Next to the rectory of the closed church of St. Stephen on East 29th Street.

(Below) The same shrine in 2015.

…of a tabernacle at St Augustine’s church in Park Slope, Brooklyn. There is no mention of the fate of the contents of the tabernacle.

https://nypost.com/2022/05/29/thieves-rob-nyc-church-of-2m-relic-decapitate-statue-cops/

Regarding this tabernacle (and the grand church of St Augustine):

“The centerpiece is a silver and gold tabernacle (Alfred E. Parfitt,1895 ) adorned with gemstones. … It is a masterpiece and one of the most expensive tabernacles in the country, guarded by its own security sysem…..The electonically operated burglar-proof safe is itself of interest…..All the precious metal and the stones which adorn the tabernacle were donated by parishioners in the form of coins and jewelry. It is enclosed in marble with worshipping angels swinging censers.”

Guide to St. Augustine at 14. (accessible at https://sasfx.org/about/history#st-augustine-history)

More pictures of St Augustine HERE.

UPDATE: Statement of the Brooklyn Diocese (5/29/22):

Tabernacle dating back to the 1890s stolen from the altar at Brooklyn Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn is announcing the New York City Police Department is investigating a brazen crime of disrespect and hate, which desecrated the most Holy Eucharist and the altar at St. Augustine Catholic Church, located at 116 6th Avenue in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn.

The burglar cut through a metal protective casing and made off with the Tabernacle, which dates back to when the church was built in the late 1800s. This holy sacramental receptacle is irreplaceable due to its historical and artistic value. The angels which flanked the Tabernacle were decapitated and destroyed, and the Holy Eucharist housed inside the Tabernacle was thrown all over the altar.

“This is devastating, as the Tabernacle is the central focus of our church outside of worship, holding the Body of Christ, the Eucharist, which is delivered to the sick and homebound,” said Father Frank Tumino, pastor of St. Augustine. “To know that a burglar entered the most sacred space of our beautiful Church and took great pains to cut into a security system is a heinous act of disrespect,” continued Tumino.

The burglary is suspected to have taken place on Friday, May 27, and was discovered by the pastor on Saturday, May 28. A safe in the sacristy was also cut open, but nothing was inside. Photos of the damage, as well as the video of the original Tabernacle, are attached.

Anyone who may have information that can help police with their investigation is asked to call the NYPD at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).

The relics of St. Bernadette Soubirous, who received miraculous visions of Our Lady in Lourdes, France in the 19th century, are on a tour of the United States. They are currently at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes on West 142nd Street in Manhattan. They will be at the church until Tuesday, May 24, with the exception of Monday, when they will be at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. A full schedule can be found here. Information on the US tour of the relics including a schedule of all locations are on this website

The church of Our Lady of Lourdes is one of the most curious in Manhattan. It incorporates many details from buildings that had been remodeled or demolished. We have previously written about it in The Recycled Church.

St. Patrick’s, in the old mill town of Norwich in Eastern Connecticut, was completed in 1879. It was “the finest parish church in New England” – at least until Immaculate Conception church in Waterbury was built in the 1920’s. 1) At the time both cities were part of the Hartford diocese. In 1953 St. Patrick’s became the cathedral of the new diocese of Norwich. The city of Norwich subsequently has shared in the drastic decline of manufacturing in Connecticut. And in June 2021 the diocese entered chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, overwhelmed by sexual abuse claims, many relating to the diocese-affiliated Mount Saint John Academy between 1990 and 2002. 2)

St Patrick’s offers to the visitor an austere stone exterior. The sucession of spires and gables on the facade is, however, fascinating. James Murphy of Providence, the architect, was responsible for many churches throughout New England. He had been the apprentice and then the partner of Patrick Keely, an even more prolific builder of Catholic churches – and married Keely’s sister-in-law! 3)

The interior produces an entirely contrasting impression: a riot of color! Warm tones of red/violet, green/blue and yellow dominate along with the wood of the pews. This appearance is due to a restoration, completed in 2013, which, based on an analysis of the original paint, recreated the Victorian-era color scheme. In addition, new murals were painted throughout the church. The contractor was John Canning & Co. 4) Their work is familar to those in Fairfield county, CT, who have visited the Basilica of St John, Stamford or St. Mary’s, Norwalk. Shawn Tribe has written a detailed description of the restoration.5) As can be seen in a photograph included in Tribe’s article, St Patrick’s, like so many other Victorian churches, had previously suffered from unimaginative, monochromatic painting.

