St. Monica - St. George Catholic Church

History

The congregation of St. Monica in Clifton Heights, Cincinnati, became interested in building a church of their own in the late 1890s. Their plan was delayed when the Franciscan monks of St. George church, on the corner of Calhoun and Vine, expressed concern that building a new church within such proximity to theirs would split their congregation. This tension caused approval to establish the church to be delayed until 1911, when an agreement was reached that St. George would continue to serve the neighborhood of Corryville, while St. Monica would serve the communities of Fairview and Clifton Heights.

The congregation was first gathered together in an old dwelling house for Sunday services. In 1912, a temporary structure in the form of a school, which still stands today, was built for the parish of St. Monica. The church was dedicated in December of 1912, and a parade was held to celebrate its opening. St. Monica School was opened in the fall of 1913, and was operated by the Ursuline Sisters. The school building was used for worship until 1927, when Edward J. Schulte and Robert Crowe designed a permanent building for St. Monica in the style of Italian Romanesque revival. By the late 1930s, St. Peter in Chains Cathedral, located in downtown Cincinnati, had grown so dilapidated that the Archdiocese designated St. Monica as the city’s cathedral in 1938. St. Monica served as the cathedral until 1957, once St. Peter in Chains was renovated and rededicated as the city’s cathedral.

St. George Catholic Church was a parish run by Franciscan friars located in a large red brick Romanesque style church designed by Samuel Hannaford, about one mile east of St. Monica. St. George had been in operation since 1873, and their Newman Center, which was established to serve the student population of the University of Cincinnati, opened in the 1970s. Given St. George’s active student congregation, the parish was known to be lively and progressive in its beliefs, welcoming people of all races, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. 

Over the course of the 70s and 80s, both St. Monica and St. George experienced a decline in their membership due to shifts in neighborhood demographics and Catholic worshiping habits, as mass attendance began to decline—from 1960 to 1992, average church attendance dropped from 1,400 to 400 at St. Monica, and 2,100 to 900 at St. George. This led the Archdiocese to decide to merge St. George church and Newman Center with St. Monica.

Both church’s congregations harbored concerns that the fundamental character of each of the parishes would be lost with the merger— a quote in the Catholic Telegraph from 1993 states, “whether it is true or not, some older people at St. Monica’s have the perception that there is much clapping and holding hands at St. George’s and this makes them ill at ease." Despite these concerns, the merger was carried out in 1993, and years afterward, the congregation of the newly-formed St. Monica-St. George was described by parishioners as full of the students’ youthful, progressive energy, as well as a spiritual home for the parish’s older worshippers.

The Franciscan friars continued their ministry in St. Monica-St. George Church until 2020, when they were relocated to St. Francis Seraph.

Architecture 

St. Monica’s church was designed by Crowe and Schulte, an architectural firm that designed dozens of Catholic churches in Cincinnati and beyond from 1921-1934. Schulte was the Cincinnati Archdiocese’s leading architect at the time, and even today holds the title of being the only architect of the 20th Century to have built four cathedrals. St. Monica’s design was inspired by the Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, a 6th Century Byzantine basilica in Ravenna, Italy. The church is located on the corner of McMillan St., Ravine St., and Fairview Ave., formerly a rocky area standing at the top of Clifton Heights. It was built for a total cost of $250,000, and its construction was finished in 1928. 

The exterior of St. Monica is made up of Bedford limestone with decorative molding around the building’s windows and edges. At one time, the stone was colored in bands of “blue, gray, and buff,” but those colors have since faded to gray. The building’s roof is made of Roman clay tiles trimmed with copper, now oxidized. It is 164 feet in length and 90.5 feet in width, with the nave of the church standing at 60 feet. The church’s 144 foot campanile sits at the rear of the building, and still rings 5 minutes before masses begin. Rather than a conventional entrance, the front facade of the building is decorated by a bas-relief sculpture carved by Cincinnati sculptor Clement J. Barnhorn, renowned for his ecclesiastic works. Barnhorn’s sculpture, the “Crucifixion Group”, was awarded the Sax Prize in 1930. Barnhorn also created a bronze figure of St. Monica which rests on a pierced brass baldicino behind the church’s main altar. A 17 foot wide, Gothic-style stain-glass rose window, facing West, is situated just above the Crucifixion Group sculpture.

Inside the church, large marble columns run down either side of the nave. Above each column is a circular portrait of different Catholic saints, painted in a Byzantine style and backgrounded by gold leaf. The ceiling of the church is made of wood with exposed trusses. These are decorated with stylized paintings, and floral and geometric-pattern stenciling, that were painted in the 1930s. The apse of the dome, just above the main altar, is adorned with a large mural of the holy trinity painted by Cincinnati artist Carl Zimmerman, with a background of pure gold leaf. Many of the church’s walls are adorned with colored tiles, arranged in geometric patterns. The building’s clerestory contains 64 German-imported stain-glass windows crafted by the Zettler Company, depicting Catholic icons, biblical scenes, and the life of St. Monica. The windows cost $25,000 when they were installed in the 1920s. In the 2000s, these windows were meticulously removed, cleaned, and replaced for a cost of $280,000. The church has a seating capacity of 900, and is home to a full and functioning pipe organ.

In 2017, St. Monica-St. George parish installed LED lighting and a solar array on the school building, paid for entirely by the church’s parishioners— the first parish in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati to make such an effort toward sustainable energy sourcing.

Did You Know? St. Monica St. George, January 10th 2020. Accessed November 6th 2020. https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/did-you-know-st-monica-st-george/62403.

History of St. George, Old St. George: 1868-2008. Accessed November 6th 2020. https://digital.libraries.uc.edu/exhibits/arb/stgeorge/history.php.

"Interesting Budget of News from the Various Parishes: St. Monica." The Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati) November 7th 1912. , Archdiocese of Cincinnati sec, 5-5.

Kuntz, Barbara. "Area Catholics face changing times, places, pastors." The Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati) July 3rd 1993. , Local News sec.16A.

Langsam , Walter E.. Biographical Dictionary of Cincinnati Architects, 1788-1940, Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati. 2008. Accessed November 6th 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20111005211848/http://www.architecturecincy.org/Dictionary/S.html#schulte.

"Return to Early Christian Ideals in Architecture of Beautiful New St. Monica Church." The Catholic Telegraph (Cincinnati) December 15th 1927.

St. Monica Roman Catholic Church, Sacred Spaces of Greater Cincinnati and the German Influence. Accessed November 6th 2020. https://digital.libraries.uc.edu/exhibits/arb/sacredSpaces/st_Monica.php.

St. Monica St. George Parish, History in Your Own Back Yard. December 10th 2016. Accessed November 6th 2020. https://historyinyourownbackyard.com/video/st-monica-st-george-parish/.

Writers' Program of the Works Projects Administration. Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors. Cincinnati, Ohio. Wiesen-Hart Press, 1943.