Our Lady of the Eucharist Parish to celebrate the 75th anniversary of St. Leo the Great Church

Our Lady of the Eucharist Parish will celebrate the 75th anniversary of St. Leo the Great Church in Howland with a eucharistic procession, a parish-wide Mass, and a baked bean supper on Saturday, October 28. During the supper, people will be able to view a video depicting some moments from the church’s past.

“The jubilee celebration is a wonderful opportunity to realize our call to rededicate ourselves to be missionary disciples of Christ and to be a sign and instrument of our union with God and one another in our divided world today,” said Father Anthony Kanagaraj Chinnaiyan, HGN, administrator of the parish.

St. Leo the Great Church was dedicated by Bishop Daniel Feeney, then-auxiliary bishop of Portland, on September 18, 1948. The church was built by parishioners themselves at a cost of about $30,000. An article from the Bangor Daily News from September 1948 stated, “They brought out 88,000 feet of lumber from the woods to be the final decoration which makes the church one of beauty and charm.”

“The story of the building of this church reads like a saga. Those Catholics exhibited faith at least the size of the mustard seed that Jesus likened to the kingdom of heaven in St. Matthew’s Gospel, saying, ‘It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown, it is the largest of plants,’” Father Chinnaiyan said.

The building of the church followed the establishment of the parish in 1929. At first, Masses were celebrated in the Howland Town Hall, but parishioners wanted their own place of worship and work on the building began in May 1947. The community benefited from having a pastor, Father Charles Rivard, who formerly worked for a construction company. He brought his ideas to Daniel Long, a Howland resident, who designed a church with Romanesque architecture on the interior.

St. Leo’s Church was a symbol of the love and devotion which went into its building. The beautiful altar rail has 10 V’s, and in each are 38 individual handmade pieces. The altar candles were of wood and are handmade, and so, throughout the building are these intimate, lovely touches which were enjoyed, not only by the parishioners of that time but by posterity,” said Father Chinnaiyan.

The church was built with a large reception area in the basement, where Father Rivard anticipated roller skating for youth as well as other recreational activities and plays. Today, the area is used for church suppers.

While much has changed over the past 75 years, Father Chinnaiyan said the church’s mission has not.

“We are God’s sacrament of communion and a Christian community of disciples who learn from one another to find strength in being together in good times and in bad,” he said. “We must live our identity as children of God who love, forgive, and serve anyone, transcend boundaries that separate us, and treat one another as brothers and sisters as members of one family: the body of Christ.”

The 75th anniversary celebration will begin at 3 p.m. with the eucharistic procession, which will start in the parking lot of St. Leo the Great, continue across the bridge to Main Street, then onto Willow Street, Water Street, and then back over the bridge to the church. The jubilee Mass will be celebrated by Father Anthony Chinnaiyan, HGN, at 4 p.m., with the bean supper to follow in the downstairs hall. During the supper, there will be music, and people will be able to view a video depicting some moments from the church’s past