The Churches of New York XXXIX: Commuters, a Shrine and the Traditional Mass

Holy Innocents Church
128 West 37th Street

Surely the Garment District is one of the most mind-numbingly ugly areas of Manhattan. And what these buildings spew out in the way of women’s’ fashions is consistent with their exterior. In the midst of these oversized and dilapidated architectural horrors the visitor is overjoyed to find an elaborate, gaily decorated stone façade. It is that of Holy Innocents Church: an island of aesthetic and spiritual health in a wasteland.

Of course, when this parish was founded the surroundings were utterly different. It was a residential area – indeed quite nice in some respects. Archbishop McCloskey founded the parish in 1866 to keep pace with the relentless northward progress of the city. In that year a chapel of the Episcopal Church, Holy Innocents, was purchased for the new parish. John Gilmary Shea, ever a goldmine of obscure details, relates that:

“When we have acquired churches which a protestant denomination has dedicated to our Blessed Lord, or any of the holy mysteries of his Life and Passion or to any of the Saints it has been the custom to retain the name.” 1)

In 1870 the church of the new parish was completed – designed by the ubiquitous Patrick C. Keely who had previously given the city St Bridget and St. Bernard. The centerpiece of the new church’s interior – as at St. Stephen’s across town – was a great apse fresco by Constantino Brumidi. In light of subsequent disputes, I note that Shea attributes it to Brumidi already in 1878. 2) Holy Innocents of course also had a school from the beginning.

As we have seen, this neighborhood was originally residential. This parish appears to have had early connections with the wealthy and socially prominent. In particular, Holy Innocents benefitted from strong links with the Havemeyer family – usually considered non-Catholic – whose magnificent city residence was located across town in Murray Hill. The Catholic connection apparently originated with Emilie de Loosey – an Austrian-born lady who married Mr. T. A. Havemeyer. He made a deathbed conversion to Catholicism in the presence of the pastor of Holy Innocents in 1897 but may have been quietly frequenting the parish beforehand.
T. A. Havemeyer’s children appear to have been raised either Catholic or Protestant. It is recorded that his daughter Dora, in 1899, could not marry in Holy Innocents church because the groom was Protestant. She did marry in the chapel of her parents’ mansion in Newport and the pastor of Holy Innocents officiated along with the local Catholic clergy. When her (reportedly Protestant) brother shot himself in 1898 – “accidently” – the sexton of Holy Innocent was charged with the funeral arrangements . A service was held at this parish – where the brother, despite his religion, was reported to have attended services. 3)

Other than generating `gossip in the social pages, the Havemeyer – and other high society – connections materially assisted in development of the parish. It is recorded that the Havemeyers contributed to the construction of the church (as did the Iselin family, another prominent Protestant/Catholic family – with a similar death bed conversion saga of the family patriarch – who were lavish contributors to the Catholic Church in New York, Westchester and Pennsylvania). Under Fr. Michael O’ Farrell, who became pastor in 1894, the already splendid church was lavishly redecorated with the aid of wealthy donors. The altars date from this time (the above mentioned Mrs. Havemeyer donated two side altars). “Other parishioners donated twenty beautiful Munich stained glass windows”. 4) The result was one of the most beautiful Victorian interiors in New York. Holy Innocents illustrates the growing role of wealthy benefactors – not all of them Catholic- in financing the ever more splendid Catholic churches of New York of that era (cf. The church of Notre Dame; St. Jean Baptiste; Our Lady of Esperanza)

During all this time Broadway in the West 30’s was rapidly changing. The area around Holy Innocents was becoming commercial and to some extent a center of theatrical life (the Metropolitan Opera opened shop not far away in 1883). Sleazier enterprises followed – after all, this neighborhood was now the infamous “tenderloin.”  Eugene O’Neill was baptized in this church in 1888 – his father was a peripatetic actor who, by the way, had married in the now-destroyed St. Ann’s. That Catholic poetic hero of a bygone era, Joyce Kilmer, often visited this church and it was here that he felt inspired to become a Catholic. He wrote a letter to Father James Daly, SJ in January 1914:

“Just off Broadway, on the way from the Hudson Tube Station to the Times Building, there is a Church, called the Church of the Holy Innocents. Since it is in the heart of the Tenderloin, this name is strangely appropriate – for there is surely need of youth and innocence. Well, every morning for months I stopped on my way to the office and prayed in this Church for  faith. When faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralyzed daughter.” 5)

But even these  glory days were not to last. The neighborhood of the church after the First World War lost its last residents. It became the purely commercial center of the garment industry – low-tech, sweatshop enterprises. Yet Holy Innocents survived – as that quintessential Manhattan phenomenon, the commuter church. For decades it has offered to a transitory population a blessed refuge from the ugliness, noise and chaos of the surrounding streets. The best evidence of the importance of this function is that candle fees are one of its main sources of revenue! Yet income is limited since the majority of Catholics who enter Holy Innocents are not relatively well-off commuters on their way to or from the suburbs but the poor and working class individuals who make up much of the work force here.

