St Mary of the Angels is a Catholic church on the corner of Boulcott Street and O'Reily Avenue in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand. It is the parish church for Wellington Central and one of the major churches of the city. The

Marist Fathers The Society of Mary ( la, Societas Mariae) abbreviated SM, commonly known as the Marist Fathers, is a men's Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right. It was founded by Jean-Claude Colin and a group of seminarians in ...

have provided clergy for St Mary of the Angels since 1874 in succession to its founding and long-serving parish priest, the Capuchin Franciscan, Father Jeremiah O'Reily. The church was used by Archbishop O'Shea as his

pro-cathedral A pro-cathedral or procathedral is a parish church that temporarily serves as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese, or a church that has the same function in a Catholic missionary jurisdiction (such as an apostolic prefecture or apostoli ...

(1936–1954). It was the site of the funeral of

Suzanne Aubert Suzanne Aubert (19 June 1835 – 1 October 1926), better known to many by her cleric name Sister Mary Joseph or Mother Aubert, was a Catholic sister who started a home for orphans and the under-privileged in Jerusalem, New Zealand on the Whangan ...

in 1926 and is well known for its church music tradition.

History

The first Catholic Church built on the site of St Mary of the Angels was a small chapel ("the chapel of the Nativity") built by Father O'Riley in 1843. It was blessed and dedicated by

Bishop Pompallier Jean-Baptiste François Pompallier (11 December 1801 – 21 December 1871) was the first Roman Catholic bishop in New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two m ...

on a visit to Wellington in the next year. This building was gradually enlarged and was completely replaced by a large wooden church in 1874. Fr O'Riley named this building "St Mary of the Angels" after the Portincula chapel which was precious to St Francis of Assisi. This church was extended until it was badly damaged by fire in 1918 and then demolished. The present building was opened and blessed on 26 March 1922 by

Francis Redwood Francis William Mary Redwood SM (6 April 1839 – 3 January 1935), was the first Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wellington, Metropolitan of New Zealand. Life Redwood was born on 8 April 1839 on the Tixall estate, Staffordshire, England, a k ...

and a solemn pontifical Mass was celebrated by

James Michael Liston James Michael Liston (9 June 1881 – 8 July 1976) was the 7th Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand. Early life James Michael Liston (registered at birth as Michael James Liston) was born in Dunedin on 9 June 1881, one of a family ...

. A sermon was preached in the evening by Bishop Whyte of Dunedin.

Architecture and features

St Mary of the Angels, Wellington, New Zealand

The building is classified as a Category I ("places of 'special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value'") historic place (being opened in 1922 with uninterrupted church use of the Boulcott Street site from 1843) by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust) ( mi, Pouhere Taonga) is a Crown entity with a membership of around 20,000 people that advocate ...

. Plans for the church were prepared by architect

Frederick de Jersey Clere Frederick de Jersey Clere (7 January 1856 – 13 August 1952) was an architect in Wellington, New Zealand. Biography He was born in Walsden, near Todmorden, Lancashire and trained as an architect before emigrating to New Zealand with his family ...

in 1919. Architecturally, the design is traditional Gothic of French influence. The front facade was said to have been modelled on that of the

Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula nl, Kathedraal van Sint-Michiel en Sint-Goedele , native_name_lang = , image = Saints-Michel-et-Gudule Luc Viatour.jpg , imagesize = 200px , imagelink = , imagealt = , landscape ...

in Brussels. The structure is reinforced concrete and brick with a timber roof supported by concrete arches with steel tie rods. Its construction was innovative in that it was 'the first occasion ferro-concrete was used for a church of Gothic design'. The church is noted for its collection of stained glass windows, especially in a continuous series completely around the

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

interrupted by the

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' w ...

above the

narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of early Christian and Byzantine basilicas and churches consisting of the entrance or lobby area, located at the west end of the nave, opposite the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex ...

, a window of the

crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

above the high altar and two spacious banks of 15 windows, one finishing the north

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...

( fifteen decades of the Rosary) and one finishing the south transept ( the life of St Joseph). These windows flood the liturgical spaces of the church with light. The church also houses an extensive collection of statuary, including a reduced, marble, copy of

Michelangelo's Moses ''Moses'' ( it, Mosè ; c. 1513–1515) is a sculpture by the Italian High Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti, housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome. Commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II for his tomb, it depicts the bi ...

and life-sized representations of the

Pietà The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. It is most often found in sculpture. The Pietà is a specific form o ...

and the

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the fir ...

. In the transepts, the Our lady and St Joseph side altars are of brown-mottled marble and include prominent statues of

Our Lady of the Rosary Our Lady of the Rosary, also known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, is a Marian title. The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, formerly known as Feast of Our Lady of Victory and Feast of the Holy Rosary is celebrated on 7 October in the General Roma ...

(in Dominican habit with blue veil) and Saint Joseph, with votive candle racks in front of each of them. Other large statues in various parts of the church include the

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus ( la, Cor Jesu Sacratissimum) is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devo ...

St Vincent de Paul Vincent de Paul, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660), commonly known as Saint Vincent de Paul, was a Occitan French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. In 1622 Vincent was appointed a chaplain to the galleys. After ...

