The Cathedral of Mary Our Queen may be a testament to the power of prayer.

Thomas O'Neill, a leading merchant in Baltimore in the late 1800s to early 1900s, watched helplessly as the Great Fire of 1904 roared toward the south wall of his O'Neill's Department Store.

According to the story, O'Neill rushed to a Carmelite convent to pray that the store would be saved. Whether by divine intervention or plain luck, it was.

"Just as the flames began licking the south wall, the wind shifted and sent the holocaust safely eastward," states The Guide Book, a pre-1960 history of the cathedral by the Rev. J. Joseph Gallagher, with help from the Catholic Review.

And when O'Neill died in 1919, he left $5 million to build a new cathedral. It took 40 years, but on Nov. 15, 1959, the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen was dedicated.

Fifty years later, the cathedral is in the midst of an anniversary celebration that began in September and will culminate with Archbishop Edwin O'Brien leading a Mass on Nov. 15, the dedication date.

"And it falls on a Sunday," said Carol Gould, co-chairwoman of a steering committee that spent two years planning the anniversary celebration.

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