Northwest Montana is filled with many churches of all denominations, but few area as historically interesting or artistically dramatic as the Saint Ignatius Mission, located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in the small town of St. Ignatius.
St. Ignatius Mission was founded in 1854 by Jesuit missionaries, notably Father Adrian Hoecken, SJ, and Father Peter DeSmet, SJ. The mission, and the town that grew up around it, were both named for the founder of the Society of Jesus - St. Ignatius Loyola.
The history of this mission dates back even further, though to 1831, when a delegation of four Flathead Indians traveled to St. Louis in an attempt to bring back missionaries for their people.

St. Ignatius Mission
The bricks used in the construction of the church were made from local clay.

This view of the nave shows some of the 58 murals on the walls and ceiling of the church, painted by Brother Carignano.

By 1855 approximately 1000 Indians from various tribes had settled near the mission, which then comprised a chapel, two log cabins, and carpenter and blacksmith shops. During the same year, the Council of Hell Gate was held near present-day Missoula and a treaty was signed between the U.S. and the Flathead, Pend'Oreille and Kootenai tribes. The Flathead Reservation was established, but promises by the government or schools, a hospital, supplies and financial aid were never fully realized.
Thanks primarily to the tireless work of Father DeSmet, supplies continued to arrive and the mission

A painting over one of the side altars of St. Joseph carrying Jesus. Note the teepee on the altar.

grew. Flour and saw mills were constructed (the sawmill provided the lumber for the new church that replaced the original chapel). In 1864, four Sisters of Providence, the first Catholic nuns in Montana, arrived from Montreal, Canada, to start a girls' boarding school (the first Catholic school in the state). The Sisters provided the only medical care available at the mission until 1914, when a hospital, staffed with nurses and doctors, was established.
During the last quarter of the 19th century the girls' boarding school flourished, as did industrial and agriculture schools for the boys. A printing press was established and the Jesuits published many works including a Dictionary of the Kalispell or Flat-head Indian Language. In 1890 the Ursuline Sisters arrived and started a kindergarten, and later a grade school and high school.

The Main Altar
Visible is a part of the triptych of the three visions of St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).

A fresco of St. Francis de Sales, painted by Brother Carignano a cook at the mission.

Over the years there were still many difficulties and hardships for the mission and the people who lived nearby. Governmental promises were ignored, and federal funds and financial aid from the Catholic Indian Bureau were cut. Three fires in less than 30 years destroyed the boys's school, the buildings of the Sisters of Providence, and the home and school of the Ursuline Sisters. After the third fire, a new school was built and the Ursuline Sisters continued to teach the local children there until the schools' closing in 1972.
Construction of the present day church was started in 1891 and completed approximately two years later. The missionaries and the Indian people built the church themselves using bricks made from local clay and trees cut locally and sawed at the mission mill.
What most impresses the visitor to the church today, though, is the interior. Brother Joseph Carignano (1853-1919), an Italian Jesuit who was the cook at the mission for many years, painted 58 frescoes on the

The first residence of the Sisters of Providence, now a museum, can be seen on the grounds of the mission.

This log cabin built in 1854 was the first home of the Jesuit missionaries. It now houses a small museum.