On Kilbourn Avenue, just south of 63rd Street and a block over from the grocer Sav A Lot — not too far from Taqueria El Pastor — sits a small architectural wonder that relatively few Chicagoans have seen.

Ave Maria Chapel, 6336 S. Kilbourn Ave., is a brick building designed by and built for Lithuanians, who settled on the Southwest Side following World War II, fleeing Soviet occupation of their homeland.

“The main spiritual goal [in building the chapel] was to maintain their national identity in this polyglot country,” Vicki Matranga, curator at the Balzekas Museum Of Lithuanian Culture in West Lawn, said.

As of late, however, there’s been fear this unique building and its former monastery might be lost.

The Marian Fathers, the Catholic order that owns the buildings and the headquarter

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