As a second focus, the parish has attempted to reconfigure itself as a shrine to the unborn – capitalizing on its name. In the narthex various exhibits and images remind the visitor of the tragic consequences of abortion in the United States. It must have been a dedication dear to the heart of the late Cardinal O’Connor!

Finally, since the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum, Holy Innocents has taken the leading role in the Traditional Mass community in Manhattan. The parish currently offers the only daily traditional mass in New York – and a Missa Cantata on Sundays. In addition, vespers, benediction and a wide variety of Catholic liturgies and devotions are available. The liturgical life has culminated over the years in several magnificent pontifical masses. In addition to all this, the parish conducts an active ministry to the poor of the neighborhood.

The colorful, intricately patterned design of newly restored façade of Holy Innocents forms the greatest possible contrast to the monstrous, forbidding structures surrounding it. Inside, Holy Innocents is a grand Victorian, like St Stephen’s or Most Holy Redeemer if on a smaller scale. The interior resembles St Bernard, by the same architect, with its galleries on three sides. A contemporary visitor to Holy Innocents, unwittingly echoing remarks by John Gilmary Shea of 130 years earlier on Patrick Keely’s church of St. Bernard, pays the greatest possible tribute to church and architect:

“[T}he church has remained loyal to its original, traditional Catholic design. It is a church that looks like a church. … [T]he sensation is of breathing an entirely different atmosphere. The presence of God is palpable.” (italics added) 6)

The Munich windows (by Mayer?), famous at the time, are splendid; regrettably, because of the construction of high–rise neighbors some remain cloaked in permanent obscurity. Of course statues and devotions of every kind, accumulated over the ages, abound in such a church. Most impressive is the great Crucifix in the rear of the church.

Dominating all is the newly restored fresco of Brumidi. The signature of another artist has disappeared. Regrettably a glaring blue border now surrounds the fresco. On the other hand, the lighting is so vastly improved that one can finally make out the details that previously were either washed out or shrouded in darkness.

(Above) The signature of an artist other than Brumidi from 19- on the unrestored fresco.

Like many older churches in New York, Holy Innocents has a great crucifix in the rear of the church, associated with an indulgenced prayer. It has just been restored.

Charles Bosseron Chambers (1882-1964) was a prominent illustrator and religious artist of the past (his images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the Immaculate Heart may still be found everywhere) who worked in the city. The story goes that he found once a man praying before this crucifix in Holy Innocents – a man who, before going off to fight in the French army in World War I, had just rediscovered his ancestral Catholic faith. Chambers then produced this image:”The Return.”

It was before this very crucifix that Joyce Kilmer also prayed for faith and for his little paralyzed daughter.

(above and below) The Traditional Mass at Holy innocents – mass in the presence of Cardinal Egan

In a late development, we understand that an administrator, not a pastor, will now head Holy Innocents. Rumors have abounded that the parish might be shut down – in spite of its importance as a shrine to the unborn victims of abortion, as a spiritual oasis for so many, as a provider of services to the poor and as a magnificent monument of 19th century Catholic ecclesiastical art. Yet this new administrator is none other than the talented Fr. George Rutler! We hope that after spending of such vast amounts to beautifully restore the exterior and interior of of this church many more visitors will find their way here – to encounter a truly Catholic atmosphere in prayer, in art and in liturgy. And we hope that their visit will not just be the discovery of a refuge from the surrounding world, but an inspiration to sally forth and convert it.

1) Shea, John Gilmary, The Catholic Churches of New York City at 338-339 (Lawrence G. Goulding & Co., New York, 1878).
2) Shea, op. cit. at 341.
3) For the Havemeyer connections see: http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-lost-1866-havemeyer; The New York Times, “Death of T.A. Havemeyer” (4/27/1897); “Dora Havemeyer Married” (9/19/1899); “Funeral of Charles F. Havemeyer” (5/12/1898); “Death of C. F. Havemeyer” (5/11/1898)
4) The Catholic Church in the United States of America, Vol. 3 at 330 – 31 (The Catholic Editing Company, New York, 1914); The New York Times, “Adrian Iselin Dead at his City Home” (4/29/1905).  Shea doesn’t mention the Havemeyers and Iselins as being among the main contributors to the construction of Holy Innocents. Shea, op. cit. at 342.
5) Joyce Kilmer, Poems, Essays and Letters in Two Volumes, vol 2, Prose Works at 128 ( George H. Doran Company, New York,1918). See also “Holy Innocents Church” NYC  Straycat (9/5/2011) at  http://nycstraycat.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Innocents’_Church_(New_York_City

6) National Catholic Register, Joseph Albino, “Where Manhattan Mothers go to Grieve,” (May 9-15, 2004) at: http://www.ncregister.com/site/article/where_manhattan_mothers_go_to_grieve