ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
The now closed St. Michael’s Church on Summer Street in Lynn will be sold by the Boston Archdiocese.
BY THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — A West Lynn bastion of faith for more than 100 years, St. Michael’s Church, school and rectory will be sold by the Archdiocese of Boston.
The weekly bulletin for St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart parishioners last weekend said the Archdiocese “will soon be putting the buildings up for sale.”
Lynn Catholic Collaborative pastor Rev. Brian Flynn did not know when the sale will occur.
“I think we’ll see it on the market soon,” he said.
Built on Summer Street in 1906 by Polish-American residents who raised $3,000 to buy the church site, St. Michael’s expanded with a rectory built in 1909. The congregation bought a school house from the city in 1911 and erected the school building in 1924.
“They used to have 40 or 50 kids and 10 or 15 nuns,” recalled John Stephanides.
He and his brothers operated Super Seven, a sandwich shop across the street from St. Michael’s. During the church’s heyday, parishioners filed out of the church and bought meals at the eatery.
After St. Michael’s closed in 2006 as part of an Archdiocesan reorganization in 2004, the Stephanides brothers served coffee to parishioners who gathered at the church’s entrance on Saturdays.
“We were saying the rosary every Saturday for nine years,” said Joan Noble.
Parishioners appealed the closing and raised money to pay for an attorney. Noble said the faithful learned in March that they had lost their final appeal. They held their last gathering shortly before Easter.
“My whole life revolved around St. Michael the Archangel Church,” Noble said. “I am a nomad now.”
The bulletin notes that some St. Michael’s parishioners joined Sacred Heart, also located in West Lynn. Flynn said the statue of the Blessed Mother, formerly located in St. Michael’s, is now in Sacred Heart’s lower chapel.
Saugus resident Thomas DeMontier once played cribbage at St. Michael’s. He said the number of players dwindled along with the size of the church congregation.
“It’s part of the times,” he said.
A weather-proof “Save! St. Michael’s Church” banner still hangs from the railing along the church’s St. front steps beneath a fading photograph of Pope John Paul II. A sign in front of the church still lists Polish Masses.
Noble is not bitter about the fight to keep St. Michael’s open. She hopes another house of worship can occupy the church site.
“As far as I’m concerned, we did everything we could,” she said. “I believe wholeheartedly our prayers did not go in vain.”
The Archdiocese could not be reached for comment.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at tjourgensen@itemlive.com