The Grand Arch Mural of St. John Church
…and the stories it tells about Whiting’s
Slovak-Catholic history

John Hmurovic
December 2020

St. John the Baptist Church is a place of worship. But, it is also home to some interesting art and architecture. Perhaps the most eye-catching part of its interior is the grand arch mural at the front of the church. For those with an interest in history, the arch is even more fascinating. It tells the story of an important part of Whiting: the role that faith played in the lives of the city’s massive Slovak and Catholic community.

Whiting has always been a city of immigrants. The Germans came first. In the 1850s, they built the railroad lines on the sandy, wet ground along the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Some stayed behind and became the first non-native residents, of what later became Whiting, when they created a settlement of workers responsible for maintaining the tracks. With the arrival of the refinery in 1889, the area’s population changed. Standard Oil needed a huge workforce to operate, and immigrants from Europe satisfied that need.

They came from Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Italy, Greece, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Turkey, and many other countries. But more than anywhere else, they came from Slovakia. By 1920, 67-percent of Whiting’s residents were either immigrants from a foreign country, or the children of those immigrants. Slovaks were the largest of the immigrant groups. There were more Slovaks in Whiting than there were in 24 of the 48 states at the time. In raw numbers, New York, Chicago, Cleveland and other large cities had more Slovaks than Whiting, but no city in America had a higher percentage of Slovaks in its population than Whiting.

Most of Whiting’s Slovak immigrants were Catholic, and Sacred Heart Church was initially the only Catholic Church in town. The growing number of parishioners, and the desire by some in the Slovak community to have a church of their own, led to a search for a priest who could start a Slovak parish. Twenty-eight-year-old Father Benedict Rajcany, who was living in Slovakia, answered the call, and arrived in 1897 to establish St. John the Baptist Church.

A church building was constructed on the west side of Lincoln Avenue, across from where the present church stands. It soon proved to be too small. A new church, the current one, was built in 1930-31. But the mural on the arch, which rises above the altar at the front of the church’s interior, wasn’t painted until 1947. It was created as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of St. John Parish.

The artist was Ludwig Scheuerle. He lived in Chicago, but like many of those who worshipped at St. John’s, he was an immigrant. Scheuerle was born in August 1897 in Moravia, which is now a part of the Czech Republic and which borders Slovakia. His family came to America in 1902, and the young man immediately showed he had artistic talent.

“The detail is remarkable, and the boy shows a good understanding of the harmony of colors,” the Democrat and Times newspaper of New Philadelphia, Ohio, said about 11-year-old Ludwig. They were referring to a set of paintings he had on display in the widow of Rea’s drug store in that town. The paintings were reproductions of military battles from the late 1800s. “The lad shows much adaptability and talent in the work,” the paper went on. “He has a future with proper instruction.”

As the newspaper predicted, he did have a future in art. By the time Scheuerle was twenty, he worked as a portrait artist in Pittsburgh. He eventually moved to Chicago, where he worked as an artist at the Lindner Art Company. In his career he painted both landscapes and portraits, two skills he put to use as a 49-year-old artist hired to paint the mural on the grand arch in St. John Church.

Scheuerle’s creation was a major part of the 50th anniversary celebration at St. John. On April 27, 1947, the day the arch was presented and blessed, an estimated 1,100 parishioners and guests came to see it. Cars lined up outside the church. Those who were unable to get inside, due to the size of the crowd, listened to the service on the radio. Part of it was broadcast on WJOB in Hammond.

The “beautiful mural,” a program from that event said, was the “object of much study and labor” by Chicago artist Ludwig Scheuerle. “Brightly colored, pervaded with a sense of the joy of faith, the mural on the triumphal arch depicts the European past and the American past and present.”

Father Edward Kaiser, of St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, gave a sermon about the mural and about the central role that God played in the lives of generations of St. John parishioners. “All our eyes are turned,” he said, “to the arch of His triumph, which shows today in gorgeous colors the progress of our faith.”

The arch tells a story, and that story starts with the three images at the very top.  

The Lamb of God
At the top of the arch is the Lamb of God, a title given to Jesus in the Gospel of John: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The Lamb, the source of life, is shown in the center of a tree: The Tree of Life. The branches from the tree reach down both sides of the painting, “uniting the entire mural with their life-giving embrace.” The fountain under the Tree of Life is the Fount of Grace. It represents the seven Sacraments of the Catholic faith, “whose flowing waters provide life-giving nourishment.”

Saint John the Baptist
To the right of the Lamb of God is Saint John the Baptist. St. John devoted his life to delivering a consistent message: A great Savior is coming. John was, the Gospel says, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” That’s why, in this painting, John’s right hand points to the Lamb of God. When Father Benedict Rajcany came to Whiting, he named the new church after Saint John. Whiting was largely unsettled then, and Father Benedict said that like Saint John, he also felt like “one crying in the wilderness.”

