Gesu Church | |
---|---|
43°2′18″N87°55′38″W / 43.03833°N 87.92722°W | |
Location | 1145 W. Wisconsin Ave. Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
Country | United States |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
History | |
Status | Parish church |
Founded | 1887 (Gesu Parish) |
Founder(s) | Society of Jesus |
Architecture | |
Functional status | Active |
Heritage designation | NRHP |
Designated | 1986 |
Architect(s) | Koch, Henry C.; Et al. |
Style | French Gothic, Gothic Revival |
Completed | 1894 |
Administration | |
Province | Jesuits Midwest Province |
Archdiocese | Milwaukee |
Parish | Gesu |
Clergy | |
Assistant | Fr. Thomas Anderson, S.J. |
Pastor(s) | Fr. Ben Osborne, S.J. [1] |
Laity | |
Organist(s) | Dean Rosko |
Gesu Church | |
Area | less than one acre |
MPS | West Side Area MRA |
NRHP reference No. | 86000108 [2] |
Added to NRHP | January 16, 1986 |
Gesu Church is a Jesuit parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was designated a Milwaukee Landmark in 1975.
Although the church is not affiliated with Marquette University, through a 1991 partnership, it ministers to the downtown campus of Marquette and surrounding neighborhood.
Gesu, founded 174 years ago in 1849 as St. Gall's Parish, initially served English-speaking Irish Catholics from the near south and west sides of Milwaukee in what was the neighborhood of Tory Hill. [3] As the parish grew, it built Holy Name Church in 1875, and by 1887 Jesuit officials combined the two parishes into one church. The Gesu name was chosen in 1893 to honor the Church of the Gesu in Rome, where St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, is buried.
The cornerstone was laid on May 23, 1893, [4] [5] with over 20,000 in attendance. A dedication ceremony followed on December 17, 1894, to mark the formal completion of the church.
Actor Pat O'Brien (1899–1983) served as an altar boy at Gesu while growing up near 13th and Clybourn streets. He attended Marquette Academy (a preparatory department that later became Marquette University High School) with Spencer Tracy (1900–1967), and later attended Marquette University.
Gesu Church holds daily Masses and attracts over 2,500 worshipers on weekends.[ citation needed ]
In late 1954, the church held the funeral for Miller Brewing Company president Fred Miller and his son, Fred, Jr., attended by thousands. [6] [7]
Architect Henry C. Koch designed the French Gothic building, drawing inspiration from the Cathedral of Chartres in France. It features landmark spires of unequal height, a centered rose window, and stained glass windows. [4] Harriet L. Cramer donated of the granite columns in the church's interior, said to be the only columns of this kind in the U.S.; they were placed there at a cost of US$20,000. [8]
Madonna Della Strada or Santa Maria Della Strada is a painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary enshrined at the Church of the Gesù in Rome, mother church of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) religious order of the Catholic Church; it is a variation on the basilissa (imperial) type of icon.
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Edward J. O'Donnell was the President of Marquette University from 1948 to 1962.
The Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola is a Catholic parish church located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York City, administered by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The parish is under the authority of the Archdiocese of New York, and was established in 1851 as St. Lawrence O'Toole's Church. In 1898, permission to change the patron saint of the parish from St. Lawrence O'Toole to St. Ignatius of Loyola was granted by Rome. The address is 980 Park Avenue, New York City, New York 10028. The church on the southwest corner of Park Avenue and 84th Street is part of a Jesuit complex on the block that includes Wallace Hall, the parish hall beneath the church, the rectory at the midblock location on Park Avenue, the grade school of St. Ignatius's School on the north midblock location of 84th Street behind the church and the high school of Loyola School at the northwest corner of Park Avenue and 83rd Street. In addition, another Jesuit high school, Regis High School, occupies the midblock location on the north side of 84th Street. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1980.
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The Church of the Gesú is a Roman Catholic chapel and former parish church located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1868 by Burchard Villiger, the church was the center of several Jesuit educational institutions, including St. Joseph's Preparatory School, St. Joseph's University, and the Gesú School. The Baroque revival church was named after and loosely modeled after the Church of the Gesú in Rome. The parish closed in 1993, and the building became the chapel of St. Joseph's Prep. The church is part of the Girard Avenue Historic District.
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