St Therese Fresno www

St. Therese's Parish was established in Fresno in 1919 as Our Lady of Victory Parish. Father Martin Cody Keating, the first pastor, took over his parish in June 1919, shortly after the completion of his duties as a Chaplain during World War I. It is said Father Keating himself chose the name "Our Lady of Victory" in thanksgiving for our victory in that war.

Planning for the new parish had started years before, when Msgr. John M. McCarthy, then pastor of St. John's Parish, realized that the city of Fresno would grow and would need several more parishes to serve the future population. After receiving permission from his bishop, Msgr. McCarthy got out his horse and buggy; he and his assistant began a weeklong search for church sites. They decided upon the southeast corner of Forthcamp (the present North Fulton Avenue) and Elizabeth Streets, what is now the parking lot for the former Turpin's Furniture. A house was purchased at this site. After the parish was officially formed, this house was utilized as a rectory. However, the first Mass in the parish was celebrated June 29, 1919 in the Dan C. Desmond home at 845 Echo Avenue. Records list some 30 parishioners who atended this Mass. Margaret Regan Limes and her brother Edmund attended the Mass, representing the Regan family. Margaret recounts what she heard as the Keating drove by and saw an American flag flying. "This is the place!" he said. The altar boy who served at this Mass was young Harry A. Clinch, the now retired Bishop of Monterey, with whom we rejoice in a special way today.

On November 12, 1919 and March 16, 1920, four lots were purchased at North Fulton (now Wishon) and Floradora Streets, in spite of determined opposition from neighbors who objected to the church's being located near them. However, the first signers of an anti-church petition fell victims to the influenza epidemic which was sweeping the country. Opposition diminished and ground was broken for the first unit of the parish school in June 1920. By September 1921 a two-story building -- the upper floors from the first four grades and the lower floor for a temporary chapel -- was built and opened for classes and services. Over the next eight years a grade each year would be added so that children would be able to attend grammar and high school. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet came from Los Angeles to staff the school. Mass was first celebrated in that building on Christmas Day, 1920.

In 1922 the new diocese of Monterey-Fresno was established and Bishop John B. MacGinley became its first shepherd in 1924. Father Keating, who had begun planning for a permanent church, became concerned about the health of his elderly mother in Los Angeles. At the same time, Father Michael Sullivan, a priest from San Diego, expressed an interest to his bishop in working in the newly established diocese. Permissions having been obtained, the two men changed places and Father Sullivan became the pastor of Our Lady of Victory Parish on February 13, 1925.

Marie Frances Therese Martin -- Sister Therese of the Child Jesus -- was canonized a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1925. Devotion to the holy Carmelite Sister with her "little way" to sanctity was widespread and Bishop MacGinley, who was in Rome at the time of her canonization, asked the Pope to name St. Therese principal patroness of the Monterey-Fresno Diocese. Pope Pius granted the bishop's request on the condition that one church and parish in the diocese be named after her.

The rapidly growing Our Lady of Victory Parish had borken ground for its fourth temporary quarters, which would be the parish church for 31 years, later to become Sullivan Hall when the permanent Shrine of St. Therese was built. Bishop MacGinley celebrated a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the incompleted building on the first public observance of the Little Flower's feast day, October 3, 1927 and the name of the parish was formally changed to St. Therese. At this Mass, in a sermon on the life of St. Therese, Father Sullivan spoke as follows:

"On last Wednesday evening, a few minutes past seven o'clock, twenty-eight years ago, a young maiden 24 years of age, expired. The end came in a room back of the convent walls of the Carmelites of Lisieux. Her pure, deep eyes looked at the crucifix, the image of God who had loved her to the end, and her purple lips moved in her last prayer on earth: 'I love Him -- my God, I love Thee.'

Then she suddenly raised herself, and opening her eyes, which shone with unalterable peace and happiness, she fixed them for the last time on a statue of Our Lady, and her soul went to heaven.

That was 28 years ago, September 30, 1897, and already today she has been declared a saint of God. She has become the patroness of the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno, and is to be declared the patroness of this parish in Fresno.

