Basilica of our Lady of San Juan de la Valle

by: Lorraine Stanley

 

 

 

 

This is a very well known shrine of the Roman Catholics here in North America.  This is a holy site and in 1920, Reverend Alfonso Jalbert OMI, built a small wooden chapel as a mission church for St. Margaret Mary Church in Pharr, Texas.  He was convinced that fostering a devotion to Our Lady of San Juan would benefit the people and help draw the community together. After receiving permission from the bishop to foster the devotion, he commissioned an artist in Guadalajara, Mexico to make a reproduction of the statue venerated at San Juan de Los Lagos and this reproduction was first placed in the San Juan chapel.  This building was rebuilt back in the 1970's after a small plane crashed into the building causing a fire that burnt the shrine to the ground, except for the tower which still stands . The inside of the new building was influenced by gothic architecture. 

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops designated Our Lady of San Juan del Valle a national Shrine on March 24, 1998, and the following year on June 12, 1999 Pope John Paul II designated it as a minor Basilica.  Here in the Rio Grande Valley, hundreds of thousands are drawn to the Shrine dedicated to Our Lady of San Juan del Valle and averages more than one million visitors a year.