Peoria church specializes in American saints

PEORIA, Ill. -- St. Patrick is not on the side walls of Sacred Heart Catholic Church. As revered as he is among Roman Catholics, there's one thing keeping his portrait from making the cut for display in the 100-year-old church -- he's not from the Americas.

Instead, there are well-known men and women who have been canonized or beatified because of their work and lives in North, Central and South America. People like St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Blessed Junipero Serra, St. Katharine Drexel, St. Martin de Porres, St. Juan Diego and St. Frances Cabrini.

And there are people who may be not quite as well known in the United States: St. Rose Phillipine Duchesne, St. Rose of Lima, St. Isaac Jogues, Blessed Miguel Pro and St. Teresa of the Andes.

In all there are portraits of 29 people who have been canonized and called saints as well as people who have been beatified and called blessed on the east and west walls of Sacred Heart. The portraits were painted by artists from Murals by Jericho as part of the recent $2.5 million remodeling of the church.

But, the Rev. Lawrence Zurek, pastor of Sacred Heart, said, the wall paintings weren't part of the original plan. The initial idea was to have windows with the saints, but that didn't work out.

"It's amazing how when you do a project, it just begins to unfold," he said. "God opens doors or pathways."

Or, in this case, wall space. The result is that worshippers at Sacred Heart are surrounded by a "cloud of witnesses."

Zurek said the idea's seeds were planted when he read "American Saints: Five Centuries of Heroic Sanctity on the American Continents" by John F. Fink during a sabbatical 3 1/2 years ago. The pastor said he thought it would be good to remind people that many saints have come from this part of the world, too.

"So often when we think of the saints, they're from a long, long time ago" and from Europe, Zurek said. But enshrining these Catholic heroes on the walls shows that "there are people in the not-too-distant past and in our own hemisphere" who have exemplified the Christian life, he said.

Zurek originally wanted to leave one space in the gallery blank.

"I would say to people, 'It's reserved for you,'" he said. But, he added sheepishly, "I was talked out of it, but it would have been a good teaching moment."