Franciscan Friars (Our Lady of Guadalupe Province)
In April 1994, lightning struck St. Anthony of Padua Church. Over one hundred St. Louis firefighters struggled for hours to extinguish the resulting fire. It took two years to restore the Church, but no one doubted that the parish, served by Franciscan friars since 1863, would be rebuilt and the friars maintain their commitment to the people and the Archdiocese.
In 1861, Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick asked German-speaking Franciscans from Saxony, who had been in Teutopolis, IL since 1858, to come to St. Louis, with its many German immigrants. On February 5, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, the friars celebrated Mass in a local orphanage for some seventy German-speaking families. Then the Union Army confiscated the orphanage to use as a hospital. St. Anthony of Padua Parish moved to the corner of Meramec and Compton Streets. The people and friars built a Church which held 700 people. On July 4, 1908, construction began on the current church in the heart of Dutchtown, because the old church was too small. Eventually friars ministered to Irish and Polish communities too, while serving as chaplains for Poor Clares and other religious sisters, for Secular Franciscans, high schools, orphanages, hospitals, and institutions for the mentally ill.
In 1875, the German government forced Catholic communities to leave the newly united country. Over one hundred Franciscan friars from Saxony came to the United States on one ship! Four years later, Saint Anthony Friary on Meramec became the headquarters of the newly established Sacred Heart Province. Between 1879 and 2023, the friars based in St. Louis proclaimed the Gospel in thirteen states, Brazil, China, Morocco, Russia, Vietnam, and Africa. Through the work of these Franciscan friars, a little bit of the Archdiocese of St. Louis would extend around the country and around the world. In 2023, the friars joined the new coast-to-coast Province of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In the Archdiocese, the Franciscans continue to serve in many ways, including not only St. Anthony of Padua Parish, but also with Poor Clare nuns and Secular Franciscans, in education, with a food pantry, and the Franciscan Connection that offer financial, spiritual and emotional assistance to those in need.
Contacts
- Ms. Melissa Transou – Exec. Assistant to the Prov. Minister
- Ms. Kerting Baldwin – Communications
