I started last year with a plan to photograph churches.  During 2023, I photographed a couple but didn’t get inspired enough to write a blog post about what I saw. I like photographing churches so I’m carrying the plan forward into 2024.  I’ve made a good start visiting three churches in Florida during January.

St. Timothy Catholic Church – The Villages

We spent a winter in The Villages back in 2010 and have always wanted to return.  On our trip south this year, we spent 10 days in The Villages.  While there, I visited St. Timothy Catholic Church, which is located in The Villages.  It’s a large church and is relatively new, being built in 1996.  It’s located in the Spanish Springs town center and is built with a Spanish mission theme, like most of the buildings in Spanish Springs.

I visited over the Christmas weekend and got to attend a Sunday Mass and the Christmas Mass.  The Christmas Mass was special.  The church was packed with over 600 people.  The music was beautiful with many traditional Christmas Hymns and an opera level cantor singer.  It was one of the most beautiful Christmas Masses I’ve ever attended.

A couple of things stand out in this church.  The altar is in the center of the church with pew sections encircling the altar.  I had never seen this design before.  Numerous small statues of saints adorn the walls.  Several elderly woman served as the Altar Servers.  This made sense as The Villages is mostly 55+ aged retirees and there are few young people.

St. Timothy is a lovely church and I was very encouraged by the large turn out for the Masses.  I have never attended a church with so many people.  They hold two vigil Masses on Saturdays and three Masses on Sundays.

Our Lady of Lourdes – Venice, FL

We rented a friends house in Venice, FL for the month of January, which is about 70 miles south of Tampa on the Gulf Coast.  The nearby Catholic Church is Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church.  The city was named after the Italian city with the same name because the nearby canal like waterways reminded one of the early settlers of the canals in Venice.  The church design displays a mix of Spanish Mission and Italian features.

The church is a low large building and relatively new (1995).  The inside is a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary as she was depicted in the apparition of her that was seen in Lourdes, France.  In 1858, 14 yr old Bernadette Soubirous saw an apparition of Mary in a grotto cave in Lourdes, France.  In recalling the incident, young Bernadette said – “I saw a lady dressed in white, she wore a white dress, an equally white veil, a blue belt and a yellow rose on each foot.” 

Through out the church, windows and statues depict various images of Mary that are venerated in various countries.  Catholic churches usually have images and statues of various saints, but the imagery in this church is focused solely on Mary.

The church is set up like St. Timothy with pews surrounding the altar.

This church has a large attendance. The population of Venice is around 24,000 people and has two large Catholic churches.

New Is Good

Unlike New England, in many areas of Florida buildings are relatively new.  Although European settlers arrived at Florida in the 1500’s, up until 1820, Florida was part of Spain with only a few areas developed, such as St. Augustine and areas in the Panhandle.  I’ve seen  many historic buildings in those areas like the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine which was built in the late 1700’s.

But, much of the development in the middle and southern parts of Florida didn’t occur until the late 1800’s.  Venice wasn’t developed until the 1890’s.  The development of commercial air conditioning in the 1940’s helped advance development in the warmer tropical areas.  The Villages development began in 1980’s.  Add to that the propensity for hurricane destruction, it’s understandable why many buildings in Florida like these churches are new.  (Both of these parishes were established in the 1980’s).

New is good.  I like both of these churches.  Primarily it is the large attendance at each Mass which conveyed that Christ is very present in both these areas.