She died unknown to men, only a poor nun who had spend four years behind the coister of a French Convent; but today the world's great daily papers vie with each other in proclaiming her. This litttle French maiden is now in the minds and hearts of millions the world over. We still live in the age of miracles. God's arm is not shortened since the day when Moses drew water from the rock, since the day Jesus walked in Palestine -- and God has testified by a thousand undeniable miracles that this litttle maiden was a precious child of His, His own Little Flower that grew in grace at the convent in Lisieux.

What has come over the world that a little maiden who wished to be hidden and unknown should captivate so many souls the whole world over? Because the Little Flower always remained a child and showed the simple way to heaven, the acknowledging of our own trust in God: because she was human -- because her life was sanctified in ordinary ways."

The first Mass was celebrated in the new parish church on Christmas Day, 1925, and on May 2, 1926, formal dedication services for the completed St. Therese Church at Floradora near Wishon were held, with Bishop MacGinley officiating. Featured in the ceremony was the unveiling of a marble statue of St. Therese and its blessing by Bishop MacGinley. According to Father Sullivan, the statue was sculptured by the artisans of Lisieux, France, from a six-foot block of Portium marble from the famous quarries near Olympia, Greece. It was shipped to Fresno via the Panama Canal.

During the depression years, the parish stood still financially but progressed in number of parishioners and students in the parochial school. The church which had at first been "out in the suburbs" now served a full-fledged urban parish area. Msgr. Sullivan was appointed Vicar General in 1933 and was promoted to Domestic Prelate in 1934. He resigned as pastor of St. Therese in 1940 and asked to be sent to the small coastal parish of St. Rose in Paso Robles. His request was granted in November, 1940.

Msgr. James G. Dowling took charge as administrator of the parish on November 26, 1940. By this time, facilities were strained to the bursting point. Msgr. Dowling accepted the challenge and adopted a "five year plan" of expansion and debt reduction.

The parish had now grown to over 1,000 families. Bishop Scher of Monterey-Fresno Diocese, purchased the quarter block at Pine and Wishon for $5,000 and leased it to the parish so that construction of the new school could begin. The old rectory (two doors south of Floradora on Wishon) was sold and a new rectory was built on the corner of Floradora and Maroa Avenue and was completed in 1941. The first rooms of the new grammar school opened their doors in September 1942. The long-standing parish debt was slowly reduced until in 1944, it was completely paid off. The first five year plan was completed in 1945 with the addition of the Anderson home at 727 Pine Avenue as a permanent convent for the Sisters of St. Joseph.

So pleased was Msgr. Dowling with the success of the first five year plan, that he began to organize a second one, this time to build a new church. But Bishop Scher had acquired 40 acres on North Fresno Street which he had earmarked for a central Catholic high school, and he asked all the pastors in Fresno to contribute their time and money to the project. The building of the new church had to be postponed.

By 1948, San Joaquin Memorial High School was fairly well established. In October of that year, property was donated for the building of an auxiliary chapel on the corner of West and Princeton Avenues to more adequately serve the growing number of families in the parish. The first Mass at OUR LADY OF VICTORY chapel was offered by Farther Thomas McGovern, then assistant at St. Therese, on November 27, 1949. In 1950, the northwest section of St. Therese's Parish was cut off and the new parish of Our Lady of Victory formed with Father McGovern as first pastor. St. Therese parishioners celebrated the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the parish church and the Silver Jubilee of St. Therese's canonization on October 3, 1950.

The first fund-raising campaign for a new St. Therese's Church began on October 3, 1953. The cost of the church was first estimated at $250,000. Before the new church could be built, it was necessary that additional area for parking space be acquired. This need was satisfied with the donation of property directly across from the rectory. In January 1954 a vacant lot behind this property was purchased for $20,000 for additional playground and parking facilities. Ground was broken for the new Shrine of St. Therese on Corpus Christi, Sunday, June 12, 1955 at the corner of Wishon and Floradora Avenues. Construction started on July 6, 1955.

Architect Vincent Buckley of San Francisco designed the Shrine Church -- a romanesque-mission structure of reinforced steel concrete with a mission tile roof. Long and Needham Construction Company built the church. Richard W. Jung, an interior designer from Los Angeles, employed Mr. Tedesci, an artist from New York, to plan the inside of the church. Fifty thousand pounds of marble went into St. Therese's Church. It was processed in Italy and shipped in huge blocks to the United States by water freight. The marble setter who worked three months on the Shrine of St. Therese predicted it would be one of the last churches of its style, because his was a "dying race." Labor and shipping costs would be too great if marble were completely prepare in Italy and sent to the U.S., he said; and since there were fewer and fewer men in the U.S. learning a marble setter's trade, he predicted that more functional styles of architecture would take over.

