Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago have the distinction of being able to visit three basilicas, all in the city of Chicago.

Churches designated as basilicas generally are large structures with some kind of unique historical, artistic or religious importance and offer active pastoral service to their communities. They receive the honor from the pope, and display the “ombrolino” or “capaneum,” a partially opened umbrella of red and yellow silk, and the “tintinabulum,” or bell, both symbols to be used when or if a pope visits.

The term “basilica” originally meant a kingly or royal hall, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, and the original basilica churches were the great churches of Rome. Four of these churches are ranked as major basilicas. The others are ranked as minor basilicas.

There are 93 basilicas in the United States, and only a handful of dioceses have three of them. None have more than three.

Those in Chicago — all counted by their congregations as among the most beautiful in the city — followed divergent paths to their status.

Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica

Chicago’s first basilica was Our Lady of Sorrows, an imposing Romanesque edifice dedicated in 1902 and located at 3111 W. Jackson Blvd. The structure, whose Renaissance-style interior was modeled after the work of 15th century Italian architect Donato d’Agnolo Bramante, features an 80-foot-high barrel-vaulted ceiling that spans 65 feet.

The parish is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year on its feast day, Sept. 22.

“Almost 99 percent of the time, the first thing they notice is the ceiling,” said Servite Father Frank Falco, who gives tours of Our Lady of Sorrows to groups of pilgrims. “When you’re on the outside of the basilica, it’s kind of plain. It’s a little ordinary, It’s nothing to write home about. But then you come in. Then it’s the high altar, the marble altar, the side altar chapels …”

A series of 12 pilgrimage chapels and side altars line the nave leading up to the main altar, which is made of Carrera marble. Chapels house the Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows, relics of Servite saints and a full-size marble replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta.

“It’s certainly interesting in terms of iconography,” Falco said. “When the church was painted at turn of the century, they did a painting from the passion of St. John’s Gospel. To complete the story in St. John;’s Gospel. It says St. John took Mary into her home. The north wall has a scene of her and one of the other women entering his home. I’ve never seen that anywhere else.

“The other thing that’s of great interest is the choir chapel, with 47 choir stalls and an altar and paintings behind the high altar. People are very interested to see that.”

Perhaps more impressive than the physical structure of the church is the perpetual novena to Our Sorrowful Mother. The novena began in 1937 and continues as a private devotion. At one point, the church had to schedule 38 novena services every Friday to accommodate the more than 70,000 people who attended each week.

The popularity of what had become the National Shrine of Our Sorrowful Mother was one factor in Pope Pius XII’s decision to elevate it to the status of minor basilica in 1956. The church held ceremonies recognizing its new status on Jan. 8, 1957.

Now many people come to visit the National Shrine of St. Peregrine, the patron of people with cancer. Those who suffer from cancer and their caregivers are invited to healing Masses in Spanish on the second Saturday of every month and in English on the third Saturday of every month. Those Masses are at 11 a.m. Regular Sunday Masses are at 10 a.m.

Our Lady of Sorrows Parish was founded in 1874 by the Servites, who continue to serve there and to reside at Our Lady of Sorrows monastery, next door to the church. As the Irish and Italian Catholics who once made up the bulk of Our Lady of Sorrows parishioners left the West Side, the parish continued its social outreach to the neighborhood despite dwindling numbers of parishioners.

The church lost its west tower to fire in 1984, but the east tower still stands 200 feet over East Garfield Park and the Eisenhower Expressway.

For more information on Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica and the 150th anniversary of the parish, visit ols-chicago.com.

Queen of All Saints Basilica

Chicago received its second basilica only six years after its first, when Pope John XXIII elevated Queen of All Saints Basilica, 6280 N. Sauganash Ave., in 1962, just two years after the church building opened.

Queen of All Saints Parish was created in 1929 in what the “History of the Parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago” called a “remote prairie wilderness” inhabited by about 40 Catholic families. Those first families worshipped in a portable frame building that had once served as St. Giles Church in Oak Park before being moved to what is now the Sauganash neighborhood.

The parish outgrew that church and a second one before plans were drawn up for a parish campus to include a school, rectory, convent, church and high school. All but the high school were eventually built, starting with the school. The church completed the campus, which offers a unified look.

Perhaps most striking is the vista created by eight acres of lawn — stretching more than a city block — in front of the imposing Gothic structure.

Inside, the long nave is lit through a series of stained-glass windows depicting various saints, all leading to the image of the Blessed Mother behind the altar. The luminous image is painted on glass.

Visitors to Queen of All Saints will find one of the treasures of the church in its baptistery, near the main entrance, which houses the relics of hundreds of saints. The parish will often bring out relics significant to tour groups for veneration.

The stained-glass windows of the baptistry tell the story of the Potawatomi tribe signing the Treaty of Chicago, ceding land in Illinois and Wisconsin to settlers — an event that happened within the confines of the parish in 1833.

For more information, visit qasparish.org.

St. Hyacinth Basilica

Chicago’s newest basilica, St. Hyacinth, George Street and Lawndale Avenue, received its basilica status in 2003, after a visit from Polish Cardinal Jozef Glemp.

St. Hyacinth Parish was created in 1894, as Chicago’s Polish population moved northwest along Milwaukee Avenue from the area around St. Stanislaus Kostka Church. While Polish immigrants and their descendants continued to move northwest toward Niles, St. Hyacinth became the center for Polish cultural and religious events. When Polish prelates or politicians visit Chicago, they generally stop at St. Hyacinth.

It was on one such stop that Cardinal Glemp, then archbishop of Warsaw, commented on the beauty of the church and said, “This ought to be a basilica,” according to the late Resurrectionist Father Francis Rog, who spoke to Chicago Catholic in 2011. “The next day they were knocking down the doors asking how soon is it going to be a basilica?”

At first, the Resurrectionists, who founded and still run the parish, were resistant, thinking that if the Polish Catholics got a basilica, then every other ethnic group would want one. But soon, as more people commented on the beauty of the church, they asked Cardinal George for permission to request basilica status. It was granted by Pope John Paul II, whose statue stands in front of the church, in 2003.

Among the most distinctive features are the sanctuary, which proclaims “Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus” (“Holy, holy, holy”), and the bronze doors installed in 2005, which offer images from Polish history, the life of St. Hyacinth (a Polish bishop) and the Resurrectionist congregation.

The parish once drew upward of 8,000 worshippers every weekend.

For more information, visit sthyacinthbasilica.org.

This is an updated version of a story that last was published in 2018.