Queen of All Saints Basilica


Queen of All Saints Basilica is a historic church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago located at 6280 North Sauganash Avenue in Chicago's upper middle-class Sauganash neighborhood. Along with St. Hyacinth and Our Lady of Sorrows it is one of three Minor basilicas in Chicago, Illinois.

History

In 1929 the Calvert Club, a Catholic area fraternal organization, pushed to establish a church in the Sauganash area. They petitioned the Archbishop of the Chicago Archdiocese at the time, Cardinal George Mundelein. Mundelin appointed Father Francis A. Ryan to be pastor of the new parish dedicated to Queen of All Saints. The initial church structure was a portable wood frame church that had previously served as St. Giles Church in nearby Oak Park. It was relocated to the northwest corner of Peterson and Knox Avenues and dedicated in June 1929 as Queen of All Saints Church. The area filled with residential developments after World War II, and first attracted Irish and German immigrants and their descendants. The ethnic composition of the neighborhood has not changed since, although there has been substantial mixing between the two dominant ethnic groups. The Queen of All Saints School was founded in 1932 and like the church, has an enrollment largely of Irish and Germanic descent.

Architecture

The church, designed in a Neo-Gothic style by Meyer and Cook, was completed in 1960. The magnificent, cathedral-like church was raised to the dignity of a basilica by Pope John XXIII on March 26, 1962. The large window over the choir loft features eight different shrines of the Virgin Mary: Our Lady of Czestochowa, Our Lady of Knock, Our Lady of Einsiedeln, Our Lady of the Snows, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima. This display alludes to the theme of the universality of the Catholic Church by highlighting that although these shrines are particular to a certain country or culture, the Cult of the Virgin Mary bridges over all these barriers, bringing together the different ethnic groups living in Sauganash area of Forest Glen. The original circa 1930s organ was replaced in 2006 due to its poor condition from age and an act of vandalism in the 1970s. The new instrument is a three-manual, 60-rank opus by Berghaus Pipe Organ Builders of Bellwood, Illinois.

Queen of All Saints Basilica in architecture books

Queen of All Saints Basilica is featured in a number of books on church architecture, among them: