Old St. Vincent’s Church

Old St. Vincent’s Church

A beautifully restored Gothic Catholic Church.

Over one hundred medieval design plaster masks portraying characters from the Miracle and Mystery plays, distinctive wrought-iron designs, meticulously hand-carved doors and exquisite Italian Renaissance architecture all contribute to the breathtaking atmosphere inside and out Old St. Vincent’s Church.

This Chapel of Ease still hosts a number of religious and cultural events throughout the year as well as weekly mass.  The Bishop of the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau recently gave the church permission to host weddings, the first to be held there since the 1970’s.

Old St. Vincent’s is open every Sunday morning for Mass, and on Saturday afternoons May – October. We recommend calling ahead as you plan your visit to ensure there are no weddings scheduled that could interrupt your tour.

Ron Kirby, a longtime tour guide and museum committee member as well as member of Old St. Vincent’s, shared some of his insights into this lovely church.

Brief history

Old St. Vincent’s is the second Catholic Church at the same location. The church replaced a smaller church that was completed in 1838 and destroyed by a tornado in 1850.  The tornado also destroyed Lorimier’s Red House and Lorimier’s Warehouse, both of which sat next to the first church.  Old St. Vincent Church was was designed by a 24-year-old Irishman, Thomas Walsh.  The church was built in the shape of a cross, and according to our former religious architect, Mr. Theodore Wofford of St. Louis, Old St. Vincent is one of only five or six English Gothic churches still standing in the United States.  Thanks to Mr. Wofford who oversaw the complete restoration of Old St. Vincent from approximately the late 1970s to the late 1990s and the craftsmen he hired, the interior probably looks better now than it ever has.  For example, the columns have been made to look like marble columns when in fact they are simply plaster encasements which surround trees that were probably cut from the virgin forests of Southeast Missouri.  The walls are painted to look like rocks stacked upon rocks when in fact they are plaster walls covered with a canvas like material on which exact lines were painted.

Favorite feature

My favorite feature of Old St. Vincent Church relates to the Catholic teaching dealing with the communion of the saints and honoring the relics of our saints.  Every time I talk about the relics of the saints located in our back altar, it makes me wonder how we were so fortunate to obtain from Rome the relics of the apostles Peter and Andrew, St. Paul and St. Vincent de Paul.  The relics of these four great saints are enclosed in the large limestone altar stone that is supported horizontally by three foundation columns of bricks which pass through the floor to the earth below the church.  The relics have been sealed in the altar stone directly in front of the tabernacle since 1853.

Something not widely known

The 12 small crosses on the walls of the church represent the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 apostles and the fact that Old St. Vincent is a consecrated church — “a Most Holy Place.”  In 1853 when the church was consecrated, Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis performed the extensive two-day ceremony which required, among other things, making three trips around the outside of the church and three trips around the inside walls of the church.  Most newly constructed Catholic church are simply blessed and not consecrated; the custom of consecration dates back to Moses, who consecrated his Jewish flock as the people of God.

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