St. Augustine Community Garden Revives a Community

Today, the vacant lot at 5043 S. Laflin where the old church once stood is a community garden blooming with flowers and growing vegetables to give to Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food centers in Chicago.

Thanks to a grant from the City of Chicago Department of Environment and a lot of work by staff and volunteers with University of Illinois Extension, the spirit of St. Augustine's lives again.

"This community suffered when the church was torn down," said Brother Denis Murphy, a staff member at Su Casa Catholic Worker Community, the agency housed in the former St. Augustine's parish house that helps Central American refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. "Now we have once again something to celebrate."

More than 200 people showed up to celebrate the beginning of the gardening season at St. Augustine's garden on Saturday, March 13, 1995, and rain and high winds could not dampen their enthusiasm. His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Bernardin dedicated and blessed the garden and talked about bringing the beauty of nature and of God back to a long-neglected area of Chicago.

The rain, said Cardinal Bernardin "is God's blessing of the garden and all that has been done here." He then proceeded through the garden, sprinkling Holy water on the beds of flowers and rows of newly planted vegetables.

The garden dedication also featured music by Richard's Vocational High School Gospel Choir and the Holy Cross Parish Marimna Band and Chorus. Su Casa residents presented the garden with garden benches made from church pews and repainted in Central American folk art style.

A little over a year ago, Borther Denis turned to the Extension Urban Gardening Program for help in turning the former church site into a community garden. Extension helped him apply for Community Development Block Grant money, which was available through the city's Department of Environment Community Greening Program.

The grant to Su Casa was one of 12 Community Greening Program grants administered by CES in 1994. In 1995, Extension continued to help the St. Augustine garden with technical support, materials and volunteer hours put in by Extension Master Gardeners.

Residents of Su Casa, many of them the victims of political torture, work in the garden, as do 12 families who live in the neighborhood, students at nearby Richards High School and area youths who have organized into a 4-H club.

Joseph Cardinal Bernardin's Dedication

May 13, 1995

It has been said that there is no finer place on earth to be on a spring morning than in a garden. Standing here surrounded by the beautiful trees and shrubs, the glorious spring tulips, and the magnificent new benches -- I certainly second that notion.

There is something about a garden that calms the spirit and delights the soul. In one of his poems, Rudyard Kipling observed that "the glory of the garden lies in more than meets the eye." Gardens offer a retreat from the busyness and the hectic pace of our world, a place to slow down and simply enjoy the beauty of life, the wonder of God's creation.

It is indeed a wonderful place to rest, to relax, to rejuvenate; however, a garden must be tended because even the best gardens grow weeds! Yet even in tilling the soil, planting the seeds, trimming the hedges, pruning the plants, cutting the grass, pulling the weeds -- and watering it all -- we can derive great satisfaction and pleasure. An old proverb best describes this love of gardening despite the attention and work nature demands: "The gardener, for the sake of one rose, becomes the servant of a thousand thorns."

I've heard that contrary to what most people might think -especially in a city that boasts legions of fans for the Bulls, the White Sox, the Cubs, the Bears, and the Hawks -- more people tend gardens than enjoy all these spectator sports combined! Perhaps it is because a garden can nourish our souls with its beauty and our stomachs with its bounty.

I have been told that a dozen families are tending their own plots, and you are growing cucumbers for the Catholic Charities WIC program as well as basil for local restaurants. The Archdiocese is pleased with what the Su Casa Catholic Worker Community is accomplishing through this garden. It is unique among our local Operation Rice Bowl projects, though it is quite similar to projects that we support overseas which seek ways to enable people to help themselves. I was also pleased to hear that you will begin a 4-H Club for young people.

But what really makes the St. Augustine Neighborhood Community Garden special and gives it so much potential is what it can do for the people of this community -- as well as our city. As you all come together young and old, and those in between, of different backgrounds to cultivate the fruits and vegetables, the flowers and trees, to enjoy picnics or simply stroll through, so too will you nurture friendships, family ties, and community commitment. You are a marvelous example in a city where division and distrust too often spread like weeds throughout our communities. And this garden is a powerful reminder of what a poet once said: "One is nearer God's heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth." So, now let us dedicate this beautiful place, this space which brings us closer to one another and to God.