www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Beauty of G-d's House

Yes, some of these I'm familiar with.

Holy Cross I attended a weekday mass in. I really liked it as well, though it was definitely in need of repair at the time. I believe it was Lithuanian originally, but had changed over to be predominately Mexican. St. Joseph�s, I remember where it was, but never went inside. There was also a small Czech church nearby that I believe had been suppressed.

St. Mary of Perpetual Help in Bridgeport I never got to visit, or St. Anthony�s.

St. Mary of the Angels I only saw from the outside, but like St. Mary�s in Bridgeport it looked ginormous.

St. Michael (Tarzan�s church IIRC) was definitely pretty on the inside. I still prefer St. Alphonsus to it myself.

St. John Cantius, I only drove past. I�ve heard the liturgy there is about the best you can find in the Roman rite.

St. Hedwig, I attended mass there once. It was a nice church as well.

Holy Family, I only drove past. Never made it inside there or Old St. Pat�s.

St. Adalbert (Vojtech�s), ahhhhh I forgot all about that one. Yes, that was a beautiful building. They had a Pieta in there as I recall.

St. Barbara, I can�t remember. Was it near the old Daley parish?

St. Gabriel, I believe that was the Burnham church. Wish I had visited that one.

St. Michael of the Archangel I don�t recall.

Holy Trinity, St. Hyacinth and St. Stanislaw�s I only saw the outside of.

Our Lady of Sorrows, I think I remember where that was, and it was in a really scary area west of the Ukrainian village. Only saw it from a distance if that�s the one I�m thinking of. It was huge.

A couple you left off that I thought were interesting as well were St. Ita's and St. Paul's. St. Boniface is a nice edifice as well.

Andrew

Holy Cross is in good shape now, and has always been a personal favorite, all the statues, alcoves and St Bernadette at the grotto make it a place I never want to leave. St Joseph nearby, has the most incredible Pieta I've ever seen, and probably the most impressive stations of the cross. The altar is magnificent too. The closed church in the area your thinking of, is Sts Cyril and Methodius. It was a Czech parish, but interior was done over poorly after V2. All 3 churches were built by the same architect, Joseph Molitor. Kitty corner from SS Cyril and Methodius was the very impressive Ukrainian Rite church Nativity. Still standing but now, who knows what.

St Mary of Perpetual Help in Bridgeport is a must see. 3 domes, statues everywhere, and very impressive stations of the cross.

Yes, I knew Johnny Weismuller was an altar boy at St Michael's in Old Town.

St John Cantius is ABSOLUTELY the best place in Chicago to attend mass. It's truly like getting into a time machine and going back to a time before everything fell apart.

St Hedwig's has a beautiful altar and stations.

Holy Family is yet another must see. Statues everywhere constantly reminding you of the communion of saints. Probably the most impressive crucifix in Chicago, and of course the haunted statues of the altar boys, who paid a nocturnal visit to Father Arnold Damen the church's founder. They led Fr Damen to there mother who needed the last rites. He mentioned it in his memoirs. Don't even bother with Old St Patrick's, it's been horribly remodeled.

Yes, St Adalbert has an impressive Pieta.

St Barbara's is over a mile from Richard J Daley's parish Nativity. It's octogonal, and features the best Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane I know of, plus a very impressive large crucifix, and several other nice statues.

St Gabriel's was built by Daniel Burnham. It's very Celtic, and has a beautiful altar, crucifix, and statue of St Patrick.

St Michael the Archangel is at 83rd-South Shore, and it's right down the street from where the gates of US Steel stood until 1980. It has a magnificent wooden altar, with spires, the longest communion rail in Chicago, and outstanding stained glass windows.

Holy Trinity only has Polish masses, but it's definitely worth seeing for it's 5 altars. St Hyacinth is one of the largest churches in the city, and also one of the most beautiful with a large number of statues and paintings. St Stanislaus Kostka, unfortunately always seemed a bit plain to me.

St Ita's and St Paul's (the only church I ever saw with a statue of Moses in the vestibule) are lacking in statues and other religious art for my taste. Sadly, St Boniface has been closed for several years, but it was very impressive inside. St Anthony of Padua at 28th-Wallace was also outstanding, but was pretty much ruined after V2.

I must agree with Father Mark, although I love the Churches of the north, especcially at Kizhi!
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Alexandr

As far as churches in North America go, St. Elias in Brampton is the best I've ever been to.

As far as a local church here in Ohio, St. Theodosius(OCA) in Cleveland is by far the most beautiful place to worship. Beautiful architecture and amazing choir. Their annual Christmas concert is coming up in a couple of months. Anyone who wants to hear a great choir in a beautiful setting should check it out.

Here is a link:
http://www.sttheodosius.org

They have photos all over the place on their site. As you'll see at the site they just celebrated 110 years.

