With Bishop Andrew Cozzens, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, recently detailing a three-year “National Eucharistic Revival” initiative and plans for a large-scale, national event in 2024, Allison Spies joined “Practicing Catholic” radio show host Patrick Conley to describe the National Eucharistic Congress that took place in St. Paul June 22-26, 1941.
Spies, archives program manager for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, said a Eucharistic Congress, generally speaking, is a gathering of clergy, religious and Catholic faithful to celebrate the doctrine of the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. It usually involves open air Masses, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, lectures on eucharistic themes and other devotional ceremonies, she said.
Allison Spies
The 1941 event is described as one of the most significant and important events of that decade for the archdiocese. Every U.S. bishop was invited, with about 150 attending. Tens of thousands of the faithful participated.
The event’s hub was the State Fairgrounds, which was transformed into “the National Eucharistic Center.” Spies described how an oat field then north of the grandstand was cleared and 100,000 feet of benches were put in place with a pipe organ and “a gorgeous altar in the center.”
Events included religious ceremonies, civic events, clerical and lay conferences, historical and educational exhibits, youth rallies, literary and musical programs and more.
Special events Spies described included a midnight Mass for men attended by about 75,000, all holding lit candles. “It was said to look just like a starry sky,” she said.
A large eucharistic procession held on the last day of the Congress, after morning Mass, with people walking from then-St. Andrew in St. Paul to Como Park, and on to the fairgrounds’ eucharistic temple. The procession included 80,000 people standing in rows of six to eight across, Spies said. “And so it went, without interruption for about four hours.”
Sacred chants were the only music permitted during the procession, Spies said. Band members marched without instruments. “There was only this sacred music,” she said, and an estimated 170,000 spectators along the route, all silent. “There was this reverent quietness,” Spies said.
Heavy rain started at the beginning of the procession, yet attendees filled all the benches and the grandstand, Spies said. “People were standing all along the outside of the racetrack and that entire crowd kneeled in the mud for a silent blessing and stayed until the very end,” she said. “It seems like a very stunning demonstration of faith.”
A field hospital was set up in the area of the fairgrounds where the international bazaar is located today. Staffed by nurses and Boy Scouts, its services included providing hydration and emergency treatment to about 500 children overcome by excitement and record heat during an afternoon children’s Mass, according to newspaper accounts.
The location of the fairgrounds’ haunted house today also had a different purpose during the Eucharistic Congress. To learn what it was, and to hear the full interview with more descriptions of the 1941 event, listen to this episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show. It airs at 9 p.m. June 25, 1 p.m. June 26 and 2 p.m. June 27 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who addresses the July lifting of the dispensation for attending Sunday Mass, a dispensation that’s been in place since March 2020, and Nancy Bandzuch, who discusses tips for creating a prayer space at home with her new resource from Catholic Sprouts.
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at:
soundcloud.com/PracticingCatholic
tinyurl.com/PracticingCatholic (Spotify)
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