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Friday, March 14, 2008

Photos of Immaculate Conception Church, in East Saint Louis, Illinois

HERE ARE PHOTOS of Immaculate Conception (Lithuanian) Church, in East Saint Louis, Illinois.   The church is located 4-½ road miles east of downtown Saint Louis, Missouri, in Saint Clair County, and is a parish of the Diocese of Belleville (Dioecesis Bellevillensis).

Immaculate Conception (Lithuanian) Roman Catholic Church, in East Saint Louis, Illinois, USA - exterior 1

This church, dating from 1956, is noted for its Lithuanian folk interior and exterior.

By the end of the 19th century, East Saint Louis was a prosperous industrial city attracting many immigrants from Eastern Europe.  At first having a mainly male congregation, the parish built its first church in 1897.  In the wake of the Second World War, Lithuanians fleeing Communist occupation of their country continued immigration to East Saint Louis.  Prosperity continued through the 1950s until industry started closing down, leaving the city in sharp decline, from which it is only starting to recover.

Immaculate Conception (Lithuanian) Roman Catholic Church, in East Saint Louis, Illinois, USA - spire

Immaculate Conception (Lithuanian) Roman Catholic Church, in East Saint Louis, Illinois, USA - cornerstone

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH
Š. P. MARIJOS NEKALTO PRASIDĖJIMO
BAŽNYČIA
PIUS XII POPE
MOST REV. ALBERT R. ZUROWESTE D.D.
BISHOP OF BELLEVILLE
REV. DR. ANTONY L. DEKSNYS
PASTOR

J MULOKAS ARCHITECT

LITHUANIAN PARISH FOUNDED 1895
FIRST CHURCH BUILT 1897
ENLARGED 1928
DESTROYED BY FIRE 1943
CHURCH REBUILT 1956

Immaculate Conception (Lithuanian) Roman Catholic Church, in East Saint Louis, Illinois, USA - sign

Mass time:

4 comments:

  1. Did you get inside???!! Apparently the windows (each of a different apparition of Mary) are amazing. I pass this church every day but am yet to get inside.

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  2. It was locked when I visited, and probably it is only open for the 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass.

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  3. When I was a kid you could drop in to almost any Catholic church for a "visit". I did that often on my way home from, say, softball practice - just sit quietly in the back for about 15 minutes or so. I would soon be back in my raucous home with 5 noisy younger siblings. It was great to clear my head with quiet and sunshine streaming through the beautiful windows at St Pats. As an adult I tried to do that and pray for a sick parent and was surprised that I couldn't do that any more. I did discover that you can sneak in a side entrance at the Cathedral but don't know if that's still possible with all the shootings and trashing of churches.

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