From Gun Enthusiast Says Catholic Leaders Aren't Following Bible
Possenti fired a shot from the .36 caliber cap-and-ball revolver that hit a lizard crossing the street, scaring away the renegades, Snyder added.
Posted on 04/25/2007 1:26:09 PM PDT by NYer
HERSHEY — A wooden altar that graced the first Roman Catholic church in Derry Township has been discovered in the basement of a Hershey business.
Hershey-area historian Millie Landis-Coyle has been on the trail of the altar, as well as other artifacts, from St. Lucy’s Chapel for several years.
Landis-Coyle, who is active in the Hershey-Derry Township Historical Society, has been researching the history of the township. It was through her work that she was able to locate the altar, which was found at 349 W. Chocolate Ave.
“We also have traced the baptismal font and candlesticks from the church,” she said.
St. Lucy’s is believed to have been built by the owner of the Pennsylvania Free Brown Stone Co. for his workers, she said.
The company recruited and hired many Italian immigrants to work in the quarries, but there were no nearby Catholic churches in which the immigrants could worship, she explained.
The chapel was built on a hill in Waltonville around 1903. The Harrisburg Diocese assigned a priest to say Mass at the mission church on Sundays and Holy Days, she said.
During her research, Landis-Coyle interviewed people who remembered the mission church. One former member, she said, recalled how a priest would ride a horse from Harrisburg to say Mass.
Old photos of the chapel show it had a steeple, she said. However, it’s hard to tell from the photos whether it was built using the brownstone from the nearby quarries, she added.
In 1920, a new church — what is today St. Joan of Arc — was dedicated in Hershey. The mission church was placed under the auspices of that church. By 1929, the brownstone company went out of business. Many of the immigrant workers moved to Hershey and went to work for Milton Hershey at his chocolate plants, she said. Eventually, St. Lucy’s was abandoned.
For years, local historians knew the church altar, probably built by the brownstone workers, was in the basement of a Hershey home, Landis-Coyle said. Recently, she approached the owner of that home, which is now the Curtis J. Walizer State Farm Insurance office.
Walizer, who bought the property in 1991, said he was surprised to learn the altar could be in the basement of his business.
“I had no idea it was there,” he said.
When Landis-Coyle contacted him about the altar, he said he didn’t remember seeing it. But his daughter, Brooke, spotted a corner of the altar underneath a plywood front on a 1950s-style bar in the basement, he said. The top of the altar was covered by Formica.
Landis-Coyle and her husband, Frank, went to see the altar and helped remove the wood that encased it.
“We ripped all of the stuff off, and we were thrilled to find it,” Landis-Coyle said. “I think the coverings helped to preserve it.”
She said the wooden altar was in near-perfect condition. It had been rumored to be a marble altar, so she said she was surprised to find that it was not.
“These (immigrants) were poor people, but they were artistic,” she said, referring to the decorative carvings on the front of the altar.
The only thing missing from the piece is the altar stone, she said. It was replaced with a wooden block.
According to the Rev. Philip G. Burger, pastor of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, 359 W. Areba Ave., the altar stones were used to hold the relics of saints, and a cloth was placed over the stone. It was on that part of the altar where the priest would consecrate the bread and wine for the Mass.
Burger said he had heard rumors about the altar as well.
“I was surprised they actually found it,” he said.
Burger said he hopes to obtain the altar from Walizer within the next month.
“My plan is to get it restored and to use it again,” he said.
As for the missing altar stone, Burger said, sacred items like that were often taken back by the churches. He speculated the stone from St. Lucy’s may have been placed in one of the altars at St. Joan of Arc.
Glad they found it before it was shipped to Mexico or China.
Some of the most magnificent Catholic Churhes in this country were built by the poorest immigrants, who sacrificed all for the glory of God.
I know of two examples. Both were built by Italian immigrants. One is St. Anthony's in my hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and the other is Holy Rosary in Washington, DC.
Pictures! We need pictures!
My goddaughter was baptized at Holy Rosary, a beautiful church - almost like a little piece of olde Rome dropped right down in DC!
What a wonderful, interesting story!
The first permanent church of our parish in St. Augustine was located on a spot currently occupied by a brewpub, the A1A Aleworks (great place and highly recommended, btw). Since St. Augustine is the patron saint of brewers, I guess that’s appropriate.
It’s amazing what you find out when you start tracing things back. This woman did great detective work.
It really is! I went in there for the first time during Lent for Confession, since all of the parishes in the Washington Archdiocese were open on Wednesday evenings for Confession. They had something in there that I had never seen before - a statue of St. Gabriel Possenti. It was good to see!
My Pennsyvania ancestors also built Catholic Churches in Pennsylvania. Although I wasn’t raised Catholic, my lineage is pretty much exclusivly Catholic. I didn’t realize it until I had become a Catholic though, probably because I wasn’t looking.
Yeah, they have some wondereful relics and statues. my gues is that if you wanted to confess in latin or Italian that the priest would not have missed a beat.
I don’t recall the Possenti statue, but I’ll look for it on my next trip.
So, what caliber is St. Gabriel packing?
From Gun Enthusiast Says Catholic Leaders Aren't Following Bible
Possenti fired a shot from the .36 caliber cap-and-ball revolver that hit a lizard crossing the street, scaring away the renegades, Snyder added.
Good thing the NY Post didn’t get this story. They couldn’t’ve resisted this: “Catholic Altar Found Inside Hershey Bar.”
So that’s why all the people in those Westerns are Italian!
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