St. Peter’s in the Loop

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Each morning I take the bus downtown and walk past countless office buildings on my way to work.  Before I get my coffee, most of the glass windows and brick facades seem to blend together.  The exterior of Saint Peter’s Church in the Loop, however, which features Latvian sculptor Arvid Strauss’ three-story, 26-ton crucifix sculpted from Georgia pink marble, always catches my eye.  In fact, stopping to stare at Strauss’ “Christ of the Loop” has become a fixture of my daily routine.

Since I have spent so much time looking at the exterior of St. Peter’s, I decided to spend some time exploring the interior of the church.  After work, I left my office, fought my way through the busy streets, and entered the golden doors of St. Peter’s.  Although I had only walked a few steps into the building, in the serene marble sanctuary I felt far removed from the rest of the city.  Indeed, as I passed by the bubbling baptismal fountain, took my seat in front of the huge white marble altar, and listened to the congregants sing their hymns, I began to completely forget about the speeding cars and crowded sidewalks outside.

When the service ended, I walked to the front office to meet Friar Joe, a member of the church’s Franciscan order.  I explained who I was and he kindly agreed to pause his game of free cell and show me around the building.  As we walked around the sanctuary, Friar Joe began to explain the history of St. Peter’s.  Although St. Peter’s is now a hallmark of Madison Street, it has not always been located there.  Instead, German immigrants built the original St. Peter’s Church on Clark Street in 1863.  After the original St. Peter’s fell into disrepair, however, the brothers of the Franciscan order purchased the LaSalle Theater and in 1953 used the site to build St. Peter’s Church in the Loop.

Since construction ended, the church has stayed a very busy place, operating many floors, each with its own purpose.  In addition to the sanctuary, where several masses are held each day, the church also has a basement filled with offices for counseling and adult education programs, a third floor balcony for the choir, and a fourth floor with living spaces for the Franciscan brothers.  However, while I enjoyed the view from the third floor and found the integration of offices and living spaces into the church very interesting, without a doubt, the highlight of my trip was my visit to the second floor.

When Friar Joe and I arrived on the second level, I was initially skeptical of his choice to save that floor until the end of the tour.  Although the second floor featured several panes of stained glass, there was little else worthy of note.  However, after a few moments, Friar Joe opened one of the panels and asked me to walk to the patio outside.  There I found myself standing on a platform just a few feet away from the towering crucifix statue that had drawn me to the church in the first place.  Although I had looked at St. Peter’s from Madison Street every day of the summer, from my vantage point directly behind the sculpture, the towering figure took on a much more intimate persona and I could see the finer details of the arms and torso.  I could even make out a tinge of sadness in the figure’s facial expression.

After taking several pictures, I reentered the church through the stained glass window and walked back to the main sanctuary.  I thanked Friar Joe for his wonderful tour, and after I let him get back to his game of free cell, I walked back through the golden doors and back into the busy city, very happy that I stopped to take a look inside St. Peter’s in the Loop.

Homepage: www.stpetersloop.org

Address:

 St. Peter’s in the Loop

110 West Madison St.

Chicago, IL 60602

Tel: (312)-372-5111

E-mail: stpeterloop@aol.com

Nearby Attractions: Millennium Park

Nearby Food: Ruby of Siam