Saint Andrew
On the other side of the Lamb of God is Saint Andrew, who is known as the patron saint of the Slavic people. At his foot level in this painting, there is a crucifix shaped like the letter “x.” Andrew died a martyr, hung from a cross in that shape. There was another Saint Andrew who would have been appropriate for this arch. Many Slovaks considered Saint Andrew Zorad a saint even when he was alive. Born in 980, he lived the life of a hermit in Slovakia, leading a life of prayer. He is still venerated in Slovakia.

Saint Methodius
To the left of Andrew, wearing the dark robe of a monk, is Saint Methodius, one of the greatest figures in Slovak culture. Another significant figure in Slovak history is kneeling at his feet. The man kneeling is Monsignor Andrej Hlinka. Methodius was born in the year 826, while Hlinka was born in 1864, so they were not contemporaries. Artist Scheuerle was probably trying to show the link between the first great Catholic in Slovakia’s past, and the Slovaks living in contemporary times. Hlinka was well known to many of the Slovaks who worshipped at St. John in the late 1940s. Besides being a priest, he was a major political leader in Slovakia before World War Two. Hlinka was charismatic, sharp-tongued, and a man with many enemies, but he was a strong advocate for the role of the Catholic Church in Slovakia.

Monsignor Hlinka also had a Whiting connection that many St. John parishioners of 1947 knew about. In 1937, Father John Lach of Immaculate Conception, Whiting’s other Slovak parish, led a band of boys from his parish on a tour of Europe, where they gave 70 concerts over 80 days. At one point in that tour, Father Lach made a special stop in Ruzomberok, where Monsignor Hlinka lived. The busload of 65 boys and their adult chaperones, got off the bus to meet the great Slovak leader. The book, Father Lach’s Slovak Boys Band 1937 Tour, tells the story of that visit.

Hlinka knew that Father Lach planned to visit, so he stood outside with several priests and other citizens of the town to welcome the young Whiting musicians. He was 72 years old at the time, but “despite his years, he held himself straight, and he possessed great personal dignity.” He spoke to the crowd from Whiting, and Father Lach then spoke, thanking him for the warm reception. Monsignor Hlinka and others from Ruzomberok stayed and talked with the Whiting visitors for some time before the bus had to move on for the next stop on their concert tour. Monsignor Hlinka passed away the following year. 

Saint Cyril     
Continuing down the left side of the arch the next major figure, shown dressed as a bishop, is Saint Cyril. Cyril and Methodius were brothers. Cyril was the younger of the two. Both are venerated in the Orthodox Church, as well as the Roman Catholic Church. In Slovakia, even today, their name day (July 5) is a national holiday. Born in present day Greece, they not only brought the Catholic faith to Slovakia, but also created the first written language for the Slavic people. At the time, existing written languages did not include all of the letters and other script needed to properly translate the spoken language of the Slavic people into a written version. So, Cyril created an entirely new script for the Slavic languages. Over the centuries which followed, his script evolved into the Cyrillic alphabet, which even today is used for Russian, Serbian, and several other Eastern European languages. The land that Cyril and Methodius came to was dotted with mountain fortresses, one of which is shown in the background behind Saint Cyril.

Saint Gaspar del Bufalo
There is a street just south of the main building at Calumet College in Robertsdale, which runs past the Poly John plant. It is called Gaspar Avenue. It is named after the next person depicted on the mural. Saint Gaspar was an Italian missionary born in 1786. During his time, Gaspar took the Catholic faith to the dangerous, bandit-controlled hills of Italy. He also founded a religious community called the Society of the Precious Blood. In Whiting, in 1925, Father John Kostik became pastor of St. John’s parish. Father Kostik was a member of the Society of the Precious Blood and ever since his arrival, the parish has been served by priests from that religious order. They are also the priests who operate Calumet College.

Prince Pribina
The painting on the bottom left of the arch is the second one on the mural to depict Saint Cyril. He is seen to the right, dressed as a bishop, his hand in a blessing to the faithful who have gathered. But the primary figure in this section is the man standing closest to him. That is Prince Pribina. He accepted the Christian beliefs brought to the Slavic lands by Cyril and Methodius and was the first Slavic ruler to be baptized into the Church. In the year 828, he became the first to construct a Catholic church in Slovakia. There is an image of a church and some mountains behind him. The mountains probably made at least some of St. John’s Slovak parishioners a little nostalgic. They are the Tatra Mountains, the highest mountain range in Slovakia, a familiar sight to many of the Slovaks who left home and came to America.  

The left side of the mural is essentially the Slovak and European history of the Catholic faith, from which the history of the Church in America and Whiting developed. The right side of the mural tells the American story. It starts near the top, just to the right of Saint John the Baptist.

