Church of St. Joseph, Highgate; Provincial Chapter; Proper size of cells
and corridors.
The Church of St. Joseph's Retreat, Highgate began to grow up gradually in the beginning this year. The idea of a mere temporary Church was put aside and something of larger dimensions and more permanent material was to be erected. To the present day, it is scarcely known who was the Architect.Some think that if he lives, he is ashamed of himself and some that if he died it would be a poor monument to his memory.
There was a difference of opinion amongst our people on matters of taste-as there ought to be - and architecture could not escape having its votaries and enemies. Pugin's 'Contrasts' and prestige revived the mediaeval tendencies of our ancestors only to have them sadly travestied.
Gothic architecture is supposed to have originated from the primaeval forests in which Woden and Thor had their consecrated groves. The arches made by tree branches have suggested the pointer style in the notions of many. The other orders of Architecture have spring from cultivated nations. We speak of the Byzantine and other Eastern styles as curiosities; but the fine Greek orders have always claimed a special reverence. The old edifices of the north of Europe, from the discovery of the keystone, partook of the gloom of the forest and the majesty of its proportions were shown in the pillars and arches.
Some of the Fathers went in for gothic, as the national style and pointed at Sir Christopher Wren's parish churches in London in order to deter his companions from the classic. Others loved the portico, the peristyle and the architrave and quoted continental glories in support of their side of the question. Thus might the matter have continued even to the present day did not some good or evil genius inspire the Provincial to start a church that had no style whatever. Four walls began to rise from the earth of the most hideous and colourless kind of brick. We clapped our hands when we saw signs of a cornice; and a corbel - a real genuine corbel- seemed a thing to dine on and rejoice over. No, Highgate Church can bear the palm in plainness and baldness from all the conventicles in the metropolis and if any one feels inclined to dispute this, after a cursory glance, let him remember that the half of it is now hidden from view by the new monastery.
Strangely enough, this uncouth buildings is the most beautiful to look at in London, inside. It has always been tastefully decorated and the money spent upon carving gargoyles may be more profitably employed in decorating the sanctuary with frescoes or paintings.
We are going ahead of our story. Well, we saw its first stone laid and said our first Mass on its altar and spent many happy years in its various services.
Needing the superfluous adjectives from the newspaper reports of the time, we may say, on their authority and our own , that the cornerstone of St. Joseph's Church, Highgate, was laid on the 29th May, 1860. On the same day in 1660, just two hundred years before happened the Restoration, when the power of the roundheads ceased to rule and monarchy was again installed in England. Dr. Morris, the Bishop of Troy, was the officiant and he was surrounded by a goodly number of the priests of Westminster and the Passionist Fathers from the various houses as well as the members of the community at Highgate. Of the 30 ecclesiastics whose names appear in the report of that day, 18 survive - a good proportion in 21 years.
Father Anderdon, S.J., who was then attached to the Catholic University of Ireland, preached the sermon.
In the circular letter which convoked the Provincial Chapter this year, we meet a very significant observation. The General could not come to preside and was obliged to put off some of the Chapters in Italy because of the disturbances which were taking place there. Strange phenomenon! In Italy the stronghold of Catholicity, the centre of christianity, churches were about to be profaned, the stones of many sanctuaries to be scattered, and in England, Ireland and the United States, our poor Italian Fathers were building churches and monasteries, where their spiritual children, who had learned their traditions would live to spread the knowledge of the Cross.
The Chapter was held in St. Anne's, Sutton. In consequence of some informalities in the beginning of the appointments of Superiors, this chapter is called the Second.
This Chapter was distinguished by two curious traits - all the Superiors were re-elected and no decrees were made. It was concluded on 5th June.
It was discovered that the size of the cells and the breadth of the corridors in the new house in Dublin were not conformable to the dimensions laid down in the Holy Rule and a requisition was sent to Home on the subject. It was declared authoritatively that the rooms may be 11 feet 1 in. each way and the corridor 7 feet 5 inches wide. The 12 or 8 palms in the translation were understood to be 15 and 10 di passetto Romano, or what has been said
above in English measure. As some of the rooms in Dublin were not conformable and the works being considerably advanced, it was considered better to sanction them.
Retreats were given this year in Ferns - Newry - Dublin - Dalkey - Dundalk - Armagh - Dublin George's Hill. Missions in Westland Row, Dublin - Sutton, Lancashire - Ashton-under-Lyme - Kilmarnock.