Saint Anthony Shrine

Always insightful, welcoming, and refreshing. Catch the Arch Band if you can. The homilies are grounded in humility and grace. Jesus Christ resides here with the Franciscans. A real gem in a city full of loving, grace-​filled people.

I absolutely love this church! The choir and piano and singing is just soo beautiful, the liturgy is always so inspiring, the priests and staff are so welcoming and warm hearted. It is right in the heart of Boston located in downtown crossing, so it’s convenient too! I am now a regular here every Sunday. It doesn’t matter which times you go, they’re all good! Except I think the earlier times like 8 or 9 am doesn’t have music, while the later times do. You can definitely feel the energy of the people surrounding you and the loving presence of God. Mass is never boring here, and you encounter peoples from all walks of life, ethnicities, and diversities. Definitely come and take a stop by because you will leave feeling enlightened and rejoiced!

Great hidden relaxing gem in Boston with beautiful shrine and statues. Nice place for meditating/​praying to ease up a day in Boston.

Wow! Great service and awesome music by Arch Street Band. This is a GEM! Great for families with teens. Also, one of the brothers makes handmade, handcut leather items for sale in lobby. Really impressive work. Highly recommend.

Enter through the main middle section doors. Mass is held on the second floor.
So grateful that this Shrine was a very short 4 minute walk from my hotel.
It was a beautiful space, with many services to attend, and a welcoming priest. Some Masses have a music group but I attended the 730 AM mass and there was no music then.
Take time to look at the intricate stained glass art all around.
I also got to meet a two ladies visiting from Saudi Arabia! They were in town for a conference, and also stayed at the same hotel as I did.
There is an easiness to talking to people after Mass and finding out how uncommon we all are in this common ground.

Not the most beautiful church in the world, but I was able to get my Ashes on Ash Wednesday so how can I knock the place.

Unassuming, marked on the exterior with a humble crucifix with 2 tiers of church in which to worship. Went there for daily mass and enjoyed the modest service that included a brief yet deeply piercing homily. Nice candle area to pay tribute to St. Anthony and, should we be blessed with another visit to Boston, we’ll certainly return to this church, hopefully for a Sunday service.

Incredible place with a ton of outreach ministries and awesome music Masses!!!

My mom would come here was she visited her grandmother growing up, so it was funny that I found Saint Anthony via Unilocal!
Definitely a great place to go if you like contemporary music. The physical space itself really appeals to me – very bright & open. The art & environment is always creative and appropriate.
When attending Mass I would get frustrated at times, because it can start to feel like a performance by the band instead of a ritual that the assembly should be engaging in together. That being said, the musicians are very talented.
They also have various programs and groups.
Seems to be a nice community of young professionals, families, cityfolk/​locals, some students and tourists (neat to see all the runners attend on Marathon Sunday). Very welcoming.
Also, apparently you can park in the nearby «no parking» zones on Sundays. You have to arrive not-​too-​early, not-​too-​late in order to get a parking space when the previous Mass lets out. (See the schedule and you’ll see why my mom says it’s been referred to as The Mass Factory.)

was there in octt few days after the Feast Of St Francis a real nice church and so nice run bny OFM cap that same francisasn d that run St Johns in center cityphila alot of miracles are answered here have a atm people machine for people to donate in the back

As others have mentioned before, this shrine is actually an oasis in the middle of downtown. The chapel-​like quality seemed quaint and the Franciscan Friars do the best they can with the space they have. There’s actually quite a bit of stained glass windows throughout the interior of the second floor church.
I was impressed with the music ministry during Sunday’s mass. They are indeed upbeat (actually, more upbeat than what I’m used to back home) and they still play old tunes in a slightly faster tempo. I enjoyed it.
The noon mass actually flew by quickly. I believe it only ended up being 40 minutes. This was a pleasant surprise. Typically masses that I’ve attended tend to go over an hour. Perhaps it was lunchtime or perhaps it was the fast pace of music and young priest that made up the quickness.
The congregation is a diverse group and I was pleased to actually see a Filipino family attending mass. All this time, I thought I might have been the only one in the city!
One ingenious device they have is a donation kiosk that accepts debit and credit cards! I utilized it and made an anonymous donation. The only thing is that it doesn’t print out a receipt like it’s supposed to. This is definitely a much needed option that all Catholic Churches need especially given the fact that most young people don’t really carry that much cash in hand anymore.

After I discovered this «oasis» in Downtown Crossing, I was sold! I usually went to St Ignatius at BC for Mass, but St Anthony’s weekend Masses with music are fantastic! The Arch Street Band are super upbeat, very professional, and they play contemporary Christian music along with the old favorites. It truly gets you in the spirit of praise and worship! Sunday has nine Masses and Saturday has several as well.
Weekday Masses are frequent, too. St Anthony’s is a wonderful ministry center with a Wellness Center for those who need free medical screenings. They offer confession throughout the day and week. Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament is frequent as well. Their ministries cater to all sorts of people through bible studies, ministries to the homeless of Boston, the GLBT community, and everyone. Everyone who I’ve met at St Anthony’s is passionate about their faith and nice. I love going to daily Mass and seeing all kinds of people, from homeless to businesspeople loving God together.

So I was torn between giving it a 3 or 4 star report, and then I remembered that it was a church, so it gets an extra star. I went to this church on the recommendation of Trish the Dish!
St. Anthony’s Shrine is located right outside the Downtown Cross T Station, which was a plus, because I didn’t have to walk around DTX alone with the sketch. I went for a music mass, and it was ok. Contemporary Christian music isn’t my style, but the mass was said well, and the community was very friendly.
I may come back here from time to time, but I am looking for something a little more Orthodox. If you love contemporary services, this is a great place to go!

I feel kind of awkward rating a church, but I felt it necessary to just give a knowledgeable review compared to Mike’s. No offense Mike, I enjoy a Jesus joke as much as the next person, but if you weren’t there to actually attend the mass then making fun of the interior of the church isn’t going to be helpful to the Unilocalers that are trying to find a good church in the area.
So. I think St. Anthony’s is pretty awesome. On Sundays, they basically have a mass every hour (4 vigil masses on Saturday), but it’s not really worth it (in my humble opinion) if you don’t go to a mass with music. The music is wonderful. The musicians are actually working on a CD at the moment. They generally have a guitar player, a drummer, a bassist, vocalist, pianist, and occasionally one of the cantors will play the trumpet. The music is a mix of traditional and modern.
They have a lot of great programs (kids and seniors) including a GLT spirituality group, a 20s-​30s group, and one for those that are separated/​divorced. Also, considering their location, they’re very dedicated to the poor and have different volunteer programs as well as a Lazarus program for burial (for those with little or no money or those without families).
UPDATE ³⁄₂₀₀₈: The Arch Street Band (the musicians at mass) have just put out a couple CDs! Call for details or stop in and buy one from the front reception area (located to the left as you walk into the first floor of the shrine).