Most Holy Redeemer
173 East Third Street
New York, New York 10009
Once upon a time the Germans made up one of the most prominent nationalities in New York. Old timers will recall Yorkville around 86th Street as the center of their activity – maybe certain neighborhoods in Queens as well. And then there was Luchow’s restaurant on East 14th Street… But very few even of these cognoscenti know that the original home of the Germans in New York was what is now called the “East Village.” A casual stroll in the neighborhood will reveal as many relics of Kleindeutschland carved on buildings and churches than can be seen today in its more famous successor on 86th Street.
The Catholic Germans were also a key component of the immigrant community. The original German parish in New York, St. Nicholas, disappeared in the early 1960’s. But Most Holy Redeemer, carved out of St. Nicholas in the 1840’s to handle the burgeoning immigrant population, remains. Perhaps that is not the right word – Most Holy Redeemer is one of the most spectacular Catholic parishes in New York! The present church was dedicated in 1852 by Archbishop Hughes assisted by four bishops including St. John Neumann and the bishop of Bogota. The parish originally was in the care of the German-dominated Redemptorist order. 1) In contrast with the ascendant Neo-Gothic wave, Most Holy Redeemer was designed in a unique style – called “Byzantine” at that time – combining baroque, byzantine, romanesque and reneaissance elements. The architect was Joseph Walch of Munich – it was in Munich under King Ludwig I that the first “Byzantine” revival church was built. (As early as 1878 “Walch” had become “Walsh.”) The collective memories of rococo masterpieces like Vierzehnheiligen, Ottobeuron and the Wieskirche also remained strong at Most Holy Redeemer. Now New York may have none of these churches – but it does have Most Holy Redeemer.
The façade of Most Holy Redeemer, with its massive tower, totally dominates the decrepit streetscapes surrounding the church today on East Third Street. The present sober, quasi-Romanesque appearance is the result of a restoration and simplification in 1913. The original exterior seems to have been a wild baroque fantasy with a tower even taller than the current example. 2)
But nothing prepares the visitor for the interior: an overwhelming medley of magnificent stained glass, startling color, statues, paintings and shrines all in a cathedral-sized space.
In terms of superabundant, extravagant decoration Most Holy Redeemer puts to shame much later Italian competitors like Our Lady of Pompeii. What could they have thought of all this in mid- 19th century New York?
“The church, as planned by Mr Walsh the architect, rose rapidly, impressing all with its beauty and proportions. To the Protestant mind it was a wonder. it seemed some vast cathedral not a mere parish church for Catholics of a single nationality. 3)
And if contemporaries may have been puzzled, what about the “Conciliar” Catholics of today? What indeed can the Catholic “man in the street” make of the life-sized sculptural groups of the crucifixion and deposition in the rear of the church? Or of the “diorama” of the poor souls in Purgatory? Or of the recumbent wax images of the saints – just like in the old country? Or the angels everywhere? (Just compare how this kind of image succeeds here but flops 125+ years later at St. Agnes in the same city) There are even touches of the Beuron style in the apse murals. This is Catholicism unashamed, exuberant and confidently anticipating an even brighter future on the other side of the Atlantic.
Such an outlook of course would characterize Isaac Hecker. In 1844-45 the future founder of the Paulists “spent many hours in prayer at the Redemptorist Church of the Holy Redeemer on Third Street.” 4) (This was at the first and, at that time, brand new church building of Most Holy Redeemer). Later, Hecker was ordained a Redemptorist priest and returned to New York in 1851 where he acted as a missionary in various parishes operating out of the Redemptorist convent on East Third Street. Ironically, although Hecker was himself of German heritage, he felt that the heavy German and Central European ethnic focus of the New York Redemptorists hindered his vision of mission to the “Americans” and Protestants. This contributed to Hecker’s eventual break with the Redemptorist Order and the founding of the Paulists.
Even before the First World War, the Geman inhabitants had largely fled this neighborhood. Later, the area grew distinctly seedy. Catholic New Yorkers -at least the more well-to-do ones – seemed to have lost track of their baroque treasure. But the “Hispanic” population of this area has kept the parish going and in better repair than many another church in the city. Today the church is a shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Help -the patroness of the Redemptorists and a favorite devotion in many other parishes of New York City.
1) Shea, John Gilmary. The Catholic Churches of New York City (Lawrence G. Goulding & Co, New York 1878) at 360.
2) Dunlap, David W. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan’s Houses of Worship (Columbia University Press, New York 2004) at 147.
3) Shea. Catholic Churches at 358-59.
4) http://www.paulist.org/hecker/biography.php
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