Amazing Grace in Restoring Historic Church

Amazing Grace in Restoring Historic Church

By Anita L. Sherman

Worth restoring. Worth preserving. Worth remembering.

Dr. Francis ‘Bud’ Andres stepped gingerly onto the floor of what once was St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church in Warrenton at 79 E. Lee Street.

The building was erected in 1861 due to Ann America Semmes Payne, who arrived in Warrenton 13 years earlier as a new bride and a staunch Catholic. Lamenting the lack of a Catholic place of worship, she set into motion an ambitious plan to build a church in the summer of 1860. By the following year, St. John’s was erected because of her fundraising efforts.

The parish didn’t have long to gather. The Civil War had both Union and Confederate casualties needing assistance after the battles of Bull Run. The Town of Warrenton changed hands some 60 times during the war and the church served as a hospital for hundreds.

Dr. Francis “Bud” Andres

Photo by Anita Sherman

“This is part of the original floor,” said Andres, pointing to a small preserved section. He smiled recalling a group of Boy Scouts who were invited to visit. “I asked them if they knew about DNA,” said Andres. “I told them there had been plenty here with blood-soaked floors that were eventually removed.”

Nearly a century after the church was built, the St. John’s parish needed more space. In 1963, a new church was built on the former grounds of the Stuyvesant School. Since that time, the original church and its former rectory and parish hall have been used for many purposes.

Under new ownership since September 2019, there are plans to restore all three buildings.

A psychiatrist for more than 40 years and a Fauquier resident, Andres is president of Guadalupe, Inc., a nonprofit corporation with a seven-person board. Its restoration mission: renovate the three buildings and use them in altruistic ways.

They currently have several goals.

It will be reinvented with a new identity as a pilgrimage chapel known as “The Guadalupe Chapel of Divine Mercy.” Dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, revered by Catholics as the patroness of the Americas, it will be a place of devotion and liturgical events.

A more recent development in Catholic practice is devotion to the Divine Mercy based on the writings of Sister Maria Faustina Kawolska, a Polish nun who died in 1938, and who believed that she was an instrument for Christ’s mercy.

She had a painting commissioned representing an image of Christ that had appeared to her. That image of Divine Mercy will grace the five-foot circular window above the altar. Below the window will be a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to the right a statue of St. Joseph and to the left one of St. Pope John Paul II, who fully supported the spiritual diary of Sister Kawolska in the 1960s, calling her “the greatest apostle of Divine Mercy in our time.”

Andres also is keen on preserving its history, particularly as a Civil War hospital.

“The building will be open to the public,” said Andres, “dedicated to the memory of those who died during the Civil War…both Union and Confederate…we need to remember.”

Another historical person of interest is Father William Corby, who served as chaplain of the 88th New York Infantry, part of the Union Irish Brigade. Known as the “Fighting Chaplain,” Corby was given permission to address the troops prior to the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. He pronounced a general absolution of sins for those who were truly repentant, Catholic and non-Catholic. He believed his ministry represented every soldier.

Corby visited St. John’s after Gettysburg, meeting with the Semmes family. After the war, he became president of Notre Dame University in 1865 at age 33 and served a second term in 1877. He is also heralded as the second founder of Notre Dame when

it was nearly destroyed by a fire in 1879. Undaunted by the disaster, Corby raised funds to rebuild and classes resumed the following year.

Former owner and Warrenton interior designer Barry Dixon had previously done renovations to the rectory, which houses several light-filled offices. Andres, who plans to retire at the end of the year, sees many possibilities for this space.

“I’d like to see a sort of free clinic here where I could continue seeing patients,” he said. “I have two psychologist friends who are interested as well.”

Caring for the needy is part of Andres’s vision. Looking in at the parish hall, now a large vacant building that includes a stage and a large upper floor, Andres speculated that living quarters for unwed mothers or other displaced persons could be part of that plan.

Andres and the board are working on a capital campaign fundraising effort.

“A million people could all donate a dollar,” he mused, adding that current estimates for the church renovation come in at a million collars.

“We’ve owned the buildings for a year,” he said. “The timing is right…It’s time to get the ball rolling. We’re on the right path…It’s in the hands of the Lord…It will happen.”

For more information, visit www.guadalupechapel. org or, to reach Dr. Andres, call 540-222-4050 or go to fdandresmd@gmail.com.