Littleton’s St. Mary Parish Celebrating Its 125th Year with Gratitude and Hope
Parish’s school joyfully observing its 75th anniversary
On December 8, 1900, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Littleton pioneer Joseph W. Bowles donated land to build a Catholic church. The next day, Father Brady, Bowles and 45 other faithful chose the name St. Mary Catholic Church and elected a building committee.
At the request of Bishop Nicholas Matz, Father Brady had started ministering in Littleton three months prior. A transplant from Ireland who served as chaplain at Denver’s Loretto Heights Academy, he would drive a black buggy pulled by his horse, six miles to his congregation, which would meet for Mass twice per month in a local hall. On October 11, 1901, he celebrated the first Mass in the completed church. The simple brick structure at the corner of Nevada and Powers streets seated 150 people and was warmed by a pot-bellied stove.
Today, a brick, cruciform St. Mary Catholic Church, seating 1,000 people, dedicated in 1962, sits on a hillside on S. Prince St. On the weekend of October 10-11, St. Mary’s will mark the 125th anniversary of the first Mass celebrated in the original church. The parish is also observing the 75th anniversary of its school.
125 Years of Grace
“For 125 years … the Lord has been physically present here with the people of Littleton, in the tabernacle inside the church, which is the center of the parish,” noted the pastor, Father Andrej Makovnik, DCJM, referring to the Eucharist.
“From Sunday to Sunday is how we describe our life,” the Slovakia-born pastor said of his parish. “Christ himself is received in the Eucharist, and we are reborn. The rest of the week is living out that gift we received.”
The guiding inspiration for the anniversary year, Father Makovnik said, is drawn from an exhortation of St. John Paul II: “Remember the past with gratitude, live the present with enthusiasm and look forward to the future with hope.”
The celebration was launched September 12 at the annual Marian Festival, which began with Mass and included a procession honoring the Blessed Mother, as well as food, music and games. To concisely express the parish’s Marian spirituality and Christ-centered focus, the anniversary theme is “125 years in Mary, Christ.”
On October 10, the vigil of the 125th anniversary, the parish is observing its milestone with a Mass celebrated by Denver Archbishop James Golka, followed by a special banquet.
Through the two anniversary celebrations, publication of parishioners’ memories and construction of a Marian Grotto currently underway, St. Mary’s aims to help parishioners remember and carry on the greatness of spirit exhibited by previous generations, Father Makovnik said.
“What amazes me the most about St. Mary’s history is the legacy of vision, generosity and desire for greater things,” he said of the founders, past pastors and parishioners. “We are now living from that magnanimity.”
Father Makovnik particularly highlighted Father Fred McCallin, who led the parish the longest, from 1946 to 1967. Father McCallin expanded the old campus and, on September 4, 1951, opened the parish school staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Ten years later, after successful fundraising, he purchased the property where the parish now sits and oversaw construction of the new church. Within four years of the dedication, a new school building, rectory and convent were also built.
In the years since, the new school was expanded twice, the church underwent a major renovation and an adoration chapel was constructed.
“Every generation in the last 125 years exercised magnanimity,” Father Makovnik said.
The 125th anniversary is a confirmation of Christ’s gift of himself to the parish and its evangelical mission, the pastor added.
“He is sending a message to say, ‘Desire greater things,’” Father Makovnik said. “'I have been giving myself to you for 125 years. I desire great things for you. And I desire that you desire those great things for the people around you as well.’”
In 2007, Archbishop Charles Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., placed St. Mary’s — one of the largest parishes in the archdiocese — under the care of the Disciples of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary order, which originated in Spain in 1987. The pastor and five other DCJM priests live in community at the parish. One of them, Father James de Cendra, is principal at the parish’s school. The order also recently saw its first American-born priestly vocation ordained at St. Mary’s.
The order’s mission is “to build up the Church as a family of families,” Father Makovnik said. Their emphasis is on strengthening and supporting families in faith and renewing Catholic education.
A Family Parish
For Carl Kruse, St. Mary’s is woven through multiple generations of family. His siblings attended the school; his children received their sacraments there; his mother and his wife have volunteered faithfully there, too.
Kruse has been involved ever since childhood, serving as an acolyte and Knight of Columbus, facilitating marriage prep with his wife, working in the food bank weekly and cooking at the recent Marian Festival.
“It’s just a big part of my life,” said Kruse, a 76-year-old retiree.
His family joined the parish in 1952, when he was 2 years old. What had been a small farming community was thrust into the space age with the arrival of the Martin Marietta Aerospace Co. in 1956 and subsequent population explosion.
“With the boom, we had just a tiny church. We had … eight Masses on Sunday just to get everybody in,” Kruse recalled. “In ‘62 Father McCallin opened the new church. So that was quite a change — it was nice to have the bigger church. I served Mass as an altar boy in the old church as well as the new one.”
He recalls Father McCallin as a hardworking pastor and builder who was warmly pastoral.
“He earned his place in heaven,” declared Kruse.
Now, Father Makovnik and his brother DCJM priests’ educational, spiritual, family-focused and parish-building impact is central to St. Mary’s current vitality, Kruse said.
“They have brought so much to the parish,” the daily Mass attendee said, choking up. “You can tell by the many young families at the parish. It’s growing.”
For Kruse, the 125th anniversary signals stability, faithfulness, growth and a parish that has “been doing the right things” to keep people involved and cared for.
A Parish Family
Beth Santo and her husband, Josh, transplants from Nebraska and parents to seven children, joined St. Mary’s four years ago.
“The parish feels like our family here in Colorado,” Santo said. “We’re still fairly new in some ways, but it also feels so much like home that it feels like we’ve been here forever.”
With children ranging in age from 2 to 17, all but the eldest and the youngest attend the parish’s pre-K through eighth-grade school. The couple appreciates the school’s Catholic identity and vision, and its partnership with parents in forming their children.
“The school’s greatest goal is to truly inspire these children to desire sainthood and to become saints,” Santo said, adding that both the school and the parish encourage leadership, sacramental life, vocations and active faith in youngsters.
Their children have received their sacraments at the parish, and all three of their boys have been altar servers, Santo said. Their oldest son is helping with the high school youth group, and the family belongs to a faith enrichment group for families led by one of the DCJM priests.
Like Kruse, Santo praises the DCJM priests for offering abundant opportunities for Mass, Confession and faith formation ranging from Scripture study to retreats, describing the parish as a “spiritual oasis.”
That the parish is a supportive, intergenerational Catholic community is especially meaningful to their family, Santo said, because they have no relatives here. Likewise, she added, they deeply appreciate the “fatherly way” of the DCJM priests.
When they first joined the parish, during a conversation about the challenges of parenting, Father de Cendra encouraged the couple to entrust their children to Jesus rather than trying to protect them from every hardship.
“You cannot protect them from everything, and you cannot protect them from making mistakes. If that were true, then they would never learn that they need a Savior,” Santo recalled the priest saying. His counsel gave them peace and reinforced the value of their priests’ “spiritual fatherhood.”
“We feel grateful the Lord led us here to be embraced by this community that has such a rich history, and we’re confident in a rich future,” Santo said. “There’s such a good job being done here of preaching truth with love, of offering mercy but also encouragement. My hope is that our zeal continues to invite others into the community.”
