Novena at the Basilica of Ste. Anne de Detroit
July 17 – 26, 2021
One of the highlights of the year at the Basilica of Ste. Anne de Detroit is Novena. This joyful event will take place from July 17-26 and is a decades-old tradition. Novena is nine days of prayer including a noon Mass and an evening Mass. Each day of prayer has a different theme associated with an ethnic group important to Detroit. On the tenth day, we celebrate the Feast of Ste. Anne. We gather to ask Ste. Anne to pray for our intentions, the intentions of our families, our city, our Archdiocese, and our world.
Novena 2021 Schedule
July 17
Honoring Western European Culture: Austria, Germany, Italy and Malta
7 p.m. Mass
Bishop Arturo Cepeda, Celebrant
Fr. John Riccardo, Preacher
July 18
Honoring Celtic and British Culture: Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales
12 noon Mass
Bishop Gerard Battersby, Celebrant
Fr. Andrew Dawson, Preacher
July 19
Honoring Chaldean Culture
7 p.m. Mass
Bishop Francis Kalabat, Celebrant and Preacher
July 20
Honoring Latino Culture:Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Spain
7 p.m. Mass
Bishop Donald Hanchon, Celebrant and Preacher
July 21
Honoring Albanian Culture
7 p.m. Mass
Fr. Frederik Kalaj, Celebrant
Fr. Marko Djonovic, Preacher
July 22
Honoring African Culture: African-American Culture, Benin, Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda
7 p.m. Mass
Fr. John MacKenzie, Celebrant
Fr. Ted Parker, Preacher
July 23
Honoring Asian Culture: China, India, Japan, Korea, Philippines and Vietnam
7 p.m. Mass
Fr. Hoang Lam, Celebrant
Deacon Francis King, Preacher
July 24
Honoring Eastern European Culture: Croatia, Czech, Hungry, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia
7 p.m. Mass
Fr. Robert Fisher, Celebrant
Fr. Roman Pasieczny, Preacher
July 25
Homecoming: Honoring French and Native American Culture
Special recognition of Ste. Anne founders and Ste. Anne School alumni
12 noon Mass
Fr. Donald Archambault, Celebrant and Preacher
July 26
Ste. Anne Feast Day
7 p.m. Mass
Archbishop Vigneron, Celebrant and Preacher
History of Devotion to Ste. Anne
What is known about Ste. Anne comes from the Protoevangelium of James, an apocryphal Gospel written around 145 A.D. Anne was married to Joachim and is the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and therefore the grandmother of Jesus.
Missionaries dedicated a chapel to Ste Anne in France in the 6th century A.D. In France, devotion to Ste. Anne became important when a French peasant, Yves Nicolazic, reported apparitions of Ste. Anne in August of 1623 and 1624. A woman appeared who said: “I am Anne, mother of Mary. There was a chapel built here before that was dedicated to me. I ask you to build it again and take care of it because God wants me honored here.”
French missionaries brought the devotion to Quebec, Canada in 1658. Over the centuries several churches have been built in honor of Ste. Anne. The Basilica of Ste. Anne de Beaupre in Quebec was completed in 1946.
Devotion to Ste. Anne in Detroit
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Detroit on July 24, 1701. Two days later a Mass was celebrated on Ste. Anne’s feast day by one of the priests who came with Cadillac. Ste. Anne was the patroness of New France.
Although the novena to Ste. Anne presumably goes back to the beginning of the parish, there was surge of devotion to the saint and to the novena with the building of the current church in 1886. A shrine was constructed in the southeast side of the church. A relic of Ste. Anne was obtained from the Basilica in Paris and is displayed in a reliquary at the shrine. Fr. James Grand (1886-1907) and Fr. Luke Renaud (1907-1919) of the Basilian Fathers of Toronto were pastors during this period.
On April 19, 2017, Most Rev. Allen H. Vigneron, Archbishop of Detroit, decreed that the shrine in the Basilica of Ste. Anne de Detroit is the official Archdiocesan shrine to Ste. Anne. Ste. Anne is the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Detroit.
For more information about Novena, please contact the parish office at 313-496-1701 or email kristen.andree@steannedetroit.org.