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Draft:Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center

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Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center
Address5440 Moeller Avenue Norwood, Ohio 45212
DenominationCatholic
History
Former name(s)Mount Saint Mary's Seminary of the West
Founded1993
Founder(s)Fr. Richard Wilhelm
Fr. Leroy Smith
Earlier dedication23 October 1923
Architecture
Style Italian Renaissance

Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, or simply the Holy Spirit Center is a Catholic retreat center located in Norwood, near Cincinnati, Ohio. The Italian Renaissance building was completed in 1923 to house Mt. St. Mary's Seminary, the major seminary of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and part of the Athenaeum of Ohio. Due to declining enrollment and buildings falling into disrepair, Mt. St. Mary's moved to the campus of St. Gregory Seminary in 1981. The campus sat vacant for over a decade before being purchased by Fr. Richard Wilhelm in 1992.

History

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Construction of seminary building

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The Archbishop's Mansion at the Holy Spirit Center was completed in 1911.

The land on which the Holy Spirit Center sits was originally purchased by the Norwood Heights Company, a real estate development corporation owned by Henry Moeller and a group of Catholic priests and laymen, in July 1906. Moeller intended to create a Catholic residential community in the area, and to relocate the episcopal residence, the diocesan cathedral, and the diocesan seminary to the neighborhood. Construction on a new bishop's mansion in the Italian Renaissance style, housing a chapel, guest rooms, and 16 bathrooms, concluded by 1911.[1][2] That same year, the property hosted the 5th National Eucharistic Congress.[3]

However, prohibitions within canon law against the building of a diocesan cathedral outside of the titular city, along with a depressed real estate market and allegations of directors of the corporation speculating for personal gain lead to the movement of the cathedral never occuring and the delaying of the construction of the new seminary building until 1917, when bidding for contractors was opened. In 1918, building was again postponed due to the outbreak of World War I.[4]

It was not until June 1, 1921 that Moeller broke ground on the seminary building. The cornerstone was laid on March 16 of the following year. By the beginning of classes in 1923, the four classes of major seminarians studying graduate-level theology transferred from the campus of Saint Gregory Seminary to the Norwood location, allowing for the reestablishment of the minor seminary formerly housed at that location.[4][5] On October 23, Pietro Fumasoni Biondi, the Apostolic delegate to the United States, solemnly dedicated the new three-story grey brick building, constructed in the same style as the episcopal residence.[4] Situated on 16 acres, it boasted 300 rooms as well as a basketball court, pistol range, and chapel.[6] The last of these was initially simple in its ornamentation, with red curtains and a crucifix of Christ the High Priest hanging above the altar, and was the site of a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII during his 1936 visit to the United States.[7][8] In 1951, major cosmetic additions were made to the space in a baroque style, along with the addition of painted biblical scenes and symbols of the titles of the Litany of Loreto. Following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, major alterations were made to the chapel in 1975, with chairs replacing pews, allowing for multiple different arrangements of the chapel. The Marian symbols on the ceiling were also covered up.[7]

Closure and sale

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Enrollment at Mt. St. Mary began to decline in the 1970s. This, paired with the poor condition of the 1923 building, requiring $1 million in repairs, lead to the Norwood campus being listed for sale for $3 million and its move back to the St. Gregory site, which had become vacant the previous year.[9][1] Propositions for alternate uses for the now-closed building included a nursing home and an office building for the state of Ohio.[10][11]

The chapel at the Holy Spirit Center following the renovations of the mid-1990s.

In 1992, a retired priest named Richard Wilhelm purchased the still-listed facility for $100,000 to serve as a home for a fellowship of retired priests, calling it the Monk's Retreat Center.[12] The property had undergone water damage and the roof needed over $16,000 in repairs, leading Wilhelm to offer up an original propeller signed by Wilbur Wright for sale to fundraise for repairs.[13] Two years after its purchase, the western wing of the building, damaged by water freezing inside the walls, collapsed.[14][15] Restoration work continued, and the campus, by now called the Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, installed new pews, as well as an altar from the recently-closed Holy Cross Church in the Mount Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati.[15] The chapel hosted Vietnamese-language Masses for recently-arrived refugees until the community moved to St. Aloysius Church in the Elmwood neighborhood of Cincinnati.[16][17] The campus also hosted the offices and studios of Sacred Heart Radio AM 740 following the purchase of the WNOP rights from a jazz station in 2000, the same year that a chapel at the center began hosting perpetual Eucharistic adoration.[18][19]

