Nativity - BVM

On the way to St. James Crosstown I saw a sign that said I was in the town/village/cluster of houses known as Belgique.  I remembered seeing that name in connection with something Catholic.  Imagine my surprise when I saw a Catholic cemetery and what looked to be the front half of a church.  I took pictures for y'all.

Pictures:

Link:
Archdiocesan Archive Record

Random Catholicism & Lost (& Found): St. Leo

This morning, I went to Shaw's Garden to see the DinoQuest exhibit.  While wandering around the Temperate House looking for dinosaurs, I noticed a portico with sign on it.  

I've been to Shaw's Garden hundreds of times and it never clicked that the portico was from a Catholic school.  Amazing what you find and what you miss if you aren't paying attention.

Link to the Information from the Archdiocesan Archives.

I did look at satellite maps of the area...St. Leo is in an area of the city that is almost totally deserted. It is just vacant lots where the buildings used to be.

Lost (& Found): St. Hedwig

I've already visited my grandmother's church and my father's (and my) church.  It is only fair I visit my mother's old church, St. Hedwig.

St. Hedwig was located in South City and you can see the spires of St. Anthony of Padua from the door.  It was closed in 2005.  My mother was in grade school when they started fundraising and then building the present church.  The fundraiser was called Pennies from Heaven.  My mother wailed for weeks that she wanted her pennies back!

St. Hedwig School

When the parish was started, the Church was the upper floor of the school.

Cornerstone

This used to be a Polish parish.

The stone says

Kosciol I Skmola Sw. Jadwigl

St. Hedwig Church and School

The window is above the front door.

You can kind of see an H in the circle on the right.

St. Hedwig

Cornerstone - 1957

Side

Close Up of Window

Links:
St. Hedwig from St. Louis Archdiocesan Archives
Pictures (interior too!) from Built St. Louis
Pictures from Rome of the West

Lost (& Found): Mount Providence School for Boys

I became rather interested in looking at "lost" Catholic St. Louis for a couple different reasons, some of which I've already discussed.  An additional reason is because of one of the regular commenters, p. finley.  He mentioned that to fix an interstate exchange, they tore down his school and all that was left was the bell tower (It's a cupola BTW).  Since the property is adjacent to UM-St. Louis, I was intrigued.  I don't ever recall seeing the building or the tower.  I have spent the last 4 months, every time I was on that part of campus looking for it.  I finally did find it, but taking a picture of it has been a challenge.

8351 Florissant Rd, St Louis, MO 63121

(If you map it, move up the hill, behind the apartment buildings)

This is the image from bing.

I-70 borders one side.

High fences border the rest.

You can see it from the Interstate..

esp. I-70 W the Florissant Exit.

Not exactly safe photography conditions.

Finally success!  I was at McDonalds (sorry Jenny) and I looked and saw the tower.  I then realized I could get a semi-decent picture from the parking lot of the Cool Valley City Hall.

The wide view.

The limits of the digital zoom on my camera.

Links:
Sisters of Divine Providence History (has a pic of school)
Final History from Dykon Blasting Co.

Lost (& Found): Our Lady of Covadonga

Back when my grandmother was alive, my family had a small problem.  My grandmother was born back in  the days when birth certificates were not always given.  This became a problem when my grandmother suddenly needed ID after 9/11.  For those without a birth certificate who were born before a certain year, a baptismal certificate or record would be acceptable.  No problem.  My family went to our parish (St. Boniface) and my grandmother was not in the baptismal register.  Oh dear.  Someone suggested we look in the baptismal registers of the two parishes that were folded into St. Boniface.  My grandmother was baptized at Our Lady of Covadonga.  To which my family responded:  Our Lady of WHO/WHAT?  (Interesting side note:  the priest who baptized my grandmother didn't write her name in the register correctly.  My grandmother's name was Juanita, the baptismal register had JoAnne.  Ironically, the same thing was done with her sister.)

Our Lady of Covadonga was open from 1915-1932 and was staffed initially by Jesuits.  It was a Mexican/Spanish mission.  The building that used to be Our Lady of Covadonga is a some kind of Christian Church now.

I did look for a cornerstone.  No luck.

Pictures (taken March 11, 2010)

The Church.

You can see some of the windows have been bricked up.

Cross Window

Cross up close

Crown in a window.

Looks Marian-ish to me.

I'm guessing this was the rectory.

It's attached to the church building.

Links:
Info from St. Louis Archdiocese Archives
Our Lady of Covadonga Info:  here and picture of shrine

Lost (& Found): St. Boniface

A few people have asked me to visit and describe the parish I grew up in and learned about being Catholic.  I can't as it was closed in 2005.  But, I will start this new series at, for me, what was the beginning.

St. Boniface was formed in 1860 and was primarily German.  It closed in 2005.  It was located in south St. Louis city, in an area known as Carondelet.

Pictures (taken March 11, 2010):

There used to be a big statue of St. Boniface in the niche 

above the door.

I looked all over for a cornerstone: no luck.

Plaque

I vaguely recall the day this was installed.

This used to be a Marian Grotto.

We would have May Crownings here.

Rectory

St. Boniface School

I graduated in 1990.

Banner attached to streetlight

St. Boniface

1860-2000

Celebrating 140 years

This used to be the stables waaaaay back.

Then it was the boiler house for the Church & School.

The old school used to be to the right.

This formed a hidden area that my classmates and I would "sneak"

to during recess.

The old convent.

Side of the convent

The curved windows on the first floor used to be stained glass.

This was the chapel.

Links:
Info from the St. Louis Archdiocesan Archives (with the wrong address and closing date)
St. Boniface Parish Website (All sorts of goodies!)  (The commemorative booklet is missing the circle window, and the St Peter and St. Paul windows in the front but they are in the virtual tour!  Supposedly, the St. Peter window was donated by my family, but the angel with the scroll that says who donated it is blacked out...)
Digital Copy of a Book from 1896 detailing the history of 20 German Catholic Parishes (St. Boniface is included)  Oh.  It's in German ;)
Pictures from Built St. Louis (Includes interior shots)
Exterior Shot (and Baptismal Font, currently at St. John the Apostle and Evangelist) from Rome of the West

Introducing Lost (& Found) Catholicism

Hi all!

As I've been going around to various parishes, I've been thinking about the identity and history of Catholicism in St. Louis.  I've been exploring the current history of Catholicism in St. Louis, but what about the past?  

There used to be 100 (roughly) more parishes in St. Louis.  What happened to them?  I'm incredibly curious.

My curiosity is further piqued while when getting lost looking for one church, I find buildings that just scream "I was a Catholic Church!" and I want to know all about them.

I've also been inspired by two websites:  Ecology of Absence and its blog and Vanishing StL.  These two websites have taken pictures of some previous Catholic Churches, but not all of them.  

The plan is to find St. Louis' lost Catholicism and present it to you.