On February 17, 1929, Fr. James Tort, a Claretian missionary serving the Mexican immigrant community of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish on Chicago's South Side, led the first novena to St. Jude Thaddeus ever held in the United States. Nine months later, the closing Mass of that first Solemn Novena—celebrated on October 28, the saint's feast day—drew a crowd so large that more than a thousand people stood outside the church, unable to fit through the doors. From that overflow crowd grew the National Shrine of St. Jude, and from Chicago's South Side the devotion to the patron of hopeless causes spread across a country in the grip of the Great Depression.
Chicago's Catholic geography extends well beyond that one South Side parish. Twenty-nine kilometers northwest, on the grounds of Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, an outdoor shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe draws crowds each December that local press has repeatedly called among the largest Guadalupan celebrations held anywhere outside Mexico City—a characterization that rests on press coverage rather than an independent count. Fifty-two kilometers north-northwest, in Libertyville, Conventual Franciscans keep perpetual adoration before the tomb-shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe, whom the U.S. bishops named patron of a national shrine in the Jubilee Year 2000. And in the Near North Side, the Gothic towers of Holy Name Cathedral have served as the seat of the Archdiocese of Chicago since 1875.
These sites, together with the Polish Cathedral–style parish of St. John Cantius on the Near West Side, trace the waves of Catholic immigration that built the city: German and Irish parishes in the nineteenth century, Polish and Mexican devotions in the twentieth. Cardinal Blase J. Cupich leads the Archdiocese today from Holy Name Cathedral, rebuilt in Gothic Revival stone after the Great Chicago Fire destroyed its predecessor in 1871.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
The Diocese of Chicago was erected in September 1843, and its cathedral parish, Holy Name, was founded the same year. The original cathedral—and its predecessor, the Cathedral of St. Mary—burned in the Great Chicago Fire of October 1871, and the present Gothic Revival building on the Near North Side, designed by Brooklyn architect Patrick Charles Keely, was dedicated on November 21, 1875, by Bishop Thomas Foley. The diocese was raised to an archdiocese in 1880 under its first archbishop, Patrick Feehan, and is led today by Cardinal Blase J. Cupich.
Chicago's Mexican Catholic community traces to Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, founded in 1923 as the first Mexican parish in the Archdiocese. Cardinal George Mundelein entrusted the Claretian Missionaries with the pastoral care of the city's Mexican Catholics in 1924. Five years later, on February 17, 1929, the parish's pastor, Fr. James Tort, led the first American novena to St. Jude Thaddeus; the closing Mass that October overflowed the church, and the National Shrine of St. Jude grew from that crowd. Devotion to St. Jude, patron of hopeless causes, spread nationally from this Chicago origin point during the hardships of the Depression and the Second World War.
A second Guadalupan devotion, unconnected to the South Side parish, took root in the northwest suburb of Des Plaines. A lay group, Friends of Our Lady of Guadalupe, organized by Chicagoan Joaquín Martínez, brought a replica of the tilma image from the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City and established the devotion in the late 1980s, formalizing it through the 1990s. On January 1, 2013, Cardinal Francis George canonically decreed the site an official shrine of the Archdiocese, dividing part of Maryville Academy's roughly 120-acre property for the ministry.
Marytown, in Libertyville, was founded in 1948 by two Conventual Franciscans, Fr. Dominic Szymanski and Fr. Cyryl Kita, a seminary contemporary of St. Maximilian Kolbe in Rome. The community moved from Crystal Lake to Kenosha, Wisconsin, before settling on its present Libertyville site in 1978. The U.S. Catholic bishops declared it the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe in the Jubilee Year 2000, honoring the Polish friar who, at Auschwitz in 1941, volunteered to die in place of a fellow prisoner condemned to starvation, and whom Pope John Paul II canonized in 1982.
St. John Cantius Church was founded in 1893 by the Congregation of the Resurrection to relieve overcrowding at St. Stanislaus Kostka and serve Chicago's Polish immigrant community. Architect Adolphus Druiding modeled its twin towers on St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków; the building took five years to complete. The parish declined through the later twentieth century before the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, a religious institute founded there in 1998, revived its Polish Cathedral tradition and its celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass. St. John Cantius is not itself a canonically designated shrine, but its architecture and liturgical life have made it one of the most visited Catholic churches on the Near West Side.
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Chicago
Holy Name Cathedral
The seat of the Archdiocese of Chicago rises on the Near North Side near the Magnificent Mile, a Victorian Gothic mass of stone built after the Great Chicago Fire destroyed its predecessor in October 1871. Brooklyn architect Patrick Charles Keely designed the building; its cornerstone was laid July 19, 1874, and Bishop Thomas Foley dedicated it on November 21, 1875. The diocese was raised to an archdiocese five years later under Archbishop Patrick Feehan, and Holy Name has served as its mother church since, seating roughly 1,200 beneath a Gothic nave. The cathedral's Prohibition-era history is written into its own stonework: gangster Dion O'Banion was shot across the street in 1924, and Hymie Weiss was gunned down at the cathedral's entrance in 1926, gunfire that left visible damage in the facade.
