Seven Dolors Church

Manhattan, KS

The Seven Dolors Catholic Parish’s post-historic campaign educed the color palette to three colors: white, pink and maroon, and unfortunately, had lost all architectural articulation and symbolic content. EverGreene worked to develop a renewal liturgical artistry program which made judicious use of project resources to support the architecture and liturgy. A highlight the revised program features the sanctuary lower wall patter with the Most Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced by the seven swords representing her sorrows.  Seven Dolors refers to the Seven Sorrows of Mary.

The church intended to defer painting figurative murals sometime down the road due to budgetary constraints, but the beautification underway inspired the community to incorporate more iconographic imagery while the scaffold was still in place and money came forward during construction to include a mural of Mary and the Seven Dolors in the sanctuary dome and images of St. Simeon the Prophet and Joseph of Arimathea.

This restoration of Seven Dolors was an award-winning collaboration by RDG Architects, BHS Construction, and EverGreene Architectural Arts. In 1995, the Seven Dolors Church was listed on the Register of Historic Sites.