Inside a wrought iron fence stands a monument to Father Anthony Ravalli, the fifteen foot tall white marble obelisk. Citizens from across Montana contributed to the cost of its erection a few years after the beloved priest’s death. The white marble obelisk-style monument sets on a square base of shaped and beveled pink granite. The inscription reads:
MONTANA’S TRIBUTE
TO
FATHER ANTHONY RAVALLI,
S. J.
WHO SPENT 40 YEARS
IN THIS FAR WEST FOR THE
GOOD OF SOULS & SUFFER-
ING MANKIND AS A ZEALOUS
MISSIONARY AND CHARITABLE
PHYSICIAN.
DIED OCT. 2, 1884
R.I.P.
While obelisks are common throughout Montana’s historic cemeteries, Father Ravalli’s monument is St. Mary’s only example.
Ravalli designed the mission church, most notably the interior design. While he was at St. Mary's he also designed the famous
Cataldo Mission in Northern Idaho, today a National Historic Landmark.
Not only was Ravalli an accomplished, though not formally trained, architect, he was also a priest, sculptor, carpenter, physician, surgeon, pharmacist, artist, and mechanic. Born in Ferrera, Italy in 1812, he was called to the first St. Mary's Mission in 1845, serving there until closing it in 1850 for fear of attack by the Blackfeet. He returned to the Bitter Root Valley, building a new mission a mile south of the original in 1866. While serving at St. Mary's he was instrumental in opening other missions in the Northwest, including Cataldo in Idaho. Father Ravalli died while at the mission in 1884 and is buried near the monument.
Fr. Anthony Ravalli, S. J. 1812-1884
A True Renaissance Man
Father Antonio Ravalli, S.J. was recruited to serve at St. Mary's Mission by
Father Pierre-Jean DeSmet, S.J. and sailed from Europe in 1843, never to return to his beloved homeland. Born in the magnificent renaissance city of Ferrara, Italy in 1812, Antonio Ravalli grew up surrounded by beauty and culture.
Longtime Stevensville resident, Lucylle Evans, traveled to Ferrara in the 1980s and became Father Ravalli’s biographer. In her book, Good Samaritan of the Northwest, Evans says that Father Ravalli worked with Italian gusto and European tradition. She comments that he always attempted to transform and “brighten” the world toward a cultured ideal. Evans notes that Father Ravalli believed, ”Beauty is something we yearn for.” The memory of the magnificent interior of his Italian parish church, Santa Maria in Vado, seems reflected in many of the details found in Historic St. Mary’s Chapel. The simple log exterior belies the beauty of the interior that reflects elements of a miniature Italian Renaissance cathedral.
Today we witness the indelible mark this kind Jesuit priest left on the history of Montana and the Northwest. In September of 1943 the Liberty Ship S.S. Anthony Ravalli was launched and remained in service until 1961. Fr. Ravalli was inducted into the Gallery of Outstanding Montanan's in March of 2005. This honor is bestowed upon those who made significant contributions either on a state or national level which represented the spirit or character which defines Montana. The dedication ceremony for the Father Anthony Ravalli Research Library, held April 20, 2007, is in honor of the memory of Lucylle H. Evans. Many of the books in the library are from the private collection of Mrs. Evans.
From St. Mary's Mission
The story of St. Mary's Mission begins in 1823, when twelve Iroquois, employed as trappers by the Hudson's Bay Company, remained with the Salish through the winter of 1823-24. Exposed to Christianity 200 years previous, they told the Salish stories of Christianity and of the "Black Robes", the missionaries who taught them. The Salish proved to be an interested audience and, between 1831 and 1839 they sent four delegations to St. Louis in an attempt to obtain a Black Robe of their own.
On September 24, 1841, Father Pierre Jean DeSmet, together with his fellow Jesuit missionaries, Fathers Gregory Mengarini and Nicolas Point, and three Lay Brothers arrived in the Bitterroot valley with their belongings and supplies in three carts and a wagon, the first vehicles to enter the area. They established the first white settlement in what was to become Montana, on the east bank of the Bitterroot river, immediately west of the present town of Stevensville.
The fathers built two chapels, residences and outbuildings, and began farming, planting wheat, oats, potatoes and garden crops. From Fort Vancouver they brought into Montana the first cattle, swine and poultry. A third chapel was under construction by 1846 but soon trouble with the Blackfeet forced the closure of the mission, the entirety being sold in November 1850 to John Owen, a former army sutler, for $250.00.
It was sixteen years later (1866) when Father Joseph Giorda, Superior for the Rocky Mountain area, called back Father Ravalli and Brother William Claessens and re-established St. Mary's Mission about a mile south of Fort Owen. Brother Claessens built a little chapel, the fourth he had built for St. Mary's, to which he attached a study, dining room, kitchen and a story and a half barn. Father Giorda made the "new" St. Mary's the Jesuit mission headquarters for the Rocky Mountain province. In 1879 an addition to the front of the building doubled the size of the chapel. (The entire Mission complex has been restored to that date - the peak of its beauty.)
The mission served the Salish people until their forced removal in 1891, during that time teaching them methods of farming and gardening to aid in their survival following the demise of the buffalo.
A Visitor's Center with gift shop, research library, art gallery and museum was built on the site in 1996.
Italicized sections above are from
St. Mary's Mission, Inc.