Construction of the church was halted momentarily when Msgr. Dowling suffered a heart attack while saying Mass on St. Therese's feast day, October 3, 1955. During Monsignor's illness and period of recuperation, the parish was placed under the administration of Father James C. O'Doherty, pastor of St. Peter's Church in Lemoore. Monsignor Dowling returned in February of 1956, and the laying and blessing of the cornerstone took place on November 1, 1956. Parishioners were able to attend Mass in the new church for the first time at midnight on Christmas Day with the aid of a group of volunteers who cleaned up the interior. That Christmas, St. Therese parishioners contributed almost $40,000 to help pay the fast-accumulating bills for the new church. The old church now became Sullivan Hall. Two months after the "debut" of the new church, the man who had been an altar boy in 1919 at the first parish Mass became a bishop. Msgr. Harry A. Clinch was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Monterey-Fresno in the Shrine of St. Therese on February 27, 1957.

Funds for the OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP CHAPEL, second side chapel at St. Therese, were donated in March 1958. The chapel mosaic was executed by artists in the Vatican.

In April 1958 it was announced that far surpassing the original estimate, the Shrine of St. Therese had cost over $600,000.

In March of 1958, a new PIPE ORGAN was installed at a cost of $26,000. The instrument has 1500 pipes and has been acclaimed by outstanding organists as one of the finest pipe organs in California.

The STATIONS OF THE CROSS were painted in the church by artist Von Meier.

The church was dedicated on December 14, 1958. A special relic of St. Therese was placed in the church, having been brought here by Bishop MacGinley after presentation to him by a sister of the saint, Mother Agnes of Jesus (Pauline Martin).

By Christmas 1960, the Shrine of St. Therese was debt free. With one major project completed, plans were drawn up for the building of a new grammar school. The new school was to be a two-story unit with eight classrooms built on Pine Avenue. A one-story unit housing administration offices, library and meeting room was to be built on Wishon. St. Therese parishioners were asked to pledge four percent of their total income for the new school and parish development program. Ground was broken for the new school on May 15, 1961, feast day of St. John Baptist de la Salle, patron of all Christian schools. By December, 1961, all rooms in the new school were in use and the solemn blessing of the new grammar school by Bishop Willinger took place on Sunday, September 16, 1962.

In 1965, changes in church liturgy became evident at St. Therese and on Sunday, January 17, the priest faced the people at a specially constructed altar for the first time. On October 25, 1967, the division of the Monterey-Fresno Diocese into the separate dioceses of Monterey and Fresno was made public. Auxiliary Bishop Harry A. Clinch was named shepherd of the new Monterey Diocese, and Bishop Timothy Manning, former Auxiliary to Los Angeles Cardinal McIntyre, was made Bishop of Fresno. Msgr. Dowling's health was failing, and one of his last official acts as pastor was to purchase the Schwartz apartments, adjacent to the rectory, on October 26, 1967. It was hoped that the property would someday be used for additional playground facilities.

On January 26, 1968, Msgr. Dowling entered St. Agnes Hospital with a severe virus infection. In early February, a main artery from the heart was found to be defective and he was rushed to the University of California Hospital in San Francisco where a successful operation was performed. But complications followed the operation, and the much beloved pastor died on Friday, February 9, 1968. Msgr. Patrick Hannan, pastor of St. Anthony's Church in Reedley, and diocesan superintendent of schools, delivered the eulogy at a solemn Pontifical Requim Mass, celebrated by the Bishops of Fresno and Monterey. Msgr. Hannon became pastor of St. Therese's Parish on March 23, 1968. A new shepherd for the Fresno Diocese, Bishop Hugh A. Donahoe of Stockton, was named in August of 1969, to replace Bishop Manning who was named Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles with right of succession to Cardinal McIntyre. At this time, the St. Therese parish served approximately 1350 families.

