New Thing #41 - Cathedral Basilica

Today I headed to the Cathedral Basilica in the Central West End. It houses the largest collection of mosaics in the western hemisphere and the second largest in the world. And it is incredibly breathtaking. Even in the dark. Since today was Good Friday, the lights were turned off and will remain off until the Easter vigil on Saturday night. And if it's impressive in the dark, I can only imagine what it looks like fully lit.

My friend Susie works at the Basilica, so she gave me a tour of parts of the church that the general public normally wouldn't get to see. I love having connections. I've seen the Basilica before, but never thought about going in or taking a better look. And, like most things on my blog, I can't believe I didn't visit here sooner.

It's been a rainy dreary day, but that didn't stop me from taking a few pics of the outside. This place is enormous and my camera couldn't take in all of it in one shot. The overall size is 350 feet north to south, 204 feet east to west at its greatest extent. The central dome is 217 feet with a 10 foot cross extending above that. The twin towers in the front reach 157 feet above street level. The Basilica covers 4,940 square yards. Yeah, that's yards, not feet.

You can see the center dome here.

The Cathdral was the brainchild of Archbishop John Glennon in the early twentieth century. He broke ground on May 1, 1907. The structure was completed in 1914 with the initial Mass on October 18, six years after the cornerstore was laid. Two days later, the Cathedral celebrated its first wedding, the daughter of one of the donors. There are 83,000 square feet of mosaic art created by twenty artists and installed over a period of seventy-five years. The mosaics were created with over 41,500,000 pieces of tesserae in more than 8,000 shades of color. Susie gave me a few books on the church and its museum if anyone wants to read more of the history behind it.

This truly is a sight to behold. Just walking into the vestibule is incredible. Everywhere you look is covered in mosaics. Bright shiny mosaics. Susie first took me up to the upper level where no one except for the choir and sound technicians are allowed to go. She pointed out all the different mosaics including one side that represents the Old Testament with the Star of David, and the other that represents the New Testament. Mosaics of Creation, Hell, the Last Supper and even the history of St. Louis are all represented, including many many more. I can't even remember everything she showed me. Unfortunately, they were difficult to see due to the lights being off, but still impressive.

This is a close up of the mosaic in the ceiling of the vestibule.

More in the vestibule. This was lit, so I was able to photograph it.

It was really cool to go upstairs, especially since you could see the entire span of the church layout down below. The pipes for the organ were also really cool. I can only imagine what they sound like during Mass. Upstairs there is also a spiral staircase that leads you up into the top dome. Susie is currently pregnant, so we didn't want her climbing around up there, but she said she could take me up some other time. That would be pretty incredible.

I tried to get some photos upstairs, but the flash only worked on the close up objects. I'll try to see if Susie has some marketing photos she can send me, so I can post those. Photos don't really do the church justice though. You have to go and stand in it to really feel how amazing it is. It doesn't matter whether you're Catholic or not. Just the art, architecture and mosaics are enough to inspire.

Here is one of the Tiffany glass windows in the outer domes. With the flash you don't get to see how it glows.


Here is the other Tiffany glass window. I took this without the flash to try to show you how the sunlight hits and illuminates it.

Here are the pipes for the organ.

These were the largest of the bells used during Mass. The largest, on the left, is as big as my head.


The statue of Mark up at the altar is holding a book. Susie said that anyone who goes up there to clean it signs the book in Sharpie. You can see where they've signed.

After we spent some time upstairs, we went down into the crypts into the Mosaic Museum. There you can see the process of the mosaics and how they were created and attached to the walls. I thought the design was drawn on the wall and the tiles individually attached. I would be wrong. Instead the designs were created and sketched out on the walls. The mosaics were created in mirror form in small sections on backing paper. The small sections were then attached to the wall and grouted in, much like tiles are done now. Imagine the amount of hours that it would take to create one mosaic, let alone an entire church.

This display showed the mosaic process.

This is a 14th-century Spanish choir book donated to the church in 1931. In those times, 50-60 choir members shared one book, so the letters had to be large enough for everyone to read.

Also in the crypts was the homage to Pope John Paul II who visited the Basilica in 1999. Until 1997, it was just considered a church, but the Pope declared it a Basilica then, a place of worship of special distinction. Included in the crypts are the specially built chair used by the Holy Father and the priedieux he kneeled upon. Any Popes in the future will receive the honor of their own pieces.

Pope John Paul II's chair.

The priedieux is inside the crypt where one Archbishop and three Cardinals are laid to rest.

The founder, John Glennon, passed away in his native country of Ireland, but was brought back to St. Louis to be laid to rest here.

Once we finished in the crypt, I headed back upstairs to look around the church myself. It was very peaceful in the dark, and there were many people praying silently to themselves. Confession was also about to start, so there was a small line of people waiting for that. It's amazing the feeling you get being in such a magnificent church. I asked Susie how much it cost to get married there, and she said $2000 for non-parishioners, and she thought it was $1500 for members of the church. That's a lot of money, but something tells me it would be worth it.

I really enjoyed my new thing today, and I plan on going back very soon to see the splendor in the light. I'd like to go to a Mass there as well to get the full experience. Thanks to Susie for showing me around, especially all the areas I'm technically not allowed. Happy Easter everyone!