744 South 3rd Street (at Gratiot)
St. Louis, Missouri 63102
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St. Louis Catholics survived for nearly eighty years with only one church (now the Old Cathedral) before St. Mary of Victories was built as the first unit in an expanded parish system. English-speakers could go to St. Vincent de Paul or St. Francis Xavier (named for the founders of the two leading orders serving St. Louis), while German speakers attended their own parishes — a novel system that became an important feature of local Catholic life. St. Mary served the burgeoning southside Frenchtown and Soulard neighborhoods, while St. Joseph (a favorite of the Chamber Chorus) served the north side.

The cornerstone of St. Mary’s was laid on June 25, 1843, but only the first 74 feet of the nave were completed initially. The design was one of the first in St. Louis by George I. Barnett (1815-1898), a native of Nottingham, England. He soon became the leading architect of the city, best remembered today for his long association with Henry Shaw at the Missouri Botanical Garden and Tower Grove Park. The transepts and present east end of the building were added to his designs in 1859 and 1860. The facade, a flattened temple front in brick, became the model for many other churches during the city’s Greek Revival era, but all are now gone. The white frame of the front door was once marbleized. The functioning part of the door was lowered after a second balcony was inserted below the organ loft to accommodate the Sisters of Mary, whose 1873 motherhouse and hospital once occupied the garden on the corner.

Since 1957, the church has been home to St. Stephen’s Hungarian parish, which was created in 1936 and formerly worshipped at 11th and Chouteau nearby. It is the only Hungarian parish between Chicago and Dallas and has become celebrated for its ethnic festivals and authentic cooking, including dinners every third Sunday.

The interior of the church combines traditional iconography of the Virgin Mary with references to the original German and the present Hungarian congregations. They are linked by the presence of St. Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231), who as landgravine (wife of a reigning German count) of Thuringia became a favorite German saint. Her painting, a nineteenth century work by A. Hoffman, is on the transept wall to the left of the apse, and her statue, formerly above the pulpit, is now on the nave altar with the Infant Jesus of Prague. St. Stephen (István, c.970-1038), the founder of the Hungarian state, now stands above the pulpit, and his altar is in the left transept. To the right of the apse, on the south transept wall, is a painting of St. Joseph, and his statue appears behind the baptismal font with its Gothic cover, one of the original furnishings of the church. The Virgin to whom the church is dedicated appears behind the rear altar, in the apse paintings depicting scenes of her life, and in the murals in the arches above the organ and the crossing. An altar in the south transept honors Our Lady of Guadalupe. The windows were given by German associations and families, while the beautifully inlaid main altar and lectern were made in Hungary. St. Mary of Victories, steeped in tradition, remains up to date: On the ceiling of the nave, near the roundels of the four evangelists, are the arms of Pope John Paul II and Archbishop Rigali.

The Chamber Chorus visited this church on October 5, 1997 to present its Hungarian Voices concert, some of whose repertoire is included in the Chorus’ second disc, Vox Pop.

Notes by Esley Hamilton and Philip Barnes
Photo by Roger Hill