Ralph Strangis Memorial Pipe Organ

Our Lady of Lourdes was blessed with a magnificent new pipe organ in 2021. The Ralph Strangis Memorial Pipe Organ was generously funded by parishioner Grace Strangis in memory of her beloved husband, a long-time parishioner and parish trustee. With great joy and fanfare, the Ralph Strangis Memorial Pipe Organ was dedicated and blessed by Archbishop Bernard Hebda on August 15, 2021. We are immensely grateful to Grace Strangis for her extraordinary generosity in helping us realize a long hoped-for dream at Lourdes.

Please see the attached story about the pipe organ, which was originally designed for Our Lady of Lourdes during the pastorate of Fr. William Ward. Fr. Ward died unexpectedly after Tim Patterson began the initial design and beginning steps toward building the instrument. Notwithstanding its high quality and aesthetic beauty, the organ never found a home and the fact that this opportunity has come back around to Our Lady of Lourdes after many years is nothing short of providence.

Our new organ is a perfect match for Our Lady of Lourdes. Aesthetically, it complements the noble simplicity and beauty of our church. Acoustically, the French sound-design resonates with our French-Canadian heritage. In the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, “The organ has always been considered, and rightly so, the king of musical instruments, because it takes up all the sounds of creation – as was just said - and gives resonance to the fullness of human sentiments, from joy to sadness, from praise to lamentation. By transcending the merely human sphere, as all music of quality does, it evokes the divine. The organ’s great range of timbre, from piano through to a thundering fortissimo, makes it an instrument superior to all others. It is capable of echoing and expressing all the experiences of human life. The manifold possibilities of the organ in some way remind us of the immensity and the magnificence of God."

The Ralph Strangis Memorial Pipe Organ will serve the liturgy nobly for years to come, animating and leading the hearts and voices of our congregation in worship.

Saint Cecilia 
 2022
N. Markell, iconographer
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church
 Minneapolis, MN
The newest addition to our collection of Sacred Art. Blessed by pastor Fr. D. Griffith on Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022. The icon represents St. Cecilia, patroness of music and musicians and is displayed with the Strangis Memorial Pipe Organ. From our Director of Sacred Liturgy and Music: "St. Cecilia is known as the patron saint of musicians because at her wedding, her heart sang only for God. Due to the significant role of the pipe organ in Christian worship, from the 14th century onward, she is most often depicted at the organ. Thus, it is a wonderful honor that our spectacular organ is blessed with such a beautiful icon of her that will forever invoke her intercession. May the music played by this instrument always be only for the glory of God!"