Guardian Angels Church

Guardian Angels Church

Guardian Angels Catholic Church [ [http://www.gachaska.org/info.htm Guardian Angels Parish] ] is a historic church located in Chaska, Minnesota founded in 1858. A Roman Catholic church, Guardian Angels is part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Guardian Angels School [ [http://www.ga-school.org/ Guardian Angels School] ] (School District 112), a pre-K to 8th grade private school, is affiliated with this church.

Parish Leadership

Father Paul Jarvis became the 26th Pastor of the parish on October 17, 2007.

Parish History

The parish’s history dates back to 1842 when the fur trader J.B. Faribault invited Father Augustine Ravoux to establish a mission among the Sioux Indians in what would become the town of Chaska.

Fr. Ravoux built a small log chapel and named the parish St. Francis Xavier, but dismantled the chapel three years later when the Native Americans saw the European immigration as a threat, and in turn threatened to burn the chapel down. The chapel was sold to German Catholic Christians in Wabasha and floated down the river to its new home.

In the 1850s the Benedictine Fathers made frequent visits to the Chaska area – mostly to German immigrant communities along the Minnesota River, formerly called St. Peter’s River – to determine whether a community was large enough to support a church.

Minnesota achieved statehood in 1858 and during that year the Benedictines decided that Chaska was able to support a church. The congregation had difficulty choosing a name for the new church, so they decided to have Michael Guenser's two-year-old daughter look at pictures of saints and select one. She chose the picture of the Guardian Angel, and so the church was named Guardian Angels Catholic Church.

Since the first log chapel in 1842, three churches were built. The first was built between the years of 1858 and 1860. It was a simple, small brick building with planks on wooded blocks that served as pews.

In the mid- to late-1800s, immigrants from Germany were fleeing official persecution of Catholic Christians in historically Catholic parts of Prussia and, later, the German Empire. They were flocking to familiar scenery in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, including the Minnesota River valley. Immigrants were also leaving the Netherlands (Holland) and Germany in search of land for growing families. The Dutch Catholics immigrating to the area were usually labeled as “destitute” by Dutch authorities.

By 1864, rapid population growth in the area saw the need for a larger church and in 1868 work began on a second church. This church served the community's needs until 1885 when construction began on the present church. This church, designed by John Geiser was built in Gothic Revival Style architecture. The new church was an imposing structure on the landscape, constructed of Chaska Brick with a steeple towering 162 feet above the street. The interior ceiling rose 39 feet above the floor. It was described as one of the most adorned structures in the area. The new building was dedicated by Bishop Thomas Langdon Grace, O.P. of St. Paul in 1885.

On October 7, 1902 disaster struck when an early morning fire destroyed the church interior, toppling the steeple onto a neighboring house and destroying it. By 5 o'clock that afternoon all that remained were the four charred walls and the picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, blessed by Pope Pius IX in 1871. Showing resiliency, within one year the parish reconstructed the church we see today on the present site. It was dedicated by Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul one year later to the day it burned. The church exhibits all of the hallmark characteristics of the Gothic Revival style including Gothic arch windows and doors, corbelled brick, brick buttresses, quatrefoil motifs in the stained glass windows, and a central buttressed tower with a steeply pitched steeple.

Through the years, many changes took place inside the parish – the Benedictines were replaced by Franciscans who built a novitiate for incoming Franciscan friars. In 1995, the Franciscan Fathers and Brothers left Guardian Angels after serving 117 years to pursue other ministries with their limited number of members.

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Guardian Angels — • The lowest orders of angels are sent to men Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Guardian Angels     Guardian Angel     † …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Feast of Guardian Angels — Guardian Guard i*an (g[aum]rd [i^]*an or g[aum]rd yan; 106), a. Performing, or appropriate to, the office of a protector; as, a guardian care. [1913 Webster] {Feast of Guardian Angels} (R. C. Ch.) a church festival instituted by Pope Paul V., and …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Feast of Guardian Angels —     Feast of Guardian Angels     † Catholic Encyclopedia ► Feast of Guardian Angels     This feast, like many others, was local before it was placed in the Roman calendar. It was not one of the feasts retained in the Pian breviary, published in… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • ANGELS AND ANGELOLOGY — ANGELS AND ANGELOLOGY. The entry is arranged according to the following outline: bible terminology angels as a group the angel of the lord in the hagiographa silence of the prophets ezekiel and zechariah daniel apocrypha among the jewish sects… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Guardian — Guard i*an (g[aum]rd [i^]*an or g[aum]rd yan; 106), a. Performing, or appropriate to, the office of a protector; as, a guardian care. [1913 Webster] {Feast of Guardian Angels} (R. C. Ch.) a church festival instituted by Pope Paul V., and… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Guardian angel — Guardian Guard i*an (g[aum]rd [i^]*an or g[aum]rd yan; 106), a. Performing, or appropriate to, the office of a protector; as, a guardian care. [1913 Webster] {Feast of Guardian Angels} (R. C. Ch.) a church festival instituted by Pope Paul V., and …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Guardian spirit — Guardian Guard i*an (g[aum]rd [i^]*an or g[aum]rd yan; 106), a. Performing, or appropriate to, the office of a protector; as, a guardian care. [1913 Webster] {Feast of Guardian Angels} (R. C. Ch.) a church festival instituted by Pope Paul V., and …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Angels of the Churches — • St. John in the Apocalypse is shown seven candlesticks and in their midst, the Son of Man holding seven stars. The candlesticks represent the seven Churches of Asia; the stars, the angels of those Churches Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight.… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Guardian angel — A guardian angel is an angel who protects and guides a particular person. The concept of tutelary angels and their hierarchy was extensively developed in Christianity in the 5th century by Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite. The theology of angels,… …   Wikipedia

  • Church of the Guardian Angel (Manhattan) — The Church of the Guardian Angel General information Architectural style Southern Sicilian Romanesque (for 1930 church) Town or ci …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”