Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration

St. Clement Shrine maintains a quiet place where people can come in from the busy and fast-paced world to enjoy a few quiet moments praying, reading, and reflecting with the Lord.

Perpetual Adoration is a Eucharistic devotion whereby members of a given parish (or other entity) unite in taking hours of adoration before the Most Blessed Sacrament (in most cases, exposed), both during the day and throughout the night, seven days a week.

Saint Clement Eucharistic Shrine is located one block from the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston Street in Boston. Public transportation is recommended because parking is very limited, especially when the Red Sox have a game at nearby Fenway Park.

Getting Here by Subway
From the Park Street station take the B, C or D Green Line train outbound to the “Hynes Convention Center” stop (do not take the E line – it does not stop at Hynes). Take a left out of the Hynes Convention Center station onto Massachusetts Avenue. Turn right onto Boylston Street at the first traffic light. After one block, you will find Saint Clement Eucharistic Shrine at the intersection with Ipswich Street.

• Weekdays 7:00 am and 12:10 pm
• Saturdays 11:00 am
• Sundays 11:00 am and 8:00 pm

• Monday Night: 7:30 pm – 8:00 pm
• Sunday: Half-hour before Masses or at St Francis Chapel in the Prudential Center Hynes Court (800 Boylston Street):
• Monday-Friday 11:15am to 11:45am; 1:10pm to 4:15pm
• Saturday 9:45am to 11:45am; 12:45pm to 3:30pm

Monday–Saturday: 5:00 pm

Adoration Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration – 24/7.

The Oblates of the Virgin Mary

The Oblates of the Virgin Mary (OMV), who staff St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine, are a religious congregation of priests and brothers founded by the Venerable Fr. Bruno Lanteri near Turin, Italy in 1826. At the time of the foundation, the first Oblates faced challenging spiritual situations, including the rigoristic Jansenist heresy that still thrived in Northern Italy and France, and Fr. Lanteri was even imprisoned by Napoleon for a few years. The Oblates were renowned for their gospel of mercy, their orthodoxy, and their fidelity to the Pope as they traveled preaching Ignatian retreats and distributing good literature to combat the errors of their time.

“The purpose of the Congregation is that of attending to the sanctification of its members by way of the most attentive imitation of Jesus Christ, Whom in all actions they take as their model, together with Mary Most Holy, their dear Mother, and that of attending with the utmost care to the redemption and sanctification of men. ”

The Oblates came to the United States in 1976, beginning right here at St. Clement’s. Today, in addition to offering retreats across the globe, they serve in retreat centers, parishes, seminaries, and shrines in the archdioceses of Boston, Los Angeles, and Denver, and in the diocese of Springfield, Illinois.

History of St. Clement Eucharistic Shrine

This church has a very rich history of prayer and adoration before our Eucharistic Lord. The history begins on December 8, 1935 with the dedication of the church as Saint Clement Church shortly after Cardinal O’Connell purchased the former Universalist Church. Saint Clement’s was needed as an auxiliary church to assist Saint Cecilia Parish in a time of immense growth of the Back Bay and Fenway districts. On September 25, 1944, Archbishop Richard Cushing succeeded Cardinal O’Connell and within a few months, a new page in the history of Saint Clement’s would begin.

Early in 1945, Archbishop Cushing paid a visit to Saint Cecilia Church. At dinner the cardinal was inquired as to what extent Saint Clement’s was needed at the time. When the pastor commented that the need was not as great as ten years earlier, the Archbishop suggested the church become a Eucharistic shrine, “a spiritual powerhouse,” as they both phrased it, for the whole diocese. It is impossible to express adequately the role Saint Clement Shrine played in the lives of countless people in the Boston Archdiocese. The syndicated Catholic journalist, Father Daniel Lord, SAJ wrote in 1953 that the Archdiocese of Boston seems toil most center on the Eucharistic Shrine.

Cardinal Cushing asked the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, a congregation newly dedicated to the Eucharist, to staff the church. From the moment the Sisters occupied the church, two sisters knelt daily in front of the Blessed Sacrament in silent adoration. A large grille separated the semi-cloistered Sisters from the rest of the people in the church. Saint Clement’s began a Nocturnal Adoration Society. Catholics were recruited to spend an hour each month before the Blessed Sacrament. By December 1945, there were 575 enrolled in the society. In the late sixties, the Fenway churches saw a decline of numbers as a result of the construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike through the Back Bay, and the shrine was transformed into a ministerial center for college students. The Newman Center changed its name to Saint Clement Student Parish.

Perpetual Adoration Start 2009In 1976, the Oblates of the Virgin Mary purchased Saint Clement’s and began restoration. Oblate priests that live here staff the Saint Francis Chapel at the Prudential Center. Today, the shrine is the home of Our Lady of Grace Seminary of the Oblates. At the turn of the millennium, there was a re-awakening at the shrine. Cardinal Cushing expressed, “Over the years the attendance at the shrine has declined, despite its being so well located. I hope that there will be a renewal of devotion to Christ in the Eucharist and that the students and residence in the area will find at the shrine, both in the liturgy and in the direction of the priests, the strength to give a Christian witness.” This has become our dream, to fulfill the late Cardinal’s words. We have made numerous repairs and embellishments. The roof was fixed, the walls cleaned, statues were re-painted, and the tabernacle was restored. All of this was to help you, our guests, to have a wonderful place to meet our God.