Dansville, New York, has a beautiful church that has avoided ruin through “Spirit of Vatican II” activism.

Saint Mary’s in Dansville is a mix of styles. I would call it Romanesque but it has a Renaissance/Baroque main entrance, Gothic Revival coins at the corners and a prominent pediment, and touches of Byzantine in a domed cupola and stone/brick banding toward the top of the tower.

The church is in the style of an early Christian basilica and includes an open timbered ceiling, characteristic of the earliest of Christian churches. There is a large nave and two side aisles but no side chapels. The apse houses a gorgeous classical Renaissance altar designed to appear to have a baldachin or ciborium. The tabernacle was never moved after the Second Vatican Council and so is in the center of the cancel, on the altar. The vaulted ceiling is  coffered with rosettes.

Appropriately, the back and side walls of the apse are painted in a rich, gold pattern reminiscence of a king’s throne room.

The draped opening between the columns of the altar cries out for a painting but we are offered an aesthetically underwhelming (to me) suspended sculpture of the risen Lord. I’m wondering if a painting was once there or was at least planned for that space.

Unfortunately, banners have been hung on some of the sides of the piers (square columns). They are at least well designed but, alas, they are banners and I dislike banners. In this case I think they distract from the Stations of the Cross. The piers were designed to be unadorned except for the Stations. Thankfully, the colors of the banners harmonize with the architecture and they are in good proportion to the sides of the piers.

The Stations of the Cross are outstanding in Saint Mary’s. Renaissance in style, each has a touch of Byzantine in the gold mosaic-like skies.

Yet another style appears to us in the spandrels between the piers (those triangular spaces over the piers). A heavenly host of angels rendered in the Art Nouveau style look down on us and announce that we are in sacred space –the throne room of the King, the temple of the Lord. (Yes, yes, I know, in the New Covenant the people are the Temple.)

Like nearly everything else in this church, the stained glass windows are beautiful. Rich in detail and outstanding in rendering they each invite study and reflection.

Look at the wonderful elaboration of the main entrance. Something important happens here. This isn’t just any building.

More Information about Saint Mary’s

From the New Liturgical Movement website

by David Clayton

Here is the fourth in the series of short videos by Denis McNamara, Professor on the faculty of the Liturgical Institute, Mundelein; his book is Catholic Church Architecture and the Spirit of the Liturgy.

Before I sat in on some of his lectures this summer, I had been aware of Denis’ emphasis on the classical tradition in architecture. I have to admit, I did have half a suspicion that his…

Read more here.

View 5 minute video here.

From The New Liturgical Movement website

by David Clayton

Denis McNamara on the Jewish Roots of Church Architecture

In this, the third of a series of ten videos, Denis McNamara discusses how church architecture reflects the roots of a church’s function in those of the Temple and the synagogue. Read more….

See 5 minute video here.

(click on photos)

Sainte-Chapelle is considered one of the highest artistic achievements of the medieval period. Consecrated in the spring of 1248 it was created by King Louis XIV to house the relics of the Crown of Thorns. Sainte-Chapelle, on the Île de la Cité in the middle of Paris, consists of one of the most extensive “in-situ” collections of 13th-century stained glass anywhere in the world. The “walls” of the chapel are veritable curtains of stained glass.

The thirteen huge windows are a pictorial presentation of the events of the Bible. Both the Old and the New Testaments are depicted with the New Testament scenes occupying the eastern apse. Old Testament scenes are depicted in the north and south windows. A rose stained glass window depicts the Book of Revelation in the west end.

(Isaiah 42:6 “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles… ) Standing in the center of the chapel you feel engulfed by the light of salvation history. Sunlight –Divine Light, if you will— shines through the pictorial images of the Bible. It’s impressive: the Bible glowing, floating and projecting its content on the floor and walls of the church. Each episode in the Bible in this experience seems timeless, eternal. Each episode emanates Divine Light. (Psalm 36:9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.)

Christianity is an historical religion; everything has a this time, this place, this person historical reference (Jesus suffered “under Pontius Pilate”). Historical events have a definite time limit and reference, yet, in Christian theology, Biblical events are eternal as well as “in time”. They exist “once and for all time”. They are eternally efficacious. Similar to the Passover and the Sacrifice of the Cross they are always present. They exist in God’s time.

