Exploring the World’s Largest Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Largest Sacred Sites and Artifacts | April 5, 2010Built on the Upper West of Manhattan in New York, the Cathedral of St. John, the Divine is famous for its robust interfaith practice. It is the mother church of the Episcopal Diocese of New York whose construction started in 1892 and guess what – it is yet in progress even after entitled as the largest church on Earth! One of the reasons for this is its traditional Gothic production wherein the expert masons and novices carve the lumps of granite and limestone.
My Visit
The Cathedral of St. John the Divine’s superlative credit of being the largest is seen in its each part right from its spacious nave that can hold 5000 devotees at a time to its tall dome such that it can contain another Statue of Liberty.
The church’s entrance doors are accessible via the five portals reached through the broad stairs from the Amsterdam Avenue side. Among the portals, the middle one is worth visiting that is named Portal of Paradise where you can see the stone carvings of St. John observing the Transfiguration of Jesus and 32 biblical figures. At the base of this portal, there are bronze doors that boasts the reliefs on which the left scene is from the Old Testament and the right one from the New Testament. If you want to see them, go on Easter and in October during the Feast of St. Francis, otherwise the doors remain closed. Do not miss to glance at the Great Rose Window over the doors, which is the largest stained-glass window in the nation.
Next, I visited the Episcopalian cathedral whose interior hugs a powerful intercultural view. At the rear of the choir, there are seven chapels namely, Ansgar, Boniface, Columba, Savior, Martin, Ambrose, and James; which are together called the Chapels of the Tongues. The names are so given as they are committed to the city’s ethnic groups who contributed their efforts to the cathedral.
In the Missionary Chapel, you will see a rotating genocide monument made to pay homage to the sufferers of the Ottoman Empire in Armenia, Holocaust, and in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Some similar honor was found in form of the FDNY memorial in the Labor Chapel, which marked 12 firefighters slain in 1966 and then 343 firefighters killed in the brutal event of September 11, 2001. Lastly, among the chapels, I worshipped the Saint Savior Chapel where a three-panel altar of bronze depict religious scenes and was the last carving of artist Keith Haring who died due to AIDS. There are even more chapels dedicated to the modern fields of sports, poetry, and AIDS.
In the main interior of the cathedral, the altar section has menorahs and Shinto pots, while the Barberini tapestries of the 17th century can be seen across the holy place. To its left, a traditional baptistery – a superb octagonal chapel stands wherein a polychrome frieze marks the legacy of the Dutch in New York.
Lastly, stroll around the Peace Fountain at the Amsterdam Avenue, which is a symbol of the victory of good over evil. This is evident from the scene where the angel Michael, the good power conquers over the bad force Satan, whose head seems to be hanging. Around the fountain, fanciful bronze portrays of animals are noticeable.
Festivals
The New Year’s Eve concert is the major attraction for the locals in the Cathedral of St. John, the Divine. Another great event is its annual Feast of St. Francis (Blessing of the Animals) in October. Herein, animals such as elephants, camels, cats, and dogs are taken in the interior for blessings.
Tip: For a best view of the sizey on West 112th Street, stand at Broadwa.
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Originally designed as Byzantine-Romanesque, the plan was changed after 1909 to a Gothic design.
After a large fire on December 18, 2001, it was closed for repairs and reopened in November 2008.
It remains unfinished, with construction and restoration a continuing process.