Our Lady of Light

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Beginning in 1992, an anonymous person allegedly began having visions of the Virgin Mary at St. Joseph Church in Cold Spring, Kentucky, where Fr. Leroy Smith was pastor. Later that same year, Smith retired from his pastorate and became vice-president of the Holy Spirit Center.[20][21][22] Visions continued at St. Joseph the two following years, drawing more onlookers, and in 1994, Our Lady of Light Ministries was established at the Holy Spirit Center.[23][24] In 1995, the visionary said that the visions would move to the Holy Spirit Center, and the retreat house hosted thousands of pilgrims every August at the time of the apparitions. [25][26][27] The visions ceased in 2000.[24][28]

References

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  1. ^ a b Fortin, Roger Antonio (2002). Faith and action: a history of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, 1821-1996. The urban life and urban landscape series. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. pp. 206–209, 374. ISBN 978-0-8142-0904-2.
  2. ^ "Retreat: Seminary to minister again". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1993-07-23. p. 27. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  3. ^ "Prelates to be Guests at Home of Archbishop during Congress". The Cincinnati Post. 1911-09-22. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  4. ^ a b c Miller, Francis Joseph (2006). A History of the Athenaeum of Ohio: A History of the Seminaries of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. pp. 147-153.
  5. ^ Hussey, M. Edward (1978). A history of the seminaries of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, 1829-1979. Mt. St. Mary's Seminary of the West. p. 39.
  6. ^ "Work begins to clear rubble at ex-seminary". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1994-03-24. p. 21. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  7. ^ a b Turner, William (1975). This House of Gold The Chapel at Mt. St. Mary's Seminary of the West Norwood Ohio 1924-1974 (PDF). Mt. St. Mary's Lithography.
  8. ^ "Cardinal Honors City by Service at New School". The Cincinnati Post. 1936-10-31. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  9. ^ "'There's No Shortage of Vocations' At Monastery". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1980-05-27. p. 29. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  10. ^ "Senior center proposed for seminary grounds". The Cincinnati Post. 1983-10-26. p. 16. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  11. ^ "Norwood wants offices at seminary". The Cincinnati Post. 1981-01-22. p. 20. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  12. ^ "Retired priest buys seminary in Norwood". The Cincinnati Post. 1992-07-09. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  13. ^ "Spinoff could help seminary". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1993-07-29. p. 86. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  14. ^ "Work begins to clear rubble at ex-seminary". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1994-03-24. p. 21. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  15. ^ a b "Seminary structure resurrected". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1995-02-28. p. 17. Retrieved 2025-09-25.
  16. ^ "Vietnamese: Families balance two cultures". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1997-01-16. p. 35. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  17. ^ "Hispanic, Vietnamese Catholics to fill 2 churches". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1998-05-19. p. 13. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  18. ^ "Drive launches Catholic radio station". The Cincinnati Post. 2000-10-06. p. 18. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  19. ^ "Round-the-clock prayer coming back". The Cincinnati Post. 2000-11-22. p. 17. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  20. ^ "ky The Cincinnati Enquirer Cincinnati, Ohio · Sunday, May 08, 1994 b". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1994-05-08. p. 20. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  21. ^ "Believer in visit by Mary to leave". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1992-12-14. p. 10. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  22. ^ "Virgin Mary devotee retiring from parish". The Cincinnati Post. 1992-12-12. p. 13. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  23. ^ "Message Fron Mary to BV Jan 1994". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1994-01-22. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  24. ^ a b "Vision Unlikely to show this year". The Cincinnati Post. 2000-08-22. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  25. ^ "Norwood readies for Virgin Mary". The Cincinnati Post. 1996-08-31. p. 10. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  26. ^ "Faithful gather for Blessed Virgin". The Cincinnati Post. 1998-09-01. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  27. ^ "Faithful awaiting visit by Mary". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1999-08-31. p. 13. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  28. ^ "History". Our Lady of the Holy Spirt Center. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
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