For Appointments/tours at Shrine call 520.444.2713
Mary Undoer of Knots Byzantine Catholic Shrine
The Shrine's Construction
Chauncey Meyer Interview
An interview with the Shrine's Architect.
Carpathian Wooden Churches
The Shrine's Construction History
2015
The land was purchased at the end of 2015 under the prompting of Fr. Robert Rankin. Fr. Bob came to Eugene and Catherine Kinghorn's cabin for a house blessing in the spring of 2015 and he said, "it would be ideal to have a church on Mount Lemmon." Subsequently, they found the two properties behind their house and ultimately the northern lot were available for purchase. The Catherine and Gene bought these for what they thought would be an Eastern Catholic Church as Fr. Bob had suggested. Click on a picture to explore!
2016
The Kinghorns applied for permits in June of 2016 and were finally awarded the permits for the chapel and bell tower in the fall of 2016. Construction could not begin due to the delay however Master Builder, Gary Griffith along with Lalo Cota began on the grounds of the future chapel-lot #13, and the Bell Tower-lot #12 in May and finished up around October. The chapel lot needed to be raised almost 11 feet due to its steep slope. In order to create construction access between the two properties they needed to put a culvert pipe in the creek to create a bridge. The culvert will later be used to channel the creek from the northern lot to the existing culvert shown in the 2015 pics. In the spring of 2017 Master Mason, Miguel Miranda and his family business, and Master Framer, Mike Vasquez and his family business, Jose Garcia and his company, and Nick Laguna and Keith Sharratt began working with Gary to build the chapel, metal work and its grounds.
2017
During this time period the interior and exterior of the chapel was substantially complete. Challenges in the summer of 2017 included a wildfire that shut down all construction for around three weeks. The Bell tower foundation was started in the fall of 2017. During the harsh winter months construction was primarily focused on the interior of the Shrine. Click the center image below to see the exterior time lapse or the other images to see the 2017 photo gallery.
Shrine Exterior TimeLapse
2018
2018 construction continued on several fronts including the finishing of the interior of the shrine, the Bell Tower construction as well as the Veteran's Memorial and Ramada. Click the center image below to see the time lapse video of the Shrine's interior work or the other images to see the 2018 gallery.
Shrine Interior TimeLapse
