SYLVANIA—For the past 75 years, the Portiuncula Chapel has been a sanctuary for solitude and quiet prayer on the motherhouse grounds of the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania.

Dedicated in 1936, the small chapel is a replica of the Portiuncula Chapel found in Assisi, Italy, which is now enshrined in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels. The original Portiuncula was built by monks from Jerusalem in the fourth century, and later restored by St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century.

The Portiuncula — which means “Little Portion” in Italian — became the home church for the Franciscan friars, and the replica in Sylvania also serves as a sacred space for the Sisters of St. Francis.

The community began building the Portiuncula on its Sylvania campus in 1935 in thanksgiving for a favor received.

Sylvania Franciscan Sister M. Jeremias Stinson, superintendent of environmental stewardship, gardens, shrines and woodland management for the sisters, relates that after the banks crashed during the Great Depression, the sisters could not make the payment on their loan and were in danger of losing their property.

While their mother superior traveled to Chicago to meet with the banker, the remaining sisters prayed all night for the loan to be refinanced. In gratitude for God providing, they promised to build a chapel in honor of Our Lady on their campus.

The Portiuncula Chapel has undergone several facelifts in its history.

The first occurred in 1945, when the main entrance was redone to correct weather damage. The restoration extended the length and width of the original design.

Sr. Stinson oversaw the last two restoration projects in 1974 and 2003.

Standing in the chapel, she still gets choked up as she recalls what she found there and how her life changed 37 years ago when she took shelter inside during a terrible storm.

“There was not one inch of this building intact,” she relates. “The water was coming through the roof; the lights didn’t work; the door was banging. The windows were leaking; the stations were cracked. The material behind all the inlays was hanging. It was full of bugs and spiders.”

Most of the lights did not work, and the doors, stained glass windows and some of the art and statues were cracked or broken, she adds. The benches were falling apart and had no kneelers.

“I said, this can’t look like this. This is terrible,” says Sr. Stinson.

She immediately wrote a request in which she told her general superior she would like to lead a more contemplative life, witness to the value of manual labor to identify with the poor and repair the chapel so it could be open every day. She also petitioned the bishop to bring the Blessed Sacrament to the chapel, where it remains to this day.

“I spent two years of my life rebuilding this whole place stone by stone,” says Sr. Stinson, who talked with the elder sisters of the community and researched the archives to learn everything she could about the chapel.

The interior restoration in 1974 included the addition of heat, light and water, and in 2003 the chapel was rebuilt stone by stone to prevent it from collapsing.

The Portiuncula is open daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. for those who wish to pray in an atmosphere of quiet reflection.

While the chapel is beautiful, Sr. Stinson emphasizes it is not a museum or tourist attraction. “It’s here for people to experience solitude and quiet prayer,” she says.