Barre City – 

Sometimes a trip just falls into your lap.  We had to head to Barre for a basketball event, so of course we needed to be tourists for the afternoon.  Luckily the event was held at St. Monica’s-St. Michael’s School, which is conveniently located just behind St. Monica’s Catholic Church.  We headed into the school for the event, but then I took a little break to explore inside the church building, which was open because there was an event going on in the conference space downstairs.  

St. Monica’s is odd in many ways. If you look at historical photos, which I will link to below, it looks like it was a beautiful church when it was built. At first, I thought it may have been another situation where they tore down the original building and rebuilt, but after exploring the inside, I don’t think that was the case.  I think that at some point during a post-Vatican II wreckovation scenario, they added on a mid-century-style entryway to the front of the building.  From the outside, the church looks very modern, and with the glass, the angles, the carpeting, when you walk it, it feels very modern.  But when you walk into the church, you can see that when it was built in 1887 it was probably beautiful. There’s a crucifix in the entryway that I have to wonder if it wasn’t somewhere inside the church originally. The current crucifix over the altar is very modern looking and doesn’t seem to fit.  I was standing there trying to imagine what it would look like with the high altar and the communion rail installed. When I turned around and looked up, I was dreaming of large pipes for an organ, but there were none to be found.  

The stained glass windows were large and beautiful, filling the space with color and light.  And as weird as the 1973 renovation made the church feel, the stations of the cross were amazing. I would recommend going just to look at the carvings.  

Here is a page about St. Monica’s that I found interesting, although nothing is cited, so take it for what it’s worth.  It has a few historical photos, so I no longer have to wonder what the altar and communion rail would’ve looked like. https://revealer.com/monica/ When you peruse this site, check out what the church and the rectory originally looked like! Look at the interior of the church. I imagine that some people walk into a church like St. Monica’s and think it’s beautiful. But, do they know the beauty that was lost over the years? 

After visiting St. Monica’s we made a quick drive to the Hope Cemetery, also in Barre City. Hope Cemetery has some of the most amazing headstones and mausoleums that I’ve ever seen. You can certainly tell that granite carving was the prominent art form of Barre for a long time.  The details are spectacular. It’s like visiting an outdoor sculpture museum.  We had a fun time driving around and seeing all of the interesting headstones.  I think I liked the mausoleums the best, but the headstones that stood out were a replica of the Pieta, an airplane, a race car, and a soccer ball.