The Shrine of St. Anthony

Click here for some more information on Ellicott City, MD. The Carroll family is responsible for the development of the land on which the Shrine of St. Anthony is located. In 1700, Charles Carroll of Annapolis was awarded 10,000 acres (40 km2; 16 sq mi) of land in what is now Howard County, Maryland, by the Maryland General Assembly. Construction on Doughoregan Manor began in 1717, when he purchased the property. Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Ohio, inherited the property, and he was buried there after his death.

The land was put up for sale in the 1840s but failed to sell, and it was eventually sold to Emily MacTavish’s son, Charles Carroll MacTavish, in 1850, along with approximately forty slaves. In 1864, he transferred ownership of the estate to Charles M. Dougherty for $100,000. The property was returned to the Carroll family by way of inheritance and marriage, thanks to the efforts of John Lee Carroll, who served as governor of Maryland from 1876 to 1880.Mr. Van Lear Black, the publisher of The Baltimore Sun, purchased the property in 1910 for a sum of money. On December 31, 1924, Mr. Black sold the house to Mr. Morris Schapiro, owner of the Boston Iron and Metal Company. Mr. Schapiro, in turn, sold the mansion and 236 acres (0.96 km2) of the original estate to the Franciscan Friars for $436,000 in 1928.

An original painting depicting a significant moment in St. Anthony’s life was donated to the shrine by the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua in Italy in 1995, together with replicas of thirteen other original paintings depicting significant moments in St. Anthony’s life.

On July 1, 2005, Archbishop William Cardinal Keeler of Baltimore declared the Shrine of St. Anthony to be the official Archdiocesan shrine to St. Anthony, effective immediately. For more information be sure to check out Clark’s Elioak Farm.