Once the largest English-speaking parish in the U.S, with 25,000 parishioners, Church of the Holy Family’s boundaries, at one time, extended from the south branch of the Chicago River west to Austin Boulevard—a distance of nearly seven miles.
 
“It’s estimated that since 1857 when the parish opened more than 56,000 persons were baptized here and generations of couples exchanged their wedding vows in this church,” Father Gabriel, said.
 
Church of the Holy Family is the city’s only example of pre-Civil War Victorian architecture. It is one of five public buildings to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The church embodies the cultural heritage and ethnic diversity of the City of Chicago.
 
“Known as the ‘Ellis Island of the Midwest,’ Holy Family welcomed waves of immigrants to Chicago. The original congregation was comprised of Irish immigrants. It’s estimated that one-third of Chicago’s Irish trace their roots to Church of the Holy Family. They were followed by German, Italian, African-American and Hispanic people,” Father Gabriel noted.
 
Father Damen established a network of elementary schools that served nearly 5,000 students. He founded Saint Ignatius College which became Saint Ignatius High School and later Loyola University of Chicago, two of the city’s important educational institutions.
 
O’Learys and Comiskeys Among Early Holy Family Parishioners
 
Among the memorable Chicago families who worshiped at Church of the Holy Family were Catherine and Patrick O’Leary, whose small barn at De Koven and Jefferson streets on the east side of the parish, was said to have ignited during a lengthy fall drought on October 8, 1871 and sparked the Great Chicago Fire.
 
According to Holy Family’s records, between 1860 and 1866, three O’Leary children were baptized in the church: Cornelius, 1860; James, 1863 and Catherine, 1866. The family lived at 137 De Koven Street, now 537 under the city’s 1909 numbering system and the site of the Chicago Fire Academy today.
 
John Comiskey, president of the Chicago City Council, was an active member of the parish who walked the neighborhood collecting funds for the new parish.  He is memorialized in one of the church’s 12 round clerestory windows, the oldest stained glass in Chicago which dates to 1860. His son, Charles Comiskey, baseball player, manager and founder of the Chicago White Sox, was a member of the parish and one of the first students to enroll in Saint Ignatius College in 1870.
 
Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American saint, was a familiar figure in the neighborhood as she raised funds for nearby Columbus Extension Hospital in 1911.
 
Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVMs) Serve Holy Family for 150 Years
Many vocations to the priesthood and religious life were fostered in Holy Family, said Ellen Skerrett, Chicago historian and author, who wrote a history of Loyola University of Chicago. 
 
“Four religious communities made many important contributions to the parish: the Society of Jesus (Jesuits); Religious of the Sacred Heart, whose Convent Academy of the Sacred Heart was a landmark on Taylor Street in the parish from 1860 to 1908 when it became the Chicago Hebrew Institute; and the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVMs), whose members have served the parish for more than 150 years.  Additionally, the Sisters of Holy Family of Nazareth, a predominately Polish community, taught African American children at St. Joseph’s Mission School at 13^th and South Loomis Avenue in Holy Family parish for many years,” Skerrett said.  
 
“The BVMs arrived in Holy Family from Dubuque in 1867, shortly after the end of the War Between the States. The sisters opened St. Aloysius School for Girls on Maxwell Street between Jefferson and Clinton Street and St. Stanislaus (later renamed Sacred Heart) school was at 18^th street near Peoria Avenue.
 
“In collaboration with Father Damen, S.J., by 1893 the BVMs established and operated a network of elementary schools throughout the vast parish. Other schools were: St. Veronica at 18^th and Paulina Ave. later renamed St. Pius; Holy Guardian Angel in the 700 West block of Arthington St.; St. Joseph, at 1413 West 13^th St. and St. Agnes at the corner of Maxwell and Morgan streets,” Skerrett explained.
 
Over the years, members of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary have served Holy Family parish as educators, sacramental ministers and community outreach workers. In recent times, the late Sister Marion Murphy, B.V.M. served as Holy Family parish’s administrator. Today, members of the BVM community at Church of the Holy Family are active in pastoral ministry and community service programs.
 
Scores of Jesuit priests and brothers began their early education in the parish including: Rev. Gilbert J. Garraghan, S.J., who earned fame as an American historian; and Rev. Arnold J. Garvy, S.J., who founded St. Joseph’s Colored Mission in Church of the Holy Family parish and ministered to the area’s African American community in the 1930s and early 1940s.
 
