ENCOUNTERING ANNE ENCOUNTERING ANNE: JOURNEYS TO SAINTE ANNE DE BEAUPRÉ By SHERRY ANGELA SMITH, B.A., M.A. A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctorate of Philosophy McMaster University © Copyright by Sherry Angela Smith, August 2011 DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (2011) McMaster University (Religious Studies) Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: Encountering Anne: Journeys to Sainte Anne de Beaupré AUTHOR: Sherry Angela Smith, B.A., M.A. (Wilfrid Laurier University) SUPERVISOR: Dr. Ellen Badone NUMBER OF PAGES: vii, 318 ii ABSTRACT This study examines the experience of visitors to the shrine of Sainte Anne de Beaupré in Québec, Canada. Drawing on ethnographic data, narratives and historical research, this project describes the ways in which Saint Anne is meaningful to people. I focus on the themes of pilgrimage and tourism, devotional expressions, visionary experiences and religious healing. While the earliest visitors to the shrine were primarily motivated by stories of the miraculous, contemporary visitors have many different motivations, blurring the scholarly boundaries constructed between pilgrimage and tourism. Devotional expressions at Sainte Anne de Beaupré, understood as “media of engagement” or “relationships of presence,” encompass a wide range of practices, meanings and functions. Power is invested and diffused through Saint Anne by forming “cogent connections” to her through the media of devotional expressions. This study also considers visionary experiences that are associated with Saint Anne, especially visions that are related to pilgrimage and religious healing at Sainte Anne de Beaupré. Rather than focusing on the “epiphany” of the visionary experience itself, I suggest that agency is key to understanding visions, particularly as they relate to issues of empowerment. iii Finally, I situate pilgrimage, devotional expressions and visionary encounters in the context of religious healing. The term healing encompasses a broad range of meanings, and I demonstrate that journeys to Sainte Anne de Beaupré involve a quest for therapy, self-transformation, identity and/or personal empowerment. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to sincerely thank the Religious Studies Department at McMaster University for both the opportunity and financial support to complete this degree. I would like to also thank the Ontario Graduate Scholarship and the Mary Margaret Scammell Travel Scholarship for supporting this research. I am indebted to the SIAS Summer Institute for funding my participation in “The Vision Thing: Studying Divine Intervention” workshop at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavior Sciences, Stanford University. This dissertation could not have been written without Dr. Ellen Badone, my academic supervisor. I am very grateful for Dr. Badone’s ongoing support, encouragement, feedback and friendship. I would like to thank Dr. Celia Rothenberg and Dr. Anders Runesson, my other doctoral committee members. I am especially grateful to William Christian Jr. who generously offered his time and advice throughout the course of writing this ethnography. I would like to thank the people at Sainte Anne de Beaupré, especially those who shared their stories with me. I am grateful to Father Guy Pilote and his constant support for my research. I am indebted to the Aides of Sainte Anne, for warmlying welcoming me into their group. I would like to especially thank Robert Wagenhoffer, for assisting me with my research and particularly for helping me to see that service to Saint Anne is a type of devotional expression. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my family. It has been a very long and sometimes difficult journey and I am very grateful for everyone’s support and understanding. I would like to thank my parents, Ian and Cheryle Smith. Yes, mom and dad, it is finally done! To John Spaleta, my husband, I am grateful for your support and love. In many ways it is my children who have and continue to inspire me. To my eldest sons Andrew and Joshua Pember, I am so thankful for your continued love and support. I love you both dearly. To my youngest son Nikolai Spaleta, I thank Saint Anne for you. I love you so much my little man. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii INTRODUCTION Between Heaven and Earth: The Ethnographic Endeavor 1 CHAPTER ONE Pilgrimage: Place of Power, Power of Place 16 CHAPTER TWO Negotiating Power: Private, Collective and Service Devotions 81 CHAPTER THREE Encountering Anne: The Role of Visionary Experience 138 CHAPTER FOUR Good Saint Anne: Human Suffering and the Production of Meaning 196 CHAPTER FIVE Moved by Anne: The Future of Pilgrimage in the Modern World 279 BIBLIOGRAPHY 302 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. Anointing of the Sick, Novena 2007. Photo by Robert Wagenhoffer. 4 Figure 2. Sainte Anne de Beaupré, Novena 2008. Photo by John Spaleta. 19 Figure 3. Petit Train de Sainte Anne. Photo by the author. 