RAISING THE STAR

ST. MARY’S ICONIC BLUE STAR DAMAGED in windstorm

By now many of you have either seen or heard the news that our cross containing the iconic blue star of St. Mary's was damaged in the windstorm on Easter Monday and removed from the top of our steeple. The skyline looks different tonight.

Although this is really sad, we’re grateful that nobody was hurt. Additionally the church building and steeple look to be perfectly fine and structurally sound. The team that came to help was incredible and worked quickly... even on the day after Easter! While an insurance deductible will cover the work on the cross, we’d like to take the opportunity while a crane or scaffolding is on-site, to do much needed painting of the wooden slats and repairs to brick and mortar. If you are able to donate, please help us Raise the Star so we can get the bright star shining again on top of our church.

As the cross was removed from the steeple, we recovered two plastic bags containing stacks of envelopes. On the envelopes were the names of everyone who contributed to a previous restoration project in the 1960’s/1970’s. It struck us that many of those names are your parents or grandparents, our predecessors here in the parish. And they were rightly placed at the foundation of this iconic cross that was a guiding light here in South Baltimore. It was a touching moment in a hectic day.  

The cross will be fixed and it will return to its place on top of the steeple. The star will shine again. And you are the foundation and the reason for it all.  

UPDATE 4/19/20: The contractors who were so incredible in helping us now have the star-cross and are putting together a plan to return it to the top of St. Mary's as soon as possible. We're also going to do some much needed repairs and maintenance to the steeple itself.

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