Loyola University’s eighth president, Rev. Thomas S. Fitzgerald, S.J., grew up in the parish; Samuel Knox Wilson, S.J., the university’s 17^th president, attended Saint Ignatius College; Rev. Joseph M. Egan, S.J., the Jesuit school’s 18^th president, graduated from Holy Family elementary school as well as Saint Ignatius High School; and Rev. James F. Maguire, S.J., Loyola’s 20^th president, was born in the parish, baptized here and was a graduate of Saint Ignatius High School.
 
Other Jesuit apostolates stemming from Church of the Holy Family parish include the Ephpheta School for the Deaf established by Father Damen in 1884. Three years later it was operating in the rear of St. Joseph’s Home at 1100 South May Street. To meet the special needs of immigrants and their American-born children, the Sunday School Association was founded by Rev. Andrew O’Neill, S.J. and operated from 1868 to 1904. Rev. John Lyons, S.J. founded the Catholic Instruction League a movement that spread across the U.S.
 
Several community service organizations were founded in the neighborhood to serve Italian families in the Holy Family neighborhood. They included the St. Ann Day Nursery, 710 S. Loomis street, sponsored by the Catholic Women’s League, and the Madonna Center, 718 S. Loomis street.
 
The National Catholic Society of Foresters traces its beginnings to the Illinois Catholic Order of Foresters which began at Holy Family in 1883.  The national insurance society has served thousands of widows and orphans and made significant financial contributions to the restoration of Church of the Holy Family in recent years.

While most Holy Family parishioners were poor or at the most people of modest means, among prominent Chicagoans who lived in the parish between its founding and the first half of the 20^th century were: David Bremner, president, Bremner Brothers Baking Company, Charles Brennan, Cook County commissioner; Edward Brennan, who created Chicago’s unique street numbering system in 1909; John Campion, chief, Chicago Fire department; Harry F. Chaddick, a major real estate developer; and Col. Robert C. Clowry, president, Western Union Telegraph Company and a former officer in U.S. Military Telegraph Corps.
 
Philip Conley, U.S. Collector of Customs, helped Father Damen raise funds for the new church. Carter H. Harrison, mayor of Chicago, lived in the neighborhood and attended St. Ignatius College;
                                                                               
Other well-known parishioners were: James E. Gorman, president, Rock Island Rail System; Frank Lawler, member, U.S. House of Representatives; Simon O’Donnell, chief, Chicago Police department; William J. Onahan,  five-term City of Chicago Collector; president, Chicago Public Library Board; treasurer, 1893 Columbian World’s Fair Exposition and grandfather of Adm. Daniel Gallery, the World War II naval hero who captured the German submarine U-505; and Augustine Deodat Taylor, a Chicago pioneer who built the first Catholic church in Chicago, Old St. Mary’s in 1833 near State and Lake streets. He also is memorialized in one of the round 1860 clerestory windows high above Holy Family’s nave.   
 
During the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Holy Family was a place of refuge for thousands of survivors. Rt. Rev. Thomas Foley, Bishop of Chicago, lived at Saint Ignatius College while his residence on the north side was being rebuilt following the fire. In gratitude for Saint Ignatius College’s hospitality, Bishop Foley commissioned one of Chicago’s first natural history museums for the College. He engaged John Brunswick, a talented Swiss carpenter who later founded the Brunswick Corporation, to create what is known today as the school’s Brunswick Room that features butternut paneling, Eastlake-style bookcases and a balcony served by a curved staircase.
 
In 1874, Church of the Holy Family’s 226-foot tower designed by architect J.P. Huber, was the tallest structure in Chicago. The tower’s two bells, each weighing two tons, were cast by J. Stuckstede Co., St. Louis in 1863. Once hand-pulled by parishioners, some of whom still worship at Holy Family, the bells are now automated.
 
The tower houses a giant 130-year-old four-faced clock, now restored and gilded. First installed in 1877, the clock is now activated and synchronized by a crystal-controlled computer which maintains accurate time, even in the event of a power failure.
 
Church of the Holy Family’s original main altar—52 feet of elaborate wood carving with 13 wooden statues—was dedicated in 1865. It is the work of Anthony Buscher, a German immigrant. Anthony’s nephew, Sebastian Buscher, carved the altars of Mary and St. Joseph as well as the church confessionals.
 