Figurative stained glass windows effectively communicate the experience of the essential and eternal nature of salvation history. It’s not the only medium able to do so but it might be the most effective given its great dependence on sunlight, and also effective because of our awareness of the ubiquitous references to light throughout the Bible that convey the sense of divinity. (Matthew 17:2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.)

The divine is eternal and divine light is therefore eternal, driving away the darkness forever. (John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.)

From the beginning, Catholic churches were meant to convey a foretaste of heaven. Down through history images from salvation history (and also images of the saints in heaven) were always numerous and richly presented in our churches. The experience was of beautiful timelessness. Worshipers entering Catholic churches had a sense of entering into God’s place and God’s time.

When we enter our contemporary Catholic churches whose time zone do we feel we are in: God’s or ours?

Video: Catholic Church Architecture – Episode 2

Originally published July 9, 2012

Dr. Denis McNamara, faculty member at the Liturgical Institute in Mundelein, Illinois, speaks on church architecture and its relation to beauty, theologically understood. www.liturgicalinstitute.org

More from the New Liturgical Movement website:

Text introduction by David Clayton: Denis McNamara on the Meaning of Beauty and its Importance in Church Architecture

…he points out that beauty is not simply “in the eye of the beholder,” but is a property of the object itself…

by David Clayton

Mosaic ceiling of the interior of the baptistry of Saint John the Baptist in Florence, Italy.

(Click on pictures to see larger images.)

Begun in 1225 and completed in the 14th century, the mosaic composition is dominated by a Last Judgment scene featuring a Majestas Domini familiar to us as of the same type as we saw in the Blessed David Chapel, Thessalonica (ca. 425-50). The four creatures of the apocalypse are not present in this image, however, and Christ here extends his arms and hands as we saw in the scene of the Last Judgement in the tympanum of Autun Cathedral, presenting to us the saved on his right and the damned, on his left.

Choirs of Angels –Dominations, Powers, Archangels, Angels, Principalities, Virtues and Thrones occupy the top tiers of the ceiling and scenes from Genesis, stories of Joseph, stories of Mary and Christ and finally, in the lower tier, stories of Saint John the Baptist, fill out the other sections.

Constructed in what is called the Florentine Romanesque style, sometime between 1059 and 1128, the baptistry itself is one of the oldest buildings in the city of Florence. The octagonal shape of the building signifies the six days of creation, the Day of Rest, and a day of re-creation through the Sacrament of Baptism. It is an ancient tradition of the Church, going back to the earliest centuries of Christianity, to construct octagonal baptistries and/or baptismal fonts.

Saint Mary’s in Geneseo, New York is a charming little church in a college town 40 minutes south of Rochester. It has changed very little over the years as far as I know. I suspect there was once a communion rail which has, sadly, disappeared. Fortunately, The Tabernacle has not been moved from its central location on the permanent altar. The floor of the church is still, delightfully, creaky wood.

The architecture of the church is Medieval Revival with Gothic and Romanesque characteristics. The front facade of the church is Romantic, arranged asymmetrically with the towers unequal in height. Brick is often the material of choice for Medieval Revival.

The sectioning of the apse and side chapels reminds me of the dome of the Cathedral of Florence and even the dome of Saint Peter’s in Rome.

The funeral Mass I participated in recently was, for the most part orthodox, if celebrated a little too informally by the priest. Unfortunately, not much was used from the rich musical tradition of the Church but the young woman who was the cantor has a beautiful voice.

Go into any European Catholic church with a couple of hundred years of life under its belt and you find yourself in a sacred space usually filled with dark furniture. Pews –a relatively recent addition– yes, but most strikingly you will see confessionals: lots of confessionals. They march up alongside the side aisle walls of the church. In the larger churches they can also be found attached to the nave columns or piers.

There are so many of them that it is easy to unwittingly pause too near one that is being used. In Italy, while pausing to admire a church’s architecture, I have been “ahem-ed” by a priest hearing a confession. Confessionals are all over the place.

In contrast, think of our churches here in the U.S., especially our modern ones. Where are the confessionals? You will look long and hard to find the ones at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Rochester.

