‘If these walls could talk…’ Bidding farewell to St. Mary’s Chapel By Brandon Boyd
Dozens of people flled the pews of Mercyhurst North East’s St. Mary’s Chapel, taking photos on their cell phones and reminiscing about days and moments come and gone. For some, St. Mary’s Chapel was a place of refection and thankfulness. For others, it was home to a new beginning. For all, it was a welcoming structure that held in it the spirit of the Redemptorist and Mercy traditions. As Mercyhurst North East and its entities transfer to the Erie campus, the building that housed St. Mary’s Chapel stands as a remnant of the past 30 years of Mercyhurst history and of a full history that dates back more than a century. The chapel, dedicated in 1902, originally functioned as the student chapel for minor seminarians of the Society of the Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists), whose seminary occupied the campus grounds from 1871 to the mid-1980s. “If these walls could talk,” said Deacon Ray Sobina, a former criminal justice faculty member at the North East campus, “what a wonderous story that would be told.” Those gathered for the St. Mary’s Chapel farewell prayer service in May 2021 shared their stories with one another, and after a brief greeting and introduction, the frst hymn began. “O God, our Help in ages past, Our Hope for years to come…” Linda Newara remembers those ages past. She married her husband, Darrell, on Sept. 14, 1968, at St. Mary’s Chapel, and as she sat in a back pew at the farewell prayer service, she could not help but go back in time to her day of wedded bliss.
“As I sat here,” she said, tears welling in her eyes, “I can still hear Father May singing and picture me walking down the aisle.” Newara also visited the Chapel sparingly for special events and attended classes at Mercyhurst North East. “I have mixed emotions about it all. But I understand the dynamics,” she said. “Things change, and we have to go with the change.” The potential buyer for the Mercyhurst North East campus does not have a religious mission, and, as required by Canon Law, St. Mary’s Chapel has been deconsecrated. Altars, crucifxes, and the extraordinary stained-glass windows will be removed, and items like the major windows with religious icons and pews will be repurposed in new churches being built in the southern United States. However, at least one item from Mercyhurst North East will make its way to the Erie campus. The Mary statue from the grotto on the North East campus will be moved to the grotto on the Erie campus, a sort of physical representation of the Mercy spirit that comes from Mercyhurst North East and the St. Mary’s Chapel. “While Mercyhurst North East might be at one kind of end, its true end, its purpose and goal must live on and now make a new beginning on the Erie campus,” said Sister Lisa Mary McCartney, mission associate, in her speech at the farewell prayer service. “Mercyhurst
North East was special in its beginning, in its Mercy spirit and way of being, and in our educational mission.”
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