Gesu Church | |
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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 175 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 Mary, mother of Jesus 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.
Marquette University is a private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Martin Henni, the first Bishop of the diocese of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Initially an all-male institution, Marquette became the first coeducational Catholic university in the world in 1909.
The Church of the Gesù is the mother church of the Society of Jesus in Rome.
Marquette University High School (MUHS) is a private, all-male, Jesuit school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Basilica of St. Josaphat, located in the Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, is one of 82 American minor basilicas. In its grandeur and opulence it is an excellent example of the so-called Polish cathedral style of church architecture found in the Great Lakes region of North America. Modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, it features one of the largest copper domes in the world. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a designated Milwaukee Landmark.
Calvary Cemetery is the oldest existing Catholic cemetery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Owned by the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, it is the final resting place for many of the city's early influential figures. The cemetery was designated a Milwaukee Landmark in 1981.
The neighborhoods of Milwaukee include a number of areas in southeastern Wisconsin within the state's largest city at nearly 600,000 residents.
Frederick C. Miller was a college football player, an All-American tackle under head coach Knute Rockne at the University of Notre Dame, posthumously elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1985. He later served as an unpaid assistant coach for the Irish, flying in from Milwaukee several times a week.
Hyacinth Gulski was a pioneer Polish-American Roman Catholic priest. He served as Archdiocesan Consultor to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
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.
St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is a historic church built in 1893 at the corner of 7th and Washington Streets in Walker's Point on the near South Side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin - still very intact. The building was designated a city landmark in 1973 and added to the National Register of Historic Places the following year for its artistic and architectural significance.
Robert A. Johnston Hall is a Gothic-ornamented building in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The hall houses the J. William & Mary Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University. It was designed by Milwaukee architect Charles D. Crane, completed in 1907 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Rev. John Erwin Naus, S.J. was a Jesuit priest and former clown who served for nearly 50 years at Marquette University.
Jeffrey Robert Haines is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in Wisconsin since 2017. He also serves as rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee.
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.
Harriet L. Cramer was an American journalist. Starting off as a typesetter and proofreader at The Evening Wisconsin, a daily newspaper published in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she went on to become its editor and publisher. She was also the president of The Evening Wisconsin Company, which, in addition to publishing one of the "Golden Dozen" of American newspaeprs, also conducted an extensive job printing department. Cramer was a benefactor of Marquette University; Cramer Hall is named in her honor.