On 28 June 1936 a car carrying two priests of Our Lady of the Holy Angels crashed on a New Jersey road. Fr. John Joseph McLaughlin was killed. Fr. Giles Lawlor, a Franciscan, walked away from the wreck, and in thanksgiving he raised a shrine in the field across the street from his church — a statue of Mary under the title Sancta Maria della Strada, Our Lady of the Highway. It was dedicated on 24 May 1938, and the ground around it was laid out so that drivers on Main Street could pull over and pray.
Little Falls is a township of under three square miles in Passaic County, named for the drop the Passaic River makes at the dam beside the old Beattie Mill. Montclair lies south, Wayne north, Clifton east; the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson is about seven kilometres up the road. The dedication fits the ground it was given. This is a commuter township inside the New York metropolitan orbit, and the shrine was addressed from the start to people in transit, on a street that carries traffic rather than pilgrims on foot.
The parish holds the designation of National Shrine of Our Lady of the Highway, granted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and listed as such by the National Association of Shrine and Pilgrimage Apostolate. Several American sites bear a version of the title: a Shrine of Our Lady of the Highway, Sea and Air at Pomona in the Diocese of Camden, roadside shrines to Our Lady of the Highways on old US 66 in Illinois and beside I-95 in Maryland, a marble Our Lady of the Highway at Cross in the Woods in Michigan. Little Falls is the one the bishops' conference has raised to national standing.
📜 History & Spiritual Significance
A Catholic congregation was gathered at Little Falls in 1883, when the town lay within the Diocese of Newark. The Diocese of Paterson was erected out of Newark on 9 December 1937. Our Lady of the Holy Angels was raised to full parish status in 1945, by then within the new diocese.
The shrine came from a separate thread, and a sudden one. The collision of 28 June 1936 killed Fr. McLaughlin and left Fr. Lawlor alive; the statue and the landscaped plot opposite the church were his answer to that. At the dedication on 24 May 1938 the shrine was described as the first in America to carry the title.
Our Lady of the Highway is a devotional title rather than an apparition title. No vision was reported at Little Falls, no spring rose, no image wept. Mary is invoked here as the protectress of people on the road — drivers, hauliers, commuters, anyone whose day is spent between two places. The traditional prayer to the title, used at shrines that share it, opens: "O Lady of the Highway, be with us on our journey, for all your ways are beautiful and all your paths are peace."
Parish life has carried more than the shrine. The Diocese of Paterson's Filipino community kept the nine-day Simbang Gabi novena as a diocesan celebration, sponsored by the Commission for Filipino Ministry and rotated among parishes; Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney was main celebrant at Little Falls when that diocesan tradition was brought to a close.
☩ Pilgrimage Sites in Little Falls
National Shrine of Our Lady of the Highway
The designation belongs to Our Lady of the Holy Angels, a working territorial parish on Main Street in the Diocese of Paterson. A pilgrim arriving for the shrine arrives at a parish church, and the church is the point of contact for anything the shrine keeps. The outdoor statue Fr. Lawlor put up was set in the open field opposite the church of his day; where it sits now, and in what condition, is not recorded in any published source, and the parish is the place to ask before making the journey for it.
🛏️ Where to Stay
Little Falls has no hotel of its own and the parish keeps no guesthouse. The nearest bookable lodging sits in the two towns that border the township — Montclair to the south, Wayne to the north — each a short drive from Main Street.
The George (boutique hotel) — Thirty-one rooms in a 1902 Georgian Revival house in the middle of Montclair, roughly 7 km south of the shrine. Continental breakfast, dog-friendly, and the most characterful room within reach. Website ∙ Reserve this hotel
The MC Hotel, Autograph Collection ⭐⭐⭐⭐ — Marriott's Autograph Collection property on Bloomfield Avenue in central Montclair, about 8 km south, with restaurant, bar and event space in the town's arts district. Website
Residence Inn by Marriott Wayne (hotel) — All-suite hotel on Nevins Road in Wayne, about 9 km north, with indoor pool and breakfast included. Suited to families and to anyone staying several nights. Website
Days Inn by Wyndham Wayne ⭐⭐⭐ — Plain, well-placed budget hotel on Route 23 at Ratzer Road, about 7 km north-west, with free parking and breakfast. Website
🚗 Getting There
By Air: Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) is approximately 34 km south, the natural arrival point for pilgrims flying in. LaGuardia (LGA) lies approximately 43 km east.
By Train: NJ Transit's Montclair–Boonton Line serves the township at two stations, Little Falls and Montclair State University. Little Falls station, a brick depot of 1915 at the end of Union Boulevard, takes peak-direction trains only; Montclair State University station, on the electrified stretch of the line, is the more useful arrival for most journeys.
By Bus: NJ Transit routes 191, 194 and 195 connect the township to Manhattan, routes 11 and 28 to Newark at weekends, and local routes 704 and 705 to neighbouring towns.
By Car: U.S. Route 46 and New Jersey Route 23 cross Little Falls; Interstate 80 and the Garden State Parkway run close by. Main Street runs through the centre of the township.
📚 Further Reading
Books:
Marion Amberg. Mary's Miracles: A Traveler's Guide to Catholic America — A guide to more than fifty Marian shrines, chapels and statues across the United States, which places a small parish shrine like this one in the company of the country's larger Marian sites. Our Sunday Visitor, 2022.
Online Resources:
National Shrines — National Association of Shrine and Pilgrimage Apostolate — The list of shrines designated National Shrines by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, where the Little Falls shrine appears under New Jersey.
GCatholic: National Shrine of Our Lady of the Highway — Reference entry for the shrine and parish, with jurisdiction, address and foundation dates.
🎥 Recommended Videos
Our Lady Of Holy Angels Little (Chapel) Falls, NJ — A one-minute walk through the chapel, filmed by a visitor. The only close footage of the interior on record.
Holy Angels Catholic Church Live Stream — A Sunday Mass streamed by the parish's own channel, and the clearest view of the shrine church at worship.
🔗 Useful Links
Our Lady of the Holy Angels — Official parish website for the church that holds the National Shrine designation.
Diocese of Paterson — The diocese to which the shrine belongs, covering Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties in northern New Jersey.
Township of Little Falls — Municipal site with the township's own account of its history and the falls it is named for.
NJ Transit — Timetables and trip planning for the Montclair–Boonton Line and the bus routes serving the township.
🧭 Nearby Pilgrimage Destinations
Newark (16 km south-southeast) — The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart and the city's shrine churches, in the neighbouring Archdiocese of Newark from which Paterson was carved.
New York City (27 km east-southeast) — St. Patrick's Cathedral, the National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini and the relics of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, across the Hudson.
Stirling (31 km southwest) — The Shrine of Saint Joseph on the Watchung ridge, founded in 1924 and run by the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, also in the Diocese of Paterson.
Graymoor (58 km north-northeast) — Motherhouse of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement above the Hudson at Garrison, New York, with the St. Anthony National Shrine and woodland Stations of the Cross.
🪶 Closing Reflection
"So too does she shine forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come, as a sign of sure hope and solace to the people of God during its sojourn on earth."