St. John Cantius Church
Founded in 1893 by the Congregation of the Resurrection to serve Chicago's Polish immigrant community, St. John Cantius is not itself a canonically designated shrine, but its Polish Cathedral Baroque architecture and traditional liturgical life have made it one of the most visited Catholic churches on the Near West Side. Architect Adolphus Druiding modeled the twin towers—200 feet and 100 feet—on St. Mary's Basilica in Kraków; the Baroque interior rises on eight stone columns around a main altar and two side altars salvaged from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The parish declined through the later twentieth century before the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, a religious institute founded there in 1998, revived its Polish Cathedral tradition and its celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass. Inside, a devotional image of Our Lady of Częstochowa—venerated here as Our Lady of Chicago—was solemnly recrowned on September 15, 1997.
National Shrine of St. Jude
Housed within Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Chicago's South Side—a different Guadalupe parish from the shrine in the northwest suburbs—the National Shrine of St. Jude traces its beginning to February 17, 1929, when Claretian missionary Fr. James Tort led the first American novena to St. Jude Thaddeus, patron of hopeless causes. Cardinal George Mundelein had entrusted the Claretians with a mission to Chicago's Mexican Catholic community in 1924; five years later, the closing Mass of that first Solemn Novena, celebrated on the October 28 feast of St. Jude, overflowed the church and left more than a thousand worshippers standing in the street. The shrine's devotional focus is a statue of St. Jude holding an image of Christ to his chest, before a gold reliquary containing a first-class relic of the saint. From this South Side parish, devotion to St. Jude spread across the United States during the hardships of the Great Depression and the Second World War.
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
On the grounds of Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, a few kilometers north of O'Hare International Airport, an outdoor shrine centers on a twelve-foot statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a six-foot statue of St. Juan Diego, before a replica of the tilma image brought from the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The devotion began with a lay group, Friends of Our Lady of Guadalupe, organized by Chicagoan Joaquín Martínez in the late 1980s and formalized through the 1990s. Cardinal Francis George canonically decreed the site an official shrine of the Archdiocese of Chicago on January 1, 2013, dividing part of Maryville Academy's roughly 120-acre property for the ministry. Chicago press has repeatedly called the shrine's December pilgrimage among the largest Guadalupan celebrations held anywhere outside Mexico City—a characterization that recurs across multiple outlets but rests on no independent count.
Marytown — National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe
Marytown was founded in 1948 by two Conventual Franciscans, Fr. Dominic Szymanski and Fr. Cyryl Kita, a seminary contemporary of St. Maximilian Kolbe in Rome; the community moved from Crystal Lake to Kenosha, Wisconsin, before settling on its present Libertyville site in 1978. The U.S. Catholic bishops declared it the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe in the Jubilee Year 2000. At its center, the Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel maintains perpetual, round-the-clock Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and the shrine holds relics of Kolbe alongside an exhibit recounting his life as a Polish Conventual Franciscan who, at Auschwitz in 1941, volunteered to die in place of a fellow prisoner condemned to starvation. Pope John Paul II canonized him in 1982.
🕯️ Annual Feast Days & Celebrations
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe — December 11–12
The Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines holds its principal annual pilgrimage over these two days: a bilingual Solemn Opening Mass on the evening of December 11, and a bilingual Solemn Closing Mass on December 12 itself—the saint's feast day in the universal Church—preceded by the praying of the Holy Rosary. The shrine also holds a separate "Guadalupe Summer Celebration" each year, already in its fifth annual iteration by 2019 according to an Archdiocese of Chicago release.
Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe — August 14
Marytown keeps the universal Church's feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe on August 14, the anniversary of his 1941 death at Auschwitz. The shrine's defining devotional practice is not tied to this single date but is instead its perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, offered every day of the year.
Feast of St. Jude — October 20–28
The National Shrine of St. Jude holds its October Solemn Novena over these nine days, with services each weekday evening and on the intervening Sunday. The October 28 feast itself follows a fixed pattern each year: Mass, a procession carrying the shrine's first-class relic of St. Jude—a fragment of his tibia—through the neighborhood, and a second Mass in Spanish. The Archdiocese's own news outlet, Chicago Catholic, has called it the biggest liturgical event the shrine holds all year. A novena to St. Jude is also offered each Wednesday throughout the year, in English and Spanish.
