St. Ignatius, MT

St. Ignatius Mission about 50 miles north of Missoula was our first stop on our way to Glacier National Park.  It is currently on the Flathead Indian Reservation and dates back to the mid-1800s when Jesuit missionaries founded the Mission.  In 1891 Indian people and missionaries began construction of the building using local materials.  The bricks were made with local clay and the lumber was cut in nearby foothills, and the striking interior murals were created by the mission’s handyman/cook, and extremely gifted self-taught amateur painter, Brother Joseph Carignano.  He was an Italian Jesuit and hand-painted 58 murals adorning the walls and ceilings.  They are amazing and appear as fresh as if they had been painted just yesterday.  The pictures depict scenes from the Old Testament of the Bible as well as portraits of several saints.  The mission complex is also home to a log cabin, which was the original residence for the Sisters of Providence when they first arrived in the 1860s to start a girls’ boarding school.  It is now a small museum.  There is also a small chapel which we were not able to go in. 

Sisters of Providence log cabin