FLAHERTY, Ky. — A new altar and pulpit installed and dedicated at St. Martin of Tours Church in Flaherty last Saturday, Oct. 13, brings pieces of the church’s long history full circle.

St. Martin was among the first two dozen parishes to be established in the Archdiocese of Louisville. It was established in 1848, and its current church — built by parishioners with their own hand-made bricks — dates to 1892. But even before its formal establishment, Mass was being celebrated in the homes of parishioners around the area in Meade County.

The church archives — located in the basement of the former school and convent — have a log of the Masses held in these homes. And there’s a collection of items in the archives taken from these houses. They include ironing boards, a grape press and other household objects that represent the simple lives of these faithful families.

In the late 1960s, when the Second Vatican Council prompted churches to rethink their interiors, St. Martin got a makeover. The original pulpit, with its carved wood and spiral staircase, was removed. The Communion rail also was removed, as were paintings depicting St. Martin of Tours that hung around the church and on the ceiling.

As pieces of their beloved church building were tossed to the dumpster, parishioners came onto the parish grounds at night to salvage what they saw as pieces of themselves and their ancestors.

Laverne Whelan, a parishioner since 1939 when she was 14 years old, was one of them.

She and several others stored items at their homes and in their barns until the early 1970s when they decided to start the archives.

“Several of us got together scrounging around, and we ran across all kinds of things,” said Whelan, who was in charge of the archives until recently. Now, her daughter and a few others have taken charge. “We hated to see these things thrown away. We salvaged a few things and took them home.”

Their foresight made possible the creation of a new altar made from pieces of the church’s old Communion rail. It replaces a press-board and laminate altar that was chipping and cracking.

Louisville artist Stephen Paulovich used the Communion rail gates to create the altar’s facade, and the sides of the altar are made from other pieces of the rail. He had to restore and piece back together much of the wood, as it had cracked and crumbled over the years.

He also did a drastic restoration of church’s old and mostly crumbled pulpit.

The pulpit included icon-like paintings of the four Evangelists and St. Martin of Tours.

Paulovich restored the paintings and used the Evangelists on the pulpit. He placed St. Martin in a center panel on the altar. Across the bottom of the altar are three additional panels that hold Rennaissance-style paintings Paulovich created.

One is the traditional depiction of St. Martin as a centurion giving half his cloak to a beggar. The other depicts a lesser-known story of St. Martin hiding from those who wanted him to be a bishop. A goose gives away his hiding place. A third painting is of the Holy Eucharist and cherubs.

Paulovich also created a sunburst and dove affixed to the front of the lectern on the pulpit.

The pulpit was one of the pieces that those dedicated parishioners failed to uncover in their salvage efforts. Father Paul Beach, pastor of St. Martin, came across it when he first was appointed to the church about three and a half years ago. St. Martin is his first assignment as a pastor.

“It was in a pile of junk,” he said of the pulpit. “I took the junk away, and there was this beautiful carved wood.”

He had recently received a large anonymous donation from a former parishioner that stipulated it be used for the church. The church needed a few small repairs and, Father Beach said, “I had the idea to dress the church up a bit.”

He immediately thought of his friend, the artist. They met more than a decade ago when the Paulovich was working on St. Martin of Tours Church in Louisville. Father Beach, not yet a priest, was a parishioner there.

“I’m really pleased with the way it turned out,” said Father Beach. “It’s remarkable to see how well it fits in. He does good work.”

The parishioners — who also helped raise funds — are thrilled, too, he said.

“One woman came up to me after Mass in tears,” he said. “She is a lifelong parishioner and very dedicated to the parish. The response has been overwhelming. I think everyone is real pleased.”

Paulovich does sculpture, painting and architectural/industrial-type art. But he is passionate about traditional church art.

He created a statue a few years ago for the facade of St. Martin in Louisville, and he created a lectern and altar piece for that church. The project was finished just in time for his daughter’s baptism about eight years ago.

Paulovich grew up in Western Pennsylvania in an ornate Polish church that dated to 1812. He believes that statuary and other images are vital to the experience of church and of particular importance to the American Catholic Church.

“It was important to have those traditional images (in the early American church) to teach the immigrants,” he noted. “Why lose that when you’re trying to educate your child in this millennium? It’s such a strong part of our Catholic heritage.”