Saint Monica, Mishawaka, Indiana

 Saint Monica

Mishawaka Indiana

One of three ethnic parishes in Mishawaka, Saint Monica's sits in the formerly Italian neighborhood of North Mishawaka, just off of downtown. Designed in an Italian style this parish was the embodiment of the Italian presence in Northern Indiana for many years.

The bell tower is one of two signs that this church is Italian. As mentioned in Saint Thomas, Italian churches usually have bell tower, baptistry, and church as three independent entities. While this is not the exact case, having the bell tower set back in the church, as compared to having it up front, is still Italian. The other is the heavy use of marble in the interior around the sanctuary.

Without having the bell tower by the façade, the church front also looks very typical Italian by having three entrance portals and a rose window above. To the right is Saint Monica's school, dedicated May 13th 1917, the same day as the first Fatima apparition.

What strikes me odd about this church is the unusually tall chimney. If you look closely where it starts to taper, you can see the brick changes colors. Thus, the stack was once shorter.

Part of the façade and bell tower. Within the tower, the original bells reside, but unfortunately are not rung due to fear of damaging the old stained glass. Thankfully strengthening efforts are being taken, thus there is hope that the bells may ring again.

The dedication/corner stone. This church had the unique juxtaposition to be a "modern" church, while at the same time was built just before the financial crash of 1929, aka the great depression. Had the church been built during the depression, it would have been much simpler. Had it been built after the depression, it likely would have had to wait for WWII and then it would have been built in a much uglier style as modernism was beginning to take effect. In short, the late twenties were the last hurrah of beautiful church architecture.

The façade is a local landmark in Mishawaka, as it sits in a prominent place, just across the Saint Joe River. This church is also a hotspot for weddings at just across the street in a local park. Many photos have been taken there, with this church in the background.

The doors are an interesting feature. Usually doors like this are additions in the sixties; however, the engraved images are far too detailed to be from the seventies/sixties. Thus, I am at a loss for the exact date these doors were installed.

The interior of the church has a very heavy blue aesthetic, and the stained glass only helps to accentuate this color. The hard floor makes for a very heavy echo effect, especially when microphone/speakers are used.

The pews and wood floor underneath are well worn, a sign of their originality. The arches along the walls mistakenly appear to be lower than they seem. This gives an awkward sense of the church being lower, or the floor being too high along the aisles.

The body of the church. Along the walls of the nave are flower patterns. The ceiling is a blank canvas for future frescoes. The pews are quite long, perfect for accommodating school children attending daily Mass.  

A close up of some of the ground level stained glass. The glass was obtained by many of the parishioners, while several also obtained the marble for their main and side altars, as well as the high altar at nearby Saint Joseph Church.

Side altar of Our Lady. The reredos around the Blessed Mother are quite simple, but the simplicity adds to the beauty of this corner. It is also very pleasant to see the altar decorated with flora. It adds a level of balance and proportion to the altar.

The main Altar. The only Vatican II change to the sanctuary is new seating, and the altar has been brought forward. While some churches have/had a canopy over the altar, this church has a step above and an official baldacchino, (A freestanding ceremonial stone canopy). This is the only parish, (but not the only church) in the diocese to have such an item.

The side altar of Saint Josaph. One nice detail added to both this, and the Marian altar are the initials of each parent of the Holy Family. Also note on the altar, the Mass part plaques for the celebration of the Traditional Latin Masses. (Private Masses now, with Traditiones Custodes) 

A side shrine to the Pieta. The dark color of the wood contrasts well with the light blue of the church.

The stained glass was most likely imported from Europe, (Germany, most likely?)

Lastly, the baptismal font was moved from it's original room and now sits in the back of church. The room was converted into a bathroom. 

Queen of Peace, Osceola, Indiana

 Queen of Peace

Osceola Indiana

Disclaimer

While I have been doing these tours for over a year now, the following photos were taken over a year ago, just as I was beginning to discover my love for church architecture. Thus, some of these photos are incredibly blurry. I know they are as such, have learned to take much better photos, and have even revisited some churches to take better photos. In short, I apologize for such poor quality photos

  Queen of peace is one of the few churches in the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese to be constructed after the 2nd Vatican council. This is evident in the very unique style of architecture that is the seventies.

 Probably one of the most eye catching features about this church, is the large window thrust up into the air, like an escalator with an end but no destination.

 Attached to the front of the church, or rear depending on which way you are looking, are the parish offices.  The raised roof section was part of an original church/gym for the school. It now serves as the full time gym.

 Atop the roof in plain sight, is the "bell tower." In reality, this doohickey is a set of speakers to broadcast bell noises. Both for Masses and school dismissal.

 Queen of peace school, was a part of the church since its inception, but closed in the 1970s. Thankfully, due to the efforts of parishioner's, it was reopened in the nineties and has been going strong since. The way it was brought back was rather ingenious (albeit common for Catholic schools.) When it returned it was K-2nd grade, and every year a grade was added. Nowadays it serves children's all the way to middle school.

 This quirky fresco was surrounding a skylight, in the vestibule. It doesn't take much of an art scholar to see that this is from the 1970, but the message and theology behind the mural is not all that far off. (If at all) The only thing I cannot understand is the painted railing, are the on a ship? (Bark of Saint Peter), are those the gates of heaven?

These stained glass windows were also in the vestibule, likely former windows of the church, or from a former church.

