The Blue Chapel, officially consecrated as the Chapel of Most Holy Mary, Mother of Sorrows is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

memorial

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

located in

Keating Hall Keating Hall is a building located at Fordham University in the Bronx, New York City. Constructed in 1936, it is considered the "centerpiece" of the university's main Rose Hill campus, and is the home to the university's Graduate School of Arts ...

on the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University in

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, New York City. It originally opened in 1937 upon the completion of Keating Hall. The chapel went through two different renovations: One in 1980, in which several of the chapel's original architectural features were masked or removed, and another in 2007, in which it was restored to its original state. Its prominent

stained glass window Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

faces outward from the

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a loan word from the French (), which means ' frontage' or ' face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect ...

of Keating Hall overlooking Edwards Parade.

Construction and use

The Blue Chapel was constructed in 1937 on the third floor of

, which had been completed the year prior. The chapel was dedicated to

Our Lady of Sorrows Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...

by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Colkin, in memorial of their daughter, Dolores Colkin, who died June 16, 1937 at age thirty one. The first

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

mass was held in the chapel on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

1937. From the 1940s to at least the late 1960s, the university broadcast

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 eleme ...

services from the Blue Chapel each morning at 9:45am on

WFUV WFUV (90.7 FM) is a non–commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York. The station is owned by Fordham University, with studios on its Bronx campus and its antenna atop nearby Montefiore Medical Center. WFUV first went on the air i ...

Architectural features

The chapel was designed with faux stone walls and a faux brick ceiling. The chapel features a

in multiple shades of blue, with depictions of Jesus,

Mary, mother of Jesus Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...

, and several saints. The altarpiece in the chapel is made of hand-hammered

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

steel and draped with a blue

damask Damask (; ar, دمشق) is a reversible patterned fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin ...

fabric. The chapel's stained glass-window is situated in the center of the

of Keating Hall, and is illuminated from within during the evenings.

Restoration

In the 1980s, the chapel was renovated to conceal damage it had sustained to its walls and ceiling. Instead of repairing the damage, the university used

wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so ...

to cover the chapel's faux brick walls, and a suspended ceiling was installed with white acoustic panels; additionally, the original altarpiece was replaced with a

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

icon of Christ. In 2007, the university began restoration of the chapel to its original state; the original steel altarpiece, which had been in storage since the 1980s, was returned to the chapel, and the suspended ceiling and wallpaper were removed, exposing the original faux brick. The crucifix on the original altarpiece had been missing, and the university replaced it with a crucifix recast from unused candlestick holders from the original 1937 chapel.

Gallery

Image:Blue Chapel window.jpg, Window of Blue Chapel. Image:Mary Magdalene window, Blue Chapel.jpg, Detail of Mary Magdalene pane. Image:Crucifix detail, Blue Chapel - Fordham University.jpg, Restored crucifix at altar. Image:Stations of the Cross, Blue Chapel (Fordham).jpg, Stations of the Cross in the chapel.

Notes and references

;Footnotes

Notes

References

* *

External links

Campus worship spaces
at Fordham.edu
Blue Chapel
virtual tour at YouVisit {{Portal bar, New York City, Catholicism 1937 establishments in New York City Buildings at Fordham University Christian organizations established in 1937 Roman Catholic churches in the Bronx Roman Catholic chapels in the United States