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Divine Design
HOME & GARDEN
Written by Antonia DePace
Photography by Kit Noble
Behind the new look of the Parish of St. Mary Our Lady of the Isle.
In the summer of 2022, Bob Monahan sat down in the familiar pews for mass at the Parish of St. Mary Our Lady of the Isle. This was hardly his first time in the church—he had been attending on island for the past 36 years, but it was in this moment that he realized that the building was in need of some upgrades. He immediately went to Father John Murray—starting an inside-out renovation of both the church and the rectory on Orange Street. “The church was not in bad condition, but it was like any home that needed to be updated,” explains Murray. “We wanted it to be reverent and prayerful and something that was going to draw people into the church… into the warmth of what Jesus Christ offers, as opposed to just a nice decorative building on the island.”
The team—consisting of Monahan at the helm, Murray, interior designer and parishioner Jill Vieth, Steve Hollister of Hollister Consulting, St. Mary’s business manager Soo Woodley and facilities manager Brian Davis, and longtime parishioner Tom Bresette—started construction this past January, during which they ordered new pews, chandeliers, carpeting and paint colors. “This project took a very holistic approach towards connection—to our faith, to the ancient scriptures and the people the church brings together—the parish community, the seasonal community, and anyone who walks inside the church. Every detail was considered for them,” Vieth says.
To start, everything had to be ripped out of the building, including the pews, which were at least 60 years old. But rather than throwing them away, Murray decided to give them away. According to Monahan, locals began lining up at the church at 7:30 a.m. on the day the pews were ready, and by 9:15 a.m., they were all gone. Murray compares it to the church’s mission itself. He says, “Really taking the sacred from the church and bringing it into the ordinary moments of everyday life, that’s really the point.… It’s the point of the church that you enter into the sacred space, you take that which is sacred, and you bring it back into the ordinary experience of everyday life to really sanctify your life.”
Once emptied, one of the most important goals was to fully connect the church’s design. The last major renovation began in the late 1990s under the supervision of Father Thomas Lopes, who departed from the church once the project was complete in 2000. One example of this is through the brand-new pews. As a nod to the previous generation, Vieth made sure to have the same cross incorporated on the sides, just as the old pews had featured.
Another example lies within the arch behind the altar, which the team completely redid with crosses that replicate the ones in the stained glass windows behind it. They called upon local artist Pen Austin to do the work. “If you look at some of the old pictures of the church back to the 1950s, there were designs of crosses going up around the arch,” Murray explains. “They had been covered over because it’s hard to do that kind of artwork.” Outside, the statue of St. Mary is in the process of being repaired, and the church’s exterior will get a fresh coat of paint and new landscaping. Masses were officially moved back into the church on March 28, Holy Thursday (they were hosted in the basement while work was being done). Next, the work on the rectory will begin with an expected completion of summer 2025.
The total cost of the renovations is approximately $5 million, which the church is still raising money for. “A lot of people were employed by working on the church, and for them, it was all a labor of love,” Murray says. He adds, “This is work that will impact the current members of our parish as well as those of the future.”
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