I think I'm going there for Vespers tonight.

Monomakh

I'm still trying to pick my jaw off of the ground!

How beautiful!

How majestic!

What is the significance of the 22 domes?

Is it still a functioning parish?

Of course, this was the Church where the Wedding Scene in the Deer Hunter was filmed!!

The priest in that film is an an actual OCA priest-now retired. I see him regularly when there are lectures at St. Tikhon's seminary (just saw him last night, as a matter of fact). He says that his parish, at the time of the film, made a lot of converts amongst those who worked on the film (mostly Hollywood types-if that can be imagined).

Dn. Robert

Andrew

Holy Family is open and doing quite well. Unfortunately though, I've heard the congregation has taken to aping some Evangelical Protestants with hand holding and rythmic clapping. Not my idea of a reverent mass. Here's a link to some pictures of the church, which honestly don't do it justice http://www.religiousarchitecture.org/buildings/holy_family.html You've just got to see it in person.

Keeping it Eastern, I'd also recommend Holy Trinity OCA (Ukrainian Village) and St Simeon Mirotivici Serbian Orthodox (East Side).

Talk about Orthodox churches...well here's one.

http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/wisconsin/milwaukee/wrightgrkortho/grkortho.html

Okay, okay! So it's not traditional...but it's beautiful.

They did stuff like that at my college church, which was also a pretty building which had really good Zettler windows IIRC.

Have they kept the altar rail in tact? One of the worst things I've seen done is where the altar rail is removed and a holy table pushed out in to the nave. I saw that in a lot of parishes.

One parish you might like is St. Mary's Assumption in New Orleans

http://www.neworleanschurches.com/stmaryasum/stmaryasum.htm

and St. Alphonsus across the street from it. St. Mary's was/is a German Redemptorist church that reminds me a lot of St. Michael's in Old Town. I like Old St. Augustine's as well.

http://flickr.com/photos/97675277@N00/tags/oldstaugustineschurch/

Yes, I mentioned Holy Trinity, it's a beatiful building. When I visited they also had an awesome deacon. I never made it to St. Simeon's or Holy Resurrection out by the airport.

Andrew

Quite a few churches in Chicago still have there communion rails, like confessionals though, most have no use anymore. Sadly V2 opened the door to the iconoclasts who absolutely wreaked havoc on sacred art. Around 1965 Cardinal Cody, literally had all the stained glass windows at Holy Name smashed, and all the statues and paintings removed. The soldiers of Oliver Cromwell couldn't have done worse. At St Anthony of Padua on 28th-Wallace, sledge hammers were used to destroy the side altars of the Blessed Mother and St Joseph. I could go on, but it's too sickening. I guess that's why I've always like the Traditional Latin joke about Pope John XXIII having to stay in purgatory until he finishes closing all the windows he opened.

St Mary's Assumption in New Orleans looks magnificent. That's my kind of altar. Funny how it was said that too many statues caused a distraction during mass, yet in those old churches, anyway you turn your head you see an instant reminder of why you're there.

St Simeon Mirotovici has a very impressive chandelier. I hope that's what it's called, and a beautiful iconostasis http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=205842

I guess standing and receiving in the hand does rather obviate the need for the rail.

I only went in to Holy Name once, but I remember it feeling very sterile. I had not heard that story about Cardinal Cody, though I have heard others.

Indeed, and how ironic that in the case you mentioned that it was a prelate of Irish ancestry wielding the hammer (so to speak).

Who in the world would consider such things a distraction?

I believe St. Simeon's is modelled on the Katholikon of a monastery either in Serbia or Kosovo.

Andrew

An Eastern church in Chicago I would love to have seen in it's day, was Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox. The first two church buldings unfortunately are no longer Orthodox, but I'd still love to see some old photos of the interiors. Here's SSC&O at it's first location at 61st-Michigan http://ecuip.lib.uchicago.edu/diglib/social/cityofneighborhoods/grandwash/con_tour_k.html The church was mentioned in my favorite American novel "Studs Lonigan" by James T Farrell. SSC&O was right across 61st-St from St Anselm, and around the time of WW1, Father Gilmartin of St Anselm's had a sitdown with his Eastern counterpart after a number of after school fights between Catholic and Orthodox boys (the Orthodox had a school as well) The two priests ended up becoming live long friends. Unfortunately you'll notice by the pictures, that the second location of the church has been legally desecrated http://www.noi.org/national_center.htm Now the church is in suburban Palos Hills.

St Basil at 733 S Ashland is another Greek Orthodox Church worth seeing. One of it's interesting claims to fame is that it was once one of the largest synagogues in Chicago.

Now tell me all, have you ever seen an inside of a church that can equal this? Scroll down from the Pantocrator.

http://www.ouranoupoli.com/athos/church.html

Zenovia