About Sts. Mary and Joseph Chapel · Saint Louis, Missouri
Sts. Mary and Joseph Chapel is a former Catholic parish church in the Carondelet neighborhood of Saint Louis, Missouri, sited on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River next to the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. Originally founded as a parish in 1821 (with a log-cabin predecessor dating to 1818, served by the Venerable Felix de Andreis, C.M.), it was the Catholic center of Carondelet for 184 years. In June 2005 the Archdiocese of Saint Louis closed it as a parish and reopened it as a chapel administered by neighboring Saint Stephen Protomartyr Parish, retaining the 1940-built stone church — described as a 'British village chapel' with Norman-Gothic touches — for two weekly Masses, weddings, and devotions. In March 2022, citing the financial impossibility of maintaining the property, Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski issued a decree relegating the church to 'profane but not sordid use,' removing the altar and placing the building on the market.
- Established
- 1821 (parish founded; log-cabin predecessor chapel dated to 1818)
- Patron
- The Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph
- Diocese
- Archdiocese of Saint Louis (Roman Catholic)
Why belong here
The chapel is no longer an active Catholic worship site: per Archbishop Rozanski's decree of March 7, 2022, Saints Mary and Joseph Church was relegated to profane but not sordid use, the altar was removed, and the building was listed for sale. The Archdiocese directs the faithful of the former Carondelet territory to Saint Stephen Protomartyr Parish (saintstephenstl.org), which now ministers from three churches — St. Stephen Protomartyr (3949 Wilmington Ave), Immaculate Heart of Mary (4092 Blow St), and St. John the Baptist (4200 Delor St), all in 63116 — and which can be reached at 314-481-1133.
A 200-Year-Old Carondelet Mission
Catholic worship on the Minnesota Avenue bluff dates to 1818, when the Venerable Felix de Andreis, a Vincentian priest who had accompanied Bishop Louis William DuBourg to the Louisiana Territory frontier, served the first log-cabin chapel on the site. The parish itself was formally erected in 1821, making it one of the earliest Catholic parishes in what would become the Archdiocese of Saint Louis and the spiritual center of Carondelet, then an independent Mississippi River town outside the City of Saint Louis. The mission predated Missouri statehood (1821) by years and predated Carondelet's 1870 annexation by half a century.
Church Buildings Through the Centuries
Four successive churches have stood on the blufftop site: the original 1818 log cabin, two later (mid-19th and early-20th-century) replacement churches, and the present building whose cornerstone Archbishop John J. Glennon laid on September 22, 1940. The 1940 church is the one Carondelet Catholics remember most clearly, retaining its exposed-timber inner ceiling, limestone columns and arches, and Lannon-stone entrance even as its surrounding parish complex (school, convent, rectory) has largely been demolished or repurposed.
The Present Church (1940)
The building is widely described as 'one of the most beautiful and thoroughly constructed churches in the City of Saint Louis.' It is built in the British village-chapel manner with a touch of Norman architecture leaning toward Gothic, and its interior columns and arches are of Bedford (Indiana) limestone — making it one of the very few Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis whose interior is supported by real stone rather than plaster or wood. The inner ceiling is of exposed timber, the entrance of Wisconsin Lannon stone trimmed with Bedford limestone. The tabernacle sits on the left side-altar; a side-altar of Saint Joseph stands on the right; and the original communion rail remains intact.
Carondelet & the Sisters of St. Joseph
The chapel sits immediately next door to the Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, whose Saint Louis mission began in 1836 in a log-cabin orphanage and school for the deaf on the same Carondelet bluff. The sisters' seven-wing motherhouse complex was built over six decades (1840–1899), with the Holy Family Chapel added in 1899 by architect Aloysius F. Gillick. Across Minnesota Avenue, Saints Mary and Joseph served as the parish church of the sisters' growing community, and the relationship defined both institutions for nearly two centuries.
Closure and Reopening as a Chapel (2005)
As part of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis's June 2005 parish reorganization — announced in the North Post as 'Nine Parishes Get New Roles' — Sts. Mary and Joseph was closed as a territorial parish after 184 years and was immediately reopened as a chapel under the administration of Saint Stephen Protomartyr Parish. The 1940 church building continued to host worship, weddings, and devotions, funded by rent from tenants in the convent building, the 'ABC Raffle,' miscellaneous donations, and wedding fees.
Final Years (2010s–2022)
Through the late 2000s and 2010s the chapel offered two weekly Masses (Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. and Saturday Vigil at 4:00 p.m.), plus weddings and devotional use, and was a frequent photographic stop for Catholic architecture enthusiasts. The COVID-19 pandemic suppressed wedding bookings and strained the chapel's already-thin finances, prompting Saint Stephen Protomartyr to approach the Archdiocese about the building's long-term future.
2022 Decree of Relegation
On March 3, 2022, Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski issued a formal decree finding 'a grave cause … which is the financial impossibility of Saint Stephen Protomartyr Parish to maintain Saints Mary and Joseph Church as a place of worship,' and in accord with canons 50 and 1222 §2 of the Code of Canon Law directed that 'the altar of Saints Mary and Joseph Church be removed' (canon 1239 §1). The decree took effect March 7, 2022 and was published in the official Archdiocesan newspaper, The St. Louis Review, on April 4, 2022, formally relegating the church to 'profane but not sordid use' — the canonical process that ends a building's status as a sacred edifice without dishonoring it.
Disposition & Sale of the Property
Following the decree, the chapel building was listed for sale as a 'specialty property' and marketed through commercial real-estate channels. Saint Stephen Protomartyr Parish — which had served as caretaker of the building since 2005 — communicated to parishioners that any sale would be honored, that weddings already booked would still be honored, and that the spiritual needs of the former Carondelet territory continue to be served by Saint Stephen Protomartyr Parish's three worship sites: St. Stephen Protomartyr Church (3949 Wilmington Ave), Immaculate Heart of Mary (4092 Blow St), and St. John the Baptist (4200 Delor St), all in ZIP 63116.
Worship Today
Mass is no longer celebrated at 6304 Minnesota Avenue. The Archdiocese and Saint Stephen Protomartyr Parish direct the faithful to the three active churches of the administering parish, whose combined weekly schedule includes Saturday Vigil at 4:00 p.m. (English, St. Stephen Protomartyr), Sunday Masses at 7:00 a.m. (St. John the Baptist), 10:00 a.m. (Immaculate Heart of Mary, live-streamed), and 4:30 p.m. (St. Stephen Protomartyr), and daily Masses at 6:30 and 8:00 a.m., Monday through Saturday. The parish office can be reached at 314-481-1133.
Visiting the Site
The 1940 church sits on the bluff above the Mississippi River in the Carondelet neighborhood of south Saint Louis, about 6½ road miles southwest of the Old Cathedral downtown, immediately adjacent to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet motherhouse. The riverfront below is mainly industrial; the blufftop views, however, were long noted by worshippers and visitors for their sweeping expanse of the Mississippi. As of the 2022 decree the building is no longer an active Catholic place of worship.