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Show ' ' DURANG0, COLO. ' i ST. COLUMBA'S CHURCH. The Rev. M. F. Callanan, pastor of St. Columba's parish in Durango, is to be congratulated on the progress made in completing the church. The beautiful new edifice will be ready for services cn Christmas day, which promises to be an event in the Catholic Cath-olic history of Durango to be long cherished in fond memory of the faithful. In commenting on the work accomplished through the untiring efforts ef-forts of Father Callanan and those lending him their aid, the Durango Democrat says: The numerous carpenters, painters and decorators who have been busy for the past seven weeks in transforming transform-ing the interior of St. Columba's church are redoubling their efforts to complete the work for the Christmas festivities. St. Columba's school, which formerly for-merly occupied the rear of the church, is now fitted up with commodious quarters in the Mercy convent and a large number of new seats have been added to the church, making the seating seat-ing capacity over five hundred, so that in emergency cases the church will be able to hold eight hundred people, having the largest auditorium in the city. The walls and sanctuary of the church have been cleaned, cal-cimined cal-cimined and decorated, the pews and flooring oak-stained and the new ornamental or-namental choir gallery and stairway decorated in white, yellow and gold to correspond with the numerous arches and pillars. Elegant carpets have been provided for the aisles and tungsten lamps and shades will replace re-place the present electric fitting. Three double . oak doors with ornamental orna-mental glass lights will grace the entrance en-trance to the church. The grand attraction of the edifice, however, is its - twenty-four costly stained glass windows with life-size figures representing the " different mysteries of religion. By far the most beautiful of these is the large rose window eight feet in diameter, representing St. Cecilia playing the organ while surrounded by angels. This window was put in place last Saturday Sat-urday and is admired by all for its richness of coloring and artistic features. fea-tures. The window is placed in the facade of the church, and directly over the choir gallery, St. Cecilia being the patron saint of all good organists and singers. It was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Amy and family of New York, formerly parishioners of St. Columba's. Co-lumba's. ' A grand celebration is being planned for Christmas day to commemorate the completion of the church's transformation trans-formation into an edifice of chaste, beauty and design. It is expected that the music for that day will be in charge of Durango's most celebrated celebrat-ed song birds. |