Jake and I had the opportunity to visit a stunning hidden gem, St. Joseph’s Chapel (1501 S. Layton Blvd., Milwaukee, WI 53215), on a recent weekend and capture this brief video tour.
We brought in our equipment, were greeted by a kind receptionist, signed in, got our visitor badges and then made our way up to the chapel. Once we walked through the chapel doors, it was immediately evident that there is more beauty there than we could possibly capture in a short film.
We hope you take the time to make a visit of your own to pray and appreciate such a rich piece of Milwaukee history.
In my previous post I shared the story of St. Philomena and how my friend and I were making a pilgrimage to pray to St. Philomena on behalf of her daughter who has been very ill, in great pain and very often bed-ridden for the past few months. Although our original plan was to travel to Briggsville, Wisconsin to the Shrine of St. Philomena, a winter snowstorm prevented us from making the two hour drive so we settled for a hometown pilgrimage instead.
The snow was softly falling outside as we began our day with a leisurely breakfast and the opportunity to catch up on all of the current news in our lives. My friend spoke about her excitement over the fact that at that very moment there was a group of pilgrims praying for her daughter at the St. Philomena Shrine in Italy. Before we left the restaurant I heard a loud knocking noise which I explained away as the kitchen staff working noisily. But, at the same time that I became aware of the knocking sound, my friend received a text message from her daughter saying, "I feel fantastic!" My friend could not remember the last time she had heard her teenage daughter express anything but pain. We believed that the prayers of the pilgrims in Italy were already working.
What is holy is perhaps, by its very nature, ineffable.
Still, we try.
We compose music. Create paintings. Carve statues. Write poems.
We build sacred places and fill them with sacred things, trying to make firm what many believe is impossible to touch. The effort is very human, sure to fall short, and the best attempts are therefore all the more exquisite.
Milwaukee is dotted with such places. Some are right there, out in the open - Calatrava's brise soleil, for instance.
Others are all but hidden. Among the all but hidden, none is more extraordinary than the School Sisters of St. Francis' 95-year-old St. Joseph Chapel.
Given its dimensions - a cruciform 200 feet long, 90 feet wide, with a dome that reaches 70 feet above the sanctuary floor - its very location is unlikely.
Come through the St. Joseph Center's nondescript entry in the 1500 block of S. Layton Blvd., sign in at the front desk and follow directions to the second floor. Look for the room with a cathedral in it.
My next stop in Milwaukee was at St. Joseph's Chapel which is run by the School Sisters of St Francis. I contacted them prior to the trip and they told me that they were setting up for a concert and no tours were available but that the chapel would be open and we would be free to go in for a look. When we arrived the receptionist gave us the third degree, but then a sister(I assume) came out and asked us what I was going to use the pictures for. I told her I was going to make postcards to sell to put my kids through college(joking). She did end up letting us go in. Only a few of the lights were on and some of the concert equipment was setup so I didn't get the best photos.
The chapel was beautiful, and probably the most striking thing are the relics on display. Several reliquaries are spread throughout. It is much like the Mary, Queen of Angels chapel in La Crosse, run by the FSPA. The FSPA's is I think more beautiful, but this chapel doesn't suffer from the 1970's red carpet that the former does. Also I was not thrown out and forbidden to return by the Sisters here, so that was an added bonus. There is also an adoration chapel on the other side of the sanctuary, but we did not go around to see it(we weren't sure even where to go). I heard later after we left that the Archdiocesan offices are now located there? I thought they were at the Cousins Center but I forgot about the whole trying to sell it thing. At any rate, besides the somewhat strange ufo lighting, a beautiful chapel. I wonder what kind of concert they were having?
I stopped in yesterday as I was driving past just to see what it looked like on the inside. I had read something about it last year and always wanted to check it out.
WOW! It looks to be a close architectural relative to the Mary of the Angels Chapel in La Crosse. See attached pictures.
4 pm Mass was taking place so I wandered the Adoration Chapel in the back (just like La Crosse) and went upstairs to look at the balconies. Next thing I know I am in the Relic Room. There was probably over a 100 relics of saints in all kinds of reliquaries on three walls of the room. And some of the relics were very large. Very impressive!
And I was told that the expert about the relic room is Sister Mary Alma.
I never did get to see the whole chapel. I will definitely go back for a complete tour.
These nuns there also seem to be the aging, polyester pant-suit "Peace and Justice" sisters that are dying off. The one that I talked to seemed very nice but what a shame.
Maybe the Nashville Dominicans can gain a foothold in these gorgeous convents to keep them alive.
A little background:
St. Joseph’s Convent was established by the School Sisters of St. Francis, an order of nuns originally headquartered in Germany. Forced from their homeland by the repressive May Laws of 1872, which prevented them from teaching, the Schools Sisters of St. Francis established their new motherhouse at New Cassel (now Campbellsport), Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. The order remained there from 1873 to 1885 and briefly established a new motherhouse in Winona, Minnesota from 1885 to 1886. Milwaukee Archbishop Heiss approved of the order’s return to Wisconsin in 1886. Rather than their intended destination of Madison, the School Sisters of St. Francis were persuaded to build a motherhouse in the Milwaukee area. The nuns purchased a private beer garden called Greenfield Park from proprietor Joseph Knurr in October of 1886.
