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The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, officially the Cathedral Church of Saint John: The Great Divine in the City and Diocese of New York, is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is located in New York City on Amsterdam Avenue between West 110th Street and 113th Street in Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood. The cathedral is the largest Anglican cathedral and church and also the fourth largest Christian church in the world. The interior covers 121,000 sq ft, spanning a length of 601 ft and height 232 ft.
The cathedral, designed in 1888 and begun in 1892, has undergone radical stylistic changes and the interruption of the two World Wars. Originally designed in the Byzantine Revival-Romanesque Revival styles, the plan was changed after 1909 to a Gothic Revival design. After a large fire on December 18, 2001, it was closed for repairs and reopened in November 2008. It remains unfinished, with construction and restoration a continuing process. As a result, it is often nicknamed St. John the Unfinished.
The Great West Doors
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The Great West Doors on Amsterdam Avenue were designed between 1927 and 1931 by Henry Wilson and were installed in 1936.The doors contain a sequence of 48 relief panels that present scenes from the Old and New Testaments and the Apocalypse. In his lifetime, Henry Wilson only produced four sets of bronze doors, St Mary's Church, Nottingham, the chapel at Welbeck Abbey, the Salada Tea Company in Boston and these for the cathedral.
These were the last of these four commissions, and are on a monumental scale, measuring some 18 ft by 12 ft.
They came at the end of Henry Wilson's life and are the crowning glory of his career. He died a short while later in Menton, France, in 1934.
Narthex
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The 50 ft. narthex is the the first view of the interior of the church and the back of the 3 ton Great West Doors which are opened only twice a year: on Easter and in October for the Feast of St. Francis.
Nave
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The nave ceiling reaches 124 feet high and is the longest Gothic nave in the United States, at 230 feet. At the west end of the nave, installed by stained glass artist Charles Connick and constructed out of 10,000 pieces of glass, is the largest rose window in the U.S.
On permanent loan from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the 15th-century German choir stalls separate the Narthex from the Nave, demarcating the entrance from the body of the Cathedral with their warm, wooden hues and elegantly carved details. The Nave floor,
known as the Pilgrim’s Pavement, includes
bronze medallions, representing pilgrimage sites throughout the world.
Phoenix: Xu Bing at the Cathedral
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Over the course of two years, pioneering Chinese contemporary artist Xu Bing collected fragments of dead and decomposing organisms from construction sites across the rapidly changing urban landscape of Beijing, and transformed it into his most monumental project to date: Phoenix (2008-10). A feat of engineering and ingenuity, Phoenix is composed of two birds, a male called Feng and a female called Huang. Feng and Huang—together weighing 12 tons and measuring 90 and 100 feet long, respectively—are now on view at the Cathedral. They hang suspended in the Nave, two majestic birds in perpetual flight beneath its celestial ceiling.
The Firemen Memorial
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The Firemen Memorial was sculpted by Ralph Feldman, a New York City firefighter, and is composed of the remains from various fire sites. The memorial was dedicated to all firefighters in 1976, and gained new resonance in the wake of September 11. It is on view in the Labor Bay.
Crossing and Low Altar
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The shallow dome that covers the
Crossing was erected as a temporary roof
by Rafael Guastavino in 1909 and took
only 15 weeks to complete. The Statue of
Liberty — without her pedestal — would fit comfortably under the structure. On either side of the crossing hang the cathedral’s Barberini Tapestries, depicting scenes from the life of Christ, created in the 17th century on the Papal Looms in Rome.
The Great Choir and Organ
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The Great Organ was built by the renowned organ builder E.M. Skinner in 1906 as the firm's Opus 150. It is the largest of five organs in the cathedral complex. The 8,500 pipes of the Great Organ surround the Cathedral’s choir stalls, which feature sculptures of musicians and composers of sacred music. The organ pipes range from the size of a
pencil to 32 feet tall. The official emblem of the Worldwide Anglican Communion, The Compass Rose, is set into the pavement center of the Great Choir. It was designed by Cathedral Canon Edward N. West, whose ashes lie below the design of variegated marble and brass. The text surrounding the central cross is in Greek, and translates as: “The truth will set you free.”
