BALTIMORE (CNS) — Msgr. Hugh J. Phillips, who transformed the old grotto next to Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg into a national Marian shrine that attracted hundreds of thousands of pilgrims each year, died of heart failure July 11 at Providence Hospital in Washington, the city in which he was born.

He was 97 and, until his retirement in 2001, he was believed to be the oldest active priest in the nation.

His funeral Mass was scheduled for July 16 at the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at Mount St. Mary's, with burial to follow at St. Anthony Cemetery.

Orphaned at a young age, he spent most of his life -- beginning at age 11 -- at Mount St. Mary's, from elementary school through prep school, into college and then the seminary. He was ordained in 1935 for the Baltimore Archdiocese. He taught at the college before becoming its 19th president, from 1967 to 1971.

His heart and soul, though, was the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, of which he was chaplain and administrator for 43 years.

Almost single-handedly he transformed it from a deteriorated mountaintop shrine into an internationally recognized center of Marian devotion that today draws about 400,000 pilgrims a year.

Msgr. Phillips' last day of full-time ministry was June 21, 2001, when Baltimore Cardinal William H. Keeler named the priest, then 94 years old, as the shrine's "chaplain emeritus." He also was president emeritus of the university.

In an interview with The Catholic Review, Baltimore archdiocesan newspaper, at the time of his retirement, Msgr. Phillips said he loved the grotto with all his heart "and everything about it."

He noted with a chuckle that, although the nation's oldest Marian shrine now attracts so many visitors each year, some of his contemporaries initially dismissed his restoration plans as "Phillips' folly."

"The grotto is all for the Blessed Mother," he said. "I really love her. She has never, never refused me one blessing. That's why we were so successful in everything we did at the Mount."

In addition to serving as president of Mount St. Mary's, Msgr. Phillips served as its chaplain and librarian and taught theology and church history there. He also served as a professor at St. Joseph College in Emmitsburg and The Catholic University of America's School of Nursing in Washington, where he taught medical ethics.

Praising Msgr. Phillips' "loving priestly ministry," Father Kevin Rhoades, seminary rector, said the popular priest who was devoted to Mary was a "wonderful example of dedication" to the seminarians who have met him over the last several decades.

"For our future priests, his love and devotion for Mary was a beautiful testimony and showed the importance of Mary in the life of a priest," said Father Rhoades. "His greatest legacy is his devotion to Mary and the loving care he gave in restoring the beautiful shrine to Our Lady."