The view from afar

St. Mary's is located at the highest point in Nanticoke. Almost: the highest point is directly across the street, on the sidewalk in front of a private house. The commanding position gives the sense of being part of a model train layout. It also allows its bells to be heard throughout the city, with a distinct pattern heard at noon and at Mass time: starting out with two bells rung simultaneously, then gradually slipping out of sync into two separate tolls, then moving back into sync and fading out. The bells also once rang the hour throughout the day. I do not think those bells ring any longer. 

From Holy Trinity Cemetery

From St. Mary's Cemetery, near Prospect and Washington streets

From Field street, behind St. Mary's Cemetery

Last day, July 26, 2021

 

Panorama of several of Nanticoke's churches. St. Mary's is on the right, at the highest point in the city.
St. Joseph's church, seen on the middle left behind some trees, has been demolished since this picture
was taken from Holy Trinity Cemetery on April 22, 2018.
(Tap on picture and then open in new window to see a large version.)

Today St. Mary's officially closes. I do not know what that means, practically speaking. The doors were locked yesterday, as I expect they are today. What happens next I have no idea. Will the church be left in place, unused? Will it be gutted, with the pews and windows sold off, and then demolished? Will the whole building be sold and repurposed? Someone knows the answers to these questions, I suspect. But I do not.

Photos from the next-to-last day

I went to St. Mary's today to see if it might be open for parishioners wishing to visit one last time before the doors are officially closed forever tomorrow, Monday, July 26. But the doors were locked. I decided to get some photos of the exterior, from angles I haven't captured before.

One thing most people don't realize, or at least don't appreciate, is the inversion of perception that happens upon entering a church. Ask anyone what part of the church is the "front" and they might point here, to the part with the steeple, the part where you enter. But upon entering you realize that you are in the rear of the church. The front of the church, as viewed from within, is the part that looks like the back from the outside. I think there's some deeper meaning here.

St. Mary's will be closed for good as of Monday, July 26, 2021.

Other people, other perspectives

Easter 2018

I have hundreds of photos of St. Mary's - inside, outside, and especially of the stained glass windows. I have been a member of this Parish my entire life. I became an altar boy in First Grade and continued to serve Masses through High School. I attended school there through eighth grade. 

But lots of other people grew up in the Parish as well. Many people have other memories older or fresher than mine. And more than a few, I hope, have indulged in taking photographs over the decades.

If you have memories or photographs of St. Mary's that you would like to share on this site, please send me a message at databoy142 *at* hotmail (dot) com, or use the contact form on the sidebar. Thank you!

We knew it was coming: November 24, 2008

The first word of the closing of St. Mary's came back in 2008, when the plan for parish consolidation in the Diocese of Scranton was released. All of the Catholic churches in Nanticoke were slated to close except for Holy Trinity. St. Mary's got a second chance when it was selected as the "secondary worship site," where some Masses would be held each week. (It also served as a substitute location while Holy Trinity was undergoing renovations post-consolidation.) But even with its new lease on life, it was apparent that St. Mary's days were numbered. 

I set out to photographically capture as much of St. Mary's as I could. One thing I focused on was the stained glass windows in the church. My work was featured in an article in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens' Voice on November 24, 2008.  

A poem for the closing of the church

This is a poem I wrote in 2017, thinking about the inevitable closing of St. Mary's. I wanted to capture memories of my time at the church, as well as a description of my favorite stained glass window.

First published in the Winter 2017 issue of Word Fountain, The Literary Magazine of the Osterhout Free Library.

Ora Pro Nobis
Harold Jenkins

Between the worn wooden pews
parishioners in a double row
approach the priest to take Communion
rocking with each step

Fewer every year
thinner, fatter, grayer, balder
fewer baptisms, more funerals

No more bazaars to mark the end of summer
with Polkas and bingo and beer
No more ancient pipe organ playing the hymns
sung in the tongue of the people who built this place

Storybook saints line the walls
silent in their stained-glass windows

A dragon hides behind the robes of a Pope
looks warily at the armored figure in the next window over
Does he wonder what fate awaits him
when the pews are empty and the organ falls silent?

He does not. He is colored glass and paint.
It does not matter to him
if in a few years he is a storybook window in a church far away
or shards of colored glass in the rubble
of a church that used to be.

