St. Anthony’s Church Supplies and Stella Maris Bookstore celebrates 50-year anniversary
Mary Myers and John Horan pose inside St. Anthony's Church Supplies and Stella Maris Bookstore on Sept. 26, 2024. This year, the bookstore is celebrating its 50th anniversary. (NTC/Juan Guajardo)
FORT WORTH — It’s been 50 years since Mary Myers’ mother-in-law opened a bookstore that would help countless Catholics find all the answers they’d ever need.
“A lot of people will come in and buy this or that, and they say, ‘Oh, thank you so much for being here,’” Myers recalled. Memories of assisting shoppers find their next read or gift bring her the most joy as she reflects on her time as a local bookseller.
Myers’ history with the store began with her marriage to her late husband Richard in 1990. Her mother-in-law, Edith Meyers, opened Stella Maris Books & Gifts in 1974 as a mail-order catalog in Houston, but the family eventually moved to Waco before settling their family and business, with St. Anthony’s intercession, in Fort Worth, where they reopened as St. Anthony’s Church Supplies and Stella Maris Bookstore.
After Myers’ husband passed in 2016, Myers became the sole owner, with a few employees providing her with some help.
“I’ve known about St. Anthony’s since I came to Fort Worth,” said John Horan, who began working at the store about a decade ago upon retirement from his career. “It’s great to work here because you get to meet a lot of really good people — and that’s what I concentrate on, helping the people.”
Another big part of his job is working with the many churches that purchase supplies from the store.
“Most of the churches that are in Fort Worth buy from us,” Horan said.
'Shop where you can see and touch what you buy'
In an Aug. 4 letter, “On the Role of Literature in Formation,” published by the Vatican, Pope Francis described how “we desperately need to counterbalance this inevitable temptation to a frenetic and uncritical lifestyle by stepping back, slowing down, taking time to look and listen. This can happen when a person simply stops to read a book."
At St. Anthony’s Church Supplies and Stella Maris Bookstore, shoppers are welcome to take their time browsing the many displays of inventory. Upon entering the store, which sits just south of I-20 in Fort Worth, one is greeted with rows and rows of Bibles, books, and baubles — and new merchandise is always coming in, said John, depending on their independent or wholesale suppliers’ stock.
“We’re visited sometimes twice a year by salespeople,” Horan said. “They sit down with Mary and show her all the new stuff. And then we have small vendors like Immaculate Waters and small companies, like this one who makes these stained-glass nightlights.
“Those are very popular,” he continued, “and this is all they do, but unfortunately, the couple that owns it is retiring. Things change all the time.”
Organically sourced
Roman Missal workbooks, clergy stoles, low-gluten hosts, and cases of votive candles are among their most popular items to sell to parishes, said Horan.
“Our busiest time is Christmas and Advent and then Easter, with about 60 or 80 churches buying their palms from us,” Horan explained, adding that the palms are sourced from the Rio Grande Valley.
For families with children, a Baby’s First Rosary teething bracelet, baptism, and first Communion gifts are as popular as the many Catholic children’s books and plushes.
“We also have a lot of cards that we sell — baptism, first communion, sympathy cards,” Horan said. “I think we’re the only place in town where can get cards like this that are specifically Catholic.”
The everyday shopper is quick to frequent the prayer cards and medals stand or — as Horan said with a quick grin — spend some time browsing through some popular selections personally curated by Myers, including the “Little Saints” key chains and an extensive collection of saint socks.
“Five or six, seven years ago when these first came out, Mary brought a couple of these to me and asked me, what do you think — should we buy these or not?” Horan recalled with a smile, gesturing to the animated-style saint key chains. “And I said, ‘Anyone would be out of their mind to just pay $5 for one of these.
“Since then, we’ve probably sold 10,000 of them,” he concluded with a laugh.
As for the socks, Horan shared that he had a personal pair of the St. Patrick ones that he always wears on the saint’s feast day.
Community ties
A parishioner of St. Patrick Cathedral in Fort Worth for nearly 34 years, Myers is quietly connected with the many corners of the diocese.
During the recent installation of the Chapel of the Relic of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina at St. Peter the Apostle Parish in White Settlement, Myers saw an uptick of visitors coming to the store for the saint’s medallions and prayer cards.
On the register, she has a donations jar for Mother and Unborn Baby Care, a pro-life pregnancy resource center in Fort Worth, collecting about $500 a month for the nonprofit.
Near the door, a display of Mystic Monk Coffee tempts shoppers to taste their “Midnight Vigils,” “Vespers,” “Hermit’s bold” blends. Two of the Carmelite monks in the monastery that sources the coffee were raised in Fort Worth, said Horan.
At the counter, customer John Contreras said he happily makes the 35-minute drive from Granbury to St. Anthony’s Bookstore.
“I like looking around, getting into the aisles. They always have a lot of good things out, and I always seem to spend a couple of minutes in the books — you have got to look through all the books and see which way you want to go for the year,” he said. “I always come for Christmas and then right around either my anniversary or for my wife’s birthday. She just loves it. She loves everything about this store.”
His own merchandise of choice? “I’ve got a bunch of saint socks — I’m a sock guy,” said the St. Francis of Cabrini parishioner. “At church, you have to dress up, and the only thing you can do to kind of stand out from everybody is a sock or a tie.”
With the store having reached its 50-year anniversary, Myers looks to the future with patience.
“We’ll see what happens,” she said.