Our Lady Victory Shrine

Standing since 1901, the Our Lady of Victory Shrine is a testament of faith, perseverance, triumph, and gratitude. The Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad had announced a plan to extend its line from Scranton to Carbondale, which cut directly across the Green Ridge property that was to become Mt. St. Mary's Seminary, and, eventually, Marywood. If the Railroad were granted the right of eminent domain to build, plans for a school would have ceased.

Mother M. Cyril Conway, IHM, Mother Superior at the time, requested a meeting with railroad officials to represent and defend the interest of her Congregation. Mother Cyril single-handedly convinced the authorities to select an alternate route for their proposed extension. So close was the brush with disaster, and so great the relief at escaping it, that two supporters of the IHM Sisters decided to commemorate the triumph in a physical form. The Reverend Daniel Dunn and his brother, Reverend John Dunn, donated funds for a shrine to Our Lady of Victory. The statue in its pavilion still stands today on the campus, midway between the Liberal Arts Center and Nazareth Hall, on the very spot where surveyors from the Railroad had been seen making their preliminary calculations.