 The state's glass in the church was a pleasant surprise. As seen at Saint Thomas and Elkhart, stained glass of the sixties onward is usually polygons arranged in some sort of nonsensical pattern designed to mean something. This is an anomaly, where not only are polygons nowhere to be found,  but actual scenes and faces are present as well. To be fair however, these windows are not original to the church, and were added in the 1990's

 It's also interesting to see, the departures from traditional sting glass apparel. For example, Jesus is almost always wearing red, and Mary is almost always wearing blue and white. Only Saint joseph is clad in trade traditional style apparel and colors

One thing I loved about these windows are the angels adoring the Word Incarnate from a silent and invisible distance. This is further emphasized by the separation in the window being a wall.

 In the rear was a lovely shrine dedicated to our lady. Likely this was not this room's original purpose, either a sacristy, or a baptistry is my guess

Up in the ceiling, on the "escalator windows" as I've dubbed them, are 12 stained glass windows featuring the apostles.  This has the classic 1950's feel of image mixed with polygons. If I had taken a better quality photo, one would be able to distinguish each Apostle by the clothes they wore and/or the symbols in the glass

Aside from the two large stained glass planes, and the glass at the top of the church, there was no natural light emanating anywhere in the church. Unfortunately. This resulted in a florescent hum that if concentrated upon, would drive any listener insane. Also note the unusually large stations of the cross. Re

The choir area. Unusually squished next to the sanctuary, and in a corner, this may seem odd, but unfortunately is the only area the choir sensibly could reside.

A blurry shot of the sanctuary. The reredos by the tabernacle are a recent addition, and add a splash of color in the orange wooded church. The six candles are traditionally spaced next to the tabernacle adding a bit of calm tradition in a wild seventies church. The out of place step up, is where the proctor's chair used to be.

An inscription on the confessional. Aside from a very contemporary font, the church heavily focuses the use of wood in its design.

Lastly, is the crucifix hanging above the altar.  If I had to guess, it would most likely be that the crucifix was added at the same time the sanctuary was renovated. Crucifixes from the seventies tend to be a little odd in geometric proportions, as well as physical proportions.

Photo credits

 In my FWSB church tours, I've used areal photos taken by Q&A Consulting. This is a link to the photo's I have used. https://q-aconsulting.com/church/ These photos are not mine, nor do I claim them to be.

Saint Thomas the Apostle, Elkhart, Indiana

Saint Thomas the Apostle 

Elkhart, Indiana

 The parish church of Saint Thomas the Apostle in Elkhart, Indiana was built in the 1962.  The parish itself was founded in 1949, to accommodate the growing Catholic population of nearby Saint Vincent de Paul's.

 While the parish looks ever so typical post Vatican II style, believe it or not it was built before the council even occurred. In fact it's built in a traditional Italian style, is style, albeit with very sixties techniques.  It is a hallmark in traditional Italian churches, to have the bell tower, baptistry, and church, be their own separate entities. The leaning tower of Pisa is an example. It's a bell tower for the nearby church.

  In the foreground to the right, is the rectory attached to the church.  Most likely the Bells in the bell tower, are simply cut outs/models of real bells, while hidden somewhere else are speakers that play canned bell noises.  Again, this is a Hallmark of the sixties and seventies as canned bell noises are drastically different than the real sound, and very easy to distinguish.

On the extreme far left is the original baptistry. Now moved, the baptistry in the rear of the church is a common feature in most pre-Vatican II churches. Every summer, on the feast of Corpus Christi there is a procession with the Blessed Sacrament from this church, to Saint Vincent's a mere two miles away, through downtown Elkhart.

An odd photo of the entrance doors. The polygon stained glass is consistent throughout the entire church. 

A classic Catholic devotion is that of the Infant of Prague. The original statue belonged to Saint Teresa of Avila and after her death miracles began being attributed to the statue. Its devotion was popular amongst Polish Catholics, especially in the U.S.

Used now as a pseudo storage/seating area, this room originally served at the baptistry. This room differed from the rest of the church as the lighting was significantly less than in the rest of the church. 

The church has several trademarks, common to church architecture of the sixties. Overbearingly long pews that could seat practically an entire army regiment, large blank spaces that could be seen as blank canvases (the ceiling), a very similar color palate, The mosaic was added later to the church in the 1960's

The windows along the aisle were sadly very polygon oriented. At this point in the development of churches, stained glass was a mixture of saints, biblical figures, and religious symbols, mixed with polygons. Traditionally stained glass was a medium of instruction as they were in use long before the printing press. In the multi-colored sheets of light, stories from the bible, precepts of the church, and miracles from the saints could all be conveyed for countless generations. This tradition continued up until the late fifties. The polygon stained glass that followed are simply plain, but again a canvas that can be built upon in later times. 

On the backs of the pews was an old catholic 'doohickey'. Up to the mid-fifties, men traditionally wore hats, these clips would hold their hats or gloves in place.

An unfortunately blurry photo of the body of the church. The columns were common from the 60's to the 90's

A classic facet of confessionals was having the priest in the middle and having the penitents on either side. This was largely abandoned in the 70's as confessionals began to resemble grandma's living room. Thankfully Saint Thomas was spared this dated trend. 

Another blurry photo. If there was any doubt of this parish being built before Vatican II, this communion rail should put those doubts to rest. After the conclusion of Vatican II, churches were built sans communion rails. 

The sanctuary. Although in conformity with the practices of the Second Vatican Council, The altar used to be flush up against the back wall. Also note that the baptismal font is now off to the left, just off the sacristy.

The stations were very simple in style, typical of the era

The altar is very plain, but once again a blank canvas. Religious symbols could be engraved and or added. The tabernacle door is also very unique.

A surprise was the organ in the loft. Definitely not original to the church, it was most likely an addition to the church in recent years.