After the magnificent nave, the sanctuary or chancel is somewhat of a disappointment. Judging from photographs, prior renovations from the 1950’s onward have here been especially invasive. The restorers tried to reemphasize the sanctuary by creating an odd, pseudo-stained glass painting on the flat back wall. Althought by no means as extreme, St. Patrick’s resembles in this regard the church of St. Francis Xavier in New York City: a splendid restoration of the nave and transepts leads to a sanctuary – after all, the focal point of a Catholic church – which reflects, partially or totally, other aesthetic and liturgical principles.

(Above) The Cathedral before restoration. (Below) St. Patrick’s church (before it acquired cathedral status) in an earlier photograph. Both from The Liturgical Arts Journal. 6)

A number of magnificent stained glass windows adorn St. Patrick’s, likely contemporary with the church’s construction. Their style closely resembles that of the early windows in St. Patrick’s, New York City. In both cases, a powerful, splendid effect is achieved, even if the craftsmen cannot be said to have exactly recaptured the true spirit of medieval glass. That would take many more decades of artistic effort!

I am glad for such such a splended restoration, which reinforces the status of this church as the true center of its diocese. It demonstrates what careful attention to the interaction of the architecture and the original decorative scheme can achieve. I only regret that, in New York City, churches of even greater artistic, historical and architectural significance – such as St. Thomas, All Saints or St. Stephen’s – are closed, sold off and desecrated.

1. Millionaires’ Triangle
2. “Diocese of Norwich expects to have proposed bankruptcy plan by April 1,” TheDay 12/15/2021
3. James Murphy(architect), Wikipedia
4. John Canning & Co – the Cathedral of St. Patrick.
5. Tribe, Shawn, “Before and After: St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Norwich CT,” The Liturgical Arts Journal, 9/2/2020.
6. Ibid.

I recently read that the Berlin monastery of the order known as the “Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters” in the English-speaking world is to be closed and sold. The reason given is lack of vocations. It seems that only 11 sisters are left (aged between 40 and 84). These sisters – colloquially called the “Pink Sisters” because of the unusual color of their habit – have preserved their strictly cloistered community. The focus of their spirituality is Eucharistic adoration. Strangely, however, the nuns of the monastery of St. Gabriel and the Annunciation of Our Lady have not followed a prescribed order of prayer for decades. (“Ewiges Gebet hinter Gittern: die “Rosa Schwestern” in Berlin,” Katholisch.de, 10/12/2021)

I do not know if the closing of this monastery is connected in some way with reported Vatican initiatives to centralize control over contemplative religious life – and allegedly also to reduce the number of such communities. The list of orders and monasteries throughout the Catholic world declining or disappearing is also, of course, almost endless. But the monastery of St. Gabriel and the Annunciation of Our Lady is remarkable for several unusual features.

First, the church and cloister were built in 1933-37 under the National Socialist regime. It is not a very well known fact, but a fair number of Catholic churches were erected in Germany immediately prior to World War II. Construction continued, even as elsewhere in Germany individual laymen, priests and bishops were attacked or in some cases even killed, as Catholic publications and organizations were suppressed. It was only with the coming of the Second World War in 1939 that the regime launched a broader crackdown on Catholic religious life (especially schools and congregations).

Second, the “Pink Sisters” had been called to Berlin by Fr. Bernhard Lichtenberg, the provost of the Berlin cathedral (a Catholic diocese of Berlin had been established only in 1929). Fr. Lichtenberg had undertaken the audacious task of evangelizing this non-Catholic and even non-Christian city – at that time one of the greatest in the world. But he recognized that to succeed in such a work the support of contemplative religious prayer and of Eucharistic adoration would be needed. Therefore, he established a strictly cloistered monastery in the midst of secular Berlin. A vocal opponent of the regime, Fr. Lichtenberg went on to have numerous altercations with the Nazis, and in 1943 died of ill-treatment as he was being transported to Dachau concentration camp. (Kloster St. Gabriel und Kirche Mariae Verkündigung, de.wikipedia.org, read 11/27/2021)

