to reach out beyond his 28 families.

 

By the year 1927 the volume of incoming mail to Father Coughlin reached three thousand letters following his broadcasts from Radio Station WJR .  Later there came a time when one million letters were received resulting from one broadcast.

 

In May of 1929 the little church was moved to 12 Mile road, some few hundred feet to the east.

 

However, on St. Patrick’s day in 1936 the little church burned down.   In the meantime the new tower had been started as of July 1929. The cornerstone of the remainder of the church was not laid until 1933.

 

The main altar is made of Carrara marble and sits on an elevated platform of heavy walnut timbers, joined by exposed white maple dovetails.  Emerald-pearl granite steps lead to the platform.

 

The altar is twelve feet long, four feet and ten inches wide and three feet high.  The marble block from which this altar was carved was quarried especially for this particular monolithic (one stone) sculpture.  It came from the Apuan Alps near the summit of Mount Cavallo in Italy and was quarried at a height of over five thousand feet.  It was them carved at the studio in Pietrasanta.

 

The Perpetual Adoration Chapel was dedicated on July 21, 2005.  The altar, tabernacle-lamp and holy water fonts are from the old convent, the pews are from the St Therese Chapel and the tabernacle is from the main church. The Chapel has over 50 relics form Father Coughlin’s collection.

 

Here are some of the relics in the Perpetual Adoration Chapel for you to see in person at the October 10, 2009 Call to Holiness Conference:

 

St John the Baptist; St Peter; St Paul; St Matthew; St Luke; St Mathias; St Philip; St Thomas; St Ignatius of Antioch; St Agatha; Sts Cosmas and Damian; St Anthony; St Basil; St Cyril of Jerusalem; St Ambrose; St Cyril of Alexandria; St John Chrysostom; St Jerome; St Augustine; Pope St Leo I; St Bernard; St Bonaventure; St Thomas Aquinas; St Robert Bellarmine; St Peter Canisius; St John of the Cross; St Charles Borromeo; St Francis De Sales; St John Vianney; St Elizabeth Ann Seton; St Maria Goretti; St Francis Cabrini; Sr Miguel Pro, S.J.; St John Bosco and in a special place of honor  St Therese of Lisieux.