Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

This guide to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. follows Bishop Thomas Shahan, who pitched Pope Pius X on an American church to the Virgin Mary in 1913 and spent the rest of his life funding it through small donations and his own newsletter. It traces the project through the 1920 cornerstone, the Great Depression's construction halt, and the disputes over Romanesque arches and Byzantine domes that Shahan refused to compromise on. Listen for the chapel he personally named Ave Maria as you pass it.