Picture this. You are standing before Saint Peter Canisius Church in Austin a once middle-class neighborhood of Chicago. This majestic building wasn’t always here. Its story begins in 1925. The parish was established to serve the spiritual needs of German Italian and Irish immigrants. They first held Mass in a local funeral parlor. A new church and school opened the following year. The Great Depression slowed construction of the permanent church rectory and convent. Thanks to the congregation’s fundraising efforts the groundbreaking finally happened in 1935. Cardinal Mundelein dedicated the completed Saint Peter Canisius Church in 1936.
This Romanesque-style church seated 1000 people. Its interior was breathtaking. Solid wooden pews filled the space. Italian marble statuary stood tall. Vibrant stained-glass windows most donated from Innsbruck Austria bathed the interior in colorful light. The marble furnishings were delayed by World War II. The altar from the temporary church was used until the new altar and marble arrived from Italy in 1946. The church was then painted. The walls and ceiling were embellished with beautiful pictures and symbols.
Saint Peter Canisius Church served as a spiritual home for generations. It witnessed the joys and sorrows of countless families. However times changed. The decline of the Union Stock Yards impacted the neighborhood. Immigrant communities assimilated and dispersed. Attendance at Saint Peter Canisius dwindled. By 2007 the church closed amid a neighborhood struggling with drugs and prostitution. The beautiful stained glass and marble statuary seemed destined for destruction. But Saint Peter Canisius’s legacy didn’t end there.
Its story is intertwined with that of Saint John of God Church. After both parishes closed their architectural elements were remarkably reused. The limestone façade and bell towers of Saint John of God were carefully dismantled. These pieces were transported to Old Mill Creek. They were painstakingly rebuilt to form the exterior of a new church Saint Raphael the Archangel Church. The interior treasures of Saint Peter Canisius made the same journey. The Tyrolian stained glass windows oak pews hand-carved marble altars and statues and the Stations of the Cross all found a new home. The story of Saint Peter Canisius Church thus continues as part of a larger legacy of faith and community. It lives on in a new church.