St Thomas's Church 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 lette ...

church in

Keith Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...

, in

Moray Moray () gd, Moireibh or ') is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. It lies in the north-east of the country, with a coastline on the Moray Firth, and borders the council areas of Aberdeenshire and Highland. Between 1975 ...

, Scotland. It is a cruciform building, exhibiting features of neoclassical and

baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

architecture, with an elaborate east-facing facade, and north and south transepts with

stained glass 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 ...

windows. Originally designed by

Walter Lovi Father Walter Lovi (1796 – 1878) was a Roman Catholic priest and architect, active in Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century. He was born in Edinburgh in 1796, the son of a Scottish mother and an Italian father. He studied at Scots College in ...

and William Robertson in the early 1830s, its large copper dome was added in 1916 by

Charles Ménart Charles Jean Ménart (1876 – 7 April 1956) was a Belgian architect who worked in Scotland in the early 20th century and specialised in designing Roman Catholic churches in the Baroque Revival style. Early life He was born in Leuze-en-Hainaut, ...

, who also remodelled the interior. It has been designated a Category A listed building.

Description

St Thomas's is sited in a prominent location on Chapel Street in Keith, facing toward Reidhaven Square, amongst the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings of Keith's new town area. Incorporating elements of neoclassical and

design, it has a

cruciform Cruciform is a term for physical manifestations resembling a common cross or Christian cross. The label can be extended to architectural shapes, biology, art, and design. Cruciform architectural plan Christian churches are commonly described ...

shape, with an elaborate east front, made of polished

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

sandstone, and rubble in flanks and rear. Walker and Woodworth describe St Thomas's as "the grandest and most prominent Catholic church in Moray," and

Charles McKean Charles McKean FRSE FRSA FRHistS FRIBA (16 July 1946 – 29 September 2013) was a Scottish historian, author and scholar. Biography McKean was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 16 July 1946. He was educated at Fettes College, the University of Po ...

describes its facade as "the best in the area."

Exterior

The east front is based on the design of

Santa Maria della Vittoria Santa Maria della Vittoria (''St Mary of the Victory'') is the name of several churches in Italy: *The Basilica of Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome *Santa Maria della Vittoria, Mantua *Santa Maria della Vittoria, Scurcola Marsicana *Nuragic sanctua ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. It has three

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

, separated by

pilasters In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wall ...

, the central one advanced slightly. The side bays, topped with volutes and

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

s, have

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

d central panels which have inset round-topped niches housing statues. The

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

ed entrance is in the central bay. An inscription reads ''Columna et Firmamentum Veritatis''. Behind the east front, where the

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 ...

s meet the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, is a large, octagonally faceted copper dome, with oval windows in each face. The dome is made of concrete, covered with sheets of copper, and is topped with a cross finial. The sides and rear of the church are much simpler than the front. Made of granite rubble, each of the transepts has three round-arched windows at their

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

ends, and there are

lean-to A lean-to is a type of simple structure originally added to an existing building with the rafters "leaning" against another wall. Free-standing lean-to structures are generally used as shelters. One traditional type of lean-to is known by its Finn ...

side aisles with rectangular windows. The western end of the building serves as a presbytery, with two storeys and

bay windows A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. Types Bay window is a generic term for all protruding window constructions, regardless of whether they are curved or angular, or r ...

. The church sits on a relatively restricted plot of land; there is no graveyard, and only a small garden, in which there is a wooden

gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. Etymology The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries (website), Oxford D ...

Interior

The classical Greek cross-form interior is dominated by the central dome, which is painted with a pattern of gold stars on a dark blue background. Regularly spaced Corinthian pilasters and plaster-cast cornices line the walls of the nave and 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 ...

. The nave and transepts are lined with oak pews, and focused on the shallow

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ove ...

at the west end. This contains the high altar, behind which, in a pedimented

aedicule In ancient Roman religion, an ''aedicula'' (plural ''aediculae'') is a small shrine, and in classical architecture refers to a niche covered by a pediment or entablature supported by a pair of columns and typically framing a statue,"aedicula, n." ...

, is a painting of the incredulity of St Thomas by

François Dubois François Dubois ( 1529 – 24 August 1584) was a French Huguenot painter of the Fontainebleau School. Biography Dubois was born