Solomon Juneau, Founder of Milwaukee

From Calvary Cemetery during Doors Open Milwaukee 2014.  Juneau was a fur trader who settled a eventually subdivided the first modern lots in the City of Milwaukee in the 1830s.  The Juneautown part of Downtown made up these first lots, anchored by his cabin site near the Milwaukee River.  He also served as a Mayor for the City.

Solomon and his wife, Josette were known as Catholics, so it comes as little surprise that a memorial stands in Milwaukee's best-known Catholic cemetery.  November 14th marked the 158 years since his passing.  Today marks 159 years since Josette's passing.

Little known fact, in his later years, Solomon moved to and founded the much smaller community of Theresa, about 45 miles northwest of Milwaukee in Dodge County.

Calvary Cemetery

5503 W. Bluemound Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53208

Friends of Calvary Cemetery: http://www.friendsofcalvarycemetery.org/

Event Report: Doors Open Milwaukee 2014, Part 1

Local author John Gurda lectures a full house of visitors on the history of the Basilica of St. Josaphat.

Doors Open Milwaukee (DOMKE) is an annual event where many institutions in the City literally open their doors for tours by the general public.  What is perhaps most wonderful about this event and others like it is that it gives folks of all persuasions the opportunity to go explore and become a greater part of the city that they live in (or in my case be interested in).  Apparently this concept is not lost on the Catholic Church in Milwaukee, as several parishes and other Catholic sites participated in the event in September.

I ventured to several religious and secular sites in my visit to DOMKE 2014.  The first of which was the chapel and crypt at Calvary Cemetery, in the Story Hill neighborhood.  Mounted on the highest hill in the cemetery near the end of the 19th Century, it has stood in a practically abandoned state for nearly fifty years.  However, the group Friends of Calvary Cemetery are in the process of restoring the chapel.

Left: Altar inside the chapel.

Right: Rose window above the chapel portal.

The only occupied resting place in the basement crypt, for Father Idziego Tarasiewicza.

Entry to Calvary Cemetery, with Holy Cross Church, part of St. Vincent Palotti Parish, across West Bluemound Road.

Chapel for the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi.

Left: A announcement for the Sisters Adoration Chapel.

Right: One of two impressive reliquaries in the main chapel.

Christ King Chapel at St. Francis de Sales Seminary, nearly adjacent to the Sisters' home near Milwaukee's southeastern-most city limits.

St. Francis de Sales Seminary is the oldest continually-run seminary in the United States.

A highlight of the day was certainly the lecture at the Basilica with local historian John Gurda.  Gurda has made the City of Milwaukee a personal study for over forty years, and his knowledge of the City and connection with the Basilica neighborhood helped fill the pews for a nearly hour-long talk.  I was five minutes late and was relegated to the narthex doors.  

It's possible that the most photogenic holy water fonts I've ever seen reside at the Basilica.

Part 2 forthcoming pending some Photoshop-ing.

Sites visited in this post:

The Basilica of St. Josaphat

2333 S. 6th St.  Milwaukee, WI 53215

http://thebasilica.org/

Calvary Cemetery

5503 W. Bluemound Rd., Milwaukee, WI 53208

Friends of Calvary Cemetery: http://www.friendsofcalvarycemetery.org/

Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi

3221 S. Lake Dr., St. Francis, WI 53235

http://www.lakeosfs.org/

Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi

3257 S. Lake Dr., St. Francis, WI 53235

http://www.sfs.edu/SFSHome

Additional Sources and a Disclaimer

I have been volunteering and been enthusiastic about the effort that Doors Open Milwaukee and its mother organization, Historic Milwaukee, Inc. have made for over two years now.  Certainly I believe their annual event is worth attending, along with the numerous other programs that Historic Milwaukee, Inc. puts on.  The basic facts that I shared in this post come from Door Open Milwaukee's event guide, available at: http://doorsopenmilwaukee.org/buildings/

Coming Out of Slumber...Sort Of

 

Ss. Cyril & Methodius Church & School Building, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

It's been a long time since I've posted, but I haven't put this blog to bed!  Late in the spring and into the summer, my travels took me not only to Washington, DC (see previous post), but also to Iowa, Michigan, and Minnesota to take church photos.  The latter half of the summer and fall so far has seen me intently following my brother's final high school football season and balancing an unusual workload in my regular artistic medium (Cartography).  

With the holidays fast approaching, and more travels to match, I am planning on getting more photos online, both from upcoming church visits and ones that I took last Christmas season just as the blog was starting.

I'm also preparing to launch extensions of this site into other social networks, so if you have Instagram, look out for a handle name from me!  I also mentioned this site to the team over at The Badger Catholic (blog) who graciously posted one of my church visits to their site and added Roamin' Catholic Churches to their "Fellow Sconnie Bloggers" blogroll.  Thanks guys!  If you are into the more political and current events-focused part of Catholicism (especially in Wisconsin) The Badger Catholic is worth a gander.

