Maxo Vanka was a Croatian American artist with a fiery social conscience, best known for his non-traditional paintings that cover all of the walls and ceilings of St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in the Pittsburgh suburb of Millvale. His murals blend Christian iconography with scenes of modern warfare and the mines and mills of western Pennsylvania. They depict the horrors of combat, the sacrifices of industrialization and the dignity of home and labor. Our visit to St. Nicholas will include a tour of the church featuring Vanka’s unusual and haunting works.

St. Anthony Chapel in Pittsburgh boasts the largest collection of Catholic relics anywhere outside the Vatican. According to Smithsonian magazine, it is “purportedly home to 22 splinters of the True Cross (on which Jesus was crucified), a scrap from the Virgin Mary’s veil, and bones from all 12 of Jesus’s apostles.” We will tour this chapel, which draws thousands of pilgrims each year, and learn more about its founder, 19th century priest Suitbert Mollinger, who collected thousands of relics from across Europe and gained a reputation as a faith healer.