The intricately carved walnut communion rail was installed in 1866. It is the work of Louis Wisner, who was engaged by his neighbor, Father Damen.  
 
A new altar, a simple wooden table of black walnut similar to the original used by Christ in the Last Supper, was designed by Chicago restoration architect, John Vinci and constructed by Michael Jarvi, a master craftsman on the staff of Crab Tree Farm, Lake Bluff, Illinois. It was consecrated by Auxiliary Bishop Raymond E. Goedert on the Feast of Corpus Christi in June, 2003.

A rare collection of 29- historic hand- carved gilded wooden angel orchestra statues, created by Charles Olivier-Dauphin in Montréal in 1870, now stand in their original site—the upper reaches of the second balcony of Church of the Holy Family atop the restored massive two-story organ case carved by Mitchell & Sons of Montréal in 1870. Church of the Holy Family angels represent the largest collection of Dauphin’s work anywhere in the world.
 
Only a few of the famous sculptor’s works remain in his native Canada. Most of his work has been destroyed in church fires or by demolition. Dauphin’s career as a woodcarver spanned 40 years and his workshop in Montréal was one of the city’s best known.
 
The group of nearly life-sized angels includes the 300 lb. King David of Israel with his harp; the prophetess Deborah and St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music and two large allegorical figures.  Each of the 24 members of an angel chorus plays a different musical instrument. – trumpet, clarinet, French horn, flute, violin, harp, tambourine, cymbal, even a banjo. Each angel wears distinctive clothing and all have unique poses and facial expressions. Canadian art historians have commented on the fine detail and expert workmanship in the statues.

Dieter Meister, a retired painter-decorator, volunteered more than 1,500 hours over several years to carefully strip, rebuild, restore and gild the 29-piece Dauphin angel collection.
The Mitchell organ case once housed the largest church organ in the United States but now has a donated historic 29-rank Rice Frobenius organ from Europe acquired for Church of the Holy Family and installed through grants by the Rice Foundation and the Hooper Foundation.
 
The organ was acquired for Holy Family by the Rice Foundation. A Hooper Foundation grant provided for the organ to be disassembled and shipped from Denmark to the Mühleisen Organ Builders’ workshop/studio in Leonberg, Germany where it was rebuilt. The organ was disassembled again and shipped across the Atlantic to Church of the Holy Family. Then, a three-person team from Germany spent several weeks reassembling, installing and voicing the instrument.
 
The restoration of the organ case, the statues and their return to the organ case was made possible through grants by the Cuneo Foundation, the Driehaus Foundation, Walsh Construction Company and the National Catholic Society of Foresters.
 
Prior to being placed into service, the massive two-story walnut organ case was reinforced, restored and cleaned by specialists from the Bradford Organ Company, Chicago who also carefully hoisted the 29 angels to their original perches atop the organ case.
 
Church of the Holy Family’s clerestory windows at the top of the nave are the oldest stained-glass windows in Chicago, dating to 1862. The other major stained-glass windows were installed in 1907 on the 50^th anniversary of the church.
 
Christmas 1990—Father George Lane, S.J. Leads A Race to the Wire to Save Church of the Holy Family from Demolition
 
Church of the Holy Family was closed in 1984 because of a leaking roof, interior plaster damage and limited resources to make necessary repairs. At Christmas 1987, its owners, the Chicago Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) announced plans to demolish Church of the Holy Family and build a small utilitarian worship center to serve a shrinking congregation. The following spring, parishioners began a campaign to counter the proposed demolition.
 
In 1988, the Holy Family Preservation Society was formed as a 501 (c) 3 not-for-profit corporation separate from the parish under the motto, “saving the past to serve the future.” Its goals were to secure a minimum of $3 million in cash to repair and restore the exterior, interior and mechanical systems of the massive church and to secure a $ 1 million endowment fund.
 
The Jesuit Province of Chicago countered with a unique challenge: the Province pledged $750,000 toward the endowment fund and gave the Preservation Society permission to raise restoration funds provided that $1 million in cash (no pledges) could be raised by December 31, 1990 or the church would be demolished.
 
