Elizabeth and Michel Celebrate Easter at St. Alphonsus

Last Sunday we visited  St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, one of the main historic churches in Chicago, for Easter mass.  We had visited once before earlier in the year and had been quite impressed with the church's beauty and the quality of the choir.  St. Alphonsus was founded in 1882 to serve the booming, primarily immigrant Catholic community in the Lake View area of Chicago.  The current church building was started in 1889 and dedicated in 1897.  The church was nearly gutted in a 1950 fire and reopened in 1952.  The complex includes a school, Alphonsus Academy and Center for the Arts, that was founded along with the church and the Atheneaum Theatre, which was started as a community center, and is now a major theatre (non-religious) in the city, while still providing a home for many church functions.  The church was founded to serve the German immigrant community and has evolved along with the larger community.  It now holds two English services and a Spanish service every Sunday morning, along with a monthly German service.  We attended the English/German bilingual Easter mass, and it was lovely.  The priest gave a nice sermon, but the choir was phenomenal, performing major choral pieces in Latin, German, and English.  Additionally, the church is gorgeous with friendly parishioners, and it was a lovely setting to spend Easter morning.

These pictures were taken during our first visit to St. Alphonsus.