Uploaded on: 06/24/2007
Stained glass depicts French heritage at St. John in Hugo
By Julie Pfitzinger
The Catholic Spirit
Joseph and Marie Perron |
A glimpse into early St. PaulRon Eustice, a member of St. John the Baptist in Savage, said that his great- grandmother, Marie Chapdelaine, arrived in St. Paul with her parents, Pierre and Marguerite (Plante) Chapdelaine, from Canada in 1848. At the time, “there were perhaps two dozen frame houses of haphazard construction and livestock roamed freely in the streets.” Marie Chapdelaine and Joseph Perron were married by Father Ravoux at St. Peter in Mendota and had 22 children. Eustice’s heritage stretches back to Quebec, where Louis Remillard helped build the church at Lacadie in 1802. |
Some traditions have slowly disappeared over the years at St. John the Baptist in Hugo.
Longtime parishioners James Gits, who has written an extensive history of the parish, and Alice Christensen, the church’s secretary for more than 25 years, can recall the days when Masses were said in French and the music, especially at Christmas, was always in the native language of many members of what was once a small country church.
“We still have second- and third-generation families here, and there are parishioners who do speak French,” said Christensen.
According to Gits, the congregation’s early members belonged to “a quiet little French community.”
Today, many parts of the Hugo/Centerville area surrounding the parish have acquired a distinctly suburban feel.
However, the French Canadian heritage of its founding families will always have a prominent role at St. John the Baptist owing to a series of four stained glass windows on the north side of the church depicting well-known French saints: St. Louis IX, King of France; St. Joan of Arc, Savior of France; St. Catherine Laboure, the Saint of the Miraculous Medal; and St. John Mary Vianney, the Cure Of Ars and patron saint of parish priests.
Windows on the south side of the church depict three American saints: St. Isaac Jogues; a French Jesuit priest to the Huron and Iroquois Indians in the United States and Canada; St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, and St. Martin de Porres. The fourth window represents Blessed Kateri Tekatwitha, who served in a Canadian mission on the St. Lawrence River.
Father Lloyd Fortin was named pastor at St. John the Baptist two months after the February 1947 fire that destroyed the original church building.
One of the projects he adopted during the reconstruction phase of the church was the creation of the stained glass windows.
“Father Fortin spent hours and hours putting the windows together in the basement of the rectory,” said Christensen. “He had learned all about how to make stained glass windows, and he was also skilled as an electrician and a plumber,” said Gits about the well-loved priest who served as pastor at St. John the Baptist until 1976.
Although she has retired from her role as parish secretary, Christensen still gives presentations on the history of St. John the Baptist’s unique stained glass windows to the parish’s third-grade religious education students each year.