The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is a Catholic minor basilica and national shrine in Washington D.C. It is the largest Catholic church building in North America and the
View from south in 2010
The detail of the grand facade of the basilica
Grave of Bishop Thomas Joseph Shahan, founder of the Shrine
Interior view of the basilica's choir and sanctuary
Immaculate Conception
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The Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Debated by mediev
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
…habitable building in Washington, D.C. Its construction, in the Neo-Byzantine and Romanesque Revival styles, began in 1920. The church is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, the United States' principal patroness. It serves as the patronal church of the Catholic Church in the United States, and Pope John Paul II raised it…
The Immaculate Conception (1767–1769) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Altar of the Immaculata by Joseph Lusenberg, 1876, representing Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, at Saint Antony's Church, Urtijëi, Italy
Our Lady of Lourdes's 9th apparition, 25 February 1858, by Virgilio Tojett (1877), after Bernadette Soubirous' description. Soubirous claimed the Lady identified herself as the "Immaculate Conception".
The procession of the Quadrittu of the Immaculate Conception taken on December 7 in Saponara, Sicily