The Chalice Series in its own setting!

Visiting the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver

I have said before that I often place my fictional scenes in real places I have never actually seen. Well, I changed that for one pivotal location in all three Chalice Series books last month when we stopped at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver!

Channing’s Memorare prayer card outside the church where he found it in the catechism given to him by Father Benedict

If you’ve read Firetender, you may remember this as the setting of an important conversation about faith between Dallas and Channing. After stopping here to let Channing look at the stained glass windows, Dallas worries that his friend is getting too religious. This is the first meeting with Father Benedict, who becomes a key character in the second half of the book and reappears throughout the series.

Channing’s sharp eye would have noticed the stained glass from the outside as they drove past the building

You might be wondering: what is a cathedral basilica? So let’s break it down…

Cathedral comes from the Latin cathedra, which means seat or chair. So the cathedral in a particular region (called a diocese or archdiocese) is where the Bishop’s chair is, both literally in the church building itself and symbolically as head of the Church in that area.

“Basilica” is a designation given to a Catholic church that has historical, architectural, or some other significance, and must “stand out as a center of active and pastoral liturgy,” according to the 1989 Vatican document Domus ecclesiae:  Norms for the Granting of the Title of Minor Basilica. This distinction comes from the pope. One way to quickly identify a basilica is to look for the conopaeum, a red and yellow canopy hanging inside the building.

The tent-shaped canopy can be seen to the right of the altar

Denver’s cathedral was also given the title of basilica, but not all cathedrals are basilicas, and a church does not have to be a cathedral in order to become a basilica. The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was dedicated as a basilica on my very first Christmas in 1979!

Pope Saint John Paul II visited Denver and celebrated Mass here (as well as at a nearby state park) for World Youth Day in 1993. Not many churches in the United States can boast that a pope saint once set foot inside them! Being able to pray in the places saints once visited is a holy experience.

One of the plaques commemorating the Pope’s 1993 visit. Dallas and Father B sit on a bench near this plaque in a scene from Enkindle in Me.

This building also houses the largest amount of stained glass anywhere in North America—quite a God moment that I chose this church for the story, because I had no idea at the time. But the reason they stopped here was because Channing wanted to look at stained glass, and this happened to be on their route! More about the basilica’s history and architecture can be found here at their website.

Walking the very steps and aisle that Dallas and Channing would have walked was surreal after having written the scenes with only the help of the basilica’s website and photos on Google Maps. I took some videos that I plan to turn into Instagram reels (stay tuned for the “Dallas gets drunk” reel that features the scene from Enkindle in Me… and if you are wondering how that plays into a scene that takes place at a church, then maybe I have piqued your interest enough to read the book. It’s not as bad as it sounds, in case you were starting to worry. ;-)

I hope you enjoy this virtual tour of these story scenes!

The brass doors mentioned in Firetender, when Dallas and Channing enter the basilica for the first time

This would have been one of the first things Channing would have seen once he’d entered the basilica and looked up to the right.

A few key scenes in Book Three, The Fire of Your Love, take place here, too—that book is under contract to be published in early 2025!

The pew where Dallas and Channing sat after meeting Father Benedict in Firetender. It would have been about the same time of day. I love how the light through the stained glass contrasts with the dark of the pews.

The most stained glass in one building in all of North America! The story inconsistency? Channing would not actually have been able to touch one of the windows. I made him do it anyway for the story’s aesthetics.

Firetender visits its own stomping grounds…

Enkindle in Me gets a turn, too!

Excited to be here!

If you have read Firetender and/or Enkindle in Me, won’t you please leave a review? Did you know: Amazon begins to recommend books to shoppers once a book reaches fifty reviews. And that’s reviews, not just ratings. I’m still a long way off, so I need your help! Even a review of just one or two lines will get me closer! Using the Amazon button below, simply scroll down and click on the appropriate book, then scroll down again to the customer ratings and reviews and find the “Write a customer review” button on the lefthand side (it may look a little different on your phone). Goodreads reviews are helpful as well, and you can leave the same review in both places. I appreciate it so much!

Thanks for reading! Until next time!