High Altar
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The High Altar is considered to be the holiest part of the church and is traditionally found in the eastern end of the building, closest to the rising sun, a symbol of renewal and resurrection. References to Saint John the Divine, the Cathedral’s namesake, are infused into the building. John is credited as the author of the Book of Revelation, relating his vision of the end of the world. The number seven is the most prominent symbol in Revelation. John’s symbol, the seven stars or candles, is echoed in the seven lamps above the High Altar. The granite columns that surround the High Altar were quarried on the island of Vinalhaven, Maine. Each is 55 feet tall, 6 feet in diameter, and weighs 130 tons.
Ambulatory and the Chapels of the Tongues
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The ambulatory is the passage way around the east end of the cathedral, behind the high altar. Radiating from the ambulatory are The Chapels of the Tongues . They are surrounding the High Altar and dedicated to seven immigrant groups that settled in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their architectural styles range from Norman to High
Renaissance. From north to south: Scandinavia, Germany, the British Isles, Eastern Europe and Asia, France, Italy, and Spain.
Chapel of Saint Columba
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Within the Chapel of Saint Columba (patron of Ireland and Scotland) lies the The Life of Christ (1990), a bronze and white-gold triptych altarpiece. It is among the last works of noted New York City artist Keith Haring (1958-1990), completed just weeks before his death from AIDS. True to Haring's inimitable and exuberant style, the altarpiece is crowded with angels and human figures, whose outstretched limbs lead the eye to the central figure of Christ. The altarpiece is a gift of the Estate of Keith Haring.
Chapel of Saint Boniface
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Within the Chapel of Saint Boniface (apostle to the Germans) hangs the work of writer, artist and activist Robin Berson. His quilts memorialize the workers who were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and their modern-day counterparts in Bangladesh. Created with the support of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, a national alliance of organizations and individuals formed to commemorate the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, these evocative quilts honor the lives of garment workers, and provide a entry into discussions of current and historic labor rights issues, encouraging activism by and for workers around the world.
Chapel of Saint James
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The Chapel of St. James, named after St. James the Apostle, the patron saint of Spain, highlights the contributions of Spain to the Christian tradition. Originally named Potter Chapel, it was the gift of Elizabeth Scriven Potter in memory of her husband, Henry Codman Potter, seventh Bishop of New York, whose tomb and recumbent effigy are housed in the chapel. The chapel was designed by Henry Vaughan, who also built the chapels of St. Ansgar and of St. Boniface in the cathedral. Vaughan was also the original architect of Washington National Cathedral.
Chapel of Saint Ansgar
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The Chapel of Saint Ansgar (patron of Denmark and is venerated as an apostle to the Scandinavian countries) is located near the Columbarium and Baptistery of the Cathedral. The chapel is dedicated to those of Scandinavian descent, and is named after the ninth century archbishop Ansgar, a Frenchman who made many missionary tours to Denmark and Sweden. Built in 1918, the chapel was designed by Henry Vaughan in the fourteenth century English Gothic style.
Baptistry
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The baptistry is located to the left of the altar in an exquisite octagonal chapel with a 15-foot-high marble font and a polychrome sculpted frieze commemorating New York's Dutch heritage. The Baptistry was given by descendants of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch Director General of the New Netherlands, today New York. Sculpted windmills and tulips symbolize its Dutch heritage.
The Peace Fountain
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Back at Amsterdam Avenue and south of the Cathedral's tower, the Peace Fountain depicts the struggle of good and evil. The forces of good, embodied in the figure of the archangel Michael, triumph by decapitating Satan, whose head hangs from one side. The fountain is encircled by small, whimsical animal figures cast in bronze from pieces sculpted by children.
