By Joe Pisani
FAIRFIELD—When Father John Baran arrived at St. Anthony of Padua Parish on Ash Wednesday 21 years ago, all the signs were there that the parish would be shutting its doors. People were convinced it was only a matter of time… but then everything changed with the new pastor.
As Dr. Eleanor Sauers, the Parish Life Coordinator, recalls, “He was more positive, he was upbeat. He preached the Gospel with a different tone and tenor … and things started to pop.”
Young people began joining the parish, those who had left came back, parishioners migrated to St. Anthony’s from different towns and cities, and, as Dr. Sauers said, “worship changed from obligation to celebration.”
People were hungry to be fed, and as their pastor, Father Baran fed them with the Word. He told her that the Gospel unites, and Sauers saw evidence of that truth one Sunday when the most conservative person in the parish praised Father for his homily, along with the most liberal.
St. Anthony’s also began social justice initiatives and started “looking outward.” But the greatest legacy of Father John Baran, who died at 59 on March 24, 2018 after battling muscular dystrophy, was he built up a community nourished by the Word, said Sauers, who was his close friend and later took over the parish leadership.
Many parishioners still feel his presence, she says, especially in The Labyrinth Garden, which was recently dedicated in his memory. At the entrance, a bronze plaque simply states: “The Labyrinth Garden—Dedicated to the memory of our beloved Pastor, Rev. John P. Baran 2002-2018.”
The project, which was funded by the parishioners, was designed by Liz Short Ramsey. In 2010, Short Ramsey, who was studying for her degree in landscape design at Columbia University, approached Father Baran and asked if she could create a landscape project for the parish as part of her master’s program.
He said yes and told her that he envisioned “a labyrinth sanctuary” that would provide people an opportunity for solitude, prayer and “comfort away from the activities of life.” After his death, the parish pursued his vision as an appropriate way to honor him, Dr. Sauers said.
THE PRAYER GARDEN at St. Anthony of Padua Parish in Fairfield is dedicated to the memory of the late pastor Father John Baran.
A fund was established, and Short Ramsey, whose family was among the founders of the parish, worked with The Labyrinth Company on the design. In September 2022, planting began, and this year, the dedication took place two days after May 19, which would have been Father Baran’s 65th birthday, Dr. Sauers said.
The garden is on the site of a former convent, and a brass cross that hung on the front porch is now embedded in the stonework at the center of the labyrinth, whose “pavers” are 30 feet wide. The area that includes the plantings is 40 feet wide. The pavers were manufactured by The Labyrinth Company of Greenville, SC and installed by Cedar Hill Landscaping of Mahwah, N.J., which provided the plants, bushes, ornamental trees and evergreens.
The garden has different “circuits,” where people from the parish and neighborhood can walk. Dr. Sauers says the garden attracts people of all ages, including a woman who pushes her husband in a wheelchair, children who play on the benches, and those who simply want to spend quiet time in meditation and prayer.
A brochure from the parish says: “Walking a labyrinth can be a metaphor for life. Our lives are a journey in which our experiences, our sorrows and joys, our challenges and our decisions influence how we live that journey. Symbolic of this journey, the labyrinth gives us a meditative tool to focus on and encounter the sacred in our evolving lives.”
“I see it as a memorial, but also something important for the future of our parish and the neighborhood,” Dr. Sauers says. “People come just to walk the labyrinth or to sit there because it’s a lovely, quiet, spiritual space. It’s a comfort place.”
The parish grounds have several other gardens, including a pollinator garden, a garden in memory of the son of a parishioner who died, a garden honoring the Blessed Mother and St. Anthony, and the “Resurrection Vineyard,” which helps Merton House by providing produce. There are also 400 daffodils— along with impatiens—lining the sidewalk approaching the church, all of them planted by parish volunteers.
Dr. Sauers, who is especially grateful to Father Baran for his guidance and friendship, sees the Labyrinth Garden as a sign of his legacy.
“It is a legacy that continues,” she says. “His spirit is alive in the church and in the community. It’s palpable, and this is a physical remembrance—a lovely meditative spot even for people who never knew him.”
