The Church of St. Francis D’Assisi is located in the western part of Detroit and its mother parish is St. Casimir’s. It was established in 1899 and the first Mass was celebrated on Easter Sunday 1890. The first building housed a church for 700 people and a school which admitted 300 students; it has survived as an outbuilding. The current church was erected between 1903 and 1905; it measures 70 by 37 meters and is designed for as many as 1700 people. It was built at a substantial cost of about 145,000 dollars, which corresponds to about 4,500,000 dollars today. Although the construction of the church, like many others, involved taking out bank loans, the funds which were raised are still impressive. In the subsequent years the parish also erected a convent. The debts incurred by these projects were not paid off until the 1920s.

Initially the parish school was run by the Franciscan Sisters brought in from Milwaukee, and then by the Sisters of St. Joseph, who taught there until the school was closed in 1987. The first four-classroom school was run by four sisters, some of whom were indicated to be German. The first Superior and principal was Sister Basil. In the following years the number of nuns increased to 8, and another 9 came in 1903. At that time Sister Damian became the Superior and principal. In 1914 there started the construction of a new school and convent. The school was very overcrowded at that time; because of the shortage of classrooms the classes became very big, of up to 50 pupils. The new building was finished in 1917.

At that time Sister M. Hilaria became the principal. Around 1926 the Sisters of St. Joseph put through the construction of a Provincial House in Garfield Heights, Ohio. In 1926 St. Francis School was one of the largest in Detroit. The classes were still very numerous and had up to 60 students each. However, from 1920, when 1500 children were enrolled, the number of students slowly decreased; in 1935 there were about 1,000 students, and in June 1987 the school was closed.

The church was designed by the architectural office Detroit Architects Kastler and Hunter, and like in their other design, St. Josaphat’s Church, the composition of the façade is dominated by a huge arch which bounds its central part. The architects have used the forms closer to Italian Renaissance than German Romanesque architecture. Another dominant element are the two monumental towers on a square plan which enclose the façade on the sides. The façade includes characteristic elements referring to the former unity of the Polish lands, for which the insurgents fought in 1863. In the tympanum over the entrance there is an eagle, but unlike the emblem of the insurgents, it does not have its wings raised but spread wide. On the sides there are symbols placed on escutcheons, the Archangel Michael symbolizing Ruthenia and the coat of arms of Lithuania. The meaning of this program was clearly the reference to the insurgent tradition and the hope for the reunification of the lands of the former Commonwealth under the leadership of Poland. This post-Uprising symbolism was very much alive at that time and we see it in many Polish churches in the USA; in Detroit itself it was used in the Church of St. Albertus, the Sweetest Heart of Mary and others. On the other hand, the interior of the church is dominated by religious symbolism without clear national references. In the chancel there are Henry B. Drolshagen’s paintings based on popular pictures – Murillo’s Immaculate Conception and Raphael’s Transfiguration. In the main altar there is a figure of St. Francis next to the Crucifixion scene. Like in many other churches, a distinctive feature is the stained-glass windows, as the light coming in through them largely determines the atmosphere of the interior. They were made in probably the first stained-glass factory in the state of Michigan, Detroit Stained Glass, founded by Charles P. Friederichs and Peter Staffin. It originally operated under the name Friederichs and Staffin, then from 1878 to 1896 as Detroit Stained Glass, from 1896 to 1914 as Friederichs and Wolfram, and as Detroit Stained Glass Works from 1914 until the factory was closed in 1970. They advertised their products as high quality stained glass windows at affordable prices. They also guaranteed the uniqueness of their works and that designs would not be repeated in subsequent orders. The competition was strong at that time, and particularly sought after were the works coming from the German studio Franz Mayer and Company, from G.T.A. Studios from Austria, from other European companies such as the Whitefriars glassworks of London, and but also from American companies such as Willet Studios of Philadelphia, Conrad Schmidt Studios of Milwaukee, Charles J. Connick of Boston and even Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company.

On 4 June, 1928 there was a consecration of St. Francis’ Church and the relics of St. Timothy and St. Theophilus were placed in the altar; the original film from the ceremony has been preserved. This date, so late in relation to the construction of the church, may raise some doubts, but it is the result of some imprecision of the language. Until the Second Vatican Council in the case of newly built temples the solemn dedication of a church for religious worship was referred to as consecration, although it was only a dedication of the building, i.e. dedicating the building to religious worship, which is not synonymous with consecration. It was preceded by a ceremony held before the church was built, first blessing the plot where the new church was going to be constructed and then laying and blessing the cornerstone. The actual consecration was something else and entailed other obligations. From the axiom of the canon law “Consecratio adhæret parietibus Eccelesiæ” it follows that a church loses its consecration only when its walls are demolished, or when it is a ruin which cannot be rebuilt, or when it is burned down, or when it is expanded (when a length, width or height greater than the original walls are added to the church walls). The act of consecration of a church is a much more elaborate ceremony than its dedication. This was rarely done in the United States; St. Francis’ was to be the first consecrated church in Michigan and the fifth in the USA. In the second half of the 1980s the closing of the Church of St. Francis was considered, but eventually did not happen. Perhaps it was because of its consecration. The church is still open today as part of the joint St. Francis D’Assisi – St. Hedwig of Silesia Parish and serves primarily the Latin American community settled in its vicinity.

In 1940 the parish celebrated its golden jubilee, the church was renovated and the altars were restored. In 1949 a statue of St. Francis was commissioned from Lelio De Ranieri (1890-1967), who was a renowned sculptor specializing in designing statuary for churches. He came from Pietrasanta, Italy, where he worked until the 1920s, when he moved to America. When the order for the statue of St. Francis was being placed he was working with Doig & Sons, Manufacturers-Bernardine Studios of New York, but then he moved to the rival Ranieri Studios Inc. of Detroit. This led to a controversy as to which of the companies was to execute the order. The case was even taken to court. Finally the order was fulfilled and the statue was completed.

Chronology

1889 - establishing the parish

1890 - completion of the first church

1903 - beginning of the construction of the new church

1905 - completion of the present church

1917 - completion of the new school building

1928 - consecration of the church

1987 - closing the school

2013 - joining the parishes of St. Francis D’Assisi and St. Hedwig of Silesia

Text originally published in a book issued by the POLONIKA Institute.
Anna Sylwia Czyż, Bartłomiej Gutowski, Paweł Sieradzki, Polish Parishes and Churches in Milwaukke, Winsconsin and Massachusetts, Warszawa 2021, pp. 55-69.