Msgr. Kevin Cleary came back to St. Therese on March 13, 1970, to serve as pastor, but it was to familiar hearts and faces that he returned. He had served as assistant to Msgr. Dowling during the development years of the 50's. Parishioners and friends of the parish will always remember his charming wit and sensitive love and pastoral care for the sick.

Father Tom Kleinhans was appointed pastor to succeed Monsignor Cleary on June 30, 1980. Having served as Assistant Pastor at Sacred heart Parish and some ten years as Diocesan Director of Religious Education, he was able to call the Fresno community his "second home."

Father Tom would be the first to say that our Heavenly Father has richly blessed all, under the patronage of the Little Flower, perhaps in ways of which we may not be fully aware. Ours is a proud and rich past as a parish community. We celebrate that past in all the beauty of this day, as brothers and sisters in the Lord. And we look forward to the happy celebrations of the future when we can gather to praise the Lord and continue our thanksgiving for many blessings.

Statue of St. Therese

The beautiful restored statue of St. Therese, situated in a place of honor for our Jubilee Celebration, takes on special significance because it links us to the very first days of our existence as a parish community.

The founding pastor, Father Martin Keating wrote to France and ordered the statue in August, 1924, in hopes that it would arrive in time for the dedication of the "new" church and the renaming of the parish. However, to the disappointment of Bishop McGinley and Father keating the deadline could not be met.

Two years later, November 22, 1926, a letter was sent, this time by the Chancellor of the Diocese, telling the people in France that we are still waiting! A few days later the happy news arrived in Fresno that our statue was on its way. The Bishop's Office directed that the statue, once it reached New York, should be sent on through the Panama Canal. In March, 1927, the statue reached San Francisco; when the crate was opened it contained an image of St. Therese "seated in a chair." Our bishop was instructed to send it back through the canal to the Bishop of Chaleston, South Carolina. in the meantime, Bishop Russell of Charleston dies, and Fresno does not know whether to follow the instructions for shipment. Fresno is told to ship the statue to Chaleston. Our bishop says no shipment until we are reimbursed for our expenses by Charleston; Charleston agrees. The mistaken statue is then shipped on.

On July 11, 1927 the Bishop of Monterey-Fresno received word that the correct statue has arrived at New York. This statue was sent on to San Francisco via the Panama Canal and finally arrived for installation in the exterior front niche above the "new" church sometime in late 1927.

The statue, made of terra cotta, stands five feet seven inches. The seals indicated it was cast in 1923, prior to the canonization of St. Therese and her designation as our patroness.

We have the statue with us in its present form and beauty because of the kindness of LeRoy Costa and the artistic talents of Nadine Smith, with a little help from Ross Geller. Our entire parish is grateful for the beautiful restoration!

A WALK THROUGH THE SHRINE...

A church is first and foremost a place where the community of the faithful gather to worship the Father through participation in the saving actions of Jesus, his life, death and resurrection celebrated in the Eucharistic Liturgy. The church building, regardless of its beauty and perfection, is never the most important reality in a parish; we, the people, are the Church's greatest treasure. Yet, from the earliest times, persons have striven to express their love of God and their respect and devotion to the Eucharist, and for the community of the faithful, by adorning places where the Liturgy will be celebrated and where God will be uniquely honored. So it is in the parish of St. Therese.

The physical building of the Shrine of St. Therese is an edifice of which the parishioners can be justly proud, for it is a beautiful and prayerful sacred space set aside for the worship of God. The building is a romanesque-mission style structure of reinforced steel and concrete with a mission tile roof. The architect was Vincent Buckley of San Francisco, and the construction was carried out by the company of Long and Needham. An interior designer from Los Angeles, Richard W. Jung employed an artist from New York, Mr. Tedesci, to plan the church interior. The structure has a seating capacity of 700 and additional seating for 200 persons is obtained by combining the areas of the tow side chapels and the gallery situated over the main doors of the shrine.

