Church welcomes stained glass windows

St. Richard’s Catholic Church in Columbia Falls is getting new stained glass windows that depict both saints and the life of Jesus.

Father Sean Raftis said the project to replace the old windows in the church began a few months ago and was coordinated by member Don Ricketts. After selecting a firm to supply the windows, a call went out to the congregation to fund them. Each window costs about $2,000 apiece.

“Within a week, they were all spoken for,” Father Raftis said.

Each window depicts a phase of Jesus’ life. Others a saint, such as Saint Patrick, who is holding a three leaf clover that represents the trinity; St. Monica, St. Joseph and the Christ child and St. Michael, to name a few.

All told, there are 18 large windows and 18 smaller windows the members bought in memory of family members. The church was built on U.S. Highway 2 in 1959 after the congregation raised $60,000 for its construction. The original church is on Fourth Avenue and was built in 1891. It is now owned by a private party.

St. Richard’s has about 325 families as members. The expansive church features cedar beams that were logged from local forests. Raftis said the church also has plans to put stained glass windows in the balcony on the second floor as well. The stained glass comes from Stained Glass Inc., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of stained glass. They’ve done projects for Congress and the White House as well as numerous churches.

Aluma Glass of Kalispell installed the new windows.