Kai and I have met with and spoken to the Director of Development of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. We have discussed how we will set up our book for people to write their reasons for worship at St. Patrick’s Cathedral stories in. We were also given a private tour of the cathedral and learned even more about its history. We were shown pictures of the cathedral from 1903 and 1940. We also saw drawings of what the church looked like back in the 1800’s when it was being built. The Director also showed us the back rooms of the church where the priest puts on his vestments. He showed us where all the past archbishops of New York are buried and told us some about the design of the church. He discussed how part of the church incorporate the Art Deco trend of Art Nouveau which was big at the time in the 1930’s, when that part of the church was built. He also discussed how the inside of the church is painted white to match the white stone on the outside. Apparently, this was very important to the architect. We learned about the Galeros, which are red hats of the cardinals, that hang from the ceiling. It is an old tradition that when a cardinal’s Galero falls to the ground, that means he has officially ascended into heaven. This tradition is not popular anymore, and the Galeros at the cathedral are hung with wire, so they will not fall down. We learned about the 3 organs they have, the giant brass doors that were carved with clay originally by hand, and the stained glass windows that were added in the 1940’s. We plan to have the book made over the weekend that way we can go down to the church and have people begin signing it.

Project Proposal by Olivia and Kai

Project Proposal

For our Collective Memory final project, we have decided to focus on St. Patrick’s Cathedral. After researching the history of the Cathedral, we learned that it has been in New York since the 1800s and was restored multiple times, including currently. Many famous people, including Andy Warhol and Babe Ruth, had requiem masses held for them there. Looking at this information, we were inspired by the Cathedral’s history and its surrounding changes over time.

Upon further investigation, we found a video interview with an elderly woman who talked about her personal memory of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. She said for 40 days, every day she went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral to pray for the man she was in love with to ask her out on a date. After the 40 days, she attended a Christmas Party the man also showed up and ended up proposing to her. They have been happily married since. This personal story inspired us to settle on our final decision to collect prayer intentions of individuals who visit the Cathedral. Why are they there? What are they praying for? Has their prayer been answered? There are five and a half million people who visit the Cathedral from over the world each year. To collect some of their diverse encounters, memories, and intentions relating to the Cathedral in our book will be the ultimate goal. We will acquire bookbinding techniques to design the book, containing these testimonies.

We paid a visit to the Cathedral, made observations and have communicated our intention of leaving our prayer intentions book within the Cathedral. Having spoken to multiple people in the parish office, including one of the priests at the church, we are awaiting a response email from the Rector of the Cathedral. After we receive permission to put our book in the Cathedrals, we will proceed to the making of the book.