Editor's note: This story was originally published in the Belleville News-Democrat.
Nestled in the woods outside of Belleville, the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows has been a decades-old fixture in the community for the young and old, religious and secular, and has had a lasting impact on people’s lives.
It’s hosted events since the 1940s, which vary from giant public exhibitions to intimate ceremonies.
It has a large children’s playground; numerous displays, such as one showcasing Jesus’ condemnation in the stations of the cross; and a few solemn setpieces, like a replica of the Lourdes Grotto and the namesake shrine inside of a large amphitheater, where many outdoor events are held.
The annual Way of Lights — a free Christmas light show setup parallel with the roads in the Shrine grounds — is one of their biggest events of the year, and it always draws lines of cars and tour buses from the Metro East and well beyond.
Glyn Adams, of Edwardsville, stopped at the Shrine Visitors Center on a recent morning. She says she’s a big fan of The Way of Lights.
“I make sure I come every season to see them. It’s one of my favorites,” Adams said. “With all the cars that come through, some people may not get the concept of it, but they’ll see it, and maybe it’ll make them think, ‘What’s my life like,’ or, ‘Why don’t I go (to the Shrine)?”
Adams is 70-years-old and a Catholic convert. She works as a substitute teacher in Collinsville School District 10 and as a housekeeper for St. Jerome’s Parish in Troy.
The Way of Lights isn’t the only memory she has of the Shrine. In the past, she would bring her nephew to enjoy the peace and quiet of the grounds. She also married her late husband, John Accornero — who she met at St. Jerome’s — at the Shrine.
“We just went and had it done on the grounds, it wasn’t an official thing,” Adams said. “We had a small group, just family and friends, and it was officiated by a friend.”
Adams’s husband was 70 years old when they met, she said, and they were together five years before they got married. It was John’s first marriage. He died of pancreatic cancer in November 2020, 18 months after they married in 2019.
With all her memories — and with new ones being formed from her continual visits throughout the years — Adams described the Shrine as a comfortable place.
“It’s a quiet comfort,” Adams said. “It feels like sanctuary; like you’re standing on hallowed ground that’s been dedicated just for us. It’s mother nature at her best.”
Assisted living on hallowed ground
A mainstay at the Shrine is the Benedictine Living Community, which is housed far from the Shrine’s entrance, behind a large solar panel field and the shrine itself.
One resident at the living community is Terry Martin, 88, who has called our Lady of the Snows his home since 2005.
“(The Shrine) is my whole life. I had never expected to be in such a good place like this,” Martin said. “They take care of everything for you: food, clothing, shelter, love, and understanding.”
Martin was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and joined the Marine Corps during the Korean War in the 50s.
“When I first went on my way to Korea, they found out I was too young for combat, and so they dropped me off in Japan,” Martin said. “(Afterwards,) I went to Oklahoma University, then I worked for the Public Health Service, which is how I ended up in Alaska.”
Martin said he picked the living community at the Shrine because he got tired of Alaska, which is where he lived for 40 years. In the past, he knew a person in the Metro East, so he’d to come to the Shrine during his Easter break to visit.
“It’s cold in Alaska during Easter, you know,” Martin said. “And so to (come here) on spring break is like a college student going to Fort Lauderdale.”
Despite nearing his 90s, Martin leads an active life and enjoys the freedom afforded him by his car. For the Fourth of July weekend, he had plans to drive up to Rapid City, South Dakota.
“For about three years in a row, I’d go to Cody, Wyoming. That’s a great place for the Fourth of July. I like rodeos, and they have an annual, week-long rodeo there, which is why I’m going to South Dakota this year,” Martin said.
While Martin is one of a number of Catholic residents, the assisted-living home is not limited to Catholics or Christians as a whole. About 70 percent of residents were Catholic as of 2022. It houses anyone who wants to stay there, according to Geri Furmanek, spiritual care director for the Benedictine Living Community.
“(But) many people who have known the Missionary Oblates (of Mary Immaculate) have wanted to live in one of their facilities,” she said. “They know that their spiritual life will be cared for along with their physical needs.”
The living community was bought by the Sisters of Saint Scholastica, who operate a number of living communities named after Scholastica’s brother, Saint Benedictine.
Furmanek worked as the spiritual care director 30 years ago, but went to work in Rome for about five years. She then returned to work for the Missionary Oblates.
Her office was inside the living community, and when the previous spiritual care director retired, she returned to her old job.