, St Marcellin Champagnat and St Peter Chanel. The

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

marble

high altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paganis ...

and

tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle ( he, מִשְׁכַּן, mīškān, residence, dwelling place), also known as the Tent of the Congregation ( he, link=no, אֹהֶל מוֹעֵד, ’ōhel mō‘ēḏ, also Tent of Meeting, etc.), ...

, in front of a blue backing, includes a sculpted,

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

with statues. The altar was detached from the reredos and moved forward in the 1960s in the implementation of the liturgical reforms of the

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

(the celebration of the

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 ...

facing the congregation). This altar is fronted by a carved,

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

set under an incised arch along its width. The ornate columns in the sanctuary are topped by marble statues of angels.

Suzanne Aubert

The church is particularly revered as the site of the funeral of

Mother Aubert Suzanne Aubert (19 June 1835 – 1 October 1926), better known to many by her cleric name Sister Mary Joseph or Mother Aubert, was a Catholic sister who started a home for orphans and the under-privileged in Jerusalem, New Zealand on the Whangan ...

whose cause for canonisation as a saint is proceeding. The funeral was held on 4 October 1926. Jessie Munro, ''The Story of Suzanne Aubert'', Auckland University Press, 1996, p. 393 It was the largest funeral held for a woman in New Zealand.Andrea O'Neill, "Suzanne Aubert's funeral brings Wellington to a standstill – 150 years of news", ''The Dominion Post'', 21 July 2015
(retrieved 3 April 2018) The church was packed for the solemn pontifical requiem mass, celebrated by Archbishop Redwood and other clergy, and vast crowds gathered along the funeral route to the church and from the church to

Karori Cemetery Karori Cemetery is New Zealand's second largest cemetery, located in the Wellington suburb of Karori. History Karori Cemetery opened in 1891 to address overcrowding at Bolton Street Cemetery. In 1909, it received New Zealand's first cremato ...

to see the passing of the cortege of the 91 year old. One passerby asked "What religion was this woman?". A workman leaning on his shovel by the roadside answered: "That is a question she would never have asked you or me!".

Music

St Mary of the Angels is renowned for its

Gregorian Chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe durin ...

which began in 1905. With the opening of the present church in 1922, a choir of 70 voices sang Mass under the direction of Edward Healy. This was continued and strengthened by

Maxwell Fernie Arnott Maxwell Fernie (25 April 191022 May 1999) was a New Zealand organist, teacher and conductor. He was an authority on Gregorian chant, sixteenth century polyphony, organ construction and tonal design. Life Fernie was born in Wellington on ...

for 40 years from 1958 until his death in 1999 and continues under his successor and former student, Robert Oliver. The organ of the church is a unique instrument, originally built in 1958 by George Croft and Son Limited from Auckland, but extensively redesigned in 1984 to Max Fernie's specifications.

Strengthening

The church was closed following the July

2013 Seddon earthquake The 2013 Seddon earthquake measured 6.5 on the scale and was centred in New Zealand's Cook Strait, around east of the town of Seddon in Marlborough. The earthquake struck at 5:09:30 pm on Sunday 21 July 2013 (05:09 UTC) at a depth of , ...

and the August

2013 Lake Grassmere earthquake The 2013 Lake Grassmere earthquake was a magnitude 6.6 earthquake that occurred at 2:31:05 pm (NZST) on Friday 16 August 2013. The epicentre was located about 10 km south-east of Seddon, under Lake Grassmere, with a focal depth of 8 ...

sequence for structural strengthening. The church had been assessed as being between 15%–20% of the standard a new building would be built to. In New Zealand, buildings assessed as below 33% of standard are considered "earthquake prone" and strengthening is required or a compulsory demolition can be ordered. The church re-opened in April 2017 after earthquake strengthening to 100% of code, costing $9.5 million, collected in a well-supported public fund-raising campaign. The look of the interior was largely unchanged except for the

shear wall In structural engineering, a shear wall is a vertical element of a system that is designed to resist in-plane lateral forces, typically wind and seismic loads. In many jurisdictions, the International Building Code and International Residential Co ...

s built in two locations on each side of the church near the entrance, and beside the

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred place, such as a shrine. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This secondary use can be categorized into human sanctuary, a saf ...

. All the ornate columns supporting the roof, the foundations and the copper and slate roof were replaced. Certain clerestory stained glass windows were obstructed from view on the outside of the church by the new shear walls but inside were unchanged, with the images illuminated as through the other windows, by means of artificial lighting. The effect of the seismic strengthening was generally perceived to be a restoration rather than a reconstruction, although the latter was the true situation. The project was undertaken by Clendon Burns & Park as the engineer and LT McGuinness as the construction company and was awarded a heritage restoration award in the 2018 New Zealand Heritage Project Awards.

Notes

References

* *

External links

''St Mary of the Angels''
(Retrieved 21 December 2014)
History of "St Mary of the Angels," ''St Mary of the Angel's Parish''
(retrieved 5 April 2018)
Wellington City Council, St Mary Of The Angels
(retrieved 17 April 2018) {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary Of The Angels (Wellington) Roman Catholic churches in Wellington City Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Wellington Region Gothic Revival church buildings in New Zealand Frederick de Jersey Clere church buildings Listed churches in New Zealand 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in New Zealand Buildings and structures in Wellington City