National Register of Historic Places — NRHP Reference No. 80004510 — Listed August 28, 1980. Recognized for its significance in Architecture, European immigrant history, and the history of Religion in America. View the official application →
The Architects
Saint Mary of Victories was designed by two remarkable figures: Franz Saler, the Austrian-born parishioner and mason who designed and built the original church in 1843–1844, and George I. Barnett, the distinguished St. Louis architect who contributed to the church’s development. The National Register of Historic Places lists both as architects of record. Saler was also the builder of St. Patrick’s (1845) and St. Vincent de Paul’s (1845) and was one of the most active Catholic building contractors in pre-Civil War St. Louis.
Mannerist Style — A Rare Pre-Civil War Treasure
The National Register classifies Saint Mary of Victories as a work of Mannerist architecture — a style rooted in the sophisticated complexity of 16th-century Italian design. The church was built in the tradition of the early 16th-century Mannerist style, making it one of the most architecturally distinguished pre-Civil War Catholic churches in Missouri.
The nave is rectangular and, with the transept added in 1860, forms a classic cruciform plan with the sanctuary at its head. The exterior features an Egyptian-style doorway framed by two massive pillars supporting a heavy wooden cross above the entrance — an unusual and striking feature that anchors the façade.
The Interior — A Complete Liturgical Environment
The interior of Saint Mary of Victories is remarkable as the first interior in a St. Louis church whose design was based upon liturgical studies. It was conceived and executed by Max Schneiderhahn, the city’s first professional church artist — a German immigrant who had studied at a German university and two monasteries, bringing the full craftsmanship tradition of European liturgical art to St. Louis.
Schneiderhahn was responsible for virtually every element of the interior: the altars, statuary, steepled baptismal font, communion rail, carvings, and frescoes. He also painted the Stations of the Cross. The result is a unified artistic vision of exceptional coherence and beauty, executed entirely by one master craftsman and his workshop.
Eight tall stained-glass windows with rounded frames grace the nave and transept, praised for their artistry in an 1844 German newspaper printed in Cincinnati and selected personally by the first rector, Rev. John P. Fischer. The windows complement the high arch of the sanctuary and flood the interior with luminous color.
The choir loft is located on the second tier of the two-tier balcony at the rear of the church. Its ornate wooden-carved organ case and stenciled display pipes are among the oldest in St. Louis.
The interior walls preserve extraordinary fresco paintings depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary and the saints, planned by Fr. Fischer and executed by St. Louis church decorator Paul Hoegen in 1844–1847. The sanctuary apse bears the famous inscription “Our Lady of Victories, Pray for Us” encircling the painted half-dome above the high altar.
Two noted popes are also commemorated in the painted ceiling. Pope John Paul II’s blue-and-gold coat of arms appears over the church crossing, while Pope Benedict XVI’s coat of arms is displayed over the choir loft — making Saint Mary of Victories the only church in the Archdiocese to display Pope Benedict’s arms in the fabric of the building.
The High Altar — An Indulgenced Altar
The magnificent high altar is the crowning jewel of the interior. In the late 19th century, Pope Leo XIII bestowed an Indulgence upon the altar, granting temporal remission of sins at the time of death for Catholics who say specific prayers before it while dying in the state of grace — an extraordinary and rare papal privilege attached to only a handful of altars in America.
The altar contains hundreds of sacred relics of saints, embedded within its structure per ancient Roman Rite tradition. These relics, combined with the Papal Indulgence, make this among the most spiritually significant altars in the Midwest.
A Consecrated Church
Saint Mary of Victories is one of the very few consecrated (rather than merely blessed) churches in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. On 1866, by direction of Pope Pius IX, Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick performed the full rite of consecration — anointing each of the interior walls with chrism oil. The brass wall cross sconces (candleholders) visible on the walls today mark each of the anointing locations. A consecrated church may only be used for Roman Catholic worship and for no other purpose.
Other liturgical art treasures were donated at later dates by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, the Mill Hill Fathers, and the group promoting the canonization of Blessed Francis X. Seelos. The Seelos statue, minted by the Vatican Statuary Foundry, stands on a reconstructed side altar made from the communion rail of the demolished St. Malachy’s Church. A copy of Bl. Seelos’ bronze death mask — one of only five in the world — is also on permanent display.
Significant Years in the Building’s History
- 1843 — Cornerstone laid, June 25
- 1844 — Church dedicated September 15; original nave completed at cost of $8,000
- 1860 — Transept and belfry added; total building cost reaches $13,000
- 1866 — Church consecrated by Archbishop Kenrick at direction of Pope Pius IX
- 1882 — Major period of significance (National Register)
- Late 19th c. — High Altar receives Papal Indulgence from Pope Leo XIII
- 1941–1943 — Extensive interior and exterior restoration for Centennial
- 1980 — Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, August 28