Everything began in 1658 when Louis Guimont, suffering from excruciating back pain, came to help with the construction of the first chapel and was miraculously healed as a result. This would be the first of an endless series of healings. As early as 1665, an Ursuline nun, Sainte Marie de l'Incarnation, wrote the following words to her son:

"Seven leagues from here, there is a village called "The Little Cape", where there is a church dedicated to Saint Anne in which Our Lord is working great marvels in favour of the holy mother of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. There, the paralytics walk, the blind can see, and the sick are healed of every kind of illness."
- Marie de l'incarnation, 1665

The pilgrimage history of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré is one that is marked by extraordinary events, which continue even to this day.