Fifty thousand pounds of marble was used to decorate the building. All of that stone, in many types and colors, including five different kinds in the sanctuary area alone, came from Italy, shipped by sea in huge blocks. A marble setter was flown from New York to install the marble objects of the shrine as construction went on in the church interior. That skilled craftsman thought that the Shrine of St. Therese might be one of the last churches of its style because the labor and shipping cost for preparation of marble in Italy would soon be too great to duplicate such an effort agin, and fewer and fewer workers in the United States were learning a marble setter's trade. He worked carefully to install the colorful stone: the altar rail of red verona and bottocino oniciato marble with its three foot high Carrara marble angels, the white Carrara bas-relief of St. Therese whcih hangs above the main altar. In all, three months was spent in setting the marble into place.

The altar table is the focus of the congregation's attention. It is here that the priest celebrates the Eucharist for and with the people. It is the reason for the building itself. In the shrine the altar is decorated with a carving which depicts two peacocks drinking from a chalice. That design is based on two beliefs, one pagan and one Christian. The ancient pagans believed that peacocks were immortal. Since we, as Catholics believe that sharing the Eucharist is a promise of immortality, the peacocks, in the Christian eyes, become a sign of the faithful sharing the cup of salvation.

In the Blessed Sacrament Chapel another symbol, at once pagan and Christian, was carved into the wooden altar -- the pelican. In ancient mythology it was believed that in time of famine the pelican, willing to sacrifice itself for its children, would pierce its own breast with its sharp bill and allow its young to feed upon the life-giving blood that flowed freely form the wound. Early Christians saw this as a fitting image of Christ and the Eucharist, for Jesus bled willingly for all of us and continues to feed us with His very self in the Blessed Sacrament.

The next symbol which is common to the vast majority of Catholic Churches is the crucifix, or image of Christ on the cross. The wooden crucifix in Our Lady's Chapel is from the old church building which served the parish from 1919 until 1956.

The incorporation of the individual into the community of Christians is celebrated in Baptism and the baptistry of the Shrine is located to the left of the church's main doors as the building is entered. Within this chamber, appropriately decorated with reminders of the mysteries of Christ, persons are joined to the community of believers in a simple but profound ceremony which uses the symbol of water to carry its meaning. As a reminder of the mystery of Baptism, the Catholic uses specially blessed water while making the sign of the cross. Holy water fonts are placed at the doors of the building as a reminder of Baptisms and as an invitation to parishioners to use the water to make the sign of the Cross and salute the Father, Son, and Spirit as they enter the church.

As is the case with most Catholic places of worship, the Shrine of St. Therese has many statues and paintings of heroic persons who have given us examples of strong, faith-filled lives spent for God and others -- they are people who have become our examples as we strive to make God more and more a part of our own lives. One set of images common to most Catholic churches, which have a particularly fine execution on the walls of the Shrine of St. Therese, are the stations of the Cross. This series of fourteen episodes in the last day of Christ's life are a reminder of his love for us and willingness to prove that love by actions consistent with his message of love and forgiveness. The fifteenth station, invisible but all-pervasive, is the Resurrection. In the Shrine, the Stations of the Cross are painted in oils, the work of artist Von Meier. The image of our Lady of Perpetual Help, in the chapel called by that name to the left of the altar, is a mosaic, or picture composed of thousands of small colored tiles. The picture was prepared as a copy of the beloved and ancient image, and was prepared by artists in the Vatican in Rome.

The great bas-relief on the reredos, or backdrop, behind the altar was executed by Mr. Tedesci of New York and contains a 15 foot statue of St. Therese. The design honors her by depicting Therese showering roses upon earth, a symbol common in representations of the Saint who promised that she would spend her heaven "doing good upon earth". St. Therese parish was the first in the world to be dedicated to God under patronage of The Little Flower Lisieux. She was proclaimed a Saint by the Church in 1925. The reredos is of white Carrara marble given an invory finish. Other statues in the church include marble ones of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary on either side of the sanctuary and a small copy of the Pieta of Michelangelo in the vestibule. Two hand carved wooden statues are in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel -- St. Joseph, the Patron of the Universal Church and St. Pope Pius X, whose pontificate initiated the reception of Eucharist by young church and the canonization process of St. Therese.

There are two saints pictured in large paintings at the rear of the church's nave representing St. Anne and St. Joachim, the traditional names given to the parents of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It is for St. Joachim, of course, that the San Joaquin Valley is named.

