The Chapel Story
Built in Faith for Those Who Would Come After
One hundred years ago, friars, families, benefactors, pilgrims, and friends gathered at Mount Saint Francis to dedicate a Chapel built for prayer, worship, and generations of Franciscan life.
They could not have known every person who would one day pass through its doors. They could not have known the young men who would kneel here as friars in formation, the students who would come here on retreat, the families who would gather in moments of joy and sorrow, or the thousands of intentions that would one day be entrusted to God in this sacred place.
But they built with faith in what would come after them. They built for the future. Now it is our turn to preserve what they entrusted to us.
A Place of Retreat and Welcome
Students, retreatants, families, pilgrims, alumni, and friends encounter peace, silence, beauty, and prayer here.
A Living Place of Prayer
Friars continue to gather here for Mass, prayer, and intercession, lifting up the needs of the world and the intentions entrusted to them by friends and benefactors.
A Place of Formation
The Chapel has formed generations of friars and continues to shape Franciscan life through prayer, worship, silence, and fraternity.
A Place Entrusted to Our Care
After nearly a century of service, the Chapel now needs accessibility improvements so it can continue to make this sacred space accessible to all. The addition of a new ramp will help ensure that people of all abilities can enter the Chapel and fully participate in worship, prayer, and community life.
Mount Saint Francis Chapel Timeline
1910: The story of the chapel begins with the founding of Mount Saint Francis. Fr. Paul Vollrath, OFM Conv., established the minor seminary on land given by actress Mary Anderson. In those earliest years, prayer took place in a modest chapel on the first floor of the wooden-frame building where friars, seminarians, and workers lived together. Even then, the chapel was the spiritual heart of a growing Franciscan community.
1926: The present Mount Saint Francis Chapel was completed, giving the seminary a more enduring home for worship, formation, and community prayer. Built in an Italian Gothic-inspired style, the chapel was filled with details meant to lift the heart toward God: stained-glass windows imported from Germany, devotional statuary, side chapels, a rose window, and a sanctuary shaped by reverence and beauty.
For generations of young men discerning Franciscan life, this chapel became a place to gather for Mass, to sit in silence, and to grow in faith. The original chapel in the wooden building was transformed into a library, while this new sacred space became the center of life on the Mount.
1960s–1970s: As the Church experienced the liturgical renewal that followed the Second Vatican Council, the chapel also entered a period of change. The original sanctuary arrangement was simplified, and a movable altar of sacrifice was added beneath the first vault of the nave so that worship could more fully reflect the renewed liturgical life of the Church. Through the years, the chapel’s interior colors and artwork also changed, carrying forward its sacred purpose while reflecting the life of each new generation that prayed there.
1975: When Mount Saint Francis ceased operating as a seminary, the chapel’s mission widened. The place once devoted primarily to the formation of young friars continued to welcome the prayers of the Province, retreatants, visitors, and the wider community. It remained a place for liturgies, Province gatherings, funerals for friars, retreats, remembrance, and the quiet prayers of all who came seeking peace.
1986: The chapel received a lasting Franciscan expression of beauty with the installation of its bronze bas relief on the new wooden entrance doors. Designed by Fr. David Kocka, O.F.M. Conv., and inspired by St. Francis’ Canticle of the Creatures, this sculpture invited all who entered to praise God through the beauty of creation.
2026: One hundred years after its completion, Mount Saint Francis Chapel continues to stand as a place of prayer, beauty, memory, and welcome.
For a century, its walls have held the prayers of friars, seminarians, retreatants, families, and visitors. It has witnessed celebrations and losses, beginnings and endings, moments of shared worship and moments of quiet solitude. As the chapel enters its second century, its story continues through all who gather there to seek God, encounter beauty, and carry the Franciscan spirit of simplicity, peace, and care for creation into the world.
Ready to Support the Chapel Renovation Campaign?
Your generosity will help preserve this sacred place of prayer, worship, beauty, and welcome for generations to come. Through the buttons below, you can learn more about the campaign, adopt one of the Chapel’s historic stained-glass windows, or make a general gift toward the restoration and renovation work.
Every contribution, whether designated for a specific window or given to the overall campaign, helps ensure that Mount Saint Francis Chapel remains a living spiritual home at the heart of the Province for the next 100 years.