“One of the things I experienced was, as people were dying, their faith played such a role that it was a peaceful death,” Furmanek said. “That really attracted me. Why do some people have such difficulty with dying when others have such a connection with God that it’s part of life?”
Furmanek has been in the area all her life and, before she became a nun, used to come to the Shrine in the summer for the novena, or the nine days of prayer.
“It would be so hot out, and yet there were thousands of people coming to the Shrine — literal busloads of people,” Furmanek said. “People would dress up in their finest clothes. They’d sit on blankets out all over the amphitheater and they’d listen to Mass and some of the Oblates would speak.”
Origin of the shrine in Belleville and ancient Rome
The Shrine’s novena commemorates the founding of the original Our Lady of the Snows, which happened on Aug. 5, 352 A.D. Furmanek said that day is their Shrine’s feast, or celebration.
“Legend has it that a childless couple in Rome wanted to do something with their money, and so they went to the pope, and both the couple and the pope prayed about it,” Furmanek said.
“The couple had a dream that they should build a church on Esquiline Hill in Rome. On the night of Aug. 4, there was a miraculous snowfall on the hill — in Rome at this time of year, it’s as hot as Hades — and so they decided to build the church there, which is now the (Basilica of Saint Mary Major),” Furmanek said.
Rev. Godfrey Mullen, a priest at the Cathedral of St. Peter, said the original church is an important part of understanding their faith.
“I don’t think it’s accidental at all that Pope Francis goes to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows in Rome and prays before any of his international trips,” Mullen said.
Mullen said the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows is different from other national shrines. Since shrines aren’t a parish, they don’t typically have the same responsibilities that a parish does. The Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows takes on some of those responsibilities.
“A parish would have the obligation to educate our young people and would have to support the Diocese,” Mullen said. “The Shrine sits outside of that structure, so in a way, they have fewer obligations. Which, I think, makes it even more heroic that they want to take part in the ministry of the church when they don’t really have to.”
According to an Associated Press article from 1963, the Shrine in Belleville began construction in 1958, and was spearheaded by Rev. Edwin Guild. Prior to the Shrine, Rev. Paul Schulte built a chapel in honor of Mary in the 40s.
Schulte was known for being an aviator missionary in the 30s, where he would deliver supplies to remote Inuit communities. He commissioned an artist to paint Mary appearing in an Inuit community alongside his airplane, according to the Shrine’s website.
Guild was the founder of the Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville, according to the Shrine’s website. As a director, one project he oversaw was the construction of the outdoor amphitheater, which was built in 1962. When he died, he was buried in the Annunciation Garden, and is the only person buried on the Shrine’s grounds.
Over the decades, new features were added. The Church of Our Lady of the Snows was built in 1990, and can seat 600 people. In 2000, the Millennium Spire was built on a hill above the amphitheater.
The Benedictine Living Community, originally named the Apartment Community of Our Lady of the Snows, was built in 1966.
The most recent addition is the King’s House Retreat Center, which moved onto the Shrine’s grounds after the diocese closed its original location in 2023. Their most recent retreat happened in late June, and the next is scheduled for the week of July 15.
A restaurant and banquet facility, which was famous for its Sunday brunch and soup and salad bar, operated inside the visitor center for more than 50 years. It closed in July of 2020, however, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virgin Mary in Belleville
Sightings of the Virgin Mary have happened all throughout history. Compared to the thousands that have claimed to see the Virgin Mary, only a few are officially recognized by the Catholic church, such as the Guadalupe, Mexico, sighting in 1531, which is a well-known sighting.
Ray Doiron, a former truck driver and native of southern Illinois, claimed to see apparitions of the Virgin Mary at the Shrine, which led to the establishment of a prayer group and media attention.
Doiron’s prayer group met at the Lourdes Grotto, and originally was limited to a couple hundred participants. After of his visions got out, however, thousands began showing up to pray.
As of 2018, the prayer group still met every month on the 13th, according to Doiron’s second wife, Claradel Donjon.
Donjon said Doiron once suffered an injury to his spine that left him dependent on using a walking cane. He was told by Mary to go to Medjugorje, a town in Bosnia and Herzegovina. After his trip, he no longer needed his cane.
Doiron published a book of his visions, which is titled “Messages from our Heavenly Mother to Her Children.” In it, Doiron wrote descriptions of what Mary looked like and what she said to him.
Doiron died on Oct. 27, 2015, and the prayer group’s size declined significantly afterward, Donjon said.
The Catholic church has yet to approve, disprove or recognize any of Doiron’s sightings.
Bruce Darnell is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