Looking forward to sharing more churches and their stories with you soon!

- The Roamin' Catholic

Ss. Cyril & Methodius Parish

822 New Jersey Avenue, Sheboygan, WI 53081

http://www.archmil.org/Parishes/Ss.CyrilandMethodiusSheboyganJ13.htm

Feast Day of St. Anothony of Padua

This post takes us well outside of the Midwest to the Chapel of St. Anthony of Padua in St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington, DC.  Downtime on a recent work trip gave me the opportunity to revisit this church that I regularly visited while interning at National Geographic magazine a few years back.  For context, the chapel is off to the right side of the nave if you are facing the altar from the rear of the church.  Despite its status as a side chapel in the larger cathedral building, it was actually the first part of the cathedral to be dedicated, in 1898.

Beyond the altar in the chapel is a wooden statue of St. Anthony and the Christ Child.

Details of the columns surrounding the chapel.  I believe these pedestals, along with much of the marble-work in the chapel, were actually carved out in Italy.  

Note the one on the left, where you see the impression of Christ's face with the crown of thorns.  This recollects the moment while carrying the cross where Jesus wiped his face in St. Veronica's cloth, leaving behind an impression of his face.  Probably not by coincidence, St. Veronica is often referred to as the patroness of photographers.

Perhaps the real highlight in the chapel is the series of mosaics of St. Francis and his followers (St. Anthony of Padua was a Franciscan priest, and thus one of these folks).  These mosaics, installed in 1963, are paired with lines from St. Francis' Canticle of the Sun.  Above, St. Francis pictured with a wolf he reputedly tamed.

St. Francis, with the church of Santa Giuliana in Spoleto, Italy.

Sts. Clare and Jacopa dei Settesoli.

Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle

1725 Rhode Island Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20036
http://www.stmatthewscathedral.org/

This post heavily relies on notes from the book Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle, which I purchased at the Cathedral after neglecting to do so on my regular visits four years ago!  Published 2008, referencing page 38.

Feast Day of St. Margaret of Scotland

Another impressive church from the Gateway City, St. Margaret of Scotland is a fixture in the Shaw neighborhood on the south side.  In over two and a half years of living near St. Louis, I only visited this church once, on a Saturday afternoon well before Mass.  To add insult to injury, all the lights were off, really limiting the photo ops.

A quick consultation of Butler's Lives of the Saints states that St. Margaret (d. 1093) was instrumental in having churches and monasteries built while Queen of Scotland.  In a position full of pomp and prestige, the Queen also devoted herself to a life of piety, influencing her husband and children to do the same.^[1]

This is another church that is better-covered in the blog Rome of the West.  That post can be found here.

St. Margaret of Scotland Parish

3854 Flad Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63110
http://www.stmargaretstl.org/

Additional Sources
[1] Butler, Fr. Alban. Lives of the Saints, Charlotte, NC: TAN Books, 1995 reprint of 1955 edition, 217 - 218.

The Month of Ma(r)y and Explaining a Really Long Rosary

Take a look at the photo above. The character in the statue is carrying what looks like a Rosary, right?  There is a crucifix, the first few beads for the opening prayers, and beads in groups of ten for each decade of the Rosary.  Here's where it get's fishy.  A typical Rosary has five of these decades, but clearly there are a lot more here.  I counted fifteen decades.  That's 150 Hail Marys!

Yes, there are people who are devoted to prayer, but how many folks really do 150 Hail Marys in a sitting?  What could this super-long Rosary mean?  Is it maybe just a Paul Bunyan-esque gimmick so people in the back of church can see it?  

Ok, it isn't anything too superfluous.  This statue is a representation of Our Lady of the Rosary.  The long Rosary she is carrying represents the fifteen different decades of the Rosary grouped by what the Church calls the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries.  Pope (now Saint) John Paul II added a fourth set of mysteries, the Luminous, late in his Pontificate.  If Our Lady's Rosary were up-to-date, it would have twenty mysteries and over 200 prayer beads!

Today marks the last day of May, often referred to by the Catholic Church as "The Month of Mary."  On my visit to St. Peter's in Stevens Point last month, I noticed this statue of St. Mary and the Christ Child and was surprised to see this huge Rosary.  A little explanation from the young seminarian at the parish and a bit of intuition clarified its purpose.

St. Peter's Parish

800 4th Avenue, Stevens Point, WI 54481
http://www.saintpetercatholic.com/

Just Passing By: Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Lansing, Iowa

Immaculate Conception Parish

648 Main Street, Lansing, IA 52151
http://holyfamilyofthebluffs.org/