A jubilee pilgrimage of hope through Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel

The historic chapel is the spiritual heart of the Felician Sisters of North America's Livonia campus, was completed in 1961

The Archdiocese of Detroit has designated 12 local pilgrimage sites for Catholics to visit during the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. Each month during 2025, Detroit Catholic will highlight one of these sites to encourage Catholics to take advantage of the extraordinary graces offered during the jubilee.

LIVONIA — Since the 1930s, the Felician Sisters of North America have made their mark on the city of Livonia with their sprawling campus on Schoolcraft Road, which houses the Felicians' main convent, Madonna University, a Montessori school, and the Senior Clergy Village, among others.

However, even locals might be surprised to know that in the midst of the expansive campus sits a beautiful, Italian monastic-style chapel replete with stained glass, distinctive striped bricks and a portico above the altar, overseen by a mosaic of the Holy Spirit.

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Chapel, which connects to the convent, was named one of the 12 pilgrimage sites designated by the Archdiocese of Detroit for the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope.

“I always say thousands of prayers are in these walls,” Sr. Joyce Marie Van de Vyver, CSSF, the order’s local minister, told Detroit Catholic while gesturing around the chapel. “People don't know that their prayers of sadness and tears are stuck in these walls because sisters have been praying. Every time we go to a grocery store, someone approaches and asks, ‘Would you pray for my sister? Would you pray for my grandfather? Would you pray for us?’ (The answer is) 'Yes, yes, yes.' What they don't realize is that we'll come back with that name, and we share it with our sisters.”

The Felician Sisters’ history in Michigan began in 1882, when the motherhouse for the first American provenance was transferred from Polonia, Wis., to Detroit. By 1926, the sisters had purchased 320 acres of land in rural Livonia, and by 1936, the convent was complete. The chapel would not be completed until 1961; however, the original design by architect Norman Lombard was honored, according to Sr. Mary Ann Smith, CSSF, the convent’s archivist.

The chapel, open to the public for daily Mass, was modeled after monasteries in Rome, Sr. Van de Vyver explained. The chapel holds several secrets, she added, including one that she fondly recalled discovering as a young novice.

“(The chapel) has a hidden, winding staircase that leads to the peak of the chapel dome, where the young sisters from 70 or 80 years ago would climb to the very top and touch the heavens,” Sr. Van de Vyver explained, adding that it hasn’t been explored in decades.

Despite having lived in the convent for most of her life, Sr. Van de Vyver said the Jubilee Year of Hope has allowed her and the other sisters to view the chapel with a fresh perspective.

“This year of pilgrimage has helped the sisters to see beyond the actual chapel itself,” Sr. Van de Vyver said. “Whether it’s through adoration of the Blessed Sacrament or daily participation in the Eucharistic liturgy, celebrated by the retired priests from the Senior Clergy Village, that hope for the future seems to touch individual lives and then, of course, the world outside the convent walls. It is a gift that everyone received when this chapel was chosen as one of the pilgrimage sites.”

For those in the neighboring community who might not know what the Felicians' grounds and chapel have to offer, Sr. Van de Vyver said visitors are encouraged to stop by to pray or visit, especially during the jubilee year, which continues until Jan. 6, 2026.

If they do, they will be in for a hopeful surprise, she added.

“Once they step foot inside, they immediately feel that there is hope for themselves or for their families,” Sr. Van de Vyver said.