St. Francis of Assisi Church (Manhattan)

St. Francis of Assisi Church
St. Francis of Assisi Church
General information
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
Town or city	Garment District, Midtown Manhattan, New York City
Country	United States
Completed	July 17, 1892
Cost	$60,000
Client	Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York
Technical details
Structural system	Masonry brick
Website
	St. Francis of Assisi Church, Manhattan

Last updated February 23, 2019

Coordinates: 40°44′56″N73°59′26″W / 40.74889°N 73.99056°W / 40.74889; -73.99056

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

A parish church in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, often allowing its premises to be used for non-religious community events. The church building reflects this status, and there is considerable variety in the size and style of parish churches. Many villages in Europe have churches that date back to the Middle Ages, but all periods of architecture are represented.

The Roman CatholicArchdiocese of New York is a Latin Catholic archdiocese in New York State. It encompasses the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York City and the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester in New York. The Archdiocese of New York is the second-largest diocese in the United States, encompassing 296 parishes that serve around 2.8 million Catholics in addition to hundreds of Catholic schools, hospitals and charities. The Archdiocese also operates the well-known St. Joseph's Seminary, commonly referred to as Dunwoodie. The Archdiocese of New York is the metropolitan see of the ecclesiastical province of New York which includes the suffragan dioceses of Albany, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Ogdensburg, Rochester, Rockville Centre and Syracuse.

Manhattan, often referred to locally as the City, is the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City and its economic and administrative center, cultural identifier, and historical birthplace. The borough is coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state of New York. The borough consists mostly of Manhattan Island, bounded by the Hudson, East, and Harlem rivers; several small adjacent islands; and Marble Hill, a small neighborhood now on the U.S. mainland, physically connected to the Bronx and separated from the rest of Manhattan by the Harlem River. Manhattan Island is divided into three informally bounded components, each aligned with the borough's long axis: Lower, Midtown, and Upper Manhattan.

Parish history

The parish was established in 1844 by the Reverend Father Zachary Kunze, O.S.F. (now O.F.M.), an immigrant from the Kingdom of Hungary, who had been the founder and first pastor of the nearby German speaking St. John the Baptist Church in 1840. The problems with St. John's Board of Trustees were so great that the parish had been placed under an interdict (which would last until 1845) by the Bishop of New York, the Right Rev. John McCloskey.^[2]^[4]

The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. The Reverend is correctly called a style but is often and in some dictionaries called a title, form of address or title of respect. The style is also sometimes used by leaders in non-Christian religions such as Judaism and Buddhism.

The Franciscans are a group of related mendicant religious orders within the Catholic Church, founded in 1209 by Saint Francis of Assisi. These orders include the Order of Friars Minor, the Order of Saint Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis. They adhere to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of the founder and of his main associates and followers, such as Clare of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, and Elizabeth of Hungary, among many others.

The Kingdom of Hungary between 1526 and 1867, while outside the Holy Roman Empire, was part of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy that became the Empire of Austria in 1804. After the Battle of Mohács of 1526, the country was ruled by two crowned kings. Initially the exact territory under Habsburg rule was disputed because both rulers claimed the whole kingdom. This unsettled period lasted until 1570 when John Sigismund Zápolya abdicated as King of Hungary in Emperor Maximilian II's favor.

Following this disharmony with the lay Board of Trustees there and the subsequent interdict, Kunz requested that McCloskey authorize a new parish. This request was granted and the friar soon acquired a plot of land near his first parish. He resigned from St. John's and, with a significant portion of its congregation, founded the Parish of St. Francis of Assisi. The cornerstone of the new church was laid on May 9 of that same year, in a ceremony presided over by Bishop McCloskey.^[4]

During the 1860s, under the leadership of the Italian missionary and first Minister Provincial of the Order in the United States, Father Pamfilo of Magliano, O.S.F., a school was opened for the children of the parish. It was run by the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, whom he had founded. The parish continued to expand and grow, until, by 1890, it was felt that a larger church was needed. Construction of the new church, designed by Henry Erhardt^[3] in the Gothic Revival style, was completed in 1892 and it continues as the church of the parish.^[4]

A provincial superior is a major superior of a religious institute acting under the institute's Superior General and exercising a general supervision over all the members of that institute in a territorial division of the order called a province—similar to but not to be confused with an ecclesiastical province made up of particular churches or dioceses under the supervision of a Metropolitan Bishop. The division of a religious institute into provinces is generally along geographical lines, and may consist of one or more countries, or of only a part of a country. There may be, however, one or more houses of one province situated within the physical territory of another since the jurisdiction over the individual religious is personal rather than territorial. The title of the office is often abbreviated to Provincial.

