9:00AM Sunday Mass
From the moment we stepped into the little church, we felt very good vibes from the place. Hard to describe the feeling other than "good vibes". As we stepped into the church, we were handed little tapers - as were all congregants. Before the Mass started we were asked to gather around the doors area and turn around to face up to the balcony area where the co-celebrants sprinkled the congregants with water from a whisk broom. Then we were told to light the tapers and head back to our pews.
This taper ceremony, apparently is a Parish annual tradition ... I can't remember what its significance was, unfortunately. The Homily was somewhat interesting - especially since it didn't involve any "circular logic".
After Mass we jointly decided that St Elizabeth of Hungary was now our #1 ranked church, dislodging Week 3's St Ignatius.
From St Elizabeth of Hungary's website (http://stelizabethdenver.org/): In 1870, Denver’s large population of German immigrants petitioned Bishop Machebeuf for their own priest. In 1878, the bishop established Denver’s second Catholic parish, St. Elizabeth of Hungary. This new parish served the neighborhoods of Auraria and Southwest Denver. In 1887, two Franciscans, Francis Koch, O.F.M. (Order of Friars Minor), and Venatius Eder, O.F.M., responded to Bishop Machebeuf ’s request and came to Denver from Patterson, New Jersey, to found a Franciscan House at St. Elizabeth’s. In 1890, Fr. Koch built a $20,000, two-story brick school and in 1891, he built an $18,000 rectory.
As the German national church for the entire city, St. Elizabeth’s
became so overcrowded that the old building was torn down to construct a
new one in 1898. This $69,000 Romanesque church, designed by Father Adrian,
OSF, was built of rusticated rhyolite (lava stone) from Castle Rock, CO,
quarries. St. Elizabeth’s long tradition of caring for the poor and hungry
began early with Fr. Koch and the Franciscan sisters at St. Elizabeth’s.
The Franciscan sisters who opened St. Elizabeth Grade School in September 1890,
regularly collected money and food for themselves and the poor. When
Fr. Leo Heinrichs, O.F.M., became pastor of St. Elizabeth’s on September
23rd, 1907, Denver’s poor learned they had a friend in the pastor of St.
Elizabeth’s, and every morning a line formed at the friary gate. Fr. Madden,
the pastor at St. Elizabeth’s in the late 1970s, carried on the tradition
of feeding the hungry by organizing a bologna sandwich breadline behind the
church.
Thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Franciscans and the generosity
of Colorado’s German Catholics, St. Elizabeth’s became the first church in
the diocese to retire its debt. This allowed the church to be consecrated on
June 8, 1902, by Bishop Matz. The candle holders on the interior sides of
the church commemorate this feat. Next to the church is the friary,
built in 1936 by the May Bonfils Trust. Designed by Jacques Benedict, the
friary is decorated by a colonnade, Stations of the Cross, and a shrine to
St. Francis.
In the 1960’s, after the Second Vatican Council introduced sweeping
changes in catholic liturgy, the church interior was completely renovated
to its present form in 1968. The beautiful stained glass windows were installed
at that time.
For more, please visit their website.
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