History:
Holy Angels

The following is an excerpt from Robert J. Voigt's book, "Holy Angels in St. Cloud." Minor changes were made to move from present tense to past tense, as Holy Angels Parish closed since the writing of his book.

Thirty years after the first white settler came into Saint Cloud, Holy Angels' Parish was born. By that time, Saint Cloud had grown a lot and changed much. The population had risen to 2,464 (1880) and other nationalities had come in through the booming granite quarries.: Scots, Swedes and Poles. So there was a need for churches of other denominations, too, and the following churches were here already in 1881: The First Presbyterian Church, the First Congregational Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, St. John's Episcopal Church and the Baptist Church. The largest of all the parishes at the time, however, was Saint Mary's, which had 1600 members, more than all the other churches put together. With the population that large and that varied, there was need for another Catholic church.

Holy Angels was organized on February 12, 1883, with Rev. F. X. August Stemper the first rector. It was both territorial and national. It was territorial in that it embraced Pantown, Hayward Park, Sauk Rapids and Sartell. It was national in the sense that it was for all the English-speaking Catholics of Saint Cloud and for all the other nationalities except the Germans and monolingual Poles. It is obvious that the Germans were wedded to Saint Mary's. So there were two Catholic parishes here in the 1880's: one for the German Catholics and one for the other Catholics.

Holy Angels was built on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Third Street North next to the rectory and attached to it. The foundation was dedicated on July 19, 1883, but the building was not completed for use till late fall, 1884. It was a Romanesque church on a foundation of grey granite stone with red brick brought from Saint John's. I twas 60 x 148 with the outside walls rising 33 feet, with the side steeples 85 feet high and the main steeple (including the cross) rising to 183 feet. The main steeple was out of proportion to the rest of the church, a disproportion which came about in an interesting way. The architect had specified the hight, but the contractor (known for his steeple structures) disregarded the architect and gave the steeple the hight he preferred.

The inside of the church reached up 40 feet from the floor to the ceiling. It had a row of pillars extending the length of the interior on each side. The walls were plain and there were no stained-glass windows, but there was an elegant organ. There were no side altars, only a temporary main altar.

There was a basement covering one-third of the church's length, in which were two large furnaces. There was a chapel in the basement for a while, and there was a vault in which dead bishops were to be interred, but no dead bishop has opted for that place of repose and quietude.

This is the same church that stands today save that it had to be partially reconstructed in 1933 after lightning struck and gutted it, but the outside walls are all the same now and then. It is the only church building that Holy Angels ever had, something quite unusual, for generally a parish starts with a log cabin followed by a frame building. Then come the bricks.

Holy Angels was constructed at a cost of $28,818, including the cost of the three bells. Much donated labor kept the cost down. The Catholics of Saint Cloud donated $3,810 and the "fair" brought $2,257. With the dedication collection ($60.35), the people of Saint Cloud contributed all told $6,127. Bishop Seidenbusch contributed $15,000, much of which came from the Leopold Society at Munich and the Ludwig Society of Vienna. A good deal, however, came directly from Bishop Seidenbusch, who "at great personal expense [gave] freely of his own, whenever it was necessary." The Catholics of the vicariate gave $1,859, which contributions came mainly from six parishes in Stearns county: Saint Augusta, Saint Joseph, Saint Wendel, Saint Martin, Spring Hill and Meire Grove. So at the end of 1884, thee debt was only $6,031. Or we might say t was still that much, when we consider the income of the parish in 1884 was $426.

The birthday of Holy Angels was the first Sunday of Advent, November 30, 1884, when the first Mass was said. Here the purpose of the building was accomplished. It was to be a House of God, where Mass would be said daily. When Abram had won the victory over Chedorlaomer, Melchizedek (a priest) offered sacrifice of bread and wine (Gen. 14: 17-20) to give God thanks for the victory. The Catholic priest wants to give thanks daily for the victory his people win over sin. Hence he offers daily the sacrifice of the Mass.

When Holy Angels was established as a parish, it also became the pro-cathedral. Before that time, from 1875 to 1884, Saint Mary's had served in that capacity. (A pro-cathedral is a temporary cathedral, but sometimes the temporary becomes permanent.) Holy Angels remained the pro-cathedral until 1937 -- 53 years. Then Saint Mary's became the cathedral.

More Recent History

Due to the small size of Holy Angels Parish and a decreasing number of priests, the parish closed in 1991. Sacramental records for Holy Angels are now kept at Saint Mary's Cathedral.

Having grown in size to surround Holy Angels, Cathedral High School and John XXIII Middle School renovated the church for use as a performing arts center in 1995. The church's stained class windows were moved to Holy Spirit Church in Saint Cloud.

Holy Angels' rectory, historically known as the Zardetti/Broker House, was the oldest house in Saint Cloud that remained in its original location, until it was razed in 2009.