The post Vatican II trend has been toward “reconciliation rooms” that are nondescript and almost hidden –if not actually hidden. Often, there is no permanent confessional, merely a portable screen with a chair on one side for the priest and a kneeler on the other side for the penitent. It is put away between confession hours –usually only 30 minutes a week; make an appointment during “off hours”. Most often, however, the confessional is not easily noticeable. Clearly the message is Confession is not important.

The architecture of our modern churches has dropped confession from the three biggies: Eucharist, Baptism, and Confession. (Confirmation was lost centuries ago.)

While in Poland recently, I took notice of the number of confessionals in the older churches. I also observed that they were being used every day at almost any time. Not all of them all the time, but in the larger churches at least, one was operational with a priest and penitent. In others, a priest’s stole draped on the front railing indicated it was often open for business.

The Faith is still strong in Poland although liberals would probably quarrel with the quality of that Faith. The Faith has, in fact, been weakening even there ever since the fall of communism, the enemy of Polish culture. Still, is there a relation between the number of confessionals in a church and the strength of the Faith in that community?

Of course, we don’t have the priests to man more than one Confessional in a church. But, shouldn’t that one Confessional be really present in the church? And, shouldn’t it be an admirable piece of art?

A theological argument could be made for the edification of the Sacrament of Confession through artistic expression and prominent location of the Confessional in a church. First, confession should have a public element to it as sin is a separation from the community of Faith, from the Church, as well as a fracturing of my personal relationship with God. Reunion or reconciliation with the community should therefore be public –have a visible liturgical presence– accomplished in a public place and not squirreled away in a private “office”. The public element also invites reflection for those who see it happening: “Am I so perfect that I don’t need Confession as so many others seem to?” “We are all sinners, in need of forgiveness.” “Why do I struggle with guilt when forgiveness is so available?”

Second, Confession is a monumental Sacrament, an incredibly merciful action of Christ through His Church that should be celebrated in an appropriately grand manner and not “hushed up”. All the angels in heaven rejoice at the return of a sinner. Shouldn’t our confessionals aesthetically express that thought?

Make the confessionals visible and impressive once again and I think we will see an increase in the numbers of people taking advantage of the Sacrament.

“St. Joseph’s was Rochester’s oldest Catholic church and a longtime landmark when it went up in flames nearly 40 years ago.

“Known as “the mother church” for all local German Catholics, St. Joseph’s was built on Franklin Street in the 1840s, just a few years after Rochester was established as a city. Downtown Rochester grew up around St. Joseph’s, which became a so-called ‘oasis of grace’ amid the hustle-bustle of… “ READ MORE (Alan Morrell 7:16 a.m. EDT June 14, 2014, Democrat and Chronicle)

Saint Joseph’s, in downtown Rochester (NY), was an architectural gem of the Rochester Roman Catholic Diocese. Only the facade and some walls remain, the whole campus turned into a park.

If you have been following my series on “Church Architecture Styles” you will recognize Saint Joseph’s as an example of the ‘baroque’ style. It’s called “Greek Revival” on several internet sites but I suppose they mean, “Neoclassical”. Either way I think those sites are wrong. There is no emphasis on Greek columns or on a Greek temple porch. Both are major aspects of Neoclassicism.

The building does have certain classical features: the Roman triumphal arch theme of the portals in the front facade, the division of the facade into roughly square units by horizontal and vertical lines, and  a concern for classical proportion. But, the downward sweeping roof lines to the right and left of the bell tower suggest the baroque style. In addition, the upper tower is obviously more sculptural and elaborate than the lower facade. The cupola at the very top is in the Renaissance style, also commonly employed in the baroque style.

If there is any doubt about the architectural style, however, we merely need to examine the interior to confirm my judgement. An old photo of what the interior looked like removes any doubt. The reredos is sculptural, an elliptical space is part of the plan, and the space is elaborately decorated. A prominent cornice tops off the walls but a curved surface transitions to the center of the ceiling. The emphasis is on an overall impression of unity with all elements working together to create a dramatic, emotional atmosphere.

I think I worshiped in Saint Joseph’s once –my wife tells me I did. I have a vague memory of sitting on the right side of the nave. We lost an architectural gem when it was consumed by fire. We now can see only a shell of  Saint Joseph’s former glory. Thankfully some civic leaders and preservationists made sure that we could have at least that!

 

Previously in this series:

1. “House” Churches  2. Early Christian  3. Byzantine

4. Romanesque  5. “Pilgrimage Churches”  6. Gothic

7.  Italian Renaissance  8. Baroque

Neoclassicism was a widespread and influential movement in the visual arts that began in the 1760s, reached its height in the 1780s and ’90s, and lasted until the 1840s and ’50s.

The Protestant Reformation had challenged the authority of the Catholic Church (and all human authority, for that matter). To Protestants, the Bible alone was authoritative and only one’s subjective reading and interpretation of the Bible was required to leading a good life. Biblical literalism and subjectivism aside, the Protestant challenge certainly had a positive effect on history in that it stimulated individual and personal commitment to faith and it led, much more generally, to a healthy challenging of authority and assumed truths of any kind, stimulating an inquisitive and adventurist view of life among the growing middle class.

Religious beliefs or moral reasoning based on faith increasingly relinquished control over economics and politics as a questioning attitude spread. The secular realm gradually separated itself from religious faith and the Church, both Catholic and Protestant.¹ Spiritual goals in life gradually became restricted to personal life, replaced in the wider world by secular and material goals.

In the 18^th century the Churches were almost completely pushed aside. It was the century of the philosophes and encyclopedists: Montesquieu (1689-1755); Voltaire (1694-1778); Rousseau (1712-78) and many others. It was the Age of the Enlightenment (1700-1789), a time of forward looking thinkers, kings, emperors and empresses, and enlightened despots who believed –they thought, for the first time– in the possibility of material and intellectual progress. Earthly life, they held, could progress and get better.

“Far-reaching also was the faith of the age in natural faculties of the human mind. Pure skepticism, the negation of reason, was overcome. Modern people not only ceased to fear the devil; they ceased also to fear God. They thought of God less as a Father than as a first cause of the physical universe. There was less a sense of a personal God or of man’s need for saving grace. God was less the God of love; he was the inconceivably intelligent being.”²

God had become a kind of watchmaker.

The Christian view of things was replaced with scientific theories of good and evil and secular theories of society. Christian love became secularized humanitarian goodwill ³ and the good life was measured not in spiritual terms but by the progress toward a more comfortable and decent existence on earth. (The assumption was that the past had not been interested in such things. It turns out that modern scholarship has proven that it was a false assumption.)

 

The churchmen of the established Churches during the Age of Enlightenment were of a similar mind-set as the modernists: educated and sophisticated gentlemen, suspicious of religious zeal. The hierarchy of the Catholic Church had always been enthusiastic followers of scientific developments and discoveries, even through the so called “dark ages”. The hierarchy of the Church had a history of separating biblical truth from scientific truth and so had no qualms about scientific investigative thinking. Galileo’s writings, for example, did not incur the wrath of the Church –which followed his scientific discoveries enthusiastically– until he mixed scientific truth with religious truth.

 

Of the Catholic religious orders, the Jesuits especially, produced, during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries numerous important scientists and were responsible for many important scientific advances.⁴ 

Like today, much of the criticism of the Church by the philosophes was based on a popular idea of what the Church taught and what its history had been rather than on the actual history and doctrines of the Church. The criticism leveled by many of the philosophes was really a reaction to the social position and influence traditionally held by the Church. Many churchmen came to grudgingly accept the Church’s new position on the sidelines regarding economic and political matters.

Not surprisingly, the emotional and dramatic late Baroque ⁵ style of architecture –associated mostly with the authoritative Catholic Church and with kings who claimed to rule by divine right— fell out of favor with Enlightenment thinkers. A more restrained architectural style emerged that reflected the progressive spirit of the Enlightenment. Ironically, it was the ancient style of classical Greece and Rome that became the face of modern thinking. The historical period of ancient Greece is often called the Age of Reason for it was the age of the first philosophers and the birth of reasonable thinking.  And, just as the philosophes believed Reason should guide human individuals and societies at large, it was thought by the neoclassicists that Reason should also direct artistic creation.

And, so, neoclassical architects retired the dramatic, unique, and emotional of the Baroque in favor of a style that expressed logical, rational organization. It did not seem to celebrate the established institutions like the Church or the monarchy, as the Baroque had done, but rather seemed to celebrate a way of thinking that promoted usefulness and reasoned progress.

