| St. Mary Star of the Sea | |
|---|---|
| Basic information | |
| Location | 120 E. Wesley St. Jackson, MI |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| District | Diocese of Lansing |
| Year consecrated | 1926 |
| Leadership | Rev. Timothy Nelson |
| Website | Parish website |
| Architectural description | |
| Architect(s) | Frederick Spier |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Architectural style | Byzantine & Romanesque architecture |
| Completed | 1926 |
| Construction cost | $375,000 |
| Specifications | |
| Height (max) | 180 feet |
| Materials | Limestone Steel Copper towers |
St. Mary Star of the Sea is a Catholic parish church located in downtown Jackson, Michigan. The parish was the second in the Jackson area, after St. John the Evangelist. In the fall of 2008, St. Mary Parish merged with St. Stanislaus Kostka Chapel in Jackson, which houses both the Polish community of the former St. Stanislaus Kostka Parish and the Mexican community of Sacred Heart, formerly an independent chapel at a separate site in Jackson. The current priest is Fr. Tim Nelson with deacons Vincent Genco and Matt Shannon.
Completed in 1926, the Romanesque Revival church was designed by Frederick Spier of Detroit. Its most notable feature is a stained glass window entitled "Christ and the Battlefield."
The window was created by the Tyrolese Art Glass Company of Innsbruck, Austria, after a design made by the church pastor, Eugene M. Cullinane. "Christ and the Battlefield Window" is a World War I memorial to "all Jacksonians serving in the Armed Forces and to the nuns and nurses who cared for them on the battlefields." At the right of the scene are soldiers and sailors arriving on shore, bearing the American flag and supporting the wounded. To the left are other soldiers and a Sister of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul tending a fallen nurse. Behind them St. Mary looks upward toward figures of Christ and attending angels
The church and its window were registered in the Michigan Stained Glass Census (MSGC 93.0065).
A school associated with the church, St. Mary's, was built in 1889. When the school opened that October as a high school, it was staffed primarily by the Sisters of Charity from Cincinnati, Ohio. It was accredited in 1915 by the University of Michigan.
In 1950 the school purchased an adjacent building to add space to provide primary education. In 1956 more classrooms were added to the main school building and another building was purchased in 1959. The last class to graduate from St. Mary's High School did so in 1968, when Lumen Christi Catholic High School opened in Jackson and St. Mary's stopped offering secondary education. St. Mary continued to educate students through eight grade until the opening of Jackson Catholic Middle School in 1971. During the 1980s and 1990s the enrollment fluctuated as parents were faced with more choices and the neighborhood changed. As the parishes would merge years later, in 1999, St. Mary's and St. Stan's schools merged, with students from St. Stan's moving to St. Mary's.
Currently, the school provides pre-kindgarten through sixth grade secular and K-12 religious education. A licensed daycare center was established in 1990.