St. Alphonsus Liguori "Rock" Catholic Church is an historic Black Catholic church in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, founded in 1867. It is associated with the

Redemptorist Order The Redemptorists, officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (), abbreviated CSsR, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brothers). It was founded by Alphonsus Liguori at Scal ...

Building

The edifice was built in a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style and has a towering steeple, flanking spires, and an assortment of stained glass. The design is attributed to the Rev. Louis Dold, C.Ss.R., working with St. Louis architects Thomas Waryng Walsh and James Smith.

History

In 1861 St. Louis Archbishop

Peter Richard Kenrick Peter Richard Kenrick (August 17, 1806 – March 4, 1896) was an Irish Catholic priest who served as Bishop of St. Louis from 1843 to 1895. The see was made an archdiocese in 1847, when he was called as the first archbishop west of the Mississi ...

invited the

Redemptorists The Redemptorists, officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (), abbreviated CSsR, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brothers). It was founded by Alphonsus Liguori at Scala ...

, a missionary congregation that was founded by Saint Alphonsus Ligouri in 1732, to establish a permanent presence in the city of St. Louis. The community accepted the invitation and lived in temporary housing until 1866 when they bought at Grand and Cook Avenues. Ground for the church was broken on May 1, 1867, and the

cornerstone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

was laid on November 3 of the same year by the Rev. Joseph Melchers, the

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

of the archdiocese. Construction on the church continued until 1872 and Archbishop Patrick J. Ryan dedicated the church that year. The church's

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

, which reaches , was completed in 1893. The first Mother of Perpetual Help Shrine in the church was blessed on December 7, 1873, during the first public triduum under her name. The church ceased being a mission church in 1881 when it became a parish of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, although it remained under the pastoral care of the Redemptorists. The Redemptorists' St. Louis Province was headquartered in the residence from its founding until the mid-20th century. There were two noteworthy visitors to the community in the 19th century. The year the property was bought in 1866, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos visited while on a missionary preaching trip a year before his death. Venerable

Augustus Tolton John Augustus Tolton (baptized Augustine; April 1, 1854 – July 9, 1897) was an African Americans, African American who served as the first Black Catholicism, Black Catholic priest in the United States, ordained in Rome in 1886. He was preceded ...

, the first African-American Catholic priest, said Mass for the

School Sisters of Notre Dame School Sisters of Notre Dame is a worldwide religious institute of Roman Catholic sisters founded in Bavaria in 1833 and devoted to primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Their life in mission centers on prayer, community life and min ...

in the convent’s chapel in 1887. The parish has grown over the years to become a predominantly African-American church. The church was struck by

lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

on August 16, 2007, sparking a fire that damaged the roof and leading to water damage when the fire was put out. Repairs commenced in fall 2007, and the church reopened in Spring 2009. The church experienced a notable theft, of its air conditioning units, in April 2022. They received a grant for the restoration of their stained glass windows in February 2025.

References

External links

St. Alphonsus "Rock" Catholic Church homepage

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Alphonsus Catholic Church, St. Louis 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Religious organizations established in 1866 Roman Catholic churches completed in 1872 Roman Catholic churches in St. Louis Landmarks of St. Louis Gothic Revival church buildings in Missouri Redemptorist churches in the United States 1866 establishments in Missouri Tourist attractions in St. Louis African-American Roman Catholic churches