Where Gumbo Was #417
St Patrick's is not the only cathedral in New York; there are more than two dozen others belonging to a bewildering variety of denominations. It's not the oldest cathedral in New York, nor the largest; perhaps not the prettiest either. But one thing is certain: it's New York's best-known cathedral, and the one that gets the TV coverage when parades pass it on Fifth Avenue in midtown.
Especially on St Patrick's Day in March, for the city's most famous parade. The Easter Parade stops by, too. And George G and PortMoresby recognized it. Congratulations on finding where Gumbo was...
But its story starts long before the crowds and the glory, and in fact before any of its neighbors, including Rockefeller Center, across the street. When St Patrick's was first built, on the site of a small former church with a history of its own, it was 'out of town,' but the church leaders of the day saw the future coming.
Even the Pope has been known to stop by, almost as colorfully
The full block of Manhattan (imagine what that would cost today!) it stands on was bought in 1810 for a small Jesuit chapel and orphanage. Its checkered history (Jesuits replaced by Trappists—refugees from revolutionary France—and then by a Deaf and Dumb Asylum, a foreclosure, a fund drive) came to an end in 1853 when the newly-elevated archdiocese picked the site for a new cathedral.
Shortly before 'completion' in 1878
James Renwick, Jr, the pre-eminent American Gothic Revival architect was hired, and construction started; it was supposed to take eight years, but it took twenty, with a time-out during the Civil War. The two spires were finished ten years after that, and the Lady Chapel was added at the far end early in the 20th century.
St Patrick's relatively cleanly vertical Gothic lines are punctuated by some magnificent stone and metal work, including this panel above the main doors; the doors themselves bear statues of six American saints, three men and three women.
The exterior is stunning enough, but the interior is almost drowning in richness and some serious (and some curious) works of art. The organs are grand, the windows are magnificent, some of the side chapels are amazing. But one of the interior's most unusual features is totally out of sight: four years ago, the steam heat and air-conditioning systems were replaced by the city's largest geothermal interior climate control.
Is bigger always better? If so, that's a plus for this version of the Pieta, sculpted by William Ordway Partridge in 1906; it's three times the size of Michelangelo's famed version at the Vatican. Below it, part of the series of Stations of the Cross which won awards at the 1893 Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.
Beyond the stone and metal art, St Patrick's boasts a wealth of beautifully carved wood in the choir and especially in the organ facings. The first picture is the cathedra, the Bishop's seat. It's what makes a church a cathedral.
Speaking of organs (I think we were...) St Patrick's has three. The main or Gallery organ, below, the Chancel organ, above and a Nave Organ. They're arranged so all three can take parts when needed. If you're keeping a scorecard, the total is over 9,000 pipes, 206 stops, 150 ranks, 10 divisions. Which puts it a little below the 20 largest in the world, but not by much.
If you'd like to hear it play, and see the cathedral and organist at work, click below...
Of course, I've never seen a church, synagogue or other religious building that wasn't collecting for its building or its missions; St Patrick's either. But I've never seen a device like this one before, with its separate automated slots for digital payments! I'm more used to the old-fashioned sort.
But let's walk by some of the other treasures and views...
St Patrick is represented near the altar by this crystal reliquary, said to contain fragments of bones of several other saints as well. There's also a 'first class relic' of St Charbel, the 'Miracle Monk of Lebanon' in the newest of side chapels at St Patrick's. In the third picture, another recent arrival, Mother Teresa of Calcutta shares a chapel with St Therese of Lisieux.
After a period in the late 20th century when maintenance was neglected and the exterior took on a dark sooty appearance from city pollution, the Cathedral got an extensive cleaning and restoration between 2012 and 2015; the exterior was cleaned, windows were repaired, floors were fixed, and the ceiling was cleaned and painted.
By no coincidence, I'm going to assume, the work was completed just in time for Pope Francis's visit in September 2015. Whatever the thought about the timing, the results are wonderful.
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