The Churches of New York X: Lourdes in Manhattan

The Church of Notre Dame
405 West 114th Street

Joris-Karl Huysmans tells us in Les Foules de Lourdes how the graces of Lourdes began to spill over and manifest themselves in satellite shrines having the same image and dispensing imported Lourdes water. Indeed, subsidiary sanctuaries in Belgium and even in Constantinople were the site of even more numerous cures than at Lourdes itself! A similar process began in New York with the importation of Lourdes water at the Redemptorist parish of Most Holy Redeemer. Miracles followed shortly thereafter. Soon half the parishes of New York displayed a Lourdes Grotto. But it was only in 1915 with the consecration of the Church of Notre Dame on West 114th Street that New York acquired its own replica of Lourdes.

This church, a great treasure of the Golden Age of Catholic church architecture, is one of the finest Beaux Arts spaces of New York City. Like St. Vincent Ferrer or Blessed Sacrament of the same era, this church and its furnishings – the windows, sculptures and metalwork- were conceived as a whole. Such architectural sophistication required substantial resources, and these were provided by a rich patron, Mrs Geraldyn Redmond. It was she who donated more than $350,00 of the original $500,000 cost to erect this church. The Church of Notre Dame was also intended to be a French national chapel – a satellite of the original French national church of St. Vincent de Paul on West 23rd street. Construction began in 1910. It is astonishing to read that, when Cardinal Farley dedicated the church on February 11, 1915, over 2,500 French Catholics were in attendance. 1) (By 2011 French Catholics have disappeared from the New York City landscape even more completely than their German and Czech counterparts.) In 1915 Notre Dame also became an independant parish. It was originally in the care of a French religious order, the Fathers of Mercy.

Work on the interior continued through the 1920’s. The ambitions of the architects, however, had outstripped the available funds. For their original conception was to crown the Church of Notre Dame with a spectacular raised baroque dome in the manner of the great models for this church: the achievements of the France of Louis XIV. This dome was never completed. Rather, 40 years later a flat dome was finished. 2) Thus the church of Notre Dame resembles more the Pantheon than its original model, the Invalides. The exterior is surrounded on three sides by three different facades employing classical columns and pilasters. That facing west is a free-standing colonnade or ambulatory providing direct access to the interior Lourdes shrine.

The interior is of great spaciousness, simplicity and grandeur – despite the restrained dimensions. The vast circular dome is suspended over a nearly square space. Chapels adorn each corner. As a unique touch, there rises behind the main altar a life-size duplicate of the Lourdes Grotto serving as a vast reredos! it seems almost surreal – yet the rough stone of the grotto blends pleasingly with the cut stone surfaces of the interior.

The metalwork – including the poor boxes! – is of the highest quality. It is matched by the windows and most of the sculptures. All would be perfect but for the usual unfortunate Conciliar “renovation” of the sanctuary (1988).

In the course of time, the original French parishioners disappeared. The Fathers of Mercy moved out in 1960 and the church of Notre Dame became an ordinary parish of the Archdiocese. In 2003, in an uncharacteristic stroke of genius, the Archdiocese entrusted this parish to Polish Dominicans and made iNotre Dame the site of the chaplaincy of Columbia University. 3) We do not know what these Dominicans are doing at Columbia but we have heard good things of their activity at other places. It is good that students have chance to experience the Catholic liturgy in such a magnificent setting. Lourdes water is still dispensed here. At the Church of Notre Dame, the Catholic students of Columbia can reconnect with their own glorious religious and artistic past – classical, Catholic and traditional. And maybe in the course of time more New York area Catholics will make the pilgrimage to their own special Lourdes shrine of Morningside Heights.