One misty Massachusetts morning, while strolling not a half-mile from Boston Common, the oldest public park in the country, I found beautiful Our Lady of Victories Church.

It's tucked into Isabella Street, a block-long haven of calm between two busy thoroughfares — and quickly found out why Our Lady of Victories calls itself “the friendliest church in Boston.” It happens to be among the most historic and beautiful ones, too.

I couldn't help but think that it's also dedicated to the Blessed Mother under a TITLE the Boston faithful — no, all of us — need to invoke often these days.

The longtime pastor, Marist Father Richard LaPlante, greeted me with the kind of amiable welcome you'd think would be reserved for a VIP. Together with the humble, yet stately, appearance of the church, the warm hospitality must be a chief reason why a number of couples from outside the city opt to have their weddings here.

Our Lady of Victories attracts its share of out-of-towners, too. With nine major hotels in this busy Back Bay section of the city, it's a first choice, come Sunday morning, for many Catholics visiting from other parts of the country. Add in the many Catholics who commute to the city from the suburbs each day for work, stopping in for daily Mass or to pray during lunch hour, and it's one popular place.

Life wasn't like this for Our Lady of Victories when the present structure was completed in 1891. Eleven years earlier, Father Leon Bouland, the city's first monsignor, had founded it as Boston's first French national parish. But, by 1883, the priests and brothers of the Order of Mary, better known as the Marists, were appointed to take over the parish. The Marists are in their 119th year here now.

In those first years, the church served thousands of French Canadians pouring into the greater Boston area. In 1906, one of the priests estimated his confreres heard more than 70,000 confessions that year alone. Later on, Father Hernin Perennes, pastor from 1932-43, regularly spent six to eight hours a day in the confessional and continued doing so long after his retirement — indeed, all the way up until his death in 1960. No wonder he was called “The Cure of Ars of Isabella Street.”

A French Connection

The sacraments were going strong, but the full French identity started to dissipate around the turn of the century, as more French parishes popped up in outlying suburbs and the cascade of Canadians emigrating to the area slowed to a trickle after 1900. In the 1930s, when the Back Bay began sprouting posh hotels, theaters and offices, Our Lady of Victories started a major swing. It gracefully arced from being primarily a parish church to taking on more the identity of an urban shrine church.

All the while, even until today, the church is still technically a French national parish and sometimes referred to as “The French Church.” Then, too, there's the fact that its very name represents a connection to the church that inspired its construction: the famous 17th-century Notre Dame des Victoires in Paris.

Mary is honored under this TITLE in not one, not two, but three major representations in the inspiring Neo-Gothic interior. Life-sized images of Our Lady of Victories fill major side altars both in the main upper church and in the large lower church. The third striking representation of Our Lady of Victories appears in a riveting stained-glass win window in the apse high above the main altar.

What makes the window especially stunning are its blends of colors and the huge sanctuary arch that frames the window and telescopes our sight toward Mary and Jesus. The Gothic steeple on top of the centered tabernacle seems to point to the window, too.

The lovely shades of blues and rosy pinks for Mary's dress also tint much of the window, even the clouds. The tones have a calming, maternal effect. Mary is there in triumph for us, showing us that we will be victorious if we look to her and Jesus. Son and mother wear royal crowns, and the Child Jesus stands on a globe that's gently held aloft by billowy clouds. Mary holds Jesus, who extends his arms to us.

How lovely and colorful is the same image of Our Lady of Victories as a statue enshrined within the large left altar. The cloud-supported globe that Jesus stands on is encrusted with gold stars. Both he and Mary, wearing royal crowns, look unmistakably regal — yet they remain welcoming and approachable. The same holds true for the similar life-sized image enshrined in the brilliant gold mosaic altar niche in the lower church.

Upstairs, the main church is bright with renovations, recent and not-sorecent, that have preserved and even enhanced the sanctuary's historic character and liturgical artistry.

The focal point is the white Carrarra marble main altar, beautifully carved with three church-like structures complete with their own tall Gothic steeples. The highest, on the center “church,” graces the tabernacle.

Eloquent Elevation

So much beauty lifts the mind and heart to higher realms. Cherubim and seraphim abound. Huge angels, hands folded in reverential prayer, stand over the Corinthian columns between the Gothic arches that march down the sides of the nave. These angels “flew in” during the early 1920s.

Two enormous angels in relief along the sanctuary arch joined them. So did many cherubs that appear above the wide, intricate entablature that lines the perimeter of the walls just under the clerestory. These smaller angel figures, hovering over petite windows that appear in trios in the arches decorating the clerestory, pair up to display medallions with crosses.

Around the nave, the stained-glass windows filled with the most intricate of details looked to me like the splendid artistry of the German-Bavarian studios of the early 20th century. They're paired as Gothic arches within arches. As is fitting and natural in this church dedicated to Our Lady, several windows depict scenes from the Blessed Mother's life. Mary's betrothal to Joseph is here, as are the Annunciation and the wedding at Cana.

Some of the pairings prompt unexpected meditations. For example, the deaths of Jesus and Joseph appear sideby- side. I couldn't help but think about the picture of the Holy Family in which an angel seems to help young Jesus, who's working on wood shaped like a cross. Subtly as well as explicitly as in Mary's statue, I saw eternal victories ever before us.

In both the upper and the lower church, I noted the large-scale, highly detailed wall-relief shrines of Mary's apparition at Lourdes. The main Cassavant organ is among the finest of such instruments to be found anywhere. Meanwhile, in the lower church, with marble altar and full Communion railing, there stands a replica of the Vatican's statue of St. Peter, a gift from Pope Leo XIII in 1881.

Here, and throughout this lovely church, a spirit of friendliness abounds.

When the Holy Name Societies from around the country held their national meeting here this year, they got a friendly welcome. Nearly 500 homeless whom the church cooks for and feeds at Boston's Long Island Shelter surely appreciate the friendly outreach. The many listeners of the Father LaPlante Radio Program, aired every Saturday for 20 years now, get spirituality with affability. And the countless itinerant mariners the pastor also cares for in his role of Boston Catholic seaport chaplain since 1991 find victorious friendliness at every docking.

Like them, I was grateful for the chance to see why Our Lady of Victories calls itself “the friendliest church in Boston.”

Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.