The St. Anne Shell Chapel at

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, often called St. Mary's, is an unincorporated community in Sugar Creek Township in northwestern Vigo County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The community is part of the Terre Haute Metropolitan Statistical Area. A large ...

, is on the motherhouse grounds of the

Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods are an Consecrated life (Catholic Church), apostolic congregation of Roman Catholic Church, Catholic women founded by Saint Theodore Guerin, Theodora Guerin (known colloquially as Saint Mo ...

. It is known for its interior, which has walls completely covered in

seashell A seashell or sea shell, also known simply as a shell, is a hard, protective outer layer usually created by an animal or organism that lives in the sea. Most seashells are made by Mollusca, mollusks, such as snails, clams, and oysters ...

s forming mosaics and patterns. The small chapel's primary function is as a chapel and shrine in honor of

St. Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's na ...

History

St Anns Chapel - Mother Mary Cecilia Bailly

In November 1843, congregation foundress

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin In Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Anglican, Oriental Ortho ...

and Sister Mary Cecilia Bailly were returning from France with three French

postulants A postulant (from , "to ask") was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. The use of the term is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a Christian monastery or a religious order for the period precedi ...

after a fundraising trip. Sailing on the ''Nashville'', the

sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

encountered a fierce storm that threatened to sink the craft. The sisters prayed to the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

and to

for safety. (Guerin originally hailed from

Brittany, France The region Brittany ( ; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is an Regions of France, administrative region of Metropolitan France, comprising the departments of Côtes-d'Armor, Finistère, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Morbihan. Its capital and l ...

, where St. Anne is honored as patron of sailors.) Upon returning safely to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Guerin had a small log chapel built in honor of St. Anne on a small knoll in the forest of the

motherhouse A motherhouse or mother house is the principal house or community for a Catholic religious community.YourDictionaryMotherhouse/ref> One example is the Missionaries of Charity's motherhouse in Kolkata, which functions as the congregation's headquart ...

grounds. This chapel was completed in 1844. After several decades, the logs in this structure began to give way. Under the leadership of General Superior Mother Mary Ephrem Glenn, a sturdier stone chapel was built on the same site with the same 15' by 15' dimensions. This new chapel, called the Shrine of St. Anne but more commonly known as the Shell Chapel, was consecrated on July 25, 1876, with a blessing by a Father Chasse. Every July 25 since 1844, on the eve of the Feast of St. Anne, the sisters gather for a solemn procession to the chapel in honor of the saint. This procession includes songs and prayers. At its height, when nearly all Sisters of Providence spent the summers at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, this procession may have included over 1,000 habited sisters.

Interior and art

As the chapel was being built, Sister Mary Joseph Le Fer de la Motte had the idea to line the walls with iridescent river shells from the nearby

Wabash River The Wabash River () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana, and a significant part of Illinois, in the United ...

. Shells were collected, mainly by sister

novices A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

, from a sandbar at Durkee's Ferry in the river. Le Fer did much of the shell placing herself, setting the shells in soft plaster on the walls. Several mosaic designs, originally drawn by Guerin and preserved by Le Fer, decorate the walls. These designs include a depiction of the ''Nashville'', a map of Indiana showing the mission established up to 1876, and an illustration of the all-seeing Eye of God. A built-in altar, also covered in shells, holds a statue of St. Anne that Guerin brought from France. Two, narrow,

stained glass windows Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

, one on either side wall, include designs of shell and

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

. The floor is tiled with sea green and coral-colored floral patterns, and a painted

nautilus A nautilus (; ) is any of the various species within the cephalopod family Nautilidae. This is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and the suborder Nautilina. It comprises nine living species in two genera, the type genus, ty ...

border trims the top of the walls.

References

External links

{{Commons category
Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
Churches in Vigo County, Indiana Roman Catholic chapels in the United States Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods