St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York

St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City is the seat of the archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, and a parish church, located at 50th Street and 5th Avenue in Manhattan.

The site of the present cathedral was bought for $11,000 on March 6, 1810, as a site for an orphanage. The diocese of New York was made an archdiocese by Pope Pius IX on July 19, 1850, and on October 6, 1850 Archbishop John Joseph Hughes announced his intention to erect a new cathedral to replace St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, which was located on the intersection of Prince and Mott Streets on Mulberry Street. (The old cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1866 and was rebuilt and rededicated by 1868. It is still a parish church and is the oldest Catholic building in New York City.)

A cornerstone was laid on August 15, 1858 just south of the diocese's orphanage, well north of the populous area of New York at that time. The cathedral was designed in Gothic style by architect James Renwick, Jr. Work was begun in 1858, but was halted during the American Civil War, commencing again in 1865. The cathedral was completed in 1878 and dedicated on May 25, 1879, its huge proportions dominating the mid-town of that time. The archbishop's house and the rectory were added from 1882-1884 and the adjacent school opened in 1882. Towers on the West Front were added in 1888, and an addition on the east, including a Lady Chapel, designed by Charles Mathews, began in 1901. The cathedral was renovated between 1927-1931 ,when the great organ was installed, and the sanctuary was enlarged.

Table of contents

1 Architectural features: 2 Organs 3 Burials 4 External links

Architectural features:

• The Cathedral is built of white marble quarried in New York and Massachusetts. The exterior is four hundred feet (120 meters) long and 174 (fifty-three meters) wide and seats about 2,400. The parish is bounded by 59th Street, 3rd Avenue, 44th Street, and 7th Avenue and encompasses 302 city blocks. The spires rise 330 feet from street level.
• The windows were made by artists in Chartres, Birmingham and Boston. The great rose window is one of Charles Connick's major works.
• The St. Michael and St. Louis altar was designed by Tiffany and Company. The St. Elizabeth altar was designed by Paolo Medici of Rome.
• The Stations of the Cross won a prize for artistry at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893.
• The Pieta is three times larger than the Michelangelo's Pieta.

Organs

The original pipe organs, built by George Jardine and Sons in the 19th century, have been replaced. The Chancel Organ, in the North Ambulatory, was made by the Kilgen Company, and installed in 1928. It has 1,480 pipes. The Grand Gallery Organ, by the same company, was installed in 1930. The organs can be played from either of two five-manual consoles, and have a total of 177 stops.

Burials

• The Archbishops of New York are buried in a crypt under the high altar. Their honorary hats, called galeros, hang from the ceiling over their tombs.
• Blessed Pierre Toussaint (1766 - 1853) paid for the reconstruction of old St. Peter's Church (the first Catholic church in New York, founded 1785) after it burned, and helped raise money for the construction of the old St. Patrick's Cathedral in lower Manhattan (which was the second Catholic church in New York, founded 1809). Though during his life he had been turned away from the church because of his race, he was interred in the burial grounds at Old St. Patrick's Cathedral. John Cardinal O'Connor had Toussaint's remains moved from the cemetery of old St. Patrick's into the crypt below the main altar of the Fifth Avenue of the new St. Patrick's Cathedral. The process of canonization of Pierre Toussaint is underway.
• Archbishop Fulton Sheen (May 8, 1895 - December 9, 1979) - most noted as host of his radio show, "The Catholic Hour" and his television show, "Life is Worth Living," he was Bishop of the Rochester Diocese but was also an Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of New York from 1951-1966.

see also: List of Roman Catholic Bishops and Archbishops of New York

External links

• About the Cathedral