The corner of Colorado Avenue and 20th Street in Santa Monica is not where you’d expect to find the largest outdoor Catholic shrine in Los Angeles County.
This is the heart of “Silicon Beach,” where sleek new buildings contain creative design studios, film, and music production offices, and million-dollar condos. Juice bars and brunch spots are steps away, and a big craft brewery across the street fills up in the evenings.
But long before any of that was here, the grotto-like space behind St. Anne Church has drawn Catholics — both English and Spanish-speaking — with a devotion to the saint who was the Virgin Mary’s mother.
That devotion includes the annual July 18-26 parish novena to St. Anne. Ask any parishioner here, and they’ll proudly tell you how long it’s been prayed here: 114 straight years.
“To have a novena here represents a different outlook on things,” said confirmation teacher and parish bookkeeper Michael Ward.
On Sunday, July 26, Ward helped welcome more than 600 people for a special procession and Mass to mark the final day of the novena, the feast day of St. Joachim and St. Anne. Since July 26 fell on a Sunday this year, the novena’s final day found a place in the calendar of Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Elshoff, who presided over the bilingual Mass.
For decades, St. Anne’s has been a majority Spanish-speaking parish, serving Hispanic immigrants working in service jobs in one of California’s wealthiest cities. Many once lived nearby in LA’s Westside but have since relocated to more affordable places like the San Fernando Valley or cities such as Inglewood and Hawthorne. But they still enroll their children in catechism at St. Anne’s, and still celebrate weddings, funerals, and quinceañeras here.
Among them is Juanita Diaz, who arrived at St. Anne’s more than 40 years ago. Her children were baptized and went to school here. She’s since moved to Arleta, but her devotion has only deepened over the years.
“She has interceded for my whole family, so we’re always here for the novena and to honor her on her feast day,” said Diaz.
Diaz said she’s felt St. Anne’s intercession in a powerful way since losing her 37-year-old son six years ago.
“I have asked her and her daughter, the Virgin Mary, to give me a lot of strength to move forward with that pain, and here we are,” said Diaz.
Maria de Jesus Guerra and her husband, Martin, have been at St. Anne’s for more than 30 years, and still live in an apartment nearby. Now a grandmother, Maria said she’s found a trusted friend in “Santa Ana.”
“She is the grandmother of Jesus Christ, and I know that when the grandchildren come to me, my heart melts for my grandchildren,” said Maria. “So I feel that everything one asks of Santa Ana, Jesus Christ is going to listen to her.”
Parish administrator Father Juan Ayala, OMI, believes the grandmother aspect of St. Anne is a huge part of the devotion. He’s seen older parishioners, including English-speakers, who prayed the novena as children help pass it on to newer ones, many of whom come from the Oaxaca region of Mexico.
“It’s about getting introduced,” said Ayala. “Everyone knows Mary, but they forget Mary had a mother and a father.”
Coincidentally, Ayala said the most common hardship he sees parishioners bringing to St. Anne is the distancing of their children and grandchildren from the Faith.
“Their desire is for them to have God in their lives,” said Ayala, who belongs to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. “Seeing Anne as a mother and grandmother, they tell her, ‘Help me, guide me as a mother or a father with my children.’ ”
Standing in the shrine’s leafy grotto decorated abundantly with flowers, Elshoff suggested in his homily that parishioners ask St. Joachim and St. Anne for the wisdom to listen to the vulnerable of society and serve them accordingly.
“As [St. Joachim and St. Anne] were just people that listened to the Scriptures, we too must be just in the eyes of God and listen to his Word, which is the truth,” said Elshoff, the auxiliary bishop for the Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region that includes Santa Monica.
As Elshoff greeted people after the Mass, some remained to pray before the statue of St. Anne in the shrine area, which is covered by an enormous awning, and where larger Masses are held during the warmer summer months. Six years ago, the space proved to be a saving grace during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing for Masses and gatherings like the novena to continue.
But with most of its parishioners coming from further away, many ask themselves: how does a church in Silicon Beach bring Jesus to its tech-savvy neighbors?
Ayala, who arrived a year ago, admitted he’s still trying to figure that out. But even in such a secularized area, he believes a little boldness can go a long way.
“I invite our parishioners to invite others, and some of them are workers to these people,” he said. “They’re the cleaning lady, the cook, the maintenance person. So I’m like, ‘Go out, invite, evangelize.’ It’s a way to reach out.”
