Welcome to the Beehive: St. John’s Abbey Church in Collegeville, MN

Why make it beautiful when you can make it ugly?

Welcome to the Beehive:
St. John’s Abbey Church in Collegeville, MN


(image: Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0)

Today we would like to introduce you to a gem of Brutalist architecture, the famed church associated with St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.

The architect who committed this eyesore is Marcel Breuer (1902-81), who is also responsible for St. Francis de Sales church in Norton Shores, Michigan.

Design and construction of this church began in the 1950s, so one can see how deeply the spirit of Modernism and the subsequent Vatican II religion was alive and well during that time.… READ MORE

Another Monster Church: St. Francis de Sales in Norton Shores, Michigan

“I can’t believe it’s not Catholic!”

Another Monster Church:
St. Francis de Sales in Norton Shores, Michigan

There is something about eyesores. Even though they’re horrendously ugly and therefore inherently repulsive, somehow many people nevertheless experience the urge to look. Perhaps it’s due to an instinctive “this is too ugly to be true” reaction.

On this web site we occasionally feature extremely hideous, blasphemous, and otherwise repulsive Novus Ordo churches that are officially but deceptively branded “Roman Catholic”. Think of the Jesuit “Chapel of Encounter” in Salamanca, “God’s Ski Jump” in Munich, the “Novus Horror Church” of St. Martin in Erdmannhausen, or the horrific pile of junk that blasphemously calls itself “Most Holy Trinity Church” in Vienna, to name just a few.… READ MORE