The Church of the Incarnation, 1290 St. Nicholas Avenue
For such a relatively new town, New York seems to abound in Catholic cathedrals. We have both the new and the old St Patrick’s. In the 19th century, Most Holy Redeemer was the “cathedral of the Germans”; more recently the grand Church of St Ann was the cathedral of the Armenian Catholics until its demolition by the Archdiocese. Both St Charles Borromeo and All Saints (now closed) lay claim to the title of the Cathedral of Harlem. In its dimensions and architecture St Vincent Ferrer is a cathedral in all but name. Finally, we come to the church of the Incarnation: the “St. Patrick’s cathedral of Washington Heights.”
Actually, Incarnation is of rather modest dimensions for a church aspiring to the exalted status of cathedral. It occupies, however, a very favorable corner location. The majority of New York Catholic churches are embedded in a streetscape of residential buildings: only their facades are elaborated, the rest executed in plain brick or stone. Incarnation, however, takes advantage of its exposed site to display the characteristics and details of a 15thcentury flamboyant (late Gothic) church: flying buttresses, rose windows. pinnacles and towers. Executed in granite, the church dominates its nondescript surroundings.
Inside, the scale is even smaller. Yet the architecture and the furnishings are beautifully executed. Incarnation church was begun in 1928, in the “silver age” of the New York archdiocese and of New York Catholic ecclesiastical art. One senses that this parish, when it erected and decorated its church, had some financial resources and a leadership exhibiting far more than average taste.
With much pride, Monsignor Delany, Pastor of Incarnation at the time of its construction, maintained that, “this church would be the “finest” in the Archdiocese”. 1)
A beautiful white stone baldachin dominates the sanctuary; fine statues (also white) stand above the altars. Best of all is the stained glass in a neo-medieval style, executed by an artist or firm distinctly more gifted than those decorating the average parish, – even reminding the visitor of contemporary glass in St Vincent Ferrer or St Patrick’s. The windows display an original program of old and New Testament correspondences along with images of the church fathers. The interior is one harmonious whole.
Incarnation, parish, a relatively late (for Manhattan) foundation of 1908, was and is an active parish. Originally the congregation of Incarnation was of Irish background; nowadays, like her sister parishes in this part of New York, it is heavily “Hispanic.” Associated with the parish is a still functioning school. As was often the case around the time the parish was founded, the founding of the school in 1910 preceded that of the church. Incarnation School still has a healthy enrollment of 530, if far less than that of 1945 – 1,000 students. 2)
In the 1930’s Incarnation was renowned not just for its church and school but for its choir – the “Incarnation Choristers.”. Other prominent Catholic churches of the time (St Paul the Apostle, St Ignatius Loyola, St. Patrick’s, St Vincent Ferrer) also had boys’ and mens’ choirs. They were attempting to preserve – or recreate – Catholic musical traditions in New York so damaged by the “reforms” of Pope Pius X. The last remnants of this musical heritage seem to have fizzled out by the early 1970’s – in the wake of “demographic change” and after the Vatican Council destroyed all clerical interest in the music these choirs had performed. Other than in the case of St Patrick’s cathedral, the history of these male choirs remains to be written.
The Incarnation Choristers were founded in 1925. Originally it was composed of boys; later men’s voices were added. It is claimed that in their heyday, under the direction of Fr. Daniel F. O’Sullivan, the Incarnation Choristers enjoyed international acclaim. Judging from the repertoire on one exceedingly rare record of recordings made 1939-41, the Choristers concentrated on classical Renaissance polyphony of Palestrina and others. 3)
A parish once so prominent had associated with it an unusual number of well-known clergy and laity. Dr. John A, McManemin, businessman, author of historical works, professor and parishioner of Incarnation, was responsible for the notes for the previously mentioned commemorative album on the Incarnation Choristers. In September 1967, he was a founding member of the US branch of Una Voce (along with Dietrich von Hildebrand). In 1974 he was one of the six directors of the Church Music Association of America (CMAA), dedicated to preserving the Church’s treasury of sacred music. After his death in 2010, he requested that donations be made to the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter in lieu of flowers. 4)
Msgr. Edward J Waterman (1901-1978) was pastor of Incarnation between 1953 and 1976. He held a series of important educational positions under Cardinal Spellman, including Archdiocesan Secretary of Education, in an era when the Cardinal viewed expanding the Catholic educational system as his main focus. In the 1960’s it is claimed that he “showed the door” to two radical parish priests. However, “[h]is last act at Incarnation was to order the removal of the beautiful marble and bronze communion rail in the upper church to conform to various Vatican 2 requirements.” 5)
Between 1951 and 1956 the subsequently famous Ivan Illich (whose cultural center of gravity actually appears to have been Austrian) was a parish priest at Incarnation. He developed an interest in the care of emerging Puerto Rican population of the parish. It is recorded that “in the early 1950s he contented himself in saying Mass with a piety and deliberation that went far beyond his peers. No one could accuse him of garbling his Latin or hurrying the rubrics of the Mass.” 6)
An altar boy at Incarnation and a graduate of Incarnation school was also the first historian of the parish. He wrote Incarnation: a Chronicle of Fifty Years as a thesis while studying for the priesthood at Dunwoodie seminary (I have been unable to consult it) His name? Theodore E. McCarrick. 7)
- Parish Website
- Parish Website; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarnation_School_(Manhattan)
- Monclar, Ralph, The Incarnation Choristers (https://www.booksie.com) (Ralph Monclar is the author of several curious online articles about personalities of Incarnation parish)
- Monclar, Ralph, Biography of Dr. John A. McManemin, Jr. PhD.(https://www.booksie.com). See also Darroch, Leo, Una Voce: the History of the Foederatio Internationalis Una Voce 1963-2003 (Gracewing, Leominster,2017) at 19-22.
- Monclar, Ralph, Biography of Rt. Rev. Msgr. Edward J. Waterson (https://www.booksie.com)
- Verity, John Winslow, http://backpalm.blogspot.com/2011/02/illich-as-young-priest-in-manhattan.html
- Parish Website; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarnation_School_(Manhattan)
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