reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches
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The Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston
Patrick Keely
Patrick Charles Keely was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland, on August 9, 1816, the son of a builder who had moved to Thurles from Mlkenny to construct St. Patrick’s College. After its completion in 1837, the elder Keely acted as both architect and builder for the Fever Hospital, finished in 1840. What training in architectural design young Patrick received is unknown, but it is likely that he learned construction from his father.
At age 25 he sailed for America, settling in Brooklyn where he took up the carpentry trade. Among his first designs were altars at the Seminary at Lafargeville and in St. James’ Pro-cathedral in Brooklyn, for which he acted as superintendent of construction as well. In due course, a young priest of his acquaintance, Father Sylvester Malone, contacted Keely regarding a new church he planned to build in the Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn. Together they worked out a plan from which Keely developed a Gothic design. Its dedication in 1846 opened a new era in Catholic building, and Keely was besieged with requests for designs of churches and other buildings to serve the rapidly increasing immigrant population.
In 1849, a scant three years after completing his first church, Keely was called upon to design the Cathedral at Albany for Bishop McClusky, who was to become the first American cardinal. This was the first of 20 cathedrals for which he received commissions, including those in Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, Hartford, Newark, Providence, and, of course, Boston. His total output of churches is said to total more than 600, plus a number of institutional buildings, Virtually all of which were religiously oriented. The geographical distribution of Keely’s work ranged from Charleston, South Carolina to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and as far west as Iowa.
Keely’s work in Boston may have begun as early as 1851, with the rebuilding and enlarging of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in South Boston. This granite Gothic Revival structure was designed by Gridley J.F. Bryant in 1843, completed in 1845 and burned in 1848. Its rebuilding was completed in 1853. Keely’s first complete church in Boston was St. James on Albany Street (1853-55), followed by Most Holy Redeemer in East Boston (1854-57), Notre Dame Academy in Roxbury (1855-71), Church of the Immaculate Conception in the South End (1866-61), St. Francis de Sales in Charlestown (1859-62), Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End (1861-75), St. Francis de Sales in Roxbury (1867-69), Our Lady of the Assumption in East Boston (1869-73), St. Thomas Aquinas in Jamaica Plain (1869-73), St. Augustine in South Boston (1870-74), Holy Trinity in the South End (1871-77), St. Vincent de Paul in South Boston (1872-74), St. James the Greater in Chinatown (1873-75), St. Peter in Dorchester (1873-84), St. Mary in the North End (1875-77), Our Lady of Victory (?) (1877), St. Joseph’s Church interior in Roxbury (1883), St. Peter’s rectory (ca. 1885), and St. Mary in Charlestown (1887-92). The successor firm of Keely and Houghton designed St. Margaret’s Church in Dorchester (1899-1904) and St. Mary’s School in Charlestown (1901-02).Washington’s Cathedral of St. Matthew – a disarmingly modest structure in that city of giant edifices – was recently restored. This was a true restoration.
All credit to the Pastor and whoever else determined that the restoration should be precisely that: restoring the already quite attractive elements to their pristine condition. No destruction, no wild re-orderings, no parachuting in of discordant elements; in a word, no doctrinaire impositions. 🙂
It bodes well that the capital of the U.S. has shown the way forward for the rest of that nation. Perhaps those menaces who have masqueraded for all too long in that country as liturgical experts – and who have very expensively wrecked many fine churches – could find a place in one of the many museums in D.C.!! 😀
The image below is somewhat poor – perhaps a better one can be found. The link http://www.stmatthewscathedral.org does not have great images of the restored building, though it has an interesting gallery of the restoration work.
With reference to the discussion on altar rails, it is to be noted that St. Matthew’s has retained them.
St Joseph’s, Albany, New York
Patrick Charles Keely
The interior, except ro the magnificent hammerbeam roof has been stripped and the church has just about escaped demolition.
St. Joseph’s Church, Albany
Here we have another example of an altar rail traversing the the nave and transcepts. It was built in 1860 to cater for Irish immigrants building the Eirie canal.
Patrick Charles Keely
Immaculate Conception, Boston
The Church of the
Immaculate ConceptionThe Church of the Immaculate Conception was dedicated on March 10, 1861, and served for three years as the first regional Jesuit seminary in the United States. For the next five decades, from 1864 to 1913, Immaculate Conception served as the chapel for Boston College and Boston College High School until the college moved to Chestnut Hill in 1913 and the high school moved to Columbia Point in 1957.
Designed in the style of Italian Renaissance Revival by Patrick Charles Keeley, a 19th century architect of distinction, the Church of the Immaculate Conception is an imposing structure of white New Hampshire granite. The interior design, particularly noted for its spacious openness and ornate plaster work, is considered to be the work of Arthur Gilman, the architect responsible for crafting the master plan of Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood.
Re: Examples of continuous altar rails:
St Paul’s, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“Designed by Egan and Prindeville of Chicago and built by Thomas Reilly, a general contractor from Philadelphia, the new Saint Paul’s is an example of the Scholastic, or Decorated, Gothic style of the 14th Century.”
Here is an extant example of what altar railings originally looked like: San Clemente in Rome. The railing is in two parts: across the sanctuary, dividing the nave from the chancel; and a further rectangular space demarcated in the nave for the lower clergy.
Here is an example of a Western Latin Rite Rood Screen sill extant. It can be seen in the church of St Etienne du Mont in Paris.
