EUSTIS  |  St. Mary of the Lakes Parish sits perched atop a hill, much like a quintessential Norman Rockwell image infused with Catholicism. Its charm and history are carefully culled and preserved in its small museum, a representation of days gone by.

Dedicated in 1912, it may be the only church in the Diocese of Orlando to offer a designated museum and it is constantly expanding and evolving. The brainchild of former business manager Easter Byrne and parishioner Joyce Welch, the idea was borne out of the parish’s centennial celebration in 2012.

Both women died earlier this year, but would be proud to see the museum thriving.

Mary Lee Specht recalled heading the centennial Heritage Festival with her friend, Welch. Together they gathered cultural items representing the diverse ethnicities of parishioners and liturgical items that belonged to the church throughout its 100 years.

“Joyce was committed to maintaining the past for educational purposes,” Specht said. “She loved the idea of the museum and bringing everyone together.”

Father Gilbert Medina was parochial administrator then. A lover of history, he immediately embraced the idea of preserving the parish’s rich history. He chose a room behind the sacristy. With the help of maintenance manager Steve Baumgartner, shelves and cabinets were built to house the items. Father Medina even donated a fiddleback chasuble for the collection. In the centennial directory, Father Medina addressed a letter to his parishioners in which he quoted Prov 22:28 – “Remove not the ancient landmark which your fathers set up.”

“(Ancient landmarks) show us and the future generations where we came from,” he wrote. “If we know our history, it forms and frames who we are as a person, a human being, and we carry that into the future. We can’t go back in time, but we can take history, secular and religious, into the future in order to preserve our identity. No matter who we are or where we have come from, where we were born, our nationality, our history is so very important.”

Eventually, parish staff purchased a small home across the street for the official museum and gift shop. Father Joseph Bellerive, pastor at the time, recalled the need for a religious articles store as there was none nearby. The house was also perfect for a more accessible museum, whose acquisitions were growing.

As they prepared the space, Welch often asked her friend, Specht, for ideas and soon Specht found herself helping organize items.

“I thought the museum was a very large undertaking. We had to do so much to the walls, floors and cabinets just to get anything in there. It seemed like a momentous job for one person,” Specht said.

It took almost a year before the museum was ready to install the many liturgical items given to the parish. Among its treasures are a beautiful monstrance and three antique Sick Call Sets used for anointing. The hand painted shadowboxed sets are from the 1900s. Traditionally hung on a wall, they have a hidden compartment for the oil, crucifix, candle and other items used in the sacrament.

This year, parish pastor Father Carlos Bedoya added three vestments belonging to Msgr. Manuel Fernandez, a former pastor and the first to offer Spanish Masses for the Hispanic community. Because Specht worked with the monsignor and knew him for more than a decade, these are her favorite items.

“Going to the museum is like stepping back into time, 100 years ago,” Father Bedoya said. “It’s good to go over there because you get a sense of the past. There are old photos. You can see the three churches we’ve had.”

He is referring to a photo of the original church built when the parish was a mission of All Souls Parish in Sanford. It sat 50 people — the 12 founding families in 1912. By 1936, the building was enlarged to seat 300. In 1979, the current church replaced the old, making way for the burgeoning community that already helped establish the mission churches, now parishes of St. Patrick in Mount Dora, Blessed Sacrament in Clermont, and St. Francis of Assisi in Apopka — spreading Catholicism throughout Lake and Orange counties.