The Spire of St. John the Baptist
St. John the Baptist
211 West 30th Street
St. Francis of Assisi
135 West 31st Street
Many a commuter on his daily journeys passes by one of two Catholic churches in the shadow of Penn Station. And not a few stop to pay a visit: to say a prayer, light a candle or have his confession heard, The churches seem to be both anonymous and utilitarian masses seen from the usual street of access if one is hurrying to or from Penn Station, surrounded as they are by nondescript modernistic structures (until recently, in the case of those enclosing the church of St Francis, dirty and dilapidated as well). Our visitor would think these structures would hardly be of any further interest. But he would be wrong – in each case the visitor gets an entirely different, more pleasant and traditional impression of the church from the next street to the south – which in each case is also the front of the church and the church’s official address. Moreover, a spire or tower – a rarity among New York Catholic churches, crowns each church.
St. John the Baptist of the Capuchins, St. Francis of Assisi of the Franciscans: our casual visitor would also assume that these churches were built by their respective orders in friendly competition as specific missions to those frequenting Penn station. He would be wrong here too: both churches had their origin in a single parish – originally headed by a Franciscan. And that parish was German – the second German Catholic church in New York!
In 1840, a new parish, St John the Baptist, was erected to address the needs of the rapidly increasing German community on the West Side of New York. At this time, the location was an out of the way, “rocky swampy tract.” Fr. Zacharias Kunze of the Franciscans was the first pastor. Difficulties soon arose with some of the parishioners, exacerbated by the trustee system that still prevailed. In 1844 Fr. Kunze left the parish and with some loyal parishioners founded St Francis of Assisi. The new church of St. John’s could only be dedicated in 1847 by then bishop Hughes.
St John the Baptist, however, continued its tumultuous existence. Several time the church had to be closed. After a series of pastors – some of whom were Capuchins – St. John’s was definitively entrusted to the Capuchin order by Archbishop McCloskey in 1866. Fr. Bonaventura Frey O.M. Cap., a native of Switzerland, came north from the original Capuchin residence in New York at Our Lady of Sorrows at Pitt Street (still in existence!). Fr. Frey was a remarkable leader who stabilized the community. And then he commissioned a church – of audacious scale for a relatively small parish with such a troubled history.– and retained the celebrated Napoleon Le Brun as architect. This, the present church of St John the Baptist was dedicated on the 23rd of June 1872. (The sermon was preached in German) 1) (After going on to hold leading positions in his order, Fr. Frey returned later as pastor to the parish in 1888 – 91 – when he supervised the construction of the steeple.) 2)
The grandiose new Pennsylvania station (demolished in the 1960’s) seen before 1914. The spire of St. John’s can be seen in the background presiding over its surroundings. (Photo:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John_the_Baptist_Church_(Manhattan))
Meanwhile the more placid parish of St Francis of Assisi continued its steady development. A Gothic church with an unusual tower – apparently taller and steeper than its present-day successor – was completed. The congregation grew and grew. By the 1890s the first church had become totally inadequate and a new church – the present structure -was completed in 1892. 3)
Both parishes had well-attended schools by this time. Both retained a very strong German focus until well after 1900.
It was immediately after this period, though, that the character of the neighborhood dramatically changed. It was transformed into the “Tenderloin” – an early example of a mixed residential neighborhood becoming a purely commercial one – and increasingly grimy and disreputable at that. Both St John the Baptist and St. Francis were faced withe the loss of their congregations. But the reaction of the Archdiocese and of the Capuchin and Franciscan orders was radically different from the stance of the Archdiocese today. Instead of capitulating and moving elsewhere they remained on the consecrated ground. They “reinvented” themselves as evangelists of the masses working in the area – and increasingly of those commuting in and out of Penn station. In contrast to the New York Archdiocese, A.D. 2014, they had a clear understanding of what their mission really was – not just to provide “spiritual services” to small German-American parish communities but to evangelize Catholics and non-Catholics alike even in the very belly of the beast.
The Franciscans were more radical and successful in this regard. They had accepted and aggressively pursued the new vocation of St Francis of Assisi parish as a service and as a commuter church. New mass times were introduced here in the evening and in the middle of the day to accommodate workers and commuters. It was in the 1930’s that the Franciscans deployed the seemingly innumerable devotions and statues to be found in the lower church. 4) And then there were the many confessionals. St. Francis made the sacrament of penance available throughout much of the day. What appears today as a burdensome duty became a main “attraction” of this parish – then and now. Through the sacrament of penance, its popular devotions and its frequent masses at attractive times St. Francis of Assisi acquired a citywide reputation – far exceeding that of its early days.
St. John the Baptist has a relatively similar course of development – only quieter and with far less notoriety. Probably part of the reason for this is that the rear entrance to St Francis of Assisi is located on one of the main streets leading to Penn Station (West 32nd Street), whereas St. John the Baptist Stands further west and to the south of the station between 31st and 30th West Streets. And after the Second World War, as time went on, the vicinity of Penn Station became increasingly an area in which most people preferred not to leave the beaten track. Magnificent Penn Station was demolished. By 1980 the surroundings of our two churches were filthy and even frightening: mostly decrepit old commercial buildings and aging department stores. Yet both churches still maintained their status as destinations for the faithful – true pilgrimage churches.
From West 30th Street St John the Baptist presents an amazing sight: an elegant Gothic spire! It has been described as the Catholic Trinity Church -but St. John’s spire and facade is arguably more beautiful than that of its Wall street rival. It is a shame that hideous commercial buildings have surrounded it and robbed it of its commanding character. The more common route of access to St. John’s, however, is from West 31st Street through a Capuchin residence built in the 1970’s. The corridor leading to the church passes a garden, a shrine to Padre Pio and a reproduction of the cross of St. Francis.
The interior comes as amazing sight: a long high gothic basilica. It is filled with light and is painted in a cream color – old photographs St. John’s show that has always exhibited the “light” as opposed to the usual “dark” gothic. Sometime after 1914 – probably around 1930 – the original standard-issue pinnacled gothic white marble altar was replaced with the present Crucifix. As to be expected in an old German church, the decorations are of the highest order. The windows (from an Innsbruck studio) and the Stations of the Cross are some of the finest in the city. One notices the German names of the donors on plaques, windows and statues.
In the rear of the church is a much more recent amazing collection of devotions – highlighted by the most recent; a statue of Saint Padre Pio. But there are other statues and mosaics, of varying quality but still testifying to Catholic life.
This cross of St. Francis greets the visitor entering from West 31st Street.
All is in very fine condition. The church was completely restored in 1996 for its 125th anniversary. Tragically, the next year it was severely damaged by a fire and had to be restored again.
UPDATE: Now we receive word that St. John the Baptist church is recommended for closure in Cardinal Dolan’s new campaign. So far this news has been received with silence – are Catholics that are up in arms about the threat to Holy Innocents indifferent to the threat posed to a church ten times more significant artistically? Will the archdiocese, after it razed St. Ann’s, the parish church of Napoleon LeBrun, now demolish his most significant remaining ecclesiastical commission in the city? The site of the shrine of the recently canonized Padre Pio and of so many other devotions?
1) Shea, John Gilmary, The Catholic Churches of New York City 413-420 (Lawrence G. Goulding, New York, 1878)
2)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John_the_Baptist_Church_(Manhattan)
3) http://www.stfrancisnyc.org/history/
4) http://www.stfrancisnyc.org/history/
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