Its annual celebration of the feast of St Anne regularly attracts over 100,000 pilgrims from Malaysia and neighbouring countries including Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia.

The origins of St. Anne's Sanctuary can be traced back to 1833, when Chinese and Indian migrant workers arrived from the Batu Kawan area in Penang.

French missionaries from Batu Kawan came to Bukit Mertajam to minister to the Catholic families in the area.

In 1883, F. P. Sorin MEP took over the parish and served for 15 years; he built a bigger church in 1888 for local people as the Catholic population increased.

Sorin died on the feast of St. Anne, 26 July 1907, and was buried in the main aisle of the church that he built.

Eventually, the old church grounds were declared out of bounds and labelled as a "black area" because of the communist insurgency.

In 1977, the church started moving back to the St. Anne's Shrine and restoration works began after long having been abandoned.

The parish priest, Thomas Chin, started to arrange a new church for worship because of the communist insurgency.

During feasts pilgrims had to commute between the new church and St. Anne's Shrine, 2 km away, now occupied by the Kim Sen Primary School.

In June 2010, a second accommodation place, St. Anne's Dorm, was opened by parish priest Stephen Liew.

In 2019, it was granted the title of 'Minor Basilica' by Pope Francis through the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

[3] Celebrations include a 45-minute long candlelight procession,[4] a nine-day novena and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.