The glass mosaic windows showing events in the life of Jesus and representation of Old and New Testament saints, were made by the family of Gabriel Loire in Chartes, France. Only eight of the windows were delivered and installed at the time of the building’s first Mass for the other windows were aboard ships delayed in the Sauez Canal at the time of that crisis in 1956. The windows are unlike ordinary stained glass, for they are made of pieces of glass one and one half inches thick, cut like gems to give depth and a variety of shades to the colors as sunlight moves through the panes. Bariel Loire, who headed the firm, designed the windows himself, and the largest of them is the beautiful rose window over the main entrance of the church.
Some of the windows cannot be seen by the congregation at Liturgy, for they are set into various portions of the building outside of the nave.

In the priest's sacristy, where preparations for Mass each day take place, there are five windows of stained glass:
St. John Vianney, patron of parish priests
St. Peter Claver, Apostle to the New World
St. Pius X, Advocate of Eucharist in the Modern World
St. Agnes, Martyr
St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor (Great Ecclesiastical Writer) of the Church.

Inside Chapel of Our Lady of Perpetual help are three windows depicting various apparitions of the Virgin Mary:

Our Lady of Mr. Carmel (also patroness of the Carmelites, St. Therese's religious community.)
Our Lady of Lourdes
Our Lady of Fatima.

In the Blessed Sacrament Chapel are three windows:
Abraham, Father of the Old Covenant contemplating the sacrifice of his son Isac
Melchizedch, symbol of the king and high priest, offering sacrifice of bread and wind at the gates of Jerusalem
Jesus Christ, The Sacrament of the New Covenant, Our Bread of Life.

In the choir loft are two windows:
St. Peter, First visible head of the Christian Church
St. Paul, Apostle of the Gentiles.

In the main body or nave of the Church are to be seen sixteen windows, their subjects highlighting the major mysteries in the life of Christ and his Church, and two saints particularly appropriate in their placement in the Shrine.

First, on the right of the church, as one looks toward the altar:
In the sanctuary is the window of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, patroness of the Shrine
The Annunciation
The Birth of Christ
The Presentation in the Temple
Finding the Child Jesus in the Temple at the age of twelve
The Wedding Feast at Cana
Jesus with Peter in his fishing boat
The Institution of the Eucharist.

On the left hand side of the church, named from the main entrance and working forward towards the altar:

The Last Supper and twelve Apostles
The Agony in the Garden
The Crucifixion
The Resurrection
The Ascension
Pentecost
and, above the organ pipes, a small round window of St. Cecelia, the patroness of music

The great rose window is in the extreme center of the Church's main entrance wall, uniting with color and size the entire collection of windows in the name.

There are also windows of colored glass in the vestibule and Baptismal Font areas of the building.

In the vestibule:

Entrance, south side: St. Columbia, Co-patron of the diocese with St. Therese. St. John the Evangelist, with the Eagle which symbolizes the spiritual heights to which his Gospel attains.

Behind the statue of the Pieta: Instruments from the story of the Passion of Christ.

In the small office: St. Aloysius Gonzago, patron of Bishop Aloysius Willinger, Bishop of Fresno when the Shrine was built.

In the Baptismal area:

Behind the font: St. John the Baptist and Jesus at the Jordan River for the baptism of Christ.

To the left: The Holy Spirit, represented as a dove above the waters of Baptism in which a fish swims, symbol of the Christian alive in the Spirit.

To the right: The three great theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity represented in symbol.

The pipe organ that adds so much to the celebration of the liturgies that take place in the Shrine of St. Therese was installed in the building in 1958. The instrument has 1,500 pipes.

A church tells the story of how a people feel about themselves and their God, how they view this action in their lives and in the history of their world. It is a lasting tribute to their faith and desire that things beautiful and precious surround their celebration of his mysteries, and that fitting remembrance be made of all those saints of God, known and unknown, who have preceded us in our journey to the eternal kingdom.

The Shrine of St. Therese is not only a fit monument to the Presence of God in our midst and a commemoration of a great woman whose very being sang God's song of love to us once more, but it is also an enduring tribute to the lives of quiet heroism among Christians of our own time and place striving to set aside a space dedicated to the sacred in their world. The Shrine of St. Therese is a shrine built on a foundation of reverence and joy for the reality of God incarnate in our times.