Father Chris Marino with the Basilica of Saint Mary Star of the Sea joined good morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about
There are restorations going on at the church right now.
Father Marino said, “The Basilica parish Saint Mary’s Star of the City was founded in 1851. However, there was a Catholic presence here in Monroe County from the 1700s. Probably priests from Cuba were coming and celebrating mass on various Keys, but there was enough of a Catholic population here in Key West that in 1851 the Pope decided to start a parish here in Key West, Mary Star of the Sea, Stella Maris in Latin, and the Basilica, as it is now. Our first church was actually close to where St. Paul’s right now is, across the street from St. Paul’s. People tell me that the original wooden church of Mary Star of the Sea was actually where the parking lot is of the La Concha Hotel, but that church burned down in the late 1800s early 1900s and a new church was built, and that’s the church we have right now, and the cornerstone was laid in 1904 and basically that church, as we’ve known it, was completed around 1907 when the beautiful window of Mary Star of the Sea, which is so iconic of our Basilica church, and certainly most people in Key West are familiar with that beautiful image of Our Lady Mary over the water with the boat there and the anchor, and the baby Jesus in her arms, and that church has served us very well for these last 120 years. The architecture of it is spectacular. As a matter of fact, I always like to tell people, come to the Basilica on each side of that church. We have six doors, and you can come in any one of them. The doors are almost always open, so come on in.”
Over the years, there’s been a lot of wear and tear on the church.
Father Marino continued, “We live in Key West, the doors are almost always open, lots of salt, various variations of temperature, water infiltration, so on and so forth. A lot of things had not been attended to for a long time, and as I like to tell people, I’m about to be 60 years old very soon, and I got a lot of aches and pains, and a lot of things breaking down on my body. The church is 120 years old, so you can just imagine. So we began a major restoration of the Basilica, and the name of the campaign is Renewing the Light of Hope, and a lot of things had to be attended to in the infrastructure. The pews were infested with living colonies of termites. There was a blue carpet over what’s really a beautiful terrazzo floor that was pulled out. What we’re doing is not a renovation. Renovation kind of takes something and makes it completely new. We’re doing what I like to say is a restoration. So, we, a committee of folks that I appointed when I first got here, and some other consultors, we’ve gone through all the archival photographs, and thanks be to God, people in Monroe County have very good archival documents and photos of what that church has looked like over the last 120 years, and we’re bringing back some of the most beautiful decorative and architectural features of what has been there over the last 120 years, for various reasons, some of those things were taken out, and they were replaced with, and, as less than I think, in some cases of what had been there previously.”
When the church was first built there was no electricity.
Father Marino said, “Because there was no electricity, all of those doors were always open, so that there would be beautiful light coming in, streaming in, because there was no electricity, no electrical lighting. So the church was painted white on the inside, so we’re bringing back a lot of those white elements. Light, bright and airy is the theme for Renewing the Light of Hope. One of the things that’s going to be fantastic is we’re putting white pews in the church with a beautiful dark deep wood tone edges and kick plates, and just beautiful that white theme, which was part of the original. Also, one of the things that was there from the very beginning up until probably the 1970s there was once a beautiful wrought iron canopy over the main altar, the tabernacle, as if visually supporting the beautiful window of Mary Star of the Sea, and that was taken out for various reasons. There were changes in the way the church celebrated her liturgies in the 1960s and 70s, and it was taken out, and something has been missing since that time. So we are restoring that original wrought iron canopy, however, in a kind of an updated and more streamlined way.”
There will also be gold stenciling in the sanctuary area.
Father Marino said, “We’re going to have this beautiful technique of gold stenciling, hand-painted gold stenciling in the whole sanctuary area, which is around the window where the altar is. We’re going to have a beautiful blue clear story from the windows up to the ceiling on the sides, painted with a field of stars, like the star of the sea, and the whole ceiling, which is a new, beautiful, beautiful original pressed tin ceiling, which has been covered with ages and ages of lead paint that it was flaking down in chunks, which has been completely abated, and no more lead paint in that church, and every detail of that pressed tin ceiling now is going to be accentuated and emphasized by the technique of glazing and gold leafing, and some particular very specific paintings that are being put in the ceiling as well. In addition to lighting and a new sound system, the terrazzo has been beautifully restored as we speak. They’re finishing up. We’ve created new medallions of the Star of the Sea that lead you from the front door of the Basilica all the way up to the altar. Magnificent color, beautiful terrazzo, beautiful.”
There will be a new marble altar as well.
