Some parish churches are easy to overlook, but hard to forget once you've visited. Maine's SS. Peter and Paul fits neatly into that category.

For Mainers and others within driving distance, it's a fitting stop June 29 — solemnity of the two great Apostles.

Although it serves a regular parish in the city of Lewiston, Peter and Paul is larger than many a cathedral. In fact, it's the biggest Catholic church in the state and the second largest in New England.

The size surprised me because the church is located in somewhat of an inner-city neighborhood just a few blocks from the downtown area. Driving into the city, expecting to have to do a little searching for the church, my wife and I knew enough to look for twin granite steeples, each topped with four spires.

It turned out to be an easy assignment: The bell towers soar 163 feet into the sky and form a good part of the façade. They introduce the chiseled granite edifice that's 110 feet wide, stretches over 315 feet long and seats 2,200 in the main church. Yet, up close, the massive church has such graceful lines that its awesome size doesn't overwhelm. Indeed, it's an appropriately homelike palace for our Heavenly King.

The church's size speaks eloquently of the devotion of the people who have filled it. French Canadians came to Lewiston to work the booming textile mills that once dominated the area. They built this parish, the first Franco-American enclave in Maine. These people must have had great faith and tenacity, for they built this edifice over a five-year period in the middle of the Depression. After they saw SS. Peter and Paul dedicated on Oct. 23, 1938, their numbers grew even larger. By 1950, more than 15,000 names were on the parish register.

Admiring the exterior, we thought the magnificent Neo-gothic church must look today as it did on the day it was dedicated. We learned that a massive restoration project had preceded our arrival. The granite, quarried from North Jay, Maine, has been returned to its original shade of light gray.

Dominican Dynamism

The church rises on a massive granite foundation to form a cross. This tall foundation, which looks like a gigantic pedestal, acted as the lower church beginning in 1906. Today it's still regularly used as a daily church.

High in the façade, the stunning rose window is made of many petals that are as delicate as a doily, thanks to the exquisite tracery. Higher still, near the top of the peaked central gable — we really had to walk back to street level to get a good view — is a delicate stonework canopy that shelters a statue of the Blessed Mother. She watches over us, and over Peter and Paul under their own stone canopies to either side of the main doors below.

Inside, the church gave us another surprise. The architect Noel Coumont, who happened to live in Lewiston at the time he designed the foundation, purposely “bent” the church ever so slightly to the left. The idea was to reflect the tilt of Jesus' head as he suffered upon the Cross.

In the entrance, we examined the sweeps of oak panels carved by workers from the Cassavant Organ Co. in Canada. After they finished installing the organ, they were going to be without work: The Depression was in full swing. But the Dominicans who administrated the parish came to the rescue. They hired the craftsmen to stay and hand-carve the red oak and the cedar from the forests of Maine into sumptuous woodwork worthy of a basilica.

The Dominican crest is fixed in the floor here. It's a gentle reminder of more than 100 years of dedicated service the Order of Preachers gave to SS. Peter and Paul. They ran the parish from 1881 to 1986, then turned it over to the diocese.

Rosary Refractions

The Cathedral at Chartres obviously inspired the architect from Boston who later joined the project. The wondrous stained-glass windows are definitely inspired by the ones at that world-famous place of pilgrimage. They were added a decade after the church's dedication and called the Rosary Windows because each intricately designed window is filled with multiple scenes that, together, form the mysteries of the rosary.

These brilliant glass works prompt deep reflection on the Gospel. Take one trio in ascending order. The bottom scene depicts Mary's Dormition. Above it, angels accompany Mary for her Assumption. At the top, Jesus presides at her Coronation.

Windows also honor Our Lady in several of her titles, such as Our Lady of the Rosary and Queen of Angels. The huge rose window above the choir loft again imitates Chartes. Depending on the sun, it's a jewel gleaming in dark reds, pinks, light yellows and light blues. The clerestory windows high along the nave add their own colorful pastels colors. And the Holy Family window finds an honored place high in the sanctuary.

The lumber and limestone came from Maine, the marble floors from Vermont. One of the few materials imported from outside New England is the Italian marble for the altars and for the new baptismal font carved of one piece and located at the main entry. The white marble images of Mary and Joseph in their 25-foot shrines to the sides of the sanctuary are of Italian origin. Likewise the wood statues that include St. Dominic and St. Catherine, the ever-present reminders of the faithful Dominicans.

The new altar came from the same company in Italy that made the high altar. This original altar remains at the back of the sanctuary. Its tabernacle reserves the Blessed Sacrament.

The new altar has a mosaic of a pelican medallion and stands on spiral columns with Corinthian capitols. Since the pastor happened to be in the church while we were there, he was able to fill in a few details. For example, this altar consists of part new marble and part original marble from the old side altars — new botaccino marble combined with lovely pink rosa. The old altar includes onyx, too.

The intricately carved wooden choir stalls at the back of the sanctuary were originally reserved for the friars only and called the Monastic Choir.

The Dominican crest that's carved below the apse's stained-glass window remains a tribute to the decades the order ministered here. The accompanying motto reads “Laudere, Benedicere, Praedicare” — to praise, bless, preach.

On the day we were visiting, workers were fine-tuning the new console for the magnificent Casavant organ. The main organ has four keyboards; its 5,200 pipes make it the largest organ in Maine.

It's a fitting instrument for a historic parish that has applied to be named a minor basilica — possibly another first in the Pine Tree State.

Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.