St. Benedict the Moor Church was a Black Catholic parish church in the Archdiocese of New York, located at 342 West

53rd Street 53rd Street is a Midtown Manhattan, midtown cross street in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan, that runs adjacent to buildings such as the Citigroup Center, Citigroup building. It is 1.83 miles (2.94 km) ...

, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan (Clinton), New York City. The property was sold to a developer in 2023. __toc__

Parish

In 1883 a Black Catholic mission parish named after St.

Benedict the Moor Benedict the Moor ( it, Benedetto da San Fratello; 1526 – 4 April 1589) was a Sicilian Franciscan friar who is venerated as a saint in the Catholic church. Born of enslaved Africans in San Fratello, he was freed at birth and became known for ...

was established, based on a $5,000 bequest by Fr Thomas Farrell to serve the African-American community in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

; his will and testament specified that if the Catholic Church was unable to spend funds for this purpose, it would instead go to the Protestant Colored Orphan Asylum. It was the first church in the city for black Catholics

David W. Dunlap David W. Dunlap (born 1952) is an American journalist who worked as a reporter for ''The New York Times''. He wrote a regular column, Building Blocks, that looked at the New York metropolitan area through its architecture, infrastructure, spaces, a ...

,
From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan's Houses of Worship
'. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.) p. 219. and the first north of the Mason–Dixon line."St. Benedict the Moor Church"
NYC AGO, accessed 21 March 2015 In 1892, the parish took over the former Third Universalist Church at 210

Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was ...

, at a time when many African Americans lived in southern Manhattan. It renamed that church for its parish. Upon leaving the church on Bleecker Street, the building became occupied by Our Lady of Pompeii Church. Fr Augustus Tolton, the first openly-Black Catholic priest in the United States, celebrated his first Mass in America at this parish in 1886. A little over a decade later, the first openly-Black Catholic seminarian, William Augustine Williams (who entered seminary in Rome in 1853 and departed in 1862), became the parish

sacristan A sacristan is an officer charged with care of the sacristy, the church, and their contents. In ancient times, many duties of the sacrist were performed by the doorkeepers ( ostiarii), and later by the treasurers and mansionarii. The Decretals ...

. As the black population moved north, in 1898 the parish took over the former Second German Church of the Evangelical Association at 342 W. 53rd Street in Hell's Kitchen, renaming it as St. Benedict the Moor Church. More change came by the end of the next two decades. In the 1920s, many of the parishioners moved with other African Americans to Harlem, which became a center of African-American life. (King1893NYC)_pg402_CHURCH_OF_ST

After 1953, the church was staffed by Spanish friars of the Third Order of Saint Francis and was rededicated in 1954. The parish was later reduced to mission status, and is maintained by members of the new Lumen Christi congregation. Although recommended for closure during an initial review, the Archdiocese announced on January 19, 2007, that the church would retain its parish status. On June 30, 2017, the church was

deconsecrate Deconsecration, also called secularization, is the act of removing a religious blessing from something that had been previously consecrated by a minister or priest of that religion. The practice is usually performed on churches or synagogues to b ...

d. Dolan, Timothy Michael (June 30, 2017
"Decree on the Relegation of the Church of Saint Benedict the Moor in the Parish of Sacred Heart of Jesus–Saint Benedict the Moor, New York"
Office of the Cardinal, Archdiocese of New York It was sold to a developer in 2023.

Buildings

The

Italianate-style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

red brick pedimented church was built in 1869, designed by R.C. McLane & Sons for the Second German Church of the Evangelical Association. A three-storey

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically ow ...

at 338–342 West 53rd Street was built in 1965 to the designs of

Joseph Mitchell Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...

, of 355 West

54th Street 54th Street is a two-mile-long (3.2 km), one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan. Notable places, west to east Twelfth Avenue *The route begins at Twelfth Avenue (New York Route 9A). Opposite the intersection is the New ...

, for $220,000. That rectory reused the statue of the Virgin Mary with outstretched arms from the church.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Benedict the Moor Church, New York City Italianate architecture in New York City Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan Roman Catholic churches completed in 1890 Religious organizations disestablished in 2017 2017 disestablishments in New York (state) African-American Roman Catholic churches Closed churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Former Roman Catholic church buildings in New York City African-American history in New York City 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Italianate church buildings in the United States