Church set to open $4.5M chapel in The Woodlands
Tiling work, some display case additions, uncovering pews and a few final touches are all that is needed before the new chapel at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in The Woodlands is complete.
As both the church community and The Woodlands have grown, it became more difficult for St. Anthony to accommodate weddings, baptisms and quinceañeras, so the church began planning for more space. Our Lady of the Angels chapel officially broke ground in February 2021, after several years of planning.
Janine Braun, a longtime member of the church and the current director of buildings and grounds, said planning for the chapel started at least seven years ago during a former capital campaign, Greater Glory.
“The plans for this building were done and then they were shelved after the Greater Glory because we just weren’t ready to proceed,” Braun said. “As time came on, the decision was made to proceed with this construction and we pretty much pulled those plans out, dusted them off, reviewed them and made sure it was still the same space that we wanted and that we required.”
In January 2020, the church started a capital campaign that raised money for the next stages of the church, including the $4.5 million needed to build the chapel.
Construction is expected to finish within the next several weeks and the church plans to hold a dedication and blessing ceremony in December with Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
The chapel, which is behind the main church off Bay Branch Drive, can seat around 350 people. Along with several confessional rooms, the chapel will include a reliquary for 28 relics from various saints, including St. Anthony.
Most of the relics were donated by the Vatican, and the church expects the collection to be a big draw for visitors from across the state and even the country, even visitors who aren’t Catholic.
“For non-Catholics who think it’s weird that we have the bodies and bones of saints, they might come to an appreciation of this aspect of the faith,” said Nate Hoffman, communications coordinator for the church. “We also have the sense of these saints in heaven praying alongside us, right next to us, for our same intentions.”
The reliquary was not always part of the plan for the chapel. It wasn’t until after the church started its Horizon capital campaign that Jerry Trzeciak, a co-chair of the campaign and a church parishioner, called an old friend who happened to work for the Vatican and was offered 19 relics. The church already had six relics and several more were donated by other parties.
“They said, ‘Well this is an opportunity that we can’t pass up, so let’s figure this out,’ ” Hoffman said of church leadership. “Now we’re getting calls from folks who are making pilgrimages from around the area, from around Houston, to come see these relics and pray with them.”
Because the reliquary was the last part of the project to be added and priced, it is one of the final areas that need completion, said Barry Farr, the superintendent of the chapel for ArchCon Corporation, the general contractor of the project. Final inspection with the fire marshal is one of the last necessary steps before Farr said the chapel is finished from a construction standpoint.
“It’s something that has eternal value,” Farr, who has been building churches for at least 20 years, said. “That’s why I love doing it.”