Here is another French example of a Rood Screen
And a rather interesting little text I happened upon:
In the West, an iconostasis
(image-covered wall separating the nave (where
the people stand) from the
chancel (where the Altar is) is documented well before 1000 A.D., and well before such “rood” screens were used in the Christian East.Anglo-Saxon churches had a wall between the nave and the chancel. The earliest recorded example of such a screen or wall comes from St. Brigid of Ireland’s church at the Oak. Curtains covered the door-openings in the solid wall, and sacred imagery decked the entire wall. The image here shows a very late development of the screen, in regard to its open-ness and the rood sculptures.
The Rood Screen at Sligo Abbey
A plain Cornish Rood Screen in a parish church
The Elizabethskirche in Marburg
The Rood Screen of the Sixtine Chapel, Rome,
Mass was celebrated for the first time in the chapel on 9 August 1483
The area of the chapel above the Rood Screen showing the gradine for the throne of the Pope on the left wall.
Originally, the Rood Screen was located at the other side of the choir gallery visible on th left hand side of the photograph.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Melboune
Designed by William Wardell, St Patrick’s is regarded internationally as the finest ecclesiastical building in Australia and a pre-eminent example of the Gothic Revival style. The austere facade gives little hint of the glorious interior with its ethereal golden light of mesmerising beauty.
St Patrick’s Cathedral is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Melbourne. The Centenary of its official opening and Consecration was marked in 1997; however, the first Mass was celebrated on the site in February 1858 in a former partially completed church, some of which was incorporated into the south aisle of the present building; by 1868, the completed nave of the Cathedral first served the needs of the community for regular worship and prayer.
Dates in the History of St. Patrick’s Cathedral
1835 Settlement of Melbourne (at the head of Port Phillip Bay) in Port Phillip District of the Colony of NSW.
1839 Rev Patrick Bonaventure Geoghegan OSF first priest arrives in Melbourne.
1847 July 9 Australia Felix established as the Diocese of Melbourne .
1847 July The Colonial Secretary grants two acres of land for a church on Eastern Hill, where St Patrick’s Cathedral now stands. Fr Geoghegan establishes St Patrick’s Parish.
1848 October 4 Bishop James Alipius Goold OSA takes possession of See of Melbourne.
1850 April An additional two acres of land is approved for a bishop’s residence.
April 9 Bishop Goold lays foundation stone of first (freestone) St Patrick’s Church.
1858 February 14
Bishop Goold blesses the first section of the second (bluestone) St Patrick’s Church. Bishop Goold announces a cathedral is to be built for the diocese.
November William Wardell commissioned to prepare plans for a cathedral church and work commences.
December 8 First contract for Cathedral signed.
1870 March 17 Dean Fitzpatrick lays first stone of central tower.
1874 March 17 Melbourne created a Metropolitan See
1886 June 11 Death of Archbishop Goold. He lies buried in the Holy Souls Chapel.
1887 June 11 Archbishop Thomas Carr arrives in Melbourne.
1897 October 27 Consecration of St Patrick’s Cathedral under Archbishop Thomas Carr.
1913 March 23 Arrival of Dr Mannix, coadjutor to Archbishop Carr.
1917 May 6 Death of Archbishop Carr who lies buried in the Sacred Heart Chapel. Archbishop Daniel Mannix becomes third Archbishop of Melbourne.
1937 March 31 Contract for central spire signed – Conolly and Vanheems.
October 31 Contract for front spires signed.
1939 March 31 Spires completed and blessed by Archbishop Mannix.
1948 May 2-9 Celebrations to mark Centenary of Diocese of Melbourne.
1963 November 6 Death of Archbishop Daniel Mannix who was succeeded by Archbishop Justin Simonds.
1967 July 30 Installation of Melbourne’s fifth Archbishop, Archbishop James Knox.
October 3 Death of Archbishop Simonds.
1970 November 15 First Masses on New Sanctuary.
1974 July 24 Pope Paul VI confers title and dignity of Minor Basilica on St Patrick’s Cathedral
August 18 Installation of Melbourne’s sixth Archbishop, Archbishop Little.
1986 November 28 Pope John Paul II addresses clergy in the Cathedral on occasion of his Papal Visit.
1989 December 8 Archbishop Little blesses and restores bells.
1992 June 7 Ceremony to mark the Inauguration of Restoration and Conservation Works.
1996 July 16 Retirement of Archbishop Little.
August 16 Archbishop Pell becomes Melbourne’s seventh Archbishop.
1997 St. Patrick’s Cathedral restoration works completed. Centenary of the Consecration of the St Patrick’s Cathedral and dedication of the Altar
2001 March 26 Archbishop Pell appointed Archbishop of Sydney
2001 August 1 Installation of Melbourne’s eighth Archbishop, Archbishop Denis HartFor further information on th architect follow this link:
http://www.melbourne.catholic.org.au/cathedral/williamwilkinsonwardell.htm
St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Australia
In 1821 the foundation stone of the first St Mary’s Chapel was laid by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Sydney’s first bishop, John Bede Polding took up residence in 1835. In 1842 he becomes first Archbishop of Sydney. In 1865 St Mary’s Cathedral was ruined by fire.
Work begins on a new cathedral in 1865 and is completed in three stage: the northern section in 1882, the central tower in 1900 and the Nave in 1928, a total of 60 years. Between 1998 and 2000 the Spires are added.
The cathedral is 107 metres long, 24.3 wide at the Nave, it’s ceiling is 22.5 metres high with the height of the central tower at 46.3 metres. The front tower and spires are 74.6 metres high.
The completion of the spires for the millennium of 2000
St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
The Cathedral in 1865
St. Mary’s in 1901
The facade with the new spires 2000
The present sanctuary in St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
This is an interesting link:
http://www.achome.co.uk/ architecture/gothic.htm
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