After two years of aggressive fund raising, by mid-December 1990, the Society was some $300,000 short. So, the Holy Family Preservation Society launched a last-ditch national plea for funds, asking people to “say prayers and send money.”
 
Recalling the high drama of the final days of 1990, Rev. George A. Lane, S.J., a founding member of the Holy Family Preservation Society, who at the time served as president and publisher of Loyola Press, recounts in the parish history, “Miracle on Roosevelt Road,” “On the night of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Father Damen was in Brooklyn, New York preaching a mission at Saint Patrick’s Church. He received an urgent telegram telling him that a major fire had started in parishioners’ Patrick and Catherine O’Leary’s barn, a few blocks east of Church of the Holy Family, that threatened the church. 
 
“According to legend, Father Damen prayed all night and pledged that if the church and his parishioners’ homes were spared, he would create a shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. At the shrine, he would light seven candles, which would burn forever.
 
“The wind shifted, most of Chicago burned to the ground, but Church of the Holy Family and Saint Ignatius College were spared. When Father Damen returned to the city he made good on his promise. To this day, the seven candles are lit in Holy Family’s east transept,” Father Lane said.
 
Inspired by Father Damen’s pledge in 1871, Father Lane and the Preservation Society organized nightly prayer vigils on the steps of the shuttered The Church of the Holy Family in the closing days of December, 1990. But after four nights the Preservation Society still remained far short of its $1 million goal.
 
On Sunday, December 30, 1990, the Feast of the Holy Family, the church was opened to the public for the first time in six years. Chicagoans were urged to “come home to Holy Family” for a special one-day final open house and closing prayer vigil. An estimated 3,000 persons toured the church and nearly every one of them brought a donation and a personal story about their connections to this historic structure, Father Lane said.
 
Media around the world covered the compelling story of Holy Family, which a Chicago Tribune editorial termed, “the miracle of Roosevelt Road.” CNN, the Associated Press, Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today and all of Chicago’s print and broadcast media covered the heroic efforts of the church’s parishioners and many friends as they stood in freezing cold temperatures and “prayed in” the funds needed to save this historic Chicago building.
 
On January 1, 1991, the Holy Family Preservation Society announced that it had received $ 1.1 million cash, the church was saved from demolition. In subsequent years, more than $ 5 million was raised, renovations made and Holy Family restored to service.        
 
Church of the Holy Family and Chicago Fire Department
 
Church of the Holy Family has had a special relationship with members of the Chicago Fire Department dating to the early years of the parish and continuing until today when members of the CFD and their families attend a monthly family Mass at Holy Family.
 
In the 19^th century, Engine Company 18, just across Roosevelt Road, was one of the oldest fire companies in the city. Members would sit in the last pew in the church during Mass and when an alarm sounded would dash out to Roosevelt Road to join their fire company to respond to an alarm.
 
Church of the Holy Family escaped serious damage by a fire in 2003, that was quickly struck by members of Chicago Fire Department Engine Co. 18 who at the time were stationed in the firehouse across the street on Roosevelt Rd.

On July 1, 2019, the parishes of Church of the Holy Family and Notre Dame de Chicago officially merged.  Sunday Masses continued at Church of the Holy Family on an alternating basis with Notre Dame de Chicago until the COVID-19 pandemic stopped all in-person Masses throughout the Archdiocese of Chicago.  As of July 1, 2020, the newly merged parish moved all functions to Notre Dame de Chicago, and Church of the Holy Family reverted back to its Jesuit roots.

Today, the seven candles of Fr. Damen, S.J., continue to burn brightly as Church of the Holy Family and Saint Ignatius College Prep renew their partnership to prepare the church for a future that benefits Saint Ignatius students, staff, alumni and friends along with the community and city of Chicago. The church will serve as the beacon of Jesuit faith, service and education for future generations.

Under the leadership of Fr. Lukas Laniauskas, S.J., President of Church of the Holy Family Preservation Society, new initiatives will be taken to restore the church and adjacent spaces in a way that highlights Fr. Damen’s vision of marrying faith and education. The church will continue to be a focal point of Saint Ignatius College Prep’s spiritual formation and outreach. Additionally, the church will continue to serve brides and grooms for wedding celebrations, new parents who wish to baptize their children into the faith, and families who wish to celebrate the Rite of Christian Burial. 

(*Photos courtesy of Carole Lynn Photography and KADOC/KU Leuven)