NORFOLK, Va. — Saints glow in stained glass windows lining the newly pristine interior at the Basilica of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception. The sheen of black-and-white marble tiles, a throwback to the Catholic church’s original floor, captures the saints’ reflections.
Oretha Pretlow often gazes at the spectral display during Mass.
“We have this idea that we’re surrounded by a cloud of saints,” said Pretlow, a lifelong parishioner and liturgical coordinator. In Catholicism, a saint might be canonized by the church, but the term also refers to anyone who had died and gone to heaven — like those buried beneath historic church’s floor.
