Church #53 - St. Casimir, Providence

To call this parish "distinctive" would be an understatement. It's a Lithuanian church on Smith St. in Providence that has one Mass a week, with roughly 20 people in the congregation on this particular Sunday. St. Patrick's parish takes care of them administratively, and they have a consistent guest priest who drives over and says the Mass for them. The parish is a great little community, since (for obvious reasons) they all know each other, so there was a lot more chatter before Mass than you normally find.

Picture of the choir from 1937 on the way down the balcony stairs

As mentioned above, this parish is extremely ethnic. Most of the laity's parts of the Mass are said in Lithuanian, as well as the first and second readings. There's Lithuanian writing everywhere, including on handouts at the front of the church. They also had a handout giving the Sunday readings in English. There's one particular woman who seems to more or less run the church, who talked to Tom and I a lot and showed us a bunch of stuff in the church. She told us that her deceased husband's name is on a Lithuanian memorial outside.

There are lots of great icons and statues in the church. There are also wonderful paintings on the ceiling, though they're pretty faded with age. My favorite is a statue of St. Ann, who to my delight appeared to be teaching Mary about numbers. A friend pointed out that the scroll probably stands for the Ten Commandments, but I'd prefer to think of it as Mary learning Math. There are also two pictures made of amber - one of Mary above a decorative tabernacle, and one of a Bishop. I have never heard of such a thing before, and I have no idea why or how someone decided to make them. Is it somehow a Lithuanian thing?

St. Casimir was a Polish/Lithuanian prince, and he is the patron Saint of both countries. His religious life didn't really blossom until later in his life, but he had such a talented reputation as a young man that Pope Pius XII also named him special patron of all youth. Upon his death, he became most famous for appearing to a Lithuanian army and guiding them safely over a river so that they could relieve a beseiged city.