I have often thought that neglect of the contemplative life was a not insignificant flaw in the otherwise admirable record of evangelization of the New York Archdiocese. For in New York, as in Berlin, a missionary Catholicism had to build up the faith in an alien environment. In New York, however, the focus was almost exclusively on apostolic action. In Manhattan the one remarkable exception was the establishment in 1909 of the order of Marie Reparatrice in the former parish of St. Leo – initially, against resistance of the Archbishop. These semi-contemplative sisters, dedicated to Eucharistic adoration, soon enjoyed great suceess in the city. For a long time their church remained a welcome island of contemplation even for non-Catholics. These sisters of “Mary Reparatrix” were destined to disappear in the wake of the Council – their church is now the site of a high-rise apartment building. ( The Churches of New York LXXXI: Losses 11)

Third, the architecture of the Berlin church and cloister may be surprising in its modernity. For, regardless of the dogmas proclaimed by that era’s National Socialist propaganda and by our present day intellectuals and academics, the architecture of the Third Reich (like its music and films) in fact resembled very much that of the previous Weimar republic and also that found elsewhere in the West. The style of church of St. Gabriel – especially its interior – is severe but elegant. Is this not “noble simplicity”? The complex of buildings is protected by the local German law governing historic monuments.

So the “Pink Sisters” came to Berlin in most difficult times. But they perhaps were prepared for that – hadn’t their umbrella organization, the “Steyler Missionaries” (aka the “Society of the Divine Word”), founded in 1875 by a German priest, had to start its existence in the Netherlands because of the persecution under Bismarck’s Kulturkampf? And the convent of St. Gabriel, once established, did persist – through the allied bombings, the horrifying fall of the city in 1945 and the subsequent decades-long division of the city into East and West Berlin. It is only in the age of Pope Francis and of the rich and progressive German church that the story of this contemplative community comes to an end. A precious refuge of peace, quiet and spirituality will be lost.

And of the Catholic (and religious?) use of one of the most architecturally significant Catholic church buildings in Manhattan (see our description: “Harlem’s Cathedral”). It is the second magnificent Catholic church in Harlem – after St. Thomas (the latter’s story here) – that has been reduced to profane use by the Archdiocesan planning under Cardinals Egan and Dolan. The speed of the Catholic decline in New York City amazing: All Saints school was closed as recently as 2011, the parish followed in 2015 and the property “relegated to secular use” (deconsecrated) in 2017.

What will be the new owner?

Sean “Diddy” Combs has found a storied new home for his Capital Prep Harlem school.

The school is relocating to the former Church of All Saints at East 129th St. and Madison Ave. The site was built in the 1880s and designed by James Renwick Jr., the architect behind St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The move will allow Diddy’s Harlem academy to increase its capacity from 500 to 700 students in grades six through 12 beginning next school year.

The new campus will house 40 classrooms and offices, science labs, a cafeteria, an outdoor communal courtyard and a “Great Hall” (the former church? – SC) for assemblies and performances.

Mohr, Ian “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs finds historic home for his Harlem charter school” The New York Post (11/12/2021)

See also: Angermiller, Michele Amabile, “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ Charter School Relocates to Landmark Harlem Church, Increases Student Capacity” Variety (11/11/2021)

Centro Maria functioned for decades as a residence for women in the city. Yet, it was housed in a building that had started as a parish – St Ambrose.1) It was one of those curious New York City structures that, given the high cost of building, had united school, rectory and church all under one roof. (Corpus Christi parish near Columbia University is a later example) St. Ambrose parish, inaugurated with great fanfare, quickly fell victim to the increasingly dominant commercial focus of the West Side and the resulting depopulation. Yet through all these years this structure preserved its religious dedication, if in a different manner.

Now, it is reported, the Archdiocese’s need to fund legal settlements has brought Centro Maria and the heritage of a long-vanished parish to an end. Last year, the Sisters of Mary Immaculate, who ran it, and the last tenants were told to vacate:

The nuns and residents living there have been told by the Archdiocese of New York that they must leave by August 31, several people with knowledge of the plan told THE CITY.

