St Ignatius Mission Parish, St Ignatius, MT
The Sistine Chapel is a long way from the Flathead Reservation in Montana. However, the St. Ignatius Mission Church also places a lot of value on its prized ceiling and the frescoes that adorn it. So who was the Michelangelo of the mountains? Brother Joseph Carignano, an amateur artist and the mission’s cook and handyman, painted all the works over a 14-month span.
The mission’s history predates the church, and even this location. Famed Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet founded St. Ignatius Mission with Peter McGean and Andrew Hoecken in what is now Idaho in 1845, however, due to adverse conditions and at the behest of Chief Alexander of the Upper Kalispel Tribe of the Salish nation, they moved to Montana in 1854.
The mission and town of St. Ignatius grew together in the shadows of the newly named Mission Mountain range, and the current Gothic Revival church was built in 1891. The building took two years to complete, and building materials were sourced from local bricks and milled trees. The ceilings and walls of the building remained bare until Carignano arrived in 1903. He had been assigned to missions across the Pacific Northwest, and although he had no formal training, he had painted Renaissance-inspired works in the past at local schools and churches. At St. Ignatius, while working primarily as a cook, he completed 58 frescoes across the church’s ceilings and walls. The frescoes depict religious scenes, such as the three visions of the mission’s namesake, St. Ignatius of Loyola.