Pamfilo of Magliano, O.S.F., was an Italian Franciscan friar, who went to the United States in 1855 to help establish the Order there. He was responsible for the establishment of major institutions of the Order in the Northeastern United States. He founded two religious institutes of Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.

The congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, with its motherhouse at St. Elizabeth's Motherhouse, Allegany, New York, was founded in 1859 by the Very Rev. Father Pamfilo of Magliano, O.F.M.

At the beginning of the following century, however, the neighborhood of the parish experienced a major change, as the working class population moved out, replaced by the people of the growing theater industry. Accompanying them was a large number of nightclubs and brothels. The area, previously known as Bloomingdale, became known as the notorious Tenderloin District. The friars came to realize that they were now serving a largely transient congregation of shoppers, commuters and tourists, and they sought new ways to provide the services which would best answer the spiritual needs of this population. One innovative development was the practice they introduced of the "Nightworkers Mass", held at midnight. This was to allow workers in trades such as printing and the theater to fulfill their religious obligations. Special permission was later given for a midday service to accommodate daytime workers in the area, becoming the first church in the United States to offer this.^[4]

The working class comprises those engaged in waged or salaried labour, especially in manual-labour occupations and industrial work. Working-class occupations include blue-collar jobs, some white-collar jobs, and most pink-collar jobs. Members of the working class rely for their income exclusively upon their earnings from wage labour; thus the category includes almost all of the working population of industrialized economies, as well as those employed in the urban areas of non-industrialized economies or in the rural workforce.

A brothel or bordello is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. Technically, any premises where prostitution commonly takes place qualifies as a brothel. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub parlours, studios, or by some other description. Sex work in a brothel is considered safer than street prostitution.

The Tenderloin was an entertainment and red-light district in the heart of the New York City borough of Manhattan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1928, one of the largest mosaics in the United States, The Glorification of the Mother of Jesus by Rudolph Margreiter, was installed in the church.^[3] Then, when the Great Depression hit in 1929, the friars responded in September 1930 with a breadline to help feed the hungry of the city. The numbers they served daily reached into the thousands during this period. This service is still provided and is the oldest continuously operated breadline in the United States.^[5] and is a noted feature of the parish.^[4]

The church underwent significant renovations in the late 1950s, with a courtyard added in 1958^[3] and new entrances being opened at the north and side ends of the church in 1961. With further changes in the demographics of the region and congregation, the friars began to offer new services for immigrants and those alienated from the Catholic Church. In 1980, the friars established St. Francis Friends of the Poor, intended to provide housing in the neighborhood for the chronically mentally ill. The apartment buildings which they renovated for this purpose are run as the Saint Francis Residences.^[4]^[6]

The church's priest Father Mychal Judge was the chaplain to the New York City Fire Department, and on the morning of September 11, 2001, upon hearing of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center Twin Towers, he rushed downtown to give solace and the last rites of the Catholic Church. While ministering to a victim he was struck by falling debris and was killed instantly. His funeral mass was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral ^{[ citation needed ]} and he is interred in New Jersey.

Gallery

Mosaic
Rear courtyard
Former school
View from the east

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References

↑ The World Almanac 1892 and Book of Facts (New York: Press Publishing, 1892), p. 390.
1 2 Remigius Lafort, S.T.D., Censor, The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg Together with some Supplementary Articles on Religious Communities of Women. . (New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914), p.325.
1 2 3 4 Dunlap, David W. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship . (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.) p. 204.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Church and Friary of St. Francis of Assisi "History"
↑ "Dept. of Kindness: Breadline" by Ian Frazer, The New Yorker , January 20, 2014, (subscription required) cited at Be A Franciscan blog
↑ St. Francis Friends of the Poor "The Story"

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[1] The World Almanac 1892 and Book of Facts (New York: Press Publishing, 1892), p. 390.

[Lafort-2] 1 2 Remigius Lafort, S.T.D., Censor, The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Volume 3: The Province of Baltimore and the Province of New York, Section 1: Comprising the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Brooklyn, Buffalo and Ogdensburg Together with some Supplementary Articles on Religious Communities of Women. . (New York City: The Catholic Editing Company, 1914), p.325.

[dunlap-3] 1 2 3 4 Dunlap, David W. From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship . (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.) p. 204.

[SFA-4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Church and Friary of St. Francis of Assisi "History"

[5] "Dept. of Kindness: Breadline" by Ian Frazer, The New Yorker , January 20, 2014, (subscription required) cited at Be A Franciscan blog

[6] St. Francis Friends of the Poor "The Story"