THE BUILDING OF THE FILIPOV BAZILICA
Soon after the miraculous appearance and Magadalena Kade´s recovery, catholics and protestans from Bohemia, Silesia, Saxony even from more distant countries started coming to „this house of Mercy“. Hundreds of visitors a day were not unusual. Many came with their ill ones and more miraculous recoveries occured. In May 1866, the room was already emptied to serve only as a chapel. An altar was made out of an old table on which a candle was burning from dusk till dawn. A beautifully embroidered pillow was put on the spot where Magdalena saw Virgin Mary.
The very
same year Father Frantisek Storch bought the Kades house together with their
fields. The poor floor in the room was replaced with marble and the pillow on
the spot of the appearance was also replaced by a marble desk with „My Child,
from now on, it´ll heal.“ written on top.
The first anniversary celebration took place on Monday January 14th 1867 in
Jirikov church. Ten thousand pilgrims gathered there then. On the second
anniversary in 1868, Father Storch announced a money collection for building a
chapel. In January 1869, a deputation was sent to Litoměřice to ask for
permission to build a chapel. The building itself started on May 24th 1870. A
Vienna architect Frantisek Hutzler supplied it with building projects and plans
for free. He projected the chapel so that the place where the Virgin appeared
would be in the middle in front of the altar and so that a priest would stand in
front of it while serving a mass. The width (5,5m) of the original room was left
to stay the same. The length, though, was changed and the chapel was prolonged
to east to measure 17m.
On the seventh anniversary, January 13th 1873, the Chapel Of Virgin Mary, the
Recovery of the Ill was opened and consecrated and twenty thousand people came
to see it.
In that time, a great task stood before Father Storch – the building of a pilgrim shrine. The keystone of the church was laid on September 8th 1870 and it was finished in 1885. In 1883 – 1884, a monastery was also built next to the church. The shrine got three bells in 1885 which it lost during WWI. It got new bells on July 24th 1921 which it lost again during WWII. The tower clock from 1887 is a masterpiece of Master Kruegel from Eibau. The first class organ has 22 registers and it was installed in the days from April 2nd to 9th 1889 by Master Hermann Eul from Bautzen
On October 11th 1885, Father Storch, who meanwhile became a dean, could finally proceed to the just finished church with pilgrim accompanied by bishop Emanuel Schöbel. Although the weather was very unfavourable, thousands of pilgrims were waiting outside so that the bishop could walk through the church freely while consecrating. It was not until 11:30 when the gate opened and first mass was served. The church was consecrated to Virgin Mary, the Helper of Christians. The consecrating of the church was celebrated again week later so that everybody could took part in it.
In the history of the church, the 60th anniversary is the most memorable. On January 13th 1926, the church was given the title Basilica Minor by pope Pius XI, who visited the church back in 1920 as a nuncius. The highlight of this jubilee year became September 12th. The statue of Virgin Mary from the chapel of Mercy was solemnly crowned. The Litomerice bishop Dr. Josef Gross served a mass on the free spot in front having a beautiful weather.
The spiritual custody for pilgrims was given to fathers Redemptorists in 1865. For them especially a monastery was built right next to the church. The monastery was made bigger in 1914 – 1915 to serve as a house for spiritual exercises. That is how it looks today.
Plans of the filipov church from 1925
