The Church of the Epiphany is a parish church of the

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York ( la, Archidiœcesis Neo-Eboracensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church ( particularly the Roman Catholic or Latin Church) located in the State of New York. It encompasses the borough ...

, located at 373 Second Avenue at the corner of East 22nd Street, in the

Gramercy Park Gramercy ParkSometimes misspelled as Grammercy () is the name of both a small, fenced-in private park and the surrounding neighborhood that is referred to also as Gramercy, in the New York City borough of Manhattan in New York, United States. T ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It operates a co-educational PreK–8

Catholic school Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syste ...

and

Religious Education In secular usage, religious education is the teaching of a particular religion (although in the United Kingdom the term ''religious instruction'' would refer to the teaching of a particular religion, with ''religious education'' referring to te ...

program.

History

The parish was established in . Its first

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

took place on January 5, the eve of the Epiphany Feast for which the parish was named. The first church building was designed by

Napoleon LeBrun Napoleon Eugene Charles Henry LeBrun (January 2, 1821 – July 9, 1901) was an American architect. He began his career in Philadelphia designing churches and theatres including St. Augustine's Church, the Cathedral-Basilica of Sts. Peter and Pau ...

, constructed in 1869–1870, and dedicated on April 3, 1870. An errant cigarette burned down the building on December 20, 1963. The current church was designed by Belfatto & Pavarini and built in 1965–1967 for $1,200,000 ($ in current dollar terms), on the same site as the previous church. The seating is distributed closely around the main altar, supporting the liturgical reforms of

Vatican II The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the , or , was the 21st ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church. The council met in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome for four periods (or sessions), each lasting between 8 and 1 ...

. The stained glass windows incorporate a

Madonna and Child In art, a Madonna () is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is (archaic). The Madonna and Child type is very prevalent in ...

rescued from the fire. A new, three-manual pipe organ was built by the Delaware Organ Company. In 2000, the ''

AIA Guide to New York City The ''AIA Guide to New York City'' by Norval White, Elliot Willensky, and Fran Leadon is an extensive catalogue with descriptions, critique and photographs of significant and noteworthy architecture throughout the five boroughs of New York City. ...

'' called this church: "the most positive modernist religious statement on Manhattan Island to date." The parochial school was founded in 1888, and currently enrolls over 500 students. Now led by a lay principal and faculty, it was historically staffed by the

Sisters of Charity of New York The Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul of New York, most often known as the Sisters of Charity of New York, is a religious congregation of sisters in the Catholic Church whose primary missions are education and nursing and who are dedicated ...

and the

Congregation of Christian Brothers The Congregation of Christian Brothers ( la, Congregatio Fratrum Christianorum; abbreviated CFC) is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Blessed Edmund Rice. Their first school was opened in Waterford, Ireland, ...

. The original building at 234 East 22nd Street has been joined by 141 East 28th Street (formerly St. Stephen's School) and 152 East 29th Street (Early Childhood Center).The Epiphany School
"Our History"
Accessed October 21, 2019. The current four-story brick rectory was built at 239 East 21st Street in 1936–1937, designed by Robert J. Reiley.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Epiphany Church (New York City) Roman Catholic churches in Manhattan Roman Catholic churches completed in 1967 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Modernist architecture in New York City Religious organizations established in 1868 1868 establishments in New York (state) Building fires in New York City Burned religious buildings and structures in the United States School buildings completed in 1888 Roman Catholic elementary schools in Manhattan Catholic K–8 schools in the United States Sisters of Charity schools Congregation of Christian Brothers schools in the United States Private schools in Manhattan Gramercy Park

History

References

Further reading

External links