Father Jacques Marquette
To the right of Saint John the Baptist, near the very top of the arch, is the missionary, Father Jacques Marquette. Father Marquette may have set foot on land which later became Whiting or Robertsdale, but more likely he passed by its shores while traveling via canoe on Lake Michigan. Traveling with French explorer Louis Jolliet, Father Marquette introduced the Catholic faith to Native Americans of the Midwest in the 1600s. Born in France, Marquette joined the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, at the age of 17. At the age of 29, he was assigned to a mission in North America to spread the faith to the Native Americans. Stationed in Quebec, he worked hard to learn the native languages, and became fluent in six of them. In 1673, he joined French-Canadian Jolliet who was exploring various water routes along the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Marquette contracted dysentery and left the area of Starved Rock in Illinois quite ill. He and Jolliet’s small team left there and headed to Lake Michigan. It was around this time that they passed the shores of Northwest Indiana. A short time later, Marquette died, near what is now Ludington, Michigan. He was only 37. A familiar sight to everyone in Whiting-Robertsdale is seen in the background of this portion of the mural: Lake Michigan.

Father Francis Brunner
Francis de Sales Brunner was born in Switzerland. He became a priest in 1816 and joined the Society of the Precious Blood about two decades later. In 1844, he came to America at the request of the Bishop of Cincinnati, who wanted missionaries to spread out across the farmlands of Ohio to serve the spiritual needs of the numerous German settlers. Father Brunner brought with him eight other priests and brothers. Together, they played a major role in the Catholic communities of rural western and northern Ohio. After Father Rajcany founded St. John, he needed help with his growing parish. Priests from St. Joseph College in Rensselaer came to help. One of them was Father John Kostik, who was, for a time, a professor at the school. In 1925, he was chosen to be the first full-time assistant priest assigned to St. John. His arrival marked the start of the connection between the parish and the Society of the Precious Blood.

Father Stephen Furdak
The First Catholic Slovak Union and its sister organization, the First Catholic Slovak Ladies Association, are organizations which have played an important role in the lives of many Slovak Catholics in Whiting. Father Stephen Furdek founded the First Catholic Slovak Union in 1890. Just like Father Brunner in Ohio, and Whiting’s Father Rajcany, Father Furdek came to America to serve an immigrant population. In his case, it was the large Czech and Slovak population in Cleveland in the late 1800s. By time he died in 1915, Jednota (the Slovak word for “Unity”), as the organization was sometimes called, had over 45,000 members. It united Slovak Catholics across the country, including many in Whiting, who benefited from the insurance policies it issued. A chapter of the First Slovak Catholic Ladies was formed at St. John in 1899 and became an important influence in the parish. In this image by artist Scheuerle, Father Furdek is seen handing two sheets of paper to an elderly man and woman, most likely a charter, or maybe an insurance plan, to guarantee the future of the children in the painting.

Father Benedict Rajcany
The first pastor of St. John is in the final image, located at the bottom right of the arch. Father Benedict Rajcany was fluent in Slovak, English, German and Hungarian. Yet, he believed in the importance of Americanizing his Slovak parishioners. So, in this image on the arch, the children are seen with a tennis racquet and a baseball. Father Rajcany, or “Father Benedict,” as he was widely known, was an avid White Sox baseball fan. One story about him is that while he was at a White Sox game, a page came down the aisle yelling, “Father Benedict wanted at Whiting for a wedding!” It was only then that Father Rajcany remembered that he had scheduled a wedding for that date. He caught a taxi back to Whiting, presided over the wedding, and rushed back to Chicago to see the rest of the game.

In a history of the parish, written in 1947 as a part of the 50th anniversary celebration, there is another story about Father Benedict and his arrival in 1897. The welcoming committee of George Berdis and Joseph Skrabala went to the Hammond train station to meet Father Benedict. They had no idea what he looked like, but apparently thought he would be tall and dressed in some sort of clerical clothing. They saw no one like that on the platform even after the train had left. They did see a short, foreign-looking man in a dark suit, clutching nervously at a strange-looking suitcase. He looked, to them, like “some one who had run away from home.” They asked the man if he had seen a priest on board the train. He smiled, pulled down the top of his coat to reveal a clerical collar. “I am Father Benedict Rajcany from Austria-Hungary,” he said. He remained as pastor until the end of 1927. He passed away in 1937, at the age of 68, just a month after taking part in the celebration of the church’s 40th anniversary.

The image on the arch also shows a worker on one knee, holding a lunch bucket, something many Whiting workers carried to the job every day. In the background is the old St. John Church, and just above the heads of the adults is the outline of the refinery, which clearly places this image in Whiting.

St. John Church is filled with beautiful expressions of faith. You can spend a lot of time just looking at the details in the stained-glass windows, including a giant image of Saint Gregory slaying a dragon. You can also admire the workmanship that went into creating the statues, including a striking one of Christ on the cross, and one of Saint John the Baptist. The list of artistic and spiritual attractions are numerous, including the wood-carved confessionals and the grotto near the back of the church. But standing above them all is the grand arch mural. Looking at it, you can both admire the workmanship of Ludwig Scheuerle and learn some history. The arch tells a story: It shows us the history of the Catholic faith among the Slovak people, and how that faith lived on in the lives of those who left their villages, traveled to America, and started a new life in Whiting and Robertsdale.