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December 16, 2021SHATTUCK – Every night from Christmas Eve throughout the Christmas season parishioners at Holy Name Catholic Church leave the light’s on in the picturesque church as a sign to those passing by of God’s presence within, and as a means of proclaiming the Gospel without words.
In a small town of approximately 1,300 people, there are 10 active churches of various denominations, but the Catholic church is the only one on Main Street, which also is State Highway 283.
The original church was founded in 1905 and was originally named Saint James. It was a tiny frame building heated by a pot belly stove that altar servers kept stoked from a coal bin in the floor. Those sitting close to the stove were always too warm and those across the room were still uncomfortably cold. At first, they borrowed benches from the local bar, but soon replaced them with homemade, straight-backed bench “pews.” The parish still has three of those benches they use in the parish hall for extra seating along the walls.
In the early 1950s, Father John Marquardt, a Glenmary Missioner from Chicago, came to Oklahoma and in June of 1953 was appointed pastor over the churches of Buffalo and Shattuck. He quickly started a campaign to raise funds to build a new church building in Shattuck. Besides other ways of fundraising, the women of the parish sold tickets to formal dinners they provided using the local VFW building for lack of a parish hall. The menu was extra special, and the tables were set with linen tablecloths, fine china, crystal and real silverware owned by one of the ladies of the parish.
It was a very popular event and a sell-out every time. Monsignor Martin Nealis of Chicago, through a large donation to the Catholic Extension Society from his family, obtained matching funds for the construction of the new church in Shattuck. One condition the Nealis family placed on the matching funds was that the name be changed to Holy Name Catholic Church, the same name as their home parish in Chicago.
Holy Name Catholic Church in Shattuck was dedicated on May 31, 1955, by Bishop McGuinness. It was the year of the church’s 50th anniversary.
In the early years, it was served by priests from El Reno coming by train and later by priests assigned to Woodward or Buffalo, 60 miles away. The priests often had to spend the night in Shattuck so the sacristy in the new church was built large enough to be furnished with a desk, bookcase, sleeper sofa and a shower in the bathroom.
The altar area has been renovated once soon after Vatican Council II when the communion rail was removed and the altar moved away from the wall. In 1989, a non-Catholic man from a neighboring community in Texas walked into a parishioner’s fabric store and wrote a check to Holy Name for $10,000 in honor of his deceased wife. She was a Catholic who had been ill and unable to attend Mass for a very long time.
Father Phil Creider, pastor at the time, had driven to Texas to provide the man’s wife with a Catholic burial. Father Creider and parishioners decided to use the gift for stained glass windows.
Seven windows depict the Sacraments while the remaining two show symbols of Saint James (seashells) and Holy Name (the IHS). The chalice in the window of the Holy Eucharist is patterned after Father Creider’s own chalice. The window of the Sacrament of Penance nearest the still existing original confessional is chains broken by a set of keys.
Sitting in the “nave” of the church and contemplating the church as the “barque of Peter” people recognize that each sacrament depicted in stained glass is highlighted by a circular field of mostly lighter blue glass. Viewed as a whole, they look very much like the portals of a ship. The lower portion of each window is a deep marine blue.
In 1990, a few months after the windows were installed, a large tornado traveled the full length of Shattuck’s main street without fully touching down. Its tail flipped back and forth alternately destroying buildings on both sides of the street. Thankfully, Holy Name was spared. The roof of the church was lifted slightly and some shingles were blown off, but it sat back down perfectly in place. Some of the church windows were chipped by flying debris but the original artist repaired them by removing the sections of glass that were damaged and replacing them.
Photo: Holy Name Catholic Church in Shattuck is lit during the Vigil Mass of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Parishioners made sure it was lighted again during the Shattuck Community Christmas Parade down Main Street on the feast day, Dec. 8. Photo Jessica Kelln.
