A church in southwestern Virginia is elevated into a basilica. The church is known for its architecture, art, and prominent place atop a hill is the latest in the United States to be named a minor basilica.
The former St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia, is now the Basilica of St. Andrew.
The Diocese of Richmond announced the designation Thursday, several days after being informed by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
Some priests of the diocese have long thought it should have that title, said Father Kevin Segerblom, who in a telephone interview Friday called the basilica “living art.”
“Ours is not huge — it seats 500 — but ours is particularly beautiful. So people come in and their minds and their hearts are lifted up to the divine,” said Segerblom, who leads St. Andrew’s, and whose title has now changed from pastor to rector. “It’s important that those special churches be recognized as places of pilgrimage so that people will come here and have that experience.”
During the year-and-a-half application process, Segerblom asked church-goers to say a printed prayer to “Glorious St. Andrew” asking for his intercession with God that the church be named a basilica.
“May the beauty of this building, the reverence of the liturgies we celebrate here, and the pastoral work we engage in with charity, draw many more people, as you did, to faith in Jesus Christ and the fullness of life in the Spirit,” the prayer says.
St. Andrew’s parish was established in 1882. The current yellow-brick, twin-steeple, high Victorian Gothic church was dedicated in 1902. It recently underwent a renovation of its interior and exterior.
Longtime church-goers told CNA they are thrilled with the announcement.
“I think the beauty of the church lent itself to be a basilica. It’s quite a facility, and I’ve always been proud of it, said Mick DeSimone, 67, a retired painter who joined the parish in 1980 and currently serves the altar for expositions of the Eucharist and coordinates several Masses a week. “It’s one of the first things people see when they come into Roanoke, and I think it’s fitting that it’s happened.”
While the appearance of the building attracts newcomers, the people of the parish keep them coming back, another parishioner told CNA.
“When you come here when you walk in, you’re just awed by the beauty of the church. I think that’s something that would draw a person to come. But the parish and the people are so welcoming,” said Donna DeSimone, 67, a retired second-grade teacher, Mick’s wife, and a former Baptist who joined the Catholic Church in June 2022 through the parish’s Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults program. She is now secretary of the parish council.