Introduction

American Patroness begins with an introduction that situates the collection within three larger contexts. First, it explores the history of devotion to Mary in the US, beginning with the surge of shrines built in the twentieth century and culminating with re-interpretations of Marian devotion in the early twenty-first century. Second, this introduction considers the boundaries around what counts as a shrine. This theoretical introduction to the study of shrines explores how those boundaries are constructed, who maintains them, and what happens when they become porous. This section also gestures to how the study of shrines interacts with other key themes of this collection, including pilgrimage, material religion, lay and hierarchical divisions, and devotional practices. Third, this introduction examines how each chapter’s focus on a particular shrine sheds light on broader themes in the study of American religion. As co-editors, we argue that the collection’s series of deep dives into particular shrines allows for expansive reconsideration of the landscape of US Catholicism. The introduction concludes with a brief survey of the three parts of the collection and an overview of each contribution.