Father Marino said, “Which is the pulpit where the word of God is proclaimed, and that’s based on the original altar, which still exists and will always be there in the basilica with beautiful marble columns and substantial, but yet light, bright, and airy. So many things are being done, but one of the most wonderful things kind of like slipped in at the last minute. As I mentioned, we have on each side of our church six doors, which are kind of iconic of the Basilica, and we keep those doors open all the time. However, in the heat of summer, you’ve got to use some air condition, so you have to close the doors, but we’re putting in an air condition system that is going to allow us to keep the sanctuary and the nave, which is the inside of the church, cool and comfortable, yet allow us to keep all the doors of the church fully open, even in the heat of summer. This incredible new system of air conditioning, which is going to be efficient and cost-effective, and not much more than we had originally budgeted. So, there’s so many wonderful things happening at the Basilica, Renewing the Light of Hope, and that work began on August the 26 of last year, when we went out of the church for three months, and all of our liturgies were out in the garden. We have a beautiful Stations of the Cross Garden next to the Grotto. And then we returned to the church in November of last year, after they had taken all the lead paint out, after they had taken the pews out, the filthy dirty carpet, taken all the plaster down to its original base, and we’ve been in the church from November 1 all the way until the beginning of May.”
In the beginning of May, the work restoring the terrazzo began.
Father Marino said it was “the air conditioned ductwork, the electricity, all these things. We were, we are planning to be out of the church until the middle of November, more or less, and that’s when we hope we return, and when we return, not only will we have a beautiful church visibly, but we’re also putting in a specialty designed for our particular space hybrid organ, which the organ brains are being manufactured, and the pipes are going to be real pipes. The Basilica actually never had a pipe organ, even though we had lots of fake pipes up in the choir loft, they were only fake and ornamental, but now we’re having beautiful, real, true pipes being manufactured in Italy, and the hope is that the organ will be in place, playable, starting from when we return to the church in November, but the pipes themselves, the incredible pipes, won’t be installed until July of 2027 and that’s when I think everything really will be brought to its completion. But we plan to be back into the beautifully restored church at the middle of November, and hopefully Archbishop Wenski will be able to consecrate the new altar and the new ambo at some point in either the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027 so it’s super exciting.”
The church is still looking for help.
Father Marino said, “People have been super generous, of course. We still need lots of people to step up so that we can get this beautiful project completed to the glory of God and the sanctification of His people. So I’m super excited. You can go to the Basilica website, find out information. Please give online and help us to make this a reality. It’s going to be beautiful. It’s already been beautiful for 120 years, but this is a new moment in which we find ourselves, and thanks be to God. Key West and Monroe County, we have a lot of people that come from all kinds of places and have made a home here, or at least have made a part-time home here, and they have stepped up. The people of Monroe County always step up. People told me when I came here, Father, the people of Monroe County and Key West always step up when a crisis comes, when a hurricane comes, everybody comes together. Thanks be to God, the people have come together without a hurricane for some for creation instead of destruction, so I’m so pleased and so honored to be part of this.”
Worship will continue, even though the church is undergoing restoration.
Father Mariono said, “The worship of God continues here at the Basilica, even though the church itself is out of commission during the restoration. We’re blessed because at the Basilica parish we have a wonderful Stations of the Cross Garden, which is next to the Grotto and in front of the school, and that’s where we have all of the holy masses, all of the liturgies, all of our baptisms, all of our funerals, holy mass every single day at 7:30am and then on Sunday our regular and full and complete mass schedule, and thanks be to God, it’s been wonderful. We haven’t been rained out yet. Last year, as I said, we were out there for three full months from the end of August until the beginning of November, and we never had a rain out. Please, God, He will also give us good weather this year, but nevertheless, we have tents out there. We have a big room that has 100 seats, and it’s air conditioned, but I always encourage people, bring an umbrella, because we live in Key West, and you never know, shorts are fine, Birkenstocks are fine. Matter of fact, before I came to Key West, I wore a cassock. Which is the long black priest garment almost every day of my life, since I came to Key West, at least in the summer, now I wear black shorts, a black shirt, and my Birkenstocks. So that’s my summertime Key West classic, I call it.”
The Basilica also has a school.
Father Marino said, “There was the Mary Immaculate High School, there was also the Convent High School, and then, because of demographics on the island, the Catholic school high school closed here in Key West, but because of changing demographics in a positive way, about six years ago, we were able to reignite the idea of a high school here, and then four years ago we opened the high school again under the title of the Basilica High School, and on Saturday last, we graduated our first class of high school seniors of the Basilica High School in 40 years, and they got tons and tons of scholarship money. I’m telling you, I’ve worked with high schools in the Archdiocese of Miami for many years. I have never seen the amount of money that our kids received in scholarship from the Basilica High School, extraordinary, extraordinary. So we’ve got something good going on here, and I encourage everyone: if you want a good, solid Catholic education, you come to the Basilica School, and if your kids are beyond eighth grade, the Basilica High school is alive and vibrant and producing excellent, excellent outcomes. Come, the Lord is waiting for you. The Lord is waiting for you. As I said before, there’s 12 doors on the sides of our Basilica church. Right now, we’re outside in a garden, so there’s nothing stopping anybody from coming to Jesus, so come on down. The Lord is present and alive. Blessings to all.”
For more information, click here: https://stmarykeywest.com/