Once, churches were sanctuaries for refugees and hunchbacked bellringers. Now, anyone can live there. More and more canny developers are transforming abandoned churches into condos.

And the Boston Globe takes note:

When developer Tony Pace had the chance to turn the 100-year-old former Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ipswich into a luxury condo, he sought the blessing of a parish priest.

“I needed to be sure it was OK,” said Pace, 45, who was raised Catholic in Medford. “He told me that if I treated it with respect, there was nothing wrong with it.”

Guilt about turning a house of worship into a high-end home isn’t limited to crib Catholics.

Karnig Ostayan asked his Armenian pastor to bless the former St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church in Watertown, before turning the church and rectory into 11 upscale condos.

“I want to sleep at night,” joked Ostayan, who attends St. James Armenian Apostolic Church, across Mt. Auburn Street. “Seriously, I know how much this church meant to people.”

Many a neighborhood church has gone condo. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston shuttered 65 parishes since instituting a sweeping parish consolidation in 2004. At least 30 properties have since been sold, many to developers eager to turn an old church into trendy housing, even in a declining real estate market.

Catholic canon law requires that a church be stripped of religious items, including altars, statues, and crucifixes, before it is sold. Most are passed on to another parish looking for a new Blessed Mother statue or stained-glass windows.

“Our policy is to leave nothing of religious significance behind,” said Kathleen Heck , who oversees the transition of parishes for the archdiocese.

And once all the saints have found new homes, what happens to the building?

“It’s available for secular use,” said Brother James Peterson, head of canonical affairs at the archdiocese.

There’s much more at the link, including an impressive photo gallery. Oh: and the asking price for these former houses of worship? A cool 700k. Give or take.

Any lingering grace, of course, is free.

Photo: by Joanne Rathe / Boston Globe