St. Vincent
de Paul Church

Cardinal Rigali Center
20 Archbishop May Drive
Shrewsbury, Missouri 63119
www.archstl.org

Construction of the present Cardinal Rigali Center began in 1913 as the home of Kenrick Seminary, chartered in 1898, two years after the death of Archbishop Peter Kenrick. The grounds originally extended to 373 acres, and Catholic institutions including the present Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, and Our Lady of Life still occupy over 100 acres.

The architect for the building was a nationally recognized leader in the design and decoration of Catholic churches, John T. Comes (c. 1873-1922) of Pittsburgh. Comes (the name rhymes with Gomez) was born in Luxembourg but raised in this country. Kenrick was his only work in Missouri but one of his most widely admired. He formed an association here with Thomas F. Imbs (1885-1959), a St. Louis native who had just graduated in 1910. Imbs’ modest later career included Epiphany Catholic Church at Smiley and Ivanhoe.

Comes wrote that Kenrick was “rendered in a free collegiate manner without the elaborate pinnacles and ornaments of its prototypes.” The term “collegiate” refers both to the Collegiate Gothic style already seen here in Washington University’s Hilltop Campus and also to the seating plan, with pews facing each other as in the college chapels at Oxford and Cambridge. With its arcades and side aisles, Kenrick’s chapel is like the chancel area of a cathedral, down to the choir screen separating the choir stalls from the aisles, here with stations of the cross centered in each section. Students sat in the four rows of pews in order of their theological class.

The Latin inscription on the arch identifies the chapel as honoring St. Vincent de Paul, founder in 1626 of the Congregation of the Mission, known as the Vincentians, whose members staffed Kenrick from its beginning until 1987, when it moved to nearby Cardinal Glennon College. St. Vincent appears as one of the six carved saints with Christ the King on the reredos above the main altar, while the two painted panels below depict Saint Peter. The wooden statues at the entrance arch represent Pope Saints Pius X and Gregory the Great. A monumental crucifixion group stands on the so-called Rood Beam which crosses the chapel high above the sanctuary.

The dazzling window over the main altar features symbols of the Apostles, who are also honored in the small side chapels called oratories that were finally completed in the 1950s by architect Raymond E. Maritz and painter Raymond L. Matteuzzi. The 18 side windows were created by Emil Frei Art Glass between 1922 and 1929, with the last window on the left contributed by Century Ornamental Glass. They represent aspects of priesthood, with Old Testament scenes on the right or north side and New Testament ones on the left. The coats of arms seen around the room represent bishops of this archdiocese as well as many students and faculty members who subsequently became bishops.

Notes by Esley Hamilton and Philip Barnes