They say the Archdiocese had been threatening to close Centro Maria and sell the 1910 building — a 30,000-square-foot, four-story property in Hell’s Kitchen — for at least a year.

But earlier this month, the sources said, the Church made a final decision to shutter the residence and told Centro Maria’s leadership the sale is needed to raise funds to pay for hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits. 2)

We read  the property is now earmarked for demolition:

Plans were filed with the city on Thursday to demolish the four-story brick building on West 54th Street that housed the Centro Maria Residence. Built in 1910 between 10th and 11th avenues, the building was also home to St. Ambrose’s Church. 3).

It had been listed for sale and is now “under contract”:

JLL has been exclusively retained to market for sale 539 West 54th Street, an outstanding development opportunity located between 10th and 11th Avenues, along the border of Hell’s Kitchen and Lincoln Square on Manhattan’s west side. Currently known as the Centro Maria, 539 West 54th Street is improved by a 5-story convent and religious establishment totaling approximately 43,500 square feet. The existing structure consists of dorm style rooms, common area spaces, a cafeteria and chapel. 4)

I had often walked by Centro Maria. I once had tried to obtain permission to photograph the chapel of the residence – only eventually to be turned down by the sisters (it was open, I recall, to the public for Sunday mass). I have found on the internet, however, several images of the chapel. These photos reveal that in the interior very little had remained of the old St. Ambrose church. And now, this relic, not just of the past but also of an apostolate, very recently flourishing, in the City – falls victim to the grim realities of today’s Church….

1. See The Churches of New York: Losses 5
2. Holliday Smith, Rachel, “Beloved ‘Centro Maria’ Women’s Home to shut as Allies blame Church’s Lawsuits,” The City, 8/24/2020 at https://www.amny.com/news/beloved-centro-maria-womens-home-to-shut-as-allies-blame-churchs-lawsuits/
3. Garber, Nick, “Longtime Hell’s Kitchen Women’s Home Faces Demolition, Plans Show” Patch.com 10/22/2021
4. https://www.us.jll.com/en/investorcenter/land-development-site/539-west-54th-street-newyork-ny-unitedstates
5. “Centro Maria,” Yelp (accessed 10/28/2021) (More photos of the interior)

(Thanks to Sam Howard)

The closing of St. Thomas the Apostle parish in 2003 set off one of the bitterest controversies (along with those surrounding Our Lady of Vilna and St. Ann’s) of Cardinal Egan’s campaign of parish reductions. For this Harlem parish, in addition to its historical significance, had one of the most magnificent churches of Manhattan, an incredible 1907 confection of eclectic gothic architecture and magnificent decoration – especially its stained glass. St Thomas the Apostle possessed one of the most complete decorative programs of Munich stained glass – of Mayer & Co. – in the New York area.

The architect of St Thomas the Apostle, Thomas Henry Poole (1860-1919), architect and author, was a key figure during the Golden Age of Catholic architecture in New York. An early church design for Manhattan, Holy Name of Jesus,( 1891-1900) is impressive but relatively restrained. From here he moved to the wild creativity of St. Cecilia, Brooklyn (1893) Our Lady of Good Counsel, Manhattan (1890-92; Poole’s own parish) and St. Thomas the Apostle, Harlem (1907). These “total art works” (Gesamtkunstwerke) deployed Gothic and non-Gothic forms in totally original ways, with lavish use of paintings, sculpture and stained glass in the interior. Our Lady of Good Counsel (which I described in the Wedding Palace Church) still gives today an idea of Poole’s accomplishments. 1)

As in most such struggles, despite the dedicated efforts of parishioners and conservationists, the Archdiocese had its way and the parish was closed in 2003. But the Archdiocese proved unable to demolish the buildings or develop the property. The church, stripped of its decorations, eventually (2014) was repurposed as a “community arts center” and venue for “events” – an admittedly ignoble end. Yet the new owner (“Harlem Parish”) restored the exterior and interior, preserving the architectural shell of St. Thomas church. We can be thankful for that! 2)

But what of the greatest glory of St. Thomas – its Munich stained glass? That too was preserved – at least in large part. But to view it, one has to travel far up the Hudson to Lagrangeville, in Dutchess county. In 2008, when the new parish church of Kateri Tekakwitha was built there, the pastor was able to acquire much of the stained glass of St Thomas the Apostle – and spoils of other closed New York churches.

