St. Ann’s Basilica celebrates 100 anniversary

SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — This week St. Ann’s Basilica in Scranton will celebrate its 100 anniversary. The 10-day religious pilgrimage begins on Wednesday.

Preparations are underway with some new additions for this year’s Novena.

“When we realized it was going to be the 100th anniversary, it became the most exciting preparation time we had,” stated Fr. Richard Burke C.P, rector at St. Ann’s Basilica.

St. Ann’s solemn Novena dates back to 1924 making it a century.

“All of the things that occupied your attention as they happened, like the great depression, world wars, and the civil unrest of the 60s, and then the pandemic,” said Fr. Burke.

While St Ann’s is staying true to its roots of daily masses and services throughout the 10 days, this year there is a new addition of a mass for the Hispanic-Catholic community.

“I was very pleasantly surprised to discover how significant the number of Hispanic Catholics are in our diocese and our surrounding area,” expressed Fr. Burke.

The mass, spoken in Spanish, will be held every night from July 17th to the 25th at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s going to be very exciting, hopefully, they’ll [hispanic-catholic community] be able to make it and come out and pray with us, we want them to they’re welcomed and they’re part of who we are as a catholic community, and the dioceses,” explained Fr. Burke.

As a way to commemorate a century of the Novena, two parishioners created an exhibit of the past one hundred years…

“We wanted to give people the opportunity to relive this great novena…They come down here and see this has been a century of prayers answered,” stated Leo Maxfield, usher coordinator at St. Ann’s Basilica.

Guests can take in history through a variety of photos, news articles, and more. The oldest piece on display is a booklet from 1928

“This gives people the chance to we say in the flyers- dive into the history of the novena and to get a real appreciation of where we’ve been and hopefully where we’re going,” said Maxfield.

As for the summer heat, Father Richard Burke says paramedics and water will be on-site at all times. There are also options to go into the Basilica to cool off and watch the masses that take place outside.

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