Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church
Introduction
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Originally built in 1857, Our Lady of Lourdes Church is the oldest continuously used church in the city, and the first in the country to be named after the small French town where, Catholics believe, a little girl named Bernadette De Lourdes saw the Virgin Mary. The church first belonged to the First Universalist Society which sold it to the French Canadian community in 1877. The community expanded the church, adding the bell tower, sacristy, and transepts. By 1968 the church was under threat of demolition. Fortunately, the city prevented this from happening and started to revitalized the area and the church remains an important landmark for the city.
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Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church is the oldest continuously used church in Minneapolis.
Sources
"History." Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Accessed March 31, 2017. http://ourladyoflourdesmn.com/parish/history.
"Our Lady of Lourdes Church." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed March 31, 2017. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?MarkerID=51065.
Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri, Wikimedia Commons
"Our Lady of Lourdes Church." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed March 31, 2017. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?MarkerID=51065.
Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri, Wikimedia Commons