St. Madeleine Catholic Church to celebrate 100th anniversary on May 26
May 21, 2024
Staff report
HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. – All are welcome to join the congregation of St. Madeleine Catholic Church as they begin celebrating the 100th anniversary of the parish with the Centennial Inaugural Mass at 11:30 a.m. on May 26.
Bishop Baker, Bishop emeritus of Birmingham, AL, will be joined by many of the priests who have served the parish in the past. A reception will follow the Mass.
The church is located at 17155 NW U.S. Hwy 441 in High Springs.
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5 Comments
I wish they would build traditional beautiful churches instead of these modern monstrosities. Just a criticism about the architecture not the church or the people.
I think the phrase “if you can’t say something nice say nothing at all” applies here. I can’t come up with any reason that would justify the comment. I moved to Alachua and have attended this church. These “traditional beautiful churches” are expensive to build and the Alachua/High Springs community is not affluent enough to pull off a project of that magnitude. There were plans proposed many years ago to build such a church but were abandoned due to costs. Instead, a very nice remodel/renovation was done that really upgraded the facility.
This church is actually pretty great from an architectural standpoint- there used to a website up with decent photos from closer up around the exterior/ interior. Designed by Harry Merritt. This congregation is very fortunate their forebears opted to hire an architect interested in doing his job rather than copy and pasting a scaled down basilica design from the middle ages.
They have a shrine there that was the very first Catholic church in the region and a small cemetery. It’s a very special place.
Their chapter of the Knight of Columbus gives away an astonishing number of turkeys and other food for those in need around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It’s a special community. A lot of very decent people attend Mass there.
It’s a really interesting place. Check out the fish fry during Lent next year. They really go all out.
Wonder if the dragon’s claw foot is still in the office from when it was the Dragon Art Theater?