Seelos Center is selling St. Mary's Poster

While reading the e-newsletter of the Seelos Center, I came across their announcement that they're selling a poster by Riece Walton of St. Mary's Assumption Church, location of the Seelos Shrine. For those unfamiliar with the church, St. Mary's is one of three churches that serviced the parish of St. Alphonsus, in the Irish Channel. The Irish built St. Alphonsus church on the lake side of Constance St., between Josephine and St. Andrew Streets. The Germans in the neighborhood, not wanting to share the same church as the Irish, built St. Mary's Assumption on the river side of Constance, right across the street. The old-line Creole families, along with weatlthy Irish who lived in the Garden District didn't want to go slumming at either church, so they worshipped at a small church on Jackson Avenue. The Redemptorist priests staffed all three churches.

The graphic above is a black-and-white shot of the poster. The posters for sale are full-color prints available in 20x24, 12x16, and 11x14 sizes, for $40, $30, $20, respectively.

This is a gorgeous depiction of the church. Anne Rice fans might remember St. Mary's from Rice's "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" novels. While I never taught at Redeemer in Gentilly rather than Redemptorist uptown (I graduated uni in May of 1980, and the uptown school closed and moved that fall), I've always felt a strong spiritual connection to the neighborhood and the two churches.

You can order one of the prints here.