Case file · Sacred site
The Grotto, Portland
The National Sanctuary of Our Sorrowful Mother, known as the Grotto, was dedicated in 1924 at the foot of a basalt cliff in north-east Portland, with a rock cave holding a replica of Michelangelo's Pietà.
1924 CE · 45.55, -122.58 · status: official
The account
Servite friar Ambrose Mayer had vowed as a boy, when his mother was ill, to build a shrine if she recovered. The Servites bought the quarry site in 1923, and it is now a pilgrimage site with gardens on the clifftop.