St. Mary of Victories
By Sister Carol Marie Wildt, SSND

In the early 1800s, German immigrants from the Rhine, Elba and Danube rivers arrived in St. Louis to establish their homes on the banks of the Mississippi River. St. Louis was a French settlement and the only Catholic church was the French-speaking parish of the Church of St. Louis (Old Cathedral). On rare occasions, a visiting German-speaking priest came to a chapel at St. Louis University (on 9th and Washington) or a chapel in the Soulard district.

By the 1840s, the number of German Catholics had increased to 3,000, and Bishop Rosati decided to establish a parish for them. His untimely death resulted in the dream being brought to fruition by his successor, Archbishop Kenrick. In June 1843, the cornerstone was laid for the second Catholic church in St. Louis. Archbishop Kenrick chose the name, Our Lady of Victories, in gratitude to the Mother of God who had not forgotten her children. Before the church was built the name was changed to St. Mary of Victories.

In 1848, four German-speaking Ursuline Sisters from Oedenburg, Hungary, came to teach in the school. In 1856, they left to establish Ursuline Academy and were replaced by the Sisters of St. Joseph, who did not speak German. Rev. Joseph Melcher, second pastor, petitioned Mother Caroline Friess for German-speaking sisters. (He would later become bishop of Green Bay, Wis.). Reluctant at first to replace the CSJs, she finally agreed, and in 1862, she sent Sisters Amanda Glanz and Columbana Danner to teach the girls. They lived at Sts. Peter and Paul and daily walked from the convent on 8th street to the school on 3rd street.

Three years later, a house was purchased for the six sisters who were teaching at the school. Gradually, the area became known as “St. Mary’s Block” with the church, rectory, convent, school and the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Mary (FSMs) on this one block. The cyclone of May 1896 damaged all of the buildings.

True to the charism of Blessed Theresa, by 1927, the sisters welcomed children of Hungarian, Syrian, Lithuanian, Polish and other ethnic backgrounds in addition to the German. As changes occurred on the waterfront, parishioners lost their homes and moved farther inland. Within 30 years, there were only 26 students in the school and four sisters at the convent. The pastor, Rev. Jerome Schutzbach, informed the sisters that Cardinal Ritter was transferring the church to the members of the former St. Stephen of Hungary parish for the present parishioners and the immigrants and refugees from the 1956 Hungarian revolution. They did not wish to have a school. Consequently, the SSNDs left on August 20, 1957. Rev. Stephen Vrabely, a Hungarian-speaking priest from the Gary, Ind., diocese, was named pastor for the new congregation.

Two other pastors were significant for SSND. Rev. Aloysius Garthoeffner, the first superintendent of parish schools, worked closely with Mother Petra Pfeiffer and others in establishing the parochial school system in the archdiocese. Rev. Edward Amsinger presented a large reliquary to SSND on the occasion of the opening of Villa Gesu in 1931. This reliquary is still in the archives.

More than 100 SSNDs ministered at St. Mary of Victories during our 95 years in the parish.

[Sources: Chronicle of St. Mary of Victories; 100th, 140th and 150th Anniversary Booklets]

 

Back to Stories About Our History