Basilica Of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle - National Shrine

History & Significance

Basilica · Est. Devotion began 1920; rebuilt shrine dedicated April 19, 1980

The shrine traces to a 1920 wooden mission chapel in San Juan, Texas; devotion to Our Lady of San Juan del Valle grew under Oblate priests, and a shrine to the Virgen de San Juan was built in 1954. On October 23, 1970, a low-flying airplane crashed into and destroyed the shrine (the pilot was the only fatality); the rebuilt shrine was dedicated April 19, 1980, before a crowd of about 50,000. It serves the Diocese of Brownsville and is a major pilgrimage site in the Rio Grande Valley.

Modernist mid-20th-century church (built 1976-1980)

• •Belongs to the Diocese of Brownsville (currently under Bishop Daniel E. Flores)
• •Designated a National Shrine by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops on March 24, 1998
• •Declared a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II on June 12, 1999
• •Original 1954 shrine was destroyed by a plane crash on October 23, 1970; rebuilt shrine dedicated April 19, 1980
• •Founded from a 1920 wooden mission chapel; devotion fostered by Oblates of Mary Immaculate (O.M.I.)