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Fight over the fate of a North York shrine to Virgin Mary moves to city hall, 3100 Weston Rd
The city’s preservation committee voted to add the shrine’s description to a heritage listing for 3100 Weston Rd. But the shrine is dismantled and the site’s owner says it’s not coming back
The battle over a shrine to the Virgin Mary, credited with multiple miracles before it was dismantled, has moved from a North York soccer field to city hall.
If worshippers and politicians keep trying to get the shrine restored, the battle could move again — to a courtroom.
The Toronto Preservation Board heard fierce arguments Wednesday for and against the heritage value of the Marian Shrine of Gratitude, a makeshift array of statues, plaques and other religious items at 3100 Weston Rd.
The items started appearing in 2005 after a priest, doing yardwork behind an old mansion converted into a monastery, suffered an eye injury. He credit prayer to the Virgin Mary with quick healing and fixing his previously poor vision.
The shrine, on a terrace, was dismantled last August after the Winnipeg-based religious order sold the property to developer Avrance Corp. Developments, triggering nightly protest vigils by shrine devotees in an adjacent soccer field.
City staff recommended the preservation board update a 1997 heritage listing for the site to mention the shrine, allowing it to be considered for official heritage designation.
Devotees, supported by local councillor Anthony Perruzza and MPP Tom Rakocevic, hope a heritage designation could force the developer to restore the shrine items along with public access to the site behind the century home.
Angie Carboni, who is spearheading efforts to get the shrine restored, told preservation board members she has taken thousands of young people there to pray and feel peace and potentially experience a miracle.
“Many days when it rained we would pray there and the sun would come out …” Carboni said. “Money can’t buy healing, money can’t buy love, and this place is love.”
Avrance chief executive Samuel Babarinde urged the board to disregard the shrine, saying it no longer exists and is not officially recognized by any church. He said a partner in his company, which plans to build condo and rental towers on adjacent land, will move into the old mansion and return the terrace to its original use — a large swimming pool to be periodically made available for community events.
“We are legal owners of this property, a for-profit organization, not a religious organization, and we have no interest in continuing to host this illegal shrine on our property,” Babarinde said, adding the religious items are in storage waiting for devotees to pick them up, or he will deliver them to another site.
If politicians care so much about a shrine, he said, “they have homes — they can put the shrine in their backyards.”
Mary MacDonald, the city’s senior manager of heritage planning, advised the committee to add the shrine description to the listing, noting that it doesn’t guarantee it will be a factor in any future heritage designation for the overall site.
“There is evidence many individuals found peace and solace,” at the shrine, she said, adding “that is an intangible heritage value, that is a sacred value that is there regardless of whether there are (religious) objects there.”
The committee adopted the recommendation unanimously.
Babarinde, however, later told the Star that “our heritage consultant and municipal lawyer aren’t worried about this decision, as it means absolutely nothing.
“Our plan is to sue all parties involved in the interim. We will appeal the (heritage) designation, once finalized, to the Ontario Land Tribunal if (the designation) encompasses the shrine.”
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