I have been a
church girl my whole life. I’ve always attended Church Service with my family
every single Sunday, with the exception of the Sundays when I was deathly ill
and couldn’t move, or if it was a Snow Day and there was no service. However,
I’ve always only attended Protestant churches or churches of other
denominations. While New England Protestant church buildings have standard
architectural designs such as a cross on top of the roof or a brightly lit up
pull pit, Catholic churches surpass all other denominational churches in terms
of their architecture. I’ve always been intrigued and fascinated by the
attention to detail, the gothic designs and the intricately designed
sanctuaries that I’ve only ever seen in pictures. To step foot into a Catholic
Church and to witness the architecture for myself was always on my bucket list.
Lowell is home
to many different churches, temples and other religious places of worship. I
searched online to see if there were any intriguing religious institutes in
Lowell that I could visit. I came across an online image of the Holy Trinity
Greek Orthodox Church. I was in awe of the beauty of the architecture and the
bright lustrous golden dome of Holy Trinity. My mind was set on visiting the
the Greek Orthodox Church but my dad suggested that we visit St. Patrick’s
Parish. After doing some research on St. Patrick’s Parish, I discovered that it
was Lowell’s first Catholic church that was established in 1831. However, a
grand fire had burnt the building and caused the church to be rebuilt in 1906.
I was very interested to see if the church retained any of its beauty after the
fire and decided to make my journey to St. Patrick’s instead which was located
at Michalopoulos Square.
I had only ever
seen the regions of Lowell that consisted of the University’s campuses.
However, as I drove towards Michalopoulos Square with my dad, I saw a very
different side of Lowell. Unlike the University buildings on South Campus,
which were mostly remodeled or brand new, a lot of the buildings on the way to
St. Patrick’s were old and torn down. My dad pointed out that “these buildings
are so old that the paint and the plaster is peeling off of the buildings and
falling onto the street.” We drove down Suffolk street and parked near the
curb. But as we got out of the car, we couldn’t even see the church. My dad
suggested going down the street to an old building which he thought was the
church. “No dad, that regular old fashioned building can’t be the church I’m
looking for.” As I lead my dad down the other side of Suffolk Street, the roof
of the church came into view over the low rise buildings. I kept walking
towards the end of the street and there it was… St. Patrick’s Parish. It was
truly nothing like I have ever seen and it honestly far exceeded my
expectations.
The official
website of St. Patrick’s Church states that the Catholic Church was built and
founded in 1831. It was considered as the first established Catholic Church in
Lowell. It was primarily established to serve the large population of Irish and
the French immigrant parishioners, who migrated to Boston to work as laborers
on the Pawtucket and Merrimack Canal. Today, beyond the Irish and French
population, the church also includes to serve the greater Hispanic, Vietnamese,
Cambodian, and Burmese Catholic population of Lowell. The reason that the
church is so inclusive of the majority of the immigrants in Lowell is because
Saint Patrick was also an immigrant to Ireland when he migrated to preach the
Gospel. According to the website, the Church along with the American “nation
has a proud history of receiving immigrants and [they] are doing [their] best
to continue this effort.”
As I walked past
the wall and up the pathway to the church, I marveled at the incredible height,
and the amazing layout of the stone building. As I got closer to the entrance,
I heard echoes of voices. I realized that I had stumbled upon the 6pm Spanish Mass.
My dad and I walked through the wide opened doors and found a statue of St.
Patrick in the foyer. We both peered through the doors that led into the main
sanctuary. It was the most beautifully designed inner sanctuary I had ever
seen. It was enormous and brightly lit with a few church members sitting in the
rows and rows of pews. I noticed that although
the priests wore robs which was expected, the rest of the congregation was
wearing regular casual clothes. I assumed that people were always supposed to
be dressed up for Mass. However, I realized that the congregation consisted of
regular middle and lower class people. It showed me that the church welcomes
people from all different backgrounds. I wanted to go inside and ask the
priests a few questions about the church. However, I hesitated to go for fear
of disrupting the Mass.
I read from a blog called Forgotten New
England that on January 11, 1904, that an overheated smoke pipe in the boiler
room had caused the fire to burn up the church. The fire had spread quickly and
threatened to burn up the nearby buildings too. It cost $160 765 to repair the
damages and it took 2 years for the church to be rebuilt. I wanted to find out
more about the burning so I talked to one of the administrators for St.
Patrick’s Church. She described that the church “burnt down from the choir loft
all the way to the social hall. It took a lot of fixing and remodeling in the
span of the 2 years.” Despite the loss of the sanctuary, Mass still continued
every week and it was conducted in the downstairs hall until it was completely
rebuilt. I was amazed at the resilience, and the perseverance of the community
in the face of adversity.
As I walked
around the front yard, I came across a statue of Mary. After gazing at the
statue, I looked across the street, and there it was… Holy Trinity Greek
Orthodox Church. I immediately left my dad and briskly walked across the street
to admire at the beauty of the structure of the building. The setting sun rays reflected off the huge
shiny domes and it shone like pure gold. Unlike the Catholic Church, Holy
Trinity was unfortunately closed, and I was unable to thoroughly explore it.
I had walked
back and forth from St. Patrick’s to Holy Trinity several times to take good
pictures of these fascinating buildings. It was not until I walked back the
third time that I realized that I was walking over a bridge and right under my
nose was a canal. The bridge was dedicated to Stephen J. Kearney who was a city
engineer for Lowell who had served for 51 years.
I could not
believe that I had seen so much more than I had expected to see. I had expected
to see St. Patrick’s Parish but I had not expected that it would be opened and
that I would be able to witness a Mass in session. I was disappointed that I
would not be seeing the beautiful golden domes of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox
Church but I had not expected to see it standing right across from St.
Patrick’s Parish. I most definitely did not expect that a bridge over a canal
would connect these two unique religious institutions. I asked the Parish
administrator if the Parish and the Greek Orthodox Church had any
relationships. She sadly said that they “don’t do much together but [they] still
keep good relations.” My final question
to her was “What draws you to St. Patrick’s, what do you love so much about
it?” to which she replied “I love that there is so much culture and diversity.
My hobby is to interact with different cultures.” The amount of culture in such
a small space is evident within these two institutions. You will find cultures
and communities such as the Irish, French, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Hispanic,
Greek, Burmese, and English.
As I drove off
with my dad while the sun was setting, I noticed a bunch of young boys who were
riding on their skateboards. They seem to have come to an abrupt stopped in
front of St. Patrick’s Parish’s entrance. I saw them curiously gazing into the
building just as I did an hour earlier. Maybe there were many others who had
made the same unexpected pilgrimage I did and maybe there will be many more who
do the same in the future. My unexpected pilgrimage to visit a Catholic church
such as St. Patrick’s Parish, had unexpectedly allowed me to see Holy Trinity
Greek Orthodox Church and the Stephen J. Kearney bridge. All of which were
right here in Michalopolous Square.
