of Most Pure Heart of Mary Parish

By Julianna Falls and Emily Sheldon

1960's Mass in Most Pure Heart of Mary School gym (ARCHIVES BOOK 2) 

The Most Pure Heart of Mary Church has gone through a lot of renovations.

It started out in the basement of the school and then progressed to the gym, which

is shown in the photograph above. The masses were being celebrated in these places,

because the church hadn't been built yet. It started to be constructed in 1961.  

The Church's Baptistry being created in the mid 1960s (ARCHIVES BOOK 3)

The Baptistry was once used to celebrate baptisms. Vatican 2 later

wanted baptisms to take place on the sancutary, because the adult/child was joining the

Church family. From then on, the Sacrament of Baptism was celebrated on the sanctuary.

This is a picture of the alter before the brass gates were taken off. (ARCHIVES BOOK 3)

"This is a view toward the main alter of the Most Pure Heart of Mary Roman Catholic Church of

Topeka, Kansas in 1976. It shows the striking interior design. To break up sound reflection from the many

hard finished surfaces, Pittsburg Corning cellular glass Geocoustic units were applied along both sides and

on the face of the balcony. " (Archives Book 3)

This is the church before the carpet was put in place. The tiles on the wall are brand new.

They were used to collect sound and to keep the church from echoing. (ARCHIVES BOOK 3)

Before the church had carpeting, it had tile flooring. The church also had

only one alter. The second alter was put in later on. The blocks on the walls

were added to keep the church from echoing so much. There was a

kneeler on the alter for the servers to kneel on.

This is the newer, more recent alter. Both of the alters contain reliquaries of two

martyred saints. The alter has the Alpha and the Omega symbols on it. They are also

known as the Chi and the Rho.

The second alter was added to allow the priest turn to face the assembly.

That was another change ordered by Vatican 2. They said that the presider

should open up to the assembly during prayer. The first alter was never

moved, because it was being used to hold the tabernacle.

To the left is a picture of the Pieta. A copy of it (on the right) was recently added to our church's collection of statues. It is made out of bronze.
Original Pieta

The original Pieta was made by the artist Michelangelo. It was sculpted in

Italy, and was made out of marble, and was made in circa 1498-1499. It now rests

in the St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Its size is 5' 3/4" x 6'. It now has a protective

glass case, because of an incident in 1972. A madman had tried to smash the

sculpture. Our sculpture was just added in September 2001.

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