ST. FRANCIS DE SALES (1892)

On Christmas day, 1911, Bishop Matz dedicated the church at South Sherman Street and East Alameda Avenue with its single, soaring spire and vestigial transepts framing large stained glass windows. The window along Alameda Avenue, "In memory of Monsignor John J. Donnelly," honors the fourth pastor, who led this working-class parish for thirty-seven years.

St. Francis was formed during Denver's bonanza days to relieve overcrowded St. Joseph Redemptorist Church and to care for Catholics east of the Platte River and south of First Avenue. James N. Brown, the first pastor, initially held services in the fire station at Center Avenue and Broadway. Before being reassigned to Annunciation parish in Leadville, Father Brown acquired a site at East Alameda and South Lincoln for $4,000 and built a small, temporary chapel briefly called St. James.

James J. Gibbons, the celebrated historian priest of the San Juans, replaced Father Brown in 1893, when the silver crash postponed plans for a magnificent, permanent church. Father Gibbons and his flock did build a parish hall next to their chapel before he left in 1898 to succeed Father Brown, who had died in Leadville.

William Morrin, the third pastor, purchased the current site for his 300 parishioners. Like so many early priests, Father Morrin came to Colorado in poor health, hoping the climate would cure him. After rising from his own sick bed to comfort a dying parishioner, Father Morrin contracted a fatal case of pneumonia. Next came John J. Donnelly, an Irish-Canadian priest who took charge at St. Francis in 1903 after serving in Las Animas, Grand Junction, Georgetown, and Cripple Creek. Under the guidance of Father Donnelly, the parish, in 1906, built an $8,000 grade school staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. The upper floor of this two-story building at 320 South Sherman served as the parish church until the current structure was completed. Father Donnelly, who had come to Colorado a sick man, regained his health and made St. Francis a vigorous parish, rich in congregational activities that included a monthly magazine.

A $39,000 high school was completed in 1924 at 235 South Sherman with a convent at 301 South Grant Street. Father Donnelly, who had been a school teacher in Canada, developed the Donnelly method of teaching arithmetic, which introduced grade schoolers to mathematical feats usually not learned until high school or college. Father Donnelly, who was promoted to monsignor in 1935, grew ill in 1936, retired in 1940, and died four years later. Gregory Smith, who had briefly starred as assistant pastor at St. Francis after his graduation from St. Thomas Seminary in 1922, came back as pastor in 1940.

"When I returned to St. Francis," Monsignor Smith reminisced forty-seven years later, "over 1,000 families belonged to what we thought was one of the best organized parishes. Our high school attracted Catholic students from all over South Denver and pioneered courses such as applied aeronautics."

Monsignor Smith, who served as vicar general of the archdiocese, also taught in his parish high school. A $100,000 addition to the grade school was completed in 1948, and a gym and eight classrooms were added to the high school in 1960. During the 1950s and 1960s, as many as twenty-eight Sisters of St. Joseph taught 650 grade schoolers and 750 high schoolers. Among the high school's dedicated lay teachers was long-time speech coach Lenabell Sloan Martin, who helped St. Francis gain national forensic honors. A large home at 200 South Sherman was bought to house nuns, and the old convent was enlarged. St. Francis, according to Monsignor Smith, prided itself upon being one of the best high schools in the city before 1973, when it was closed and consolidated with Central Catholic High School.

Monsignor Smith retired in 1973, to be followed by Emmanuel Gabel and David P. Croak, VF. "We have a rich heritage of Catholic education at St. Francis de Sales," Father Croak observed in 1988, "which we are trying to continue not only with the grade school and kindergarten but also with after-school care, a book discussion club, and two Bible study programs."