The Bells of St Anne
by Janette Boyd
Title
The Bells of St Anne
Artist
Janette Boyd
Medium
Photograph - Photo/texture/digital
Description
Photo of the Bells of St. Anne Catholic Church in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Added texture by Jai Johnson was added using Corel Paintshop to blend in color.
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St. Anne Catholic Church, like many of its administrators and parishioners, began in one place and was uprooted and relocated to another.
The church was dedicated in 1937, the same year Broken Arrow, then a rural community, became a parish. By the time the "little white church" was moved to Broken Arrow in 1936, it was already an experienced traveler. Built in Keifer in 1908, it was first moved to a construction site at the St. John Vianney Seminary near 101st Street and Yale Avenue.
In 1936, the building was moved to Broken Arrow in two sections and put on two acres of farm land donated by the Connery family. In 1937, Bishop Francis Clement Kelley, Oklahoma's second bishop, laid the cornerstone for St. Anne Roman Catholic Church.
The church retained a mission status until 1948, when the parish was entrusted to the Capuchin Order, according to church history. The Capuchins trace their origins back to the 13th century and St. Francis of Assisi and St. Clare of Assisi. Today, it is one of the largest religious orders in existence in the Catholic Church.
Among the Capuchins who came to Broken Arrow and St. Anne Roman Catholic Church were Holocaust survivors who endured the horrors of Dachau concentration camp. Dachau, established in 1933, was originally intended for political prisoners. According to Wikipedia, more than 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau, one-third of which were Jews. Dachau also served as the central camp for Christian religious prisoners.
Records of the Roman Catholic Church reflect at least 3,000 religious, deacons, priests, and bishops were imprisoned there, among them members of the Capuchin Order of Monks. The inmates of Dachau were liberated April 29, 1945, by three divisions of the U.S. Army, one of which was the U.S. 45th Infantry Division, comprised of men from Oklahoma.
When Father Alexius, one of the freed monks, was unable to return to his own country, he and other monks came to Broken Arrow. Members of the order erected buildings and graded roads without heavy equipment. They drew no salary and relied on outside work to support the church. The church also received the monks' indemnity checks, which were given to them by the German government as compensation for experiments conducted on them during the war.
In 1952, a four-room school was built on seven acres of land purchased from the Connery family that was the beginning of St. Anne School, which was later renamed All Saints Catholic School. The present church building was dedicated Dec. 10, 1982.
https://tulsaworld.com/archive/monks-freed-from-dachau-helped-build-st-anne-community/article_da72f64a-a33c-53e3-a011-2f2107638828.html
Uploaded
April 5th, 2021
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Viewed 164 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 03/28/2024 at 2:04 PM
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Comments (2)
Randy Rosenberger
Bravo! You have been chosen to have your beautiful piece of artwork from your portfolio featured on the homepage of our Wisconsin Flowers and Scenery Group. It is with honor an privilege that I have chosen this particular piece of your works to be a feature on our homepage due to its striking appearance, color, composition, and simply the fact that I really like it. Congrats on your feature!