Former St. Columbanus Church (now St. Moses the Black Parish)
331 E. 71st Street
Chicago, IL 60619
(Park Manor)
“Yet on nights when, under all the arc-lamps, the little men of the rain come running, you’ll know at last that, long long ago, something went wrong between St. Columbanus and North Troy Street. And Chicago divided your heart.”
Nelson Algren’s City on the Make
In City on the Make, Algren’s account of his childhood in Park Manor was punctuated by references to this Catholic parish church. The current parish, St. Moses the Black, was formed in 2021 by a merger of the former St. Clotilde, St. Columbanus, and St. Dorothy parishes. St. Moses the Black was a fourth-century Ethiopian monk who led a life of crime before repenting and joining a monastery at Scete, Egypt (now Wadi el Natrun) near Alexandria. According to the parish website, the first St. Columbanus church and school building was built in 1909, with a convent following in 1917 and the current large church constructed in 1923, designed by architect James Burns. Later additions to the sprawling parish complex included additions to the school and rectory and the Glass House, which has served as a library, credit union, and meeting place. The parish originally served an Irish congregation, with rapid racial change occurring after 1948, as across much of the South Side, after racially restrictive real estate covenants were outlawed. Pastor John Ryan Gleason was appointed in 1952 and welcomed Black parishioners, resulting in a long-enduring, stable Black parish and school.
According to Wisniewski’s Algren: A Life, as the first St. Columbanus buildings arose near his South Parkway home, “Nelson grew up with this example of constant progress outside his window, of the city around him constantly expanding, with scaffolding and walls rising and the clanking noises of machinery.” Wisniewski reports that while his family was not Catholic, “Nelson was attracted by St. Columbanus and wanted desperately to attend” St. Columbanus church and school but instead he attended the public Park Manor Elementary School (7037 S. Rhodes Avenue) and a Congregationalist Sunday School.
In City on the Make, St. Columbanus symbolizes Algren’s youth and innocence – the time before the family moved to Albany Park on the North Side, and before the revelation that his beloved White Sox had thrown the 1919 World Series.
