The Basilica of St. John The Baptist in St. John's, Newfoundland is the metropolitan cathedral of the Roman Catholic archbishop of St. John's and the mother church and symbol of Roman Catholics in Newfoundland. Built between 1839-1855, the basilica is located on the highest ridge overlooking the city of St. John’s. The church is not oriented on the liturgically correct east-west axis, but faces toward the narrows that form the entrance to St. John’s harbour.
The Basilica of St. John The Baptist is built in in the form of a Latin cross and in the Lombard Romanesque style of a Roman Basilica. It was designed by the distinguished Irish architect John Philpot Jones of Clonmel, County Tipperary, Ireland, who consulted with James Murphy, a native of Dublin, Ireland on the final plans for the cathedral. Construction was supervised by the stonemason James Purcell of Cork, Ireland.
The Roman Catholic Basilica was the largest building project to its date in Newfoundland history. Construction lasted from the excavation of the ground in May 1839, through the laying of the cornerstone in May 1841, until the consecration on September 9, 1855. At this time, it was the largest church building in all of North America. Construction was initially supervised by Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming , the Bishop of Newfoundland and later by his successor, Bishop John Mullock . The Basilica of St. John The Baptist is unusual among North America's 19th century public buildings in that it was constructed from limestone and granite imported from Galway and Dublin, Ireland. Local sandstone quarried from St. John's was also used, giving the cathedral its characteristic grey colour. During its centenary celebration in 1955, Pope Pius XII raised the cathedral to the rank of Minor Basilica . In 1984 the Basilica was designated a Canadian National Historic Site to recognize its architectural uniqueness as one of the earliest North American examples of the Romanesque revival style, and its central role as the spiritual and cultural home of Newfoundland Roman Catholics. Archbishop Brendan O'Brien is the current archbishop of St. John's.
Architectural features:
- The Basilica is built in the Lombard Romanesque style, based on visual features typically associated with the churches of northern Italy.
- The Basilica is built of grey limestone and white granite quarried in Galway and Dublin, Ireland and grey sandstone from St. John's. The exterior is two hundred and sixty feet (85 m) long and two hundred and twenty feet (65 m) wide; the two towers rise 150 feet (48 m) from street level. The total capacity of the Basilica is around 2,500 people.
- The Altar of Sacrifice, which stands at the front of the Sanctuary, enshrines one of the most revered and valuable pieces of statuary in the Basilica "The Redeemer in Death" or "The Dead Christ", sculpted in Carrara marble by renowned Irish sculptor John Hogan in 1854. Bishop Mullock, on one of his visits to Rome, purchased the statue and had it placed beneath the table of the High Altar on March 19, 1855. The statue is Hogan's greatest masterpiece and is the final of three similar statues created by Hogan in the early 19th century and the only one presently located outside Ireland.
- The East Tower contains nine bells including the largest bell, the St. John Bell, currently in the possession of the Basilica. This two-ton bell was purchased by Bishop Mullock in February, 1850. Struck by James Murphy of Dublin, it was the largest ever cast in Ireland at that time, and won a Gold Medal at the Dublin Exhibition of Irish Manufacturers.
- There are eight bells in the West Tower. The three largest bells were cast by James Murphy in 1854 and 1857. The five smaller bells were cast in 1906 by Matthew O'Byrne of the Fountain Head Bell Foundry in Dublin, Ireland.
- The Basilica contains twenty-eight beautiful stained glass windows which adorn the upper walls and are of Irish, English and French workmanship. All the windows were the gifts of religious societies, such as the Benevolent Irish Society and mainly date back to the 1880's.
- In 1955 a massive pipe organ from the world-renowned Casavant Frères firm in Québec was installed as a memorial to the parishioners who died in World War I and World War II. The 66 stop organ with 4,050 pipes is the largest instrument in Newfoundland.
- When completed in 1855, the Basilica of St. John The Baptist was the largest church building in all of North America.
- The Basilica is one of the few buildings in St. John's to survive The Great Fire of 1892.
Burials
- Buried in the crypt under the High Altar are the Archbishop of St. John's Edward Patrick Roche and Bishops Thomas Scallan, J.T. Mullock, Thomas Joseph Power, and Michael Anthony Fleming.
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