St. Ignatius, MT High 84 Low 57 Smokey
A little background. I was born and raised in Montana. Left Montana when I went to college. After a year of college, decided that was not for me and headed to Salt Lake to attend LDS Business College. Lived and worked in Salt Lake for a few years and then decided to move to San Diego where I went to work for the IRS. After a few years, transferred back to Montana. From there I got a position with the IRS in Washington, D.C. When I was living in Virginia, Jim asked me to dance. That led to marriage and Todd and several years later we moved back to Montana. Retired from the IRS in Billings, MT and started RVing.
The reason for this long intro was to show you that I have lived in Montana many, many years. But until we started RVing, I never did much exploring in my own backyard. Now we are slowly checking things off my Montana list.
(The speck of blue is Dianna)
On that list was the Mission at St. Ignatius. The Mission was built in the early 1890’s at the site known as "Snyeỉmn"--a Salish term signifying "a place where something was surrounded". The Mission is surrounded by the beautiful Mission Mountains.
The church is unique because its walls and ceilings have 58 original paintings by Brother Joseph Carignano an untrained artist who worked as a cook in the mission.
They were holding mass when we arrived so we explored the other buildings on the grounds.
This house was built in 1864 and was the first residence of the Providence Sisters. They were the first Catholic Sisters in the state of Montana.
Fr. Peter De Smet who founded the Mission.
The people started exiting the church after Mass and we were able to go inside. It is beautiful. I love visiting old churches. (I’m not good at taking pictures of ceilings so I hope you figure out what these are.)
The priest photobombed this picture.
Located at the back of the Mission are two paintings of the Salish Lord and Lord’s mother (in Native American form).
The Church is trying to raise money to save the frescoes in the church which are starting to fall apart. It would be a horrible loss if they cannot restore these paintings.
We are the same. We seldom explore our own backyard. I am surprised that they let you take pictures.
ReplyDeleteFunny I worked for the IRS many years and also visited the church above coming back from Glacier National Park with my sister. Montana was beautiful but got a taste of prejudice from both sides while traveling through Montana. At a historical restaurant, we were eating lunch when an elderly cowboy couple made racist comments about Native Americans; at the Crow Fair Pow Wow we heard racist remarks about White people. This happened two years ago. I guess the Natives and Cowboys are too close for comfort haha
ReplyDeletethe interior of the church is just gorgeous. I hope they can save it.
ReplyDeleteYet another interesting adventure.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't realized you'd lived such varied places. You were a nomad even before you became an RVer. :)
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to explore your own back yard, amazing what you will find right there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the background info. The church inside is really something.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Church!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful church. We always tend to visit places far away but never take time to see interesting places close until we have out-of-town visitors to show around. I understand that completely.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in upstate New York but did not "explore the area" until we were fulltiming:)
ReplyDeleteGorgeous church. I hope someone steps up and makes a big contribution to help restore the paintings.
ReplyDeleteI think most people don't explore their immediate hometowns. We are guilt. We have been to tons of state capitals but haven't been to Ohio's. Sad really.