National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (Washington, D.C.)

Among the ten largest churches in the world, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception has been a prominent site of Roman Catholic worship honoring Mary, the patroness of the United States, since the 1920s. After securing the support of Pope Pius X in 1913, Bishop Thomas J. Shahan, the fourth rector of the Catholic University of America, launched a fundraising campaign that culminated in the laying of the cornerstone on September 23, 1920. The crypt opened for services in 1924, and workers had completed construction of the crypt by 1931. However, the Byzantine-Romanesque style upper church would not be completed until 1959 as a result of the Great Depression and World War II. Also in 1959, workers finished construction of the Knights' Tower, a gift of the Knights of Columbus. Even after the upper church opened, construction continued over the course of several decades on multiple chapels and altars along the exterior wall of the building. In 1990, Pope John Paul II named the National Shrine a minor basilica. Originally part of the Catholic University of America, the National Shrine incorporated separately from the university in 1948. Address: http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/natshrine.html