June 5, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

G’town shrine shines again
by Jennifer Katz

More than 10,000 donations have poured in to fund the restoration of the Miraculous Medal Shrine, a structure of Vatican stature on Chelten Avenue in Germantown.

There is an odd fact about the Miraculous Medal Shrine in Germantown. While millions of Philadelphians are unaware of its looming presence at 500 E. Chelten Ave., thousands upon thousands of worshipers visit the shrine each year.

This year the Central Association of the Miraculous Medal, an organization established in 1915 and dedicated to spreading devotion to Mary Immaculate, undertook a renovation project to repaint and restore the entire chapel to its original splendor. For more than five months, workers from the Hooven Company, which specializes in the restoration of churches, replicated the original details and restored several paintings. The chapel remained open so the hundreds of visitors who come on any given Monday to attend novenas would not be turned away.

“There are a thousand people a week that come to worship here, and at least four or five pilgrimages a month,” said Liz Pando, director of communications for CAMM.

The $150,000 project came to fruition largely funded by donations from thousands of CAMM members. Anyone, living or deceased may be enrolled as members for the annual fee of 25 cents a year. More than 10,000 of the organization’s 200,000 members donated in amounts small ($2) and large ($2,000) to help restore the chapel and the shrine.

“We sent our members a letter with a swath of cloth,” Pando said. “And they sent them back with a donation.”

As part of the renovation, banners were made from the swaths that were sent in and hung in the chapel.

The shrine was created some 52 years after the chapel was built in 1875. The chapel had been built to serve as a place of worship for the seminarians of the Congregation of the Mission, commonly known as the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers.  (The chapel was attached to St. Vincent’s Seminary). In 1927, Father Joseph Skelly, a Vincentian priest, wanted to pay homage to the Blessed Mother and thus began a series of nine-day novenas held four times a year in the chapel. That began the project to build a special place of worship to honor Mary and her Miraculous Medal.

“Because this was the property they owned at the time and there was a big following in the area, the Vincentians thought it was the best place to build the shrine,” Pando said.

Father Skelly also established the Perpetual Novena in 1930, creating a weekly novena service that has been held every Monday since then. Today there are nine Mass and novena services every Monday, and the shrine remains a popular pilgrimage site for Catholics from around the globe.

Many people, Pando said, come to ask for what are known as novena favors. The Medal, also known as the Medal of the Immaculate Conception, is believed to have originated from a vision of Sister Catherine Labouré in 1830, and since then many favors have been attributed to it by those seeking them.

A description of part of the medal reads, “These rays symbolize the graces I shed upon those who ask for them.”

The chapel and the shrine serve those who seek comfort, just as the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers carry on the missionary work of St. Vincent de Paul. There is no parish connected to the chapel.

“Everyone who comes here is a pilgrim,” Pando said.

Contact associate editor Jennifer Katz at 215-248-8804 or jenn@chestnuthilllocal.com.