Metropolis of San Francisco Shrine

Dedicated to the sanctity of marriage and family

The presence of authenticated Holy Relics accessible for veneration by the faithful, especially those of a parish’s matron or patron saint, is a blessing beyond measure. Of course, each community is sanctified by the Holy Relics that reside in her Altar Table, founding the parish in the blood of the martyrs as well as by the Holy Eucharist that makes the community the Body of Christ. Even so, access to the sanctified remains of the “Holy people of God” furthers our transfiguration as a local community. If understood correctly, when shared with the greater community, they allow God to work through His Saints, introducing through a purely spiritual means the transfiguration of hearts and souls of all those who search for God in a landscape of spiritually shallow wells.

Historically, parishes that possess Holy Relics of their matron or patron Saint are deemed “Shrines.” This distinction is bestowed as a Shrine becomes a place of pilgrimage to venerate and seek the intercessions of one not only invisibly present but also physically present in our midst. A quality of a Shrine is then serving her immediate faithful as well as providing hospitality to those who travel from near and far, Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike.

Since receiving our initial Holy Relic of Saint Anna in 2005, the community has labored to realize a ministry vision appropriate to our respective flock and those who visit our Church campus. On the occasion of our reception of the Holy Relics of Joachim and Anna on September 9, 2007, we were distinguished as a Metropolis Shrine Church dedicated to “the Sanctity of Marriage and Family.” As far as is known, it is the first of its kind anywhere in the world.

It was at the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, His Eminence, Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco, offered the following prayer on the occasion of the Dedication of the Shrine Church:

Most merciful Master, Lord Jesus Christ our God, in the laver of Baptism we have been washed clean, redeemed, sanctified, forgiven of sins, illuminated, regenerated, renewed in spirit, and adopted as sons and daughters of the Most High. In Your infinite grace and great goodness, You also came to Cana-in-Galilee and blessed the marriage there, to show that lawful marriage and the bearing of children is Your will. Being mindful of the need to preserve the sanctity of the home, made firm through the prayers of grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, and kin, we beseech You to hear our prayer. Cast aside every trial, the temptation, and the tribulation that besets the members of our Christian family – young and old alike, those who persevere in virginity, those who are married, those who widowed, and those who are divorced. Strengthen, preserve and sanctify us in Your peace, the estate of marriage, and the nurturing of children through the dedication of this Shrine, which shall seek the intercessions of Saints Joachim and Anna, spiritually and physically ever present in her midst.

Heeding the words of Saint Paul let us, bow [our] knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from Whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named, that He would grant [us], according to the wealth of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit…that the Christ might dwell in [our] hearts through faith, having been rooted and founded in love, in order that [we] might be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge, that [we] might be filled to all the fullness of God” [Eph. 3:14-21].

We offer this, our humble prayer, calling to mind the righteous Ancestors of Christ, Joachim and Anna, the most holy, pure blessed and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary, whose Nativity we commemorate, and all the Saints.

For You bless and sanctify all things, Christ our God, and to You we offer up glory, as to Your Father who is from everlasting, and Your all-holy, good and life-giving Spirit, now and always and forever and ever.