Our Lady of the Angels of Hanceville

Marian vocation of Hanceville (Alabama)

El Sanctuary of the Most Holy Sacrament and Monastery of Our Lady of Angels (Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady of the Angels Monastery) is located in Hanceville, Alabama, United States, and is linked to the figure of the Mother Angelica (Rita Rizzo), founder of the Catholic chain EWTN and the community of Clarisas de la Adoramiento Perpetua. After a serious illness and a deep spiritual experience in the 1990s, Mother Angelica conceived the project of a great sanctuary focused on the Eucharist and in the presence of the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Angels, very linked to Franciscan spirituality.

Main data

Origin and history

El Sanctuary of the Most Holy Sacrament and Monastery of Our Lady of Angels (Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady of the Angels Monastery) is located in Hanceville, Alabama, United States, and is linked to the figure of the Mother Angelica (Rita Rizzo), founder of the Catholic chain EWTN and the community of Clarisas de la Adoramiento Perpetua. After a serious illness and a deep spiritual experience in the 1990s, Mother Angelica conceived the project of a great sanctuary focused on the Eucharist and in the presence of the Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of the Angels, very linked to Franciscan spirituality.

The documented story indicates that the monastery and the sanctuary were built in the late 1990s; the complex was in 1999-2000, in full expansion of the apostolate of EWTN, as the mother house of the Clarisas of Perpetual Adoration in the United States and the international center of Eucharistic adoration. The architectural style deliberately evokes the ancient European monasteries and sanctuaries, but it is a recent foundation, the result of the renewal of contemplative life and Eucharistic devotion in the American Catholic context.

As regards tradition or legendthe title "Our Lady of Angels" refers, in the Franciscan key, to Santa María de los Angeles de la Porciuncula, linked to Saint Francis of Assisi and the small church where he received special graces for the Order and the famous "forgiveness of Assisi." This Franciscan spiritual root illuminates the choice of Marian title by Mother Angelica and her sisters, but it is not a new "apparition" or a specific local miraculous tradition in Hanceville, but the reception in the United States of a Universal Franciscan Marian Invocation.

The image and the sanctuary

In the Sanctuary of Hanceville is mainly venerated to the Virgin under the title of Our Lady of the Angels how patron of the monastery and the temple, more like a miraculous image of ancient origin. The available sources highlight the character Eucharistic of the place; the technical details on the material and specific authorship of the headline image are not accurately recorded in the accessible sources. It does not, therefore, contain a detailed official description of the size (type of wood, exact year, author), so it can only be said with certainty that it is a Marian image of classical inspiration, in style consistent with the Romanico-Italian set of the sanctuary, which represents the Virgin Mary in attitude of royalty and motherhood, linked to the title "Our Lady of the Angels."

The architectural set is officially called Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament (Sanctuary of the Most Holy Sacrament), attached to Our Lady of the Angels Monastery (Monastery of Our Lady of Angels). The main temple is of Romanesque-Italian style, with elements that remember European sanctuaries: large stone ship, vaults, great presbytery focused on the Sagrarian and altar for worship, cloisters and adjacent monastic spaces. The structure is conceived as a great center of Eucharistic worship and contemplative lifewhere the liturgy and worship are celebrated in the Latin Roman rite.

As far as public sources can be verified, the sanctuary has no title of minor basilica nor is it officially designated as a national sanctuary by the American Episcopal Conference, but as an important sanctuary within the local diocese and a place of pilgrimage well known thanks to EWTN and the media dissemination of the celebrations and acts of piety that take place there. If there was a subsequent canonical recognition as a diocesan sanctuary, it is not readily and explicitly recorded in the sources consulted.

Sponsorship and coronation

La advocación de Our Lady of the Angels of Hanceville is first linked to Monastery of the Clarisas of the Perpetual Adoration founded by Mother Angelica and, by extension, to the sanctuary of the Most Holy Sacrament. It is not clear that this advocation has been proclaimed. official patron of the dioceseof a state or a city, beyond the spiritual patronage of the monastery itself and of the apostolic work attached to EWTN.

As for a canonical coronation of the image venerated in Hanceville (i.e. an official rite approved by the Holy See in which a crown is imposed on the Marian image as a sign of universal recognition of its veneration), does not contain a documented canonical coronation in the sources consulted. There are also no references to a formally approved diocesan coronation.

Party and devotion

The advocation of Our Lady of Angels is traditionally associated, in the Franciscan field, to the day August 2, memory of Santa María de los Angeles de la Porciuncula. In many places in the Franciscan world this date is celebrated with special solemnity, although the specific sources of Hanceville do not explicitly detail the internal calendar of the monastery's holidays. It can be said with certainty that liturgical life is primarily about the Eucharist and that the Virgin, under this title, accompanies the spirituality of perpetual worship.

The Hanceville shrine has become a important pilgrimage center in the United States, especially for the faithful linked to EWTN. Many groups come to participate in Holy Mass, in Eucharistic worship, in organized retreats and pilgrimages. Although there are no precise official figures of influx, various reports and testimonies describe it as a place of great concurrence, particularly on weekends, liturgical solemnities and celebrations related to the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary.

En el plano devocional, destacan: – La prolonged or perpetual Eucharistic worship, como elemento central del carisma de las Clarisas de la Adoración Perpetua. – La recitación de oraciones marianas y actos de consagración a la Virgen, especialmente bajo la advocación franciscana de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles. – La participación de peregrinos en los oficios litúrgicos monásticos (Laudes, Vísperas, etc.), donde la Virgen es invocada con frecuencia bajo este título.

Link to the Rosary

The sources consulted do not describe a practice proposes the exclusive of the Rosary specifically linked to "Our Lady of the Angels of Hanceville" (for example, a particular promise, a specific form of Rosario, or a canonically erected fellowship around this advocation). No consta, therefore, a unique legal or devotional link between this specific advocation and the Rosary beyond the usual Catholic practice.

However, by the nature of the place - contemplative monastery and Eucharistic sanctuary of Franciscan inspiration - it is reasonable to say that the Holy Rosary is part of the daily Marian piety of the community and many pilgrims, as is the case in most Marian shrines. In Franciscan spirituality, the memory of Santa Maria de los Angeles invites to contemplate the mysteries of Christ's life with Mary, and the Rosary becomes a school of contemplation that harmonizes with the Eucharistic adoration: the mysteries measured in the accounts converge in the same Christ truly present in the Most Holy Sacrament.

In this way, even if there are no external signs of "devotion of the Rosary of Our Lady of the Angels of Hanceville," the prayer of the Rosary can be understood as a ordinary road por el que los fieles se unen a la espiritualidad de este santuario: – acompañando a María e