Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/50

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and thoroforo never was a gift or donation from the i-ity, iis lias been said sometimes, either ignoraiitly or even with eoiiseious maliee. The eorner-stone wa.s laul on the aflerncM.n of Sunday, 15 August, IS.OS, by Arelihishop lluglirs, m llie presenee of an asseml)lage estimated at one liundrcd tliousand. The address de- hvered by t he arehl )ishop is reKanl,.,! as (ine of t he most eloquent and mem(iial)lc he ev;T ut lired. The -al her- mg maybeeonsidercdlhelirst pubhc manilr-^tMli.m of that great Calhulie New York which h.'caiii.. Ihr uoii- diTand a(hiiiralion of the ninetci'nlli cnidiry. and it lent inspnation and power to the magic of liis riiiKiiig wurds of joy and triumph.

St. Patriek's Cathedral is the eleventh in size among tile great ehurehes of the world. Its dimensions are as tnllows, the Lady Chapel e.xcluded: E.vterior:— Ex- treme length (with Lady Chapel), 398 feet; extreme breadth, 174 feet; general breadth, 132 feet; towers at base, ._i2 feet: height of towers, 330 feet. Interior:— Length, 370 feet; breadth of nave and choir (e.xclud- ing ehapels), 96 feet; breadth of nave and choir (in- cluding chapels), 120 feet; length of transept, 140 feet • central aisle, 48 feet wide, 112 feet high; side aisles! 24 feet wide, 54 feet high; chapels 18 feet wide, 14 feet high 12 feet deep. The foundations are of verv large blocks of blue gneiss, which were laid in cement mortar up to t he level of the surface. Above the ground-line the hrst base-course is of granite, as is also the first course under all the columns and marble works of the interior. Above this base-course the whole exterior ot the building is of white marble. The cost of the buikiing was about four million dollars. In the origi- nal plan there was an apsidal Lady Chapel, but work on this was not begun until 20 July, 1901, during the admimstration of Archbishop Corrigan. It was fin- ished by Archbishop Farley in 1906. The architect was Charles T. Mathews whose design was thirteenth- century French Gothic. This chapel is 56^.5 feet long by- 28 feet wide and 56 feet high. The building of the Lady Chapel was started by a memorial gift for that purpose from the family "of Eugene Kelly the banker, who died in New York, 19 Dec, 1894 'Eu- gene Kelly was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, 25 Aov., 1808, and emigrated to" New Y'ork in 1834 Ilere he engaged in the drj'goods business, and later ?Ln 'i •"'■'^' ^^°' ■"''lence he went to California in IboO during the gold excitement. As a banker and merchant there, he amassed a considerable fortune the interests of which took him back to New York to live m 1856. He was a trustee of the Cathedral for several terms and indentified with the Catholic charitable educational, and social movements of the city In the crypt of the chapel the deceased archbishops are buried, and the vault of the Kelly family is at the rear 01 the sacristy under the Chapel.

Education— In the cause of Catholic education the Uiocese of ^ew York can claim the proud distinction 01 being the pioneer, the unceasing and uncompromis- ing advocate. In 16S5 the .Jesuit Fathers Harvey and Harrhson began the first Catholic educational institu- tion in the state; the New York Latin School, which stood near the present site of Trinity Church, Wall street and Broadway, and was attended by the sons 01 the mo.st influential colonial families, this school was closed by the fanatical intolerance which followed the Dongan administration in 1638. In 1801 Father Matthew O'Brien, O.P., pastor of St. Peter's church, opened the free school of the parish which has been earned on ever since without interruption. During the hrst five years it was supported entirely by the people of the parish, but in 1806 the legislature of the state, by an act pa.ssed 21 March, placed the school on the same footing as those of other religious denomi- nations in the city; all of them received state support at the time, and Father O'Brien's school received its share of the public money. After St. Patrick's church was commenced, Father Kohlmann, S.J., began the

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New York Literary Institution, the first collegiate school of the diocese, in a house on Mott Street oppo- site the church. It was an immediair succ.-ss and was soon removed to a house on Hnj:idw:i\- iid 'then 111 March, 1812, to a suburban site m (i;,' yi\Wae of Elgin, now Fiftieth Street and Fifth Avenue, the site of St. Patrick s Cathedral. Although well patronized by the best families of the city, the inability of the Jesuit coMiinumty to keep up the teaching staff forced the abandonment of the enl.Tprise in 1815. To sup- ply traclicrs for girl.s, I'ather Kohlmann secured sev- eral Lrsuhne Nuns from Cork, Ireland, who arrived in the city 9 April, 1812. Their convent was located near the Literary Institution, and the Legislature by the Act of 25 March, 1814, incorporated ''The Ursu- li^lvo^vent of the City of New York", by which Christine I- agan, Sarah Walsh, Mary Baldwin and others are incorporated for the purpose of teaching poor children '. After a year, as no other subjects joined their community, and they were not satisfied with the location, which was too remote from the city tor them to receive daily spiritual direction from a chaplain, these nuns gave up the school and returned to Ireland.

lof^}" ^^^u'^^''?L°{?,'^'*°P Connolly to the diocese (24 November, 1815) St. Patrick's parochial school was opened in the basement of the cathedral The Cathohc Almanac" for 1822 relates that "there are in this city two extensive Catholic schools conducted upon a judicious plan and supported partly by the tunds of the State and partly by moneys raised twice a year by the two congregations". The report of the trustees of St. Peter's church to the superintendent of common schools, in 1824, states that the average num- ber of scholars m St. Peter's and St. Patrick's schools Irom their opening had been about 500 each. These two were the pioneer schools of that great Cathohc parochial system of free schools throughout the dio- cese which has been the example and stimulus for Cathohc education all over the United States On 28 June, 1817, three Sisters of Charitv, sent to her native city by Mother Seton, arrived "in New Y'ork from Emmitsburg to take charge of the orphan asylum and school of St. Patrick's church. In 1830 these bisters of Charity took charge of St. Peter's school and opened two academies. In 1816, owing to the con- flict between the French rule of their institute for- bidding the care of boys, and other details of discipline which greatly mterfered with diocesan progress Bishop Hughes received permission to organize an in- dependent community with diocesan autonomy This was established ,S December, 1S40, with the election of Mother Elizabeth Boyle a.s the first superior. The novitiate was oijened at 35 East Broadway, but in 1847 was moved to Fifth Avenue and One Hundred and Fifth Street, where the academy for girls and mother-house of Mount St. Vincent was estabUshed len years later the city took this property for Central Park, and the community moved to the banks of the Hudson, just below Yonkers, where the College of Mount St. Vincent, and the headquarters of the com- munity now are. There are about eighteen hundred of these sisters teaching in more than sixty parish schools and in charge of diocesan institutions.

In 1841 a community of the ReUgious of the Sacred Heart was sent to the diocese by Mother Barat, and established their first school at Houston and Mulberry Streets. A year later this was moved to Astoria, Long Island, and in 1846 to the present site of the convent at Manhattanville, w^here, under the direc- tion, for many years, of the famous Mother Mary Aloysia Hardey, it became, not only a popular educa- tional institution but the centre whence radiated most of the progress made by the Institute throughout the United States. When the first Religious of the Sacred Heart arrived in New York, 31 Julv, 1827, on their way from France to make the first foundation in the