St. Columba Church (Saint Paul, Minnesota)

The Church of St. Columba is a Roman Catholic church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The parish was formed in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood in 1915. After the mid-twentieth century baby boom, the church was expanding and needed a new building. Then-pastor Michael Casey contracted with architect Barry Byrne to design and construct the building. Byrne was based in Chicago and his formal schooling ended in the Ninth Grade. Byrne worked under Frank Lloyd Wright and was involved with the Prairie School of architecture before later turned towards Expressionist architecture. Byrne designed the building later in his career. The 1949 church is very similar in design to St. Francis Xavier Church in Kansas City, Missouri, that was also designed by Byrne. The pastor Michael Casey had the bell tower built to look like an Irish round tower. The interior of the church is built from two overlapping circles. This creates an elliptical interior and an overhead profile that resembles a fish. The fish is one of the earliest symbols of Christianity and the construction of the shape of the church was undoubtedly intentional. The amount of light available on the inside of the building is worth mentioning. There are more than 24 slit like clerestory windows that let natural light in. The interior lightness contrasts with the heavy concrete exterior. The interior of the church features an u

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