Detroit — St. Anne, now by Vatican decree the patron saint of the Archdiocese of Detroit, has had a special place in the life of the local Church from its earliest days.
It was on July 26, 1701 — the feast of St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin and grandmother our Lord — that Mass was first celebrated in the new frontier community and construction began on the church that was to serve the French soldiers and settlers, and Indian converts.
That was to be the first church of Ste. Anne de Detroit Parish, not only the oldest parish in the archdiocese, but the second-oldest continuously operating parish in the United States.
“St. Anne has been integral to the story and history of Detroit, and the first Catholic presence in southeast Michigan. Today, I am happy to announce that St. Anne has been and, is, ever will be our patron saint,” Archbishop Allen Vigneron said May 1 at the conclusion of the ordination Mass for Detroit’s three new auxiliary bishops at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Michael Trueman, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Detroit, read the decree from the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
The Vatican congregation affirmed the request of Archbishop Vigneron, and declared: “St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is established from time immemorial patroness before God of the Archdiocese of Detroit.” (The full text of the decree and other information is available at www.aodonline.org.)
To commemorate the Vatican’s announcement, Archbishop Vigneron will celebrate Mass at the present Ste. Anne de Detroit Church, by the Ambassador Bridge, on Tuesday, July 26. Liturgies will also be held that day at St. Anne Church in Monroe, St. Anne Church in Ortonville and St. Anne Church in Warren.
Archbishop Vigneron’s request to the Vatican came after a process of seeking suggestions from the clergy and people about a patron saint for the archdiocese. Many people had assumed St. Anne was already Detroit’s patroness, and many of those who responded to the archbishop’s invitation suggest she be made official.
Basilian Fr. Thomas Sepulveda, pastor of Ste. Anne de Detroit Parish, said the decree just “recognizes what has been true for over 300 years — St. Anne has been very special from the very beginning.”
While the parish was still primarily French when its current church — its eighth — was constructed in 1886, its 460 families are now about 80 percent Hispanic.
Nevertheless, the tradition of an annual novena to St. Anne remains a major annual event in the life of the parish, with people of many ethnic origins participating. This year, the novena will run from July 17 through July 25, the day before the feast day. (A full schedule is available on the parish’s website, www.ste-anne.org.)
There is also a St. Anne’s Society, a Mass enrollment society, which has some 4,000 members registered.
“Obviously, we’re very happy about it,” Fr. Sepulveda said about the official patron saint designation for St. Anne. And he added, “We’re hoping it might bring more people from the suburbs down to visit Ste. Anne Church.”
Ste. Anne de Detroit Church is at 1000 Ste. Anne St., two blocks north of Fort Street, in southwest Detroit. Telephone (313) 496-1701.