For a more detailed reflection on the style of the church of St. Kateri Tekakwitha itself I refer to my prior post on the church St. Joseph of Somers, New York, a recent church in northern Westchester county which also incorporates old stained glass (from St. Ann in New York) and for which St. Kateri in many respects served as an architectural precedent. In regard to St. Kateri, we note the somewhat overwrought facade with its piling up of gables, doorways and towers. The bright interior also uneasily juxtaposes a centralizing plan with a minimalist “chancel” or sanctuary. Yet it’s clear that the parish and Archdiocese were striving here for something more than the brick or concrete modernistic boxes of the 1960’s and 70’s. 3)

But in St. Kateri the Mayer & Co glass – executed in its most characteristic, exuberant, neo-Rennaissance style – is on full display. As a general theme, the windows depict the miracles of Christ. The figures are more substantial than the doll-like images sometimes found in of the windows of other churches (including Poole’s own Our Lady of Good Counsel). And in the St. Thomas windows the glass makers take endless delight in narrative details and in the expressions of the saints (and sometimes sinners) they depict. As always in Munich stained glass, the colors are glorious. The dedications are missing.

The set of St. Thomas windows at St. Kateri is not complete. The pastor of St Kateri told me of a photograph of an Annunciation window which he has seen. St. Thomas also featured a grand facade window centered on an image of the Assumption or Immaculate Conception. Few or none of the panels of this window seem to have reached St. Kateri.

As is usual in such huge projects, the windows of St. Thomas seem to be a mix of images very commonly encountered in Catholic churches of the day (such as Christ welcoming the little children) and those that are more unusual and seem to be a specific commission. Such as Christ discoursing with the Samaritan woman at the well (above). Or the Visitation window (below) in which the Virgin holds a walking staff – I at least haven’t seen that elsewhere.

The artists of Mayer reused images over the years – given the sheer scale of this company’s output through the 1930’s, how could it be otherwise? Compare the visit of the Magi as depicted in a window from St. Thomas (above) with the same scene in a window (below) – of an earlier date, I believe – at Holy Innocents church in New York.

The unusual subject of the raising from the dead of the daughter of Jairus, as depicted in a window from St. Thomas (above). Below is the same scene in the Cathedral of Covington, Kentucky – executed at approximately the same time. If these windows were not indeed made by the same artist, then the same pattern books or drawings served as models.

The marriage feast at Cana: in a St. Thomas window (above) and at St. James cathedral, Brooklyn (below). In Brooklyn, the same basic composition is confined to one large pane. The execution of the latter is also more sophisticated and uniform in quality – the window from St. Thomas shows evidence of several different hands, and the left two panels are considerably cruder than that depicting Christ. But the pop-eyed expression in that window of the boy pouring water which is turning into wine is priceless. And then there is the pineapple ( a fruit from the New World!) on the table in the Brooklyn window.

Any one of these windows from St. Thomas merits close study. Only then can we appreciate the fine details such as, in this window of Candlemas, the rendering of the fabrics or the expression of the priest Simeon and the prophetess Anna. And then, stepping back, we can admire the harmonious overall composition.

The washing of the feet of Christ by St. Mary Magdalen. The circle of host and guests taking umbrage at her action forms a kind of unholy “Last Supper” – note their expressions.

(Above and below) Two of a series of angels now installed at St. Brigid church on Tompkins Square. These also are described as spoils from St. Thomas the Apostle – which gives an idea of the magnitude of the decoration that once was there. We should be grateful that much of the stained glass of the Harlem church has survived. But the loss of the original artistic unity of architecture and the decoration that was found at St. Thomas remains an incomparable tragedy.

1. On Poole see the Wikipedia article: Thomas Henry Poole.
2. For further photos of the current state of the former parish church, see Newyorkitecture.com; many more photos at Harlem Parish.
3. St. Kateri Tekakwitha parish

Manny Albino shares this image of the interior of his old parish, Mary Help of Christians. We reported on its demolition in 2013 – also here. The site is now occupied by luxury apartments.

CANCELLED

UPDATE: We are informed that the Archdiocese has cancelled this hearing.