Finding Religion in Jersey City (Part 2)

St. Lucy's on Grove Street in Jersey City.

Related post: "Finding Religion in Jersey City."

After visiting Art Fair 14C (so named as a nod to the “what exit?” NJ joke about the Turnpike and Parkway) in Jersey City yesterday, I wanted to take the obligatory photo of Eduardo Kobra’s David Bowie mural on Jersey Avenue.

Nearby, I noticed a beautiful church tower. So I turned the corner to add to my #NJchurcheverySunday Instagram collection. It was St. Lucy’s, now abandoned, with plywood covering its lower windows. Built in 1884, the church closed in the 1980s, and its former school next door is now a homeless shelter.

Listed as one of Preservation New Jersey’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Structures in the state, St. Lucy’s might normally be in danger of demolition, especially since the US Supreme Court recently refused to hear a dispute over whether local NJ government can award publicly-funded historic preservation grants to churches.

But there’s a plan, also recently approved, to revitalize the area, construct a new homeless shelter and preserve the church.

That would be a welcome miracle, and maybe we have St. Jude to thank. A shrine to the patron saint of hopeless causes also still stands outside St. Lucy's.

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PS - Nearly five years ago, when I started my Instagram account, I posted this photo of a statue of St. Lucy at Our Lady of Pompeii Church on Bleecker Street in Manhattan. There was no explanation of the image, in which the saint holds a platter bearing two eyeballs.

So, finally, to explain: According to church legend, St. Lucy's eyes were gauged out but God gave her new eyes. So she's the patron saint of the blind. In some versions of this story, St. Lucy plucked out her own eyes and gave them to a suitor who praised their beauty; in other versions, her eyes were removed by persecutors.