Women Support the Church from the Beginning

On the piers that support the great dome of our church are mosaics of saints - all women saints. They are founders (Clare of Assisi), single women (Agnes, Barbara, Mary Magdalene), theologians (Teresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena), mystics (Teresa), mothers (Elizabeth of Hungary), reformers (Catherine), and natives of the New World (Rose of Lima). Why these saints? The stories of the founding women of the parish suggests some answers.

At the groundbreaking of the first church building in 1905, Agnes Kasper and Elizabeth Hack walked in the procession and turned over spadefuls of earth. The first organist was Elizabeth Kasper. The women of the Saint Clement Guild raised the money to build the church.

The placement of these mosaics of women saints reflects the importance of women in the founding and ongoing life of the parish. Women have contributed to the life of the parish from the founders and fundraisers to the Sisters of Saint Francis who taught in the school, to the women who have served on the parish staff, to the many women involved in parish life and service still today. The women saints who hold up the dome are models for the wide variety of programs and activities created and supported by the women of Saint Clement.

First Masses

In the summer of 1905, Rempe invited the Catholics of the neighborhood to the first Masses of the new parish, at 8 o'clock (English sermon) and 10 o'clock (German sermon) on Sunday, August 6, 1905. The church rented the assembly hall of nearby Alcott School from the city school board. About 35 people attended each Mass.

On August 25, 1905, the archbishop designated Saint Clement, pope and martyr, as patron of the parish. Rempe had suggested this saint in the hope "that the patron would always remind the people of the parish of the struggles and sacrifices of the early church, and would link them in inviolable fidelity to Rome."