"The Chapel was designed to remind the seminarian from his first day in residence that his future life as a priest would center on the Eucharist."
"For more than a century, priests trained at Saint John's Seminary have contemplated three mysteries as they returned to the Chapel several times during the course of a day: The Eucharist, the six other Sacraments, especially Holy Orders, and the Apostolic Succession which guarantees the authenticity of these instruments of salvation..."
Saint John's Seminary Chapel
When it opened on 18 September 1884, Saint John's Seminary was served by a small temporary chapel-structure located where the Chapel now stands. Construction on the permanent building began in 1899. The then newly-organized architectural firm of Magennis and Walsh proposed to complement the French provincial style of the Theology House, as Saint John's Hall was then known. They instead chose a style of an earlier period that was enjoying a small renaissance in Victorian Boston. The Brighton landscape soon would boast of a small jewel of Romanesque architecture. Today the chapel merits recognition as one of Boston's landmark religious edifices, much as Trinity Church Boston, which dates from the same period, has earned international standing as an American landmark for its Richardsonian Romanesque style.
Saint John's Seminary Chapel served as the crowning piece of Archbishop John Williams' efforts to provide Boston with a setting where Roman Catholic priests would discover the mystery of their unique calling. In a word, the Chapel was constructed around the Eucharist. Today, the visitor will note that the Chapel houses only one altar. There are no side altars, such as one is accustomed to see in many parish and cathedral churches. The reasons for this unique for the period arrangement are both architectural and theological. In principle, Romanesque churches accommodated only one altar in the rounded apse which is characteristic of this ancient style. But what is more important, the Chapel was designed to remind the seminarian from his first day in residence that his future life as a priest would center on the Eucharist. Originally, the main altar was located in the center of the Chapel's apse. On it stood the tabernacle. Where now the visitor is impressed by the sculpted crucifix, there hung a large gilded tabernacle lamp. All in all, the Chapel provides a setting for the sacraments that recalls the Passion and Death of the Lord. Until the 1990s, the seminarians were asked to kneel on the bare wooden floor of the Chapel. Devotion to the Eucharist as well as humility are required of the man who alone provides others with Christ's Body and Blood. Instruction about humility was impressed on the seminarians by the purposeful omission of padded kneelers in the original construction. Today's seminarians develop these same virtues of reverence for God and his sacraments.
No statues occupy niches in either the nave or the apse of the seminary Chapel. This feature of the interior design is not an accidental omission. Again, theological imagination explains the Chapel's arrangement. The altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Regina Cleri, Queen of the Clergy, stands in the vestibule of the Chapel. For more than a century, seminarians have passed before her altar in order to enter the Chapel. Marian devotion of the seventeenth-century school of spirituality explains this practice. There is a well-known motto that captures the place that Mary occupies in St. John's Chapel: ad Jesum per Mariam. To Jesus through Mary. Pope John Paul II reintroduced this key feature of Catholic piety in his 1987 encyclical letter, Mater Redemptoris, Mother of the Redeemer. The overall vision of priestly formation that informs the Chapel owes its origin to saintly diocesan priests who flourished in the seventeenth-century, mainly in France. They include: St. Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622), St. Vincent de Paul (1580-1660), St. John Eudes (1601-1680), and especially St. Louis de Montfort (1673-1716) who is credited with formulating the Marian motto. Each of these saints was a Pastor of the Church.
Sacred music has long been a central feature of the liturgical celebrations at Saint John's Seminary. Built by the Boston firm recognized as the premier organ builders of their day in the United States, the Hook and Hastings organ that was installed shortly after the completion of the Chapel no longer stands in working order. Earlier in 1875, Hook and Hasting had built the organ for Boston's Cathedral of the Holy Cross, which instrument today is considered their chef d'oeuvre. An older but suitable one-manual pipe organ accompanies liturgical ceremonies while the seminary awaits adequate donations to restore the original Hook and Hasting. Christmas concerts continue to delight visitors to Saint John's Seminary as well as other solemn liturgies that occur throughout the Church's year. The Chapel regularly welcomes worshipers for Sunday and other special liturgies, especially during Holy Week.
What first strikes the visitor upon entering the Chapel is its ornate decoration. The style is that of the Italian Renaissance, though executed to include some faint hints of Victorian patterns such as the celebrated paisley motif. The interior decoration of the Chapel was confided to an Italian Master, Gonippo Raggi (1875-1959), who had come to the United States in 1904. He received commissions throughout the eastern United States, including the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey. The centerpiece of the St John's Chapel motif is found in a mural, "Archbishop Williams presenting the Seminary to St. John the Evangelist, who presents it to Christ". The captivating image of the seminary Founder expresses the overall theological motif that dominates the Chapel's artwork. It is the theme of mediation: Christ, the Apostles, their Successors, the Bishops of the Catholic Church, and the Seven Sacraments, with special attention paid to the sacrament for which the seminary exists, Holy Orders.
The Apostles appear three times in the Chapel. We first find the Twelve on the walls that separate the stained-glass windows (with the addition of Saint William to account for the odd thirteenth panel). These representations are based on the statues of the Apostles that were placed in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, the cathedral church of Rome, at the end of the nineteenth century. Second, the Apostles (with the Blessed Virgin Mary in the middle) appear in the apse mural. This motif recalls the account given of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles. Lastly, the Apostles appear symbolically in the Twenty-Four Elders of the Apocalypse (see Revelation 4:4) who are gathered around the Lamb who was slain. Diocesan priests at once are reminded of the importance of their own Bishop who links them immediately to the Bishop of Rome and of the Eucharistic sacrifice which they enjoy the privilege of celebrating each day for the members of the Church on earth and in Purgatory.
The windows of the apse exhibit in Tiffany glass the coats-of-arms of two Popes of the twentieth century and the first five Bishops of Boston. Each of the seven windows also contains a symbol of one of the seven sacraments. For more than a century, priests trained at Saint John's Seminary have contemplated three mysteries as they returned to the Chapel several times during the course of a day: The Eucharist, the six other Sacraments, especially Holy Orders, and the Apostolic Succession which guarantees the authenticity of these instruments of salvation and of the Gospel that Catholic priests preach. In other words, they pondered their vocations as the privileged ministers of Word and Sacrament. Today about one hundred young men preparing for the priesthood follow this same meditation.
During the renovation that commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the Chapel, the images of the Doctors of the Church located in the apse were restored. They had been removed in the early decades of the twentieth century - so there was no living memory of them, only photographs. Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great watch down from the left, and Saints Thomas Aquinas, Athanasius, and Basil the Great do so from the right. The Doctors of the Church appear frequently in churches built in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth century. The message their images communicated is clear. Authentic instruction about the Christian faith comes from those who are recognized by the Church for sound doctrine. In seminaries, these holy men (and today holy women, including St. Thérèse of Lisieux) serve a special purpose. They remind seminarians that the priest brings a message that is not his own. Rather the priest is charged to announce the Word of God in conformity with the truth of Catholic and divine faith.
It is impossible to overstate the significance that Saint John's Chapel holds in the life of the seminary, of the Church in New England, and also for the City of Boston's architectural heritage. Efforts are underway to designate the Chapel as a national landmark. Your support of the Chapel and the seminarians who daily pray there is much appreciated. Donations for the upkeep of the Chapel and for the renovation of its Hook and Hastings organ will be received gratefully.