54 Figure 4. The Miraculous Statue. Photo by the author. 95 Figure 5. Pilgrims Praying at the Miraculous Statue. Photo by the author. 106 Figure 6. Procession aux Flambeaux. Photo by the author. 113 Figure 7. Pilgrims Ascending the Scala Santa. Photo by the author. 119 Figure 8. Victor and Colette Coulombe, June 25, 2009. Photo by the author. 182 Figure 9. Saint Anne’s Spring. Photo by the author. 230 Figure 10. Mother and Son, Novena 2007. Photo by Robert Wagenhoffer. 243 Figure 11. Moved by Anne. Photo by the author. 281 vii PHD Thesis – Sherry Angela Smith McMaster University – Religious Studies Introduction Between Heaven and Earth: The Ethnographic Endeavor Anthropology, to give my Aunt Rebeca a grandiose reply, is the most fascinating, bizarre, disturbing, and necessary form of witnessing left to us at the end of the twentieth century. As a mode of knowing that depends on the particular relationship formed by a particular anthropologist with a particular set of people in a particular time and place, anthropology has always been vexed about the question of vulnerability.1 My maternal grandmother unknowingly introduced me to the figure of Saint Anne and the Basilica of Sainte Anne Beaupré. Many people have recounted to me stories about how this tradition was transmitted to them by their grandmothers. My grandmother never told me about Saint Anne. Instead, she passed this tradition on to me after she died. I knew my grandmother had been a practicing Roman Catholic in her youth, but she fell in love and married a Protestant. For various reasons she did not continue to practice her faith in the Roman Catholic Church. After my grandmother died my mother gave me a few of her belongings. Among the few cherished objects she took into the nursing home was a small tarnished portrait of Saint Anne framed in glass from Sainte Anne de Beaupré. I was intrigued by this small memoir of my grandmother, especially since I had an academic interest in early female Christian figures and contemporary pilgrimage. 1 Ruth Behar, The Vulnerable Observer (Boston: Beacon Press, 1996), 5. 1 PHD Thesis – Sherry Angela Smith McMaster University – Religious Studies I initially visited Sainte Anne de Beaupré in the late summer of 2002, while studying French at Université Laval, but was called home for a family emergency. At that time, I only had the opportunity to view the exterior of the Basilica. It was another four years before I would finally return to Sainte Anne de Beaupré. I had decided to change my academic direction—from studies focused in the ancient world to the contemporary world. I returned to the shrine in 2006 for preliminary fieldwork, and upon finally entering the shrine, I was struck by the beauty of the church—its architecture, statues and perfumes. For reasons unknown to myself, I felt overwhelmed and tears flowed softly down my face. Was I recalling the time I was called home? Was I weighed down by various life events, such as a divorce? Was I remembering my grandmother? Was I simply moved by the simplicity of pilgrim’s faith or the beauty of the church? I’m not sure to this day, but I do know that in some way I was moved by the simple act of entering the shrine. I recall telling a priest that the shrine was simply beautiful. He knowingly nodded his head in affirmation. A question that continues to perplex me is why some people, including myself, feel moved at pilgrimage sites. Moreover, how does one represent this emotional experience in ethnography? Drawing upon Ruth Behar’s work, the anthropologist who makes herself vulnerable in such places makes the experiences much more intelligible and hopeful. Sites such as Saint Anne de Beaupré offer pilgrims, visitors and even anthropologists an opportunity to experience a “place between heaven and 2 PHD Thesis – Sherry Angela Smith McMaster University – Religious Studies earth.” I recall thinking one sunny day, while sitting outside near the shrine swinging gleefully on a swing, listening to the birds chirping cheerfully, children playing at the nearby school and the church bells ringing gaily, that this was truly a place that was contrary to my experiences in a large city and bustling university in southwestern Ontario. I was at peace, without worries in a place far removed from my hectic and stressful everyday life. One woman at the shrine wisely instructed me that I would never really learn about Saint Anne devotion unless I experienced helping sick people. Her advice to me was that I must volunteer for the Aides of Saint Anne to truly understand the dynamics at Sainte Anne de Beaupré. Although my experience in caring for the sick and handicapped was not as extensive as Ruth Harris’s fieldwork in her study of Lourdes, I did volunteer as an Aide of Saint Anne, helping pilgrims in a limited way.2 While Harris assisted a mother caring for her handicapped adult son on the train ride to Lourdes, I helped sick pilgrims primarily with information, assigning wheelchairs, and assisting them so they could participate in various pilgrimage activities.