The Sacred Heart Shrine is located in the left transept of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.
The Sacred Heart Shrine, His Excellency Archbishop (now Cardinal) Raymond Burke’s idea, was developed with architect Duncan Stroik. This was no easy task. The Basilica is one of the most beautiful churches in the United States. Designing a new piece of architecture for this building made of rich materials and filled with magnificent art was challenging.
For this project, we used several traditional materials. Most were very rare and rich. Each of the two column shafts is made of a single piece of Sicilian Diaspro Siciliano marble, one of Bernini’s favorite marble colors. The baluster is Breccia Violetta, which is white Italian marble with purple veins. The circular piece centered under the mensa is Broccatello di Spagna, an ancient imperial Roman marble from Spain. The pediment and capitals are made of Bianco Carrara and Rosa Portogallo, which is pink, from Portugal.
This project, including all the bronze pieces, was fabricated entirely in Italy and shipped ready for installation.