Neoclassical churches (and secular buildings), therefore, often look exactly like ancient Greek temples, faithful in general appearance as well as details. The Greek porch –consisting of steps, columns, classical entablatures and triangular pediments– predominates. While ancient models were certainly very much involved, the style could also be regarded as a revival of the Renaissance ⁶ style and so Renaissance style domes were also popular. The ancients’ concern for proportion is expressed in the neoclassical style. The sculptural curves and dramatic lighting of Baroque architecture was rejected in favor of a return to a basic geometric style. The neoclassical style emphasizes the flat wall as opposed to the sculptural Baroque style of undulating surfaces. Curves gave way to verticals and horizontals. Neoclassical is minimalist in contrast to the late Baroque style.

But the neoclassical style also appealed to the more traditional thinkers who prized order, and social control; those who prized an orderly, stable society –the traditional ordering of social classes and governance.

“Neoclassical thinkers (of a more established order bent) could use the past as a guide for the present because they assumed that human nature was constant–essentially the same regardless of time and place. Art, they believed, should express this essential nature…   If human nature has remained constant over the centuries, it is unlikely that any startling new discoveries will be made. Hence neoclassical artists did not strive to be original so much as to express old truths in a newly effective way… “⁷

 

Clearly the popularity of the neoclassical style among both progressives and traditionalists is an indication of the divergent and inconsistent thinking prevalent in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

…………………………………………..

¹ Most Protestant Churches actually became far more authoritarian than the Catholic Church had ever been.

² Palmer, R. R., A History of the Modern World, second edition, (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1961), p 290

³ Palmer 299

4 From wikipedia ” The Jesuits have made numerous significant contributions to the development of science. For example, the Jesuits have dedicated significant study to earthquakes, and seismology has been described as “the Jesuit science”.^[75] The Jesuits have been described as “the single most important contributor to experimental physics in the seventeenth century”.^[76] According to Jonathan Wright in his book God’s Soldiers, by the eighteenth century the Jesuits had “contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes, to scientific fields as various as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands on Jupiter‘s surface, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn’s rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood (independently of Harvey), the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon affected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light.”^[77] The Jesuit China missions of the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Western science and astronomy, then undergoing its own revolution, to China. One modern historian writes that in late Ming courts, the Jesuits were “regarded as impressive especially for their knowledge of astronomy, calendar-making, mathematics, hydraulics, and geography”.^[78] The Society of Jesus introduced, according to Thomas Woods, “a substantial body of scientific knowledge and a vast array of mental tools for understanding the physical universe, including the Euclidean geometry that made planetary motion comprehensible”.^[79] Another expert quoted by Woods said the scientific revolution brought by the Jesuits coincided with a time when science was at a very low level in China.

5 Late Baroque was called Rococo; a more jocular, florid, and graceful approach to the Baroque. The style was ornate consisting of asymmetrical designs, curves, and gold. The Rococo was considered by neoclassicists as melodramatic and flamboyant and frivolously decorative –not serious. Unlike the political Baroque, the Rococo often had playful and witty themes.

6 Renaissance: “rebirth” of classical learning

7 http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/neocl.html

Here is one of the Seven Station Churches of Rome, “Holy Cross in Jerusalem” (Santa Croce in Gerusalemme), originated in 320. (More info here)

Rome was the center of the Baroque style of church architecture and this is a good example. “Holy Cross”  assumed its current Baroque appearance under Benedict XIV (1740-1758)

This church was recently featured on the New Liturgical Movement website. (Here)

The facades of Baroque churches are treated like sculpture and appear more three-dimensional than the flatter previous Renaissance style. Contrasting curved lines and forms often animate a facade creating an undulating surface. Sculptures are common and cornices can be large, casting a dark shadow underneath. The curves and dark recesses create drama. Pediments are often broken by advancing and receding sections. Sometimes the center of a pediment is missing as is the one over the doorway, above. Columns or, in this case, pilasters rise to the height of two stories. The intention is drama and excitement. Most of all it is meant to communicate an impression of power and authority.

The Baroque Style was described as part of the Church Architecture Style series. (Here)