🛏️ Where to Stay
Warwick Allerton – Chicago ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — A historic hotel on North Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile, within walking distance of Holy Name Cathedral and the Near North Side. Website
Hotel Felix Chicago ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — A LEED Silver–certified boutique hotel in River North, a few blocks from both Holy Name Cathedral and St. John Cantius Church. Website
Monastery of the Holy Cross Guesthouse (pilgrim accommodation) — A working Benedictine monastery in the Bridgeport neighborhood, offering guest apartments with private entrances, kitchens, and baths to individual retreatants, families, and groups. Reservations are made directly through the monastery. Website
🚗 Getting There
By Air: O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago's primary international gateway, lies about 25 km northwest of downtown and only a few kilometers from the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Des Plaines; the CTA Blue Line runs direct from the airport to the Loop. Midway International Airport (MDW), about 16 km southwest of downtown, is served by the CTA Orange Line.
By Train: Amtrak's long-distance network converges at Union Station in the Loop, with routes including the Lake Shore Limited to New York and Boston, the Capitol Limited to Washington, the California Zephyr to the West Coast, the Empire Builder to the Pacific Northwest, and the Wolverine to Detroit. Metra commuter rail connects downtown to the suburban shrines: the Union Pacific Northwest Line runs from the Ogilvie Transportation Center to Des Plaines station, close to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the Milwaukee District North Line runs from Union Station toward Libertyville station, near Marytown.
By Car: I-90 (the Kennedy Expressway) and I-94 connect downtown to O'Hare and the northwest suburbs; I-294, the Tri-State Tollway, links Des Plaines and Libertyville to the wider expressway network. The five pilgrimage sites are spread across the city and two suburbs, and a car is the most practical way to visit more than one or two in a day.
By Bus: Greyhound and Megabus serve Chicago from across the Midwest, arriving near Union Station. The CTA's bus and 'L' rapid-transit network reaches the city-proper sites directly; the suburban shrines are more readily reached by Metra or car.
📚 Further Reading
Books:
Marion Amberg. Mary's Miracles: A Traveler's Guide to Catholic America — A general guide to Catholic pilgrimage sites across the United States, useful context for a metropolitan guide spanning several distinct devotions.
Elaine Murray Stone. Maximilian Kolbe: Saint of Auschwitz — A biography of the saint honored at Marytown, tracing his life to his death at Auschwitz in 1941.
Grzegorz Gorny and Janusz Rosikon. Guadalupe Mysteries: Deciphering the Code — An investigation into the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the image replicated at the Des Plaines shrine.
Online Resources:
National Catholic Register: Self-Sacrificing Love — Illinois Shrine Honors St. Maximilian Kolbe, Martyr of Auschwitz — A feature on Marytown and the saint it honors, from a national Catholic publication.
Catholics & Cultures: Chicago Suburb Hosts a Major Guadalupe Feast — An academic project's account of the Des Plaines shrine's December celebration and its place within Guadalupan devotion in the United States.
Chicago Catholic: Pilgrims Visit National St. Jude Shrine Looking for Hope — The Archdiocese's own news outlet on the shrine's October feast and the pilgrims who visit year-round.
🎥 Recommended Videos
Thousands Make Their Way to Our Lady of Guadalupe's Shrine in Illinois | EWTN News Nightly — EWTN's national news coverage of the December pilgrimage crowds at the Des Plaines shrine.
Fr. Chris Alar Homily - St. Maximilian Kolbe Shrine — A homily recorded at Marytown, from the shrine's own YouTube channel.
Tour the National Shrine of St. Jude — A video tour of the shrine from its own official channel.
🔗 Useful Links
Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe — Official bilingual site of the Des Plaines shrine, with information on its December pilgrimage.
Marytown — National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe — Official site of the Libertyville shrine and its Conventual Franciscan community.
National Shrine of St. Jude — Official site of the South Side shrine, with novena information and history.
St. John Cantius Church — Official parish site, with parish history and information on the traditional Latin liturgy.
Holy Name Cathedral — Official site of the Archdiocese of Chicago's cathedral.
Archdiocese of Chicago — The archdiocese's own site, with news and pastoral resources for Catholic Chicago.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
Holy Hill, Wisconsin (160 km northwest) — A Carmelite basilica and Marian shrine crowning a 1,350-foot rise in Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine, drawing some 300,000 pilgrims a year.
De Pere, Wisconsin (286 km north) — The National Shrine of St. Joseph at St. Norbert College, home to the only papally crowned statue of St. Joseph in the United States.
Champion, Wisconsin (300 km north) — The only Church-approved site of a Marian apparition in the United States, where Mary appeared to Adele Brise in 1859.
La Crosse, Wisconsin (356 km northwest) — A shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe founded by Cardinal Raymond Burke.
Carey, Ohio (369 km east) — Ohio's national Marian shrine, where pilgrims have sought the intercession of Our Lady of Consolation since 1875.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"We are not and never will be an orphaned people. We have a Mother!" — Pope Francis, Homily on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, 2016