2001: Observing 100 years of Our Lady of Czestochowa

From the Congressional Record, October 17, 2001. Representative Paul Kanjorski notes the 100th anniversary of the founding of the parish on October 21, 1901.

ST. MARY OF CZESTOCHOWA CHURCH CELEBRATES 100 YEARS

HON. PAUL E. KANJORSKI of Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives, 

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Mr. KANJORSKI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call the attention of the House of Representatives to the 100th anniversary of the founding of St. Mary of Czestochowa Roman Catholic Church of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, which will be celebrated on October 21.

At the turn of the last century, an increase in the Polish Catholic population led to the need for a third church in the Nanticoke area. The original St. Mary's church was a simple wooden structure located at the corner of Hanover and Grove streets. It was home to a congregation of approximately 500 parishoners, although an estimated 2,000 people worshipped there. 

Nearly five years to the day of its dedication, the first church was destroyed by fire. Under the leadership of the first resident pastor, Rev. Adolph E. Nowicki, a new church was built at the corner of Hanover and Field streets and was blessed and dedicated soon thereafter. 

St. Mary's present pastor, Rev. John S. Krafchak, is the eighth pastor to serve the parish, having served since 1983. He also served as assistant pastor at St. Mary's from 1960 to 1966. During his 18 years as pastor, Father Krafchak has continued to support the efforts of the church's organizations, the spiritual needs of the congregation and the material upkeep of the parish. 

Father Krafchak's first major undertaking was the construction of a new rectory, which was completed in 1985. A Holy Hour of Prayers for Priests was begun in 1986 and has been held once a month since its inception. It was also around that time that air conditioning was installed in the church. With the 1988 consolidation of all the parish schools in the Nanticoke area into Pope John Paul II School, St. Mary's school became the home of Head Start, a federal pre-school program offered to Nanticoke-area children ages 3 and 4 from low-income families. St. Mary's has also teamed with St. Stanislaus Church to promote the Renew 2000 program, a parish renewal endeavor to foster spiritual growth among their parishoners. The parishes have also held consolidated Confraternity of Christian Doctrine classes since 1996. 

In preparation for this year's 100th anniversary, the interior of the church was painted and refurbished with carpeting and most significantly, an imported replica of the famous Our Lady of Czestochowa image, measuring more than 7 feet in height, was placed on the wall above the main altar. The church organ was also reconditioned to return it to most of its original musical capabilities. 

One of the portions of St. Mary's history of which the parishoners can be most proud is that the parish has been the mother of 39 vocations, 18 to the priesthood, 20 to the sisterhood and one to the deaconate. The parish also acknowledges the dedication of another parishoner, Henry Gonshor, who aspired to the priesthood but was called to his eternal rest before finishing his preparatory studies. 

Over the past 100 years, St. Mary's has seen the formation of the following organizations, most of which are still flourishing today: St. Cecilia's Choir, Blessed Virgin Mary Sodality, the Holy Name Society, the Sacred Heart Society, Third Order of St. Francis, Purgatorial Society, the Catholic Council of Women and the Usher's Club. These organizations have helped unite many parishoners throughout the years toward a common cause of service to God and the Church. 

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to call to the attention of the House of Representatives the 100 years of dedication, faith and good works of the people of St. Mary's Church, and I wish them all the best.

Preserving memories of Saint Mary's in Nanticoke, PA

Our Lady of Czestochowa Church (also known as Saint Mary's) in Nanticoke, PA is scheduled to close on  Monday, July 26, 2021, just three months short of its 120th anniversary. Since I started my main blog, Another Monkey, seventeen years ago I have  been posting memories and photographs of the church I grew up in. I have created this new blog as a place to centralize and share all those photographs and memories.

(Contrary to what was said in this official announcement, St. Mary's has not gone unused since early 2020. All churches in the Diocese of Scranton were closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The primary site for the consolidated Saint Faustina Kowalska parish, the church formerly known as Holy Trinity, reopened a few weeks later for Masses without a congregation in attendance, broadcast online. After several months a very few individuals, selected by lottery, were allowed to attend Mass. Gradually that number increased, until in late June 2021 the church was fully reopened. All this time, while regular Masses were not celebrated at the secondary site, St. Mary's, funerals of parishioners who had been lifelong members of Our Lady of Czestochowa were being held there, accompanied by full funeral Masses. Many former members of St. Mary's were wondering when weekly Masses would resume at the secondary site. The above announcement appears to answer that question.)