Breathtakingly decorated with sights of beauty, religious significance and symbolism, the interior of the Basilica is nothing short of magnificent. One cannot pass through the shrine with being moved by the obvious love and devotion to the Blessed Mother, as her remarkable life story is told through paint, sculpture, and mosaic.
Located along both sides of the shrine, the 14 Stations of the Cross each could be considered a masterwork. Every scene consists of life-sized figures that have been carved from a single piece of marble (as opposed to being sculpted separately and then assembled). Pepini, the Italian artist who took on the project, took 14 years to complete all the stations, using painstaking detail to depict the passionate emotions of Jesus' final hours on Earth.
The most dramatic work of art appears in the Great Dome. The decoration of the structure, 80 feet in diameter and close to 120 feet from the floor, depicts the Assumption and Coronation of the Blessed Mother. An angelic host carries Mary heavenward to meet the Holy Trinity. The pinnacle of the dome is a white dove of peace which peers down from heaven.
Clearly one of the Basilca's focal points is the Main Altar. The altar features a nine-foot-tall, 1,600-pound statue of Our Lady of Victory which was sculpted in Italy and personally blessed by Pope Pius XI. In gratitude, Father Baker reserved a space for the painting of His Holiness to the left side of the altar.
Flanking the altar are four swirled marble columns of rare red marble. Reminiscent of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, the columns' appearance in the shrine smacks of Divine intervention. The story goes that a group of Buffalo-born soldiers stumbled upon the unique red marble while in Spain during World War I. Upon seeing it, the GIs thought immediately of the wonderful church being built back home by Father Baker, and they ran to the Spanish farmer who owned the property the marble was on. After receiving a crash course on the "Padre of the Poor" and his "City of Charity", the farmer agreed to donate the "useless rock" on his property. Arrangements were made, and, shortly after, the marble made it way to Lackawanna.
