Sorrowful Mother, Portland, Oregon, USA
Father Ambrose Mayer started the Sorrowful Mother Grotto to fulfill a promise he made as a boy in Canada, when his mother nearly died after giving birth to his sister. As a young man he joined the Order of Servants of Mary, which sent him to work at a parish in Portland, Oregon. In 1923 Father Mayer convinced the Catholic Church to purchase some land from the Union Pacific Railroad to build a shrine to Our Lady of Sorrows, patron of the Servite Order. On May 29, 1924, Alexander Christie, Archbishop of Oregon City, dedicated the National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother. Cut into a basalt cliff, the Grotto resembles a Lourdes replica but features a marble copy of Michelangelo's Pietà. Special celebrations at the Sanctuary include a Freedom Sunday mass near July 4, with immigrants in regional dress, and the Feast of the Assumption candlelight procession August 15. (Information from the Sanctuary's site, www.thegrotto.org. Photo by Zack Lee, May 17, 2009, www.flickr.com/photos/riacale/3856515969/.)