Our Lady of the Pillar Catholic Parish
St. Louis, MO
A Marianist parish. Since its beginning, OLP has been staffed by the members of the Society of Mary.
It was after praying often at this shrine that Father Chaminade conceived the idea of founding a religious congregation, the Society of Mary the Marianists. When in 1908 the Marianists built Chaminade College, the families in the neighborhood attended services in the chapel that was appropriately named after “Our Lady of the Pillar.”
Responding to the request of the people in the neighborhood, Archbishop John J. Glennon named Chaminade’s Chapel a chapel of ease where Catholics would fulfill their Sunday obligation. It would be thirty years before the area would grow enough to where it needed a new parish.
On August 1, 1938, the Archbishop consented to the formation of Our Lady of the Pillar parish. The immediate concern was the opening of a parish elementary school; it was started in the “White House” on Chaminade’s grounds, staffed by two Franciscan Sisters. Almost immediately the ground was broken for a new school building. This was followed by the opening of the cafeteria addition in 1946. A year later the Sisters’ Convent was built.
The decision to build a church was made in 1953; and in April, 1958, the Church of Our Lady of the Pillar was dedicated by the Most Reverend Joseph E. Ritter, the Archbishop of Saint Louis.