St Ignatius Mission
Mission · Saint Ignatius, Montana
A red brick church of 1891 on the Flathead Reservation, standing directly under the west face of the Mission Mountains, whose interior is covered with fifty-eight murals painted by the mission cook. Brother Joseph Carignano had no training as an artist and painted them in his spare time over about fourteen months. The building sits in complicated history — Jesuit missions on this reservation were part of the machinery of assimilation, and the Salish, Pend d'Oreille and Kootenai relationship with it is not simple — and it is free, open daily and almost always empty.
300 Beartrack Avenue, Saint Ignatius, Montana, 59865, United States
Free and open to visitors daily through daylight hours, with no ticket — a donation is invited at the door. It is a working parish church, so Mass, funerals and weddings take priority and can close the nave to visitors without notice; the service schedule is posted at the door. The adjoining gift shop and the 1854 log cabin museum keep shorter volunteer hours and are often closed when the church is open.
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