After enjoying the original Buffalo wings at Anchor Bar Restaurant, we dove to visit another interesting place not far from where we were in the New York State - the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, at Youngstown.
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| Avenue of the Saints, entrance to Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, at Youngstown, NY |
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| Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Lewiston, NY, USA |
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| A beautiful place to visit, mediate and reflect the blessings and love of God |
We heard of the Fatima miracle before, but we knew little about them as we are not of the Catholic faith.
Since this place was so close to where we were, we were determined to learn more about what had happened in Fatima, Portugal years ago.
The Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima is located in Lewiston, New York State, north of Niagara Falls. Though we have visited the famous falls numerous times in the past, we were not aware of this shrine at all.
A generous couple donated 16 acres of their farmland in 1954 for the construction of the shrine.
The church started its construction in 1963 and it was was dedicated in 1965.
It is directed by the Barnabite Fathers.
It is a beautiful and tranquil setting with a number of buildings.
There are numerous statues of saints and bible characters as well as benches placed around the site of the shrine.
One of the eye catching ones for us was the statues of three children in front of the entrance to the shrine.
Those were the three children who beheld the visions in the village of Fatima in Portugal years ago.
The title basilica was conferred on the Lady of Fatima Shrine in 1975 by Pope Paul Vl.
The Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima sits under a dome that is about100 feet in diameter and 55 foot high.
We climbed up the flight of stairs outside the dome to the top of the basilica.
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| View of the Heart Pool from the top of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima |
Once when we reached the top of the dome, we had an excellent view of the entire site.
We could see quite far from where we were and could imagine how beautiful this place looked when it was light up in the evening.
The interior of the basilica was just as beautiful as its exterior and surrounding.
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| Interior of the Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, Lewiston, NY, USA |
We were lucky enough to be there in time to take part in the 4p.m. mass in the basilica.
The 4pm mass was held in the main sanctuary.
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| One of the side chapels in the shrine. |
After the mass, we also visited the smaller side chapels within the basilica.
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| A magnificent mural adorning the wall of one of the side chapels. |
We took our time to look at the murals and artwork adorning the chapels and the walls around the buildings.
There was also a book store/gift shop in the other buildings, but by the time we finished visiting the smaller chapels, the store was already closed.
However, we were happy to find that the on site cafeteria was still open serving dinner to visitors. The cafeteria was spacious.
The view from the cafeteria was beautiful!
We had a good view of the pond.
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| The cafeteria served delicious cabbage rolls. |
We had dinner in the spacious cafeteria.
The food was quite good. I had cabbage rolls and my husband ordered fish and chips. The cabbage rolls were the best I had ever tasted. I went back to order a second serving!
The admission to the ground and the shrine is free. If we have brought a book with us, we could have easily spent an entire afternoon reading and enjoying this quiet and beautiful place.Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima is a fabulous place to visit. We truly enjoyed our time there!
R.T.
Shrine of Our Lady of Fartima
Lewiston, NY State
USA
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