Church #100 - Saint Lucy, Middletown (Two Thirds Done!)

I've driven by this church a bunch of times on the way to and from Newport, and I'd been inside it before for Adoration on a Friday night. I actually knew who St. Lucy was before coming here - she is one of the well known early Christian martyrs, and her name is included in the Canon of the Mass.

I came here for daily Mass on MLK day. The congregation was praying the rosary as I came in. The church forms a big semicircle around the altar, including the music area. There's a big baptismal font in the back as you come in. The only stained glass windows are a pair of rose windows at the front and back, with the floor-level windows giving you a normal view of the outside.

Church #99 - St. Madeleine Sophie, Tiverton

This is a relatively small parish in Tiverton, with only a pair of weekend Masses. It has a long and thin sanctuary area, with a pleasant interior smell of wood. There's a painting of John Paul II on the balcony in the back. I came here for the 9am Sunday Mass. As I've found typical in smaller parishes, the congregation was very friendly and largely seemed to all know each other.

St. Madeleine Sophie was a French saint who grew up during the French Revolution. Because of that Revolution she was unable to become a Carmelite the way she wished, since they and other religious orders were abolished in the country. Instead, she secretly founded a new order devoted to education called the Society of the Sacred Heart. The order currently has 2600 religious in 41 countries around the world.

Church #98 - St. Alexander, Warren

St. Alexander is the third and final church I've been to in Warren. Three of Warren's four church buildings are within about five minutes of each other on the same main street, including this one. There are a ton of St. Alexanders, and I can't tell which one this church is dedicated to. The church only has one Mass per week, on Sunday morning. The priest who says the Mass works at the Diocese: he's the "Defender of the Bond, Providence Tribunal," according to the bulletin. Before his homily, he prayed that it would be "humbly preached and humbly listened to."

The interior of the church is white, with big stained glass windows and a rose window above the altar. The tabernacle is off to the side. There's a painting of the Assumption on the ceiling which I forgot to get a good picture of. I went here on the Feast of the Epiphany, so the Mass concluded with the congregation collecting their blessed chalk and (I don't remember seeing this before) incense.

Church #97 - Precious Blood, Woonsocket

This is a large French church on Park Ave. in Woonsocket that is celebrating its 140th Anniversary. I came here with my Mom on New Years Eve for the Holy Day of Obligation. It has a high ceiling and a balcony with wraparound seating. The stained glass windows are detailed and enormous, and there are tons of statues and other artwork all over the front of the sanctuary. The Stations of the Cross are also bigger than usual, stone reliefs with their writing in French.

The parish shares some of its schedule and ministries with St. Agatha, including a youth group. It has several weekly devotions during or after daily Mass, including Adoration, Divine Mercy and (of course) the Litany of the Precious Blood. The church might also have the biggest sacristy I've ever been in, so big that it's where the daily Mass is held with tons of room to spare.

Church #96 - St. Brendan, East Providence

I went to Mass here in Riverside on Saturday morning. I'm pretty sure it was the best attended daily Mass I've been to so far, even including a couple of families with kids. The church is a semicircle that slopes down toward the altar. Nine tall stained glass windows behind the altar form a single image, which looks particularly cool when the church's lights are off. There are a ton of Christmas trees on the altar for the season, including a couple of enormous ones. The parish has a St. Vincent de Paul group and a pair of intercessory prayer lines - I wonder who operates those lines, and if they're just for this parish or if it's shared by other churches.

St. Brendan is one of the earliest Irish saints. He is considered one of the twelve apostles of Ireland, founding many monasteries in and around the island. He is chiefly known for a legendary journey to the Isle of the Blessed, searching for the Garden of Eden, that's told in the old Irish story Voyage of St Brendan the Navigator. There's a large stained glass window in the back of the church that shows  him (or at least I assume it's him) administering the Eucharist to some men on a ship.

Church #95 - St. Mary of the Bay, Warren

It's possible I should have counted this as two churches - St. Mary of the Bay is the name of the parish, but they have Masses at both that church and St. Jean Baptiste church right down the street. While clearly a much older building, St. Jean Baptiste has all the daily Masses (which is what I actually attended), as well as one Sunday Mass.

Can you tell that we're near the water?

St. Jean Baptiste has a white interior with a very creaky wood floor. It's fairly small, but that's helped by a large wraparound balcony. There's a huge cross in the front with a painting above it, as well as lots of statues. There clearly used to be more pews in the balcony that have since been taken out.

St. Mary of the Bay is definitely one of my favorite modern churches that I've seen. It has a slanted roof with a very cool stained glass ceiling in the middle, and enormous and interesting stained glass windows very similar to St. Michael's in Smithfield (Post #30). There's more glass behind the altar, and huge images of Jesus and Mary on either side of the altar area.