New Traditions at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Hartland, Wisconsin

When the parishioners at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Hartland, Wisconsin, decided to build a new sacred structure to accommodate their burgeoning congregation, they commissioned Conrad Schmitt Studios, Inc., to design and execute its elaborately painted interior.

The new building was a necessity: Since the parish was first formed in 1863, attendance had nearly tripled, bringing almost 2,500 families, more than a quarter of the town’s population, into the fold.

With a bell tower, a dome, and a cupola topped with gilded crosses, it’s a grand edifice, an ode to the glory of God that stands 120 feet tall and comprises 33,800 square feet.

“This is an amazing story because so many Catholic churches are being consolidated, and here is a community that’s growing and building something that’s beautiful and traditional,” says Conrad Schmitt vice president Heidi Gruenke Emery.

Conrad Schmitt Studios, which has been creating new designs and repairing, restoring, and conserving historic artwork in the form of decorative painting, stained glass, murals, mosaics, and statuary since 1889, has worked on thousands of ecclesiastical projects around the country.

“We’ve done many projects at the same church three or four times,” Emery says, adding that 90 percent of the firm’s work comes via repeat clients and referrals.

The team, called in as the plans for St. Charles Borromeo were being developed, worked closely with Father Ken Omernick, who provided the religious themes for the artwork, which add layers of meaning to the layers of decoration.

“The actual St. Charles Borromeo insisted that church artwork and symbolism be scripturally based,” Emery says. “Conrad Schmitt Studios desired to both reflect this teaching of St. Charles in the decorative motif and have it be reminiscent of the ornamentation style of Lombardy, Italy, where he lived and taught.”

The church’s overall color palette—gold with two hues of blue—defines the interior architecture and sets the stage for the murals and other artwork. “The blues—one lighter and one darker—are used to highlight the cross formed by the architecture,” Emery says, adding that “Father Omernick wanted the original design to be traditional and beautiful. Earlier, more subdued options were elevated to include richer colors, additional stencils, and gilded stars.”

One of the more intriguing aspects of the project was the inclusion of a half-dozen vintage stained-glass windows that were made in Innsbruck, Austria, by the Tyrolese Art Glass Co. and restored by Conrad Schmitt Studios. The windows were provided to St. Charles Borromeo by Sacred Heart Church in Michigan City, Indiana, which was closing.

“It just so happened that the windows, which are in the Romanesque style, featured the church’s patron, Charles Borromeo, and were a near-perfect fit for the new space the church had planned,” Emery says. “It was like divine intervention.”

Conrad Schmitt also designed two new windows—one of St. Paul writing and one of St. Paul’s conversion—for each side of the sanctuary area, plus a large rose window that features more contemporary saints.

The church exhibits an abundance of faux work that adds visual richness: The door and window frames look like hand-cut limestone, and the frame around the altar mimics Carrara marble.

On each side of the central cross, there is a mural depicting a deer in faux mosaics. The demure creatures, drinking from waterfalls that tumble from the heavens, illustrate passages from Psalms 42: “As the hart panteth after the water brooks” and “in the roar of your waterfalls, all of your waves and breakers have swept over me.”

That thought is re-emphasized in the dome, which depicts the holy spirit shining light down upon them and features the Psalms 42 verse “as the hart longs for flowing streams so longs my soul for thee, God.”

“The word ‘hart’ was key for Father Omernick,” Emery says. “The word is in the name of the town, Hartland, and it’s also another name for a deer. The imagery we created is meant to connect God to the community, which has an abundance of deer and lakes.”

The stenciled frieze that circles the church features the Borromeo rings from the family crest and the Latin word Humilitas, which means “humility before God,” the motto of St. Charles.

The project also included creating four painted ceiling medallions of the evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, that carry a biblical connection with each saint.

The divine is in the decorative details at the new St. Charles Borromeo.

“There are many special things about the church,” Emery says. “In the choir loft, for instance, there’s a Latin quote supplied by Father Omernick that translates as ‘singing is praying twice,’ which is attributed to Saint Augustine.”

There are two elements from the original church, and they adorn the altar: The cross at the apex that’s blessed by the celestial light of the holy spirit, and the corpus of Christ on the wooden cross.

Although the project has taken longer than expected and the church is still under construction, parishioners who have taken tours of the site “have been in awe of the whole space and decoration,” Emery says. TB