#118: There is no technical level cap. The theoretical level cap, i.e. the point at which your likelihood to encounter higher-level items and new enemies stops increasing, is 50. But after 50, some enemy stats will continue to scale with your level, to a theoretically infinite degree.
#119: A quick clarification, Word of Life can be learned earlier than level 59. It's possible you didn't learn it sooner because you didn't purchase the prerequisites for it earlier, or you may have encountered a bug that can prevent Word of Life from being learned, and may not have learned it until that bug was patched.
Rather than giving you any pointers about finding the shrine in the mines, may I suggest that there might be someone in Farhaven who could help? Who do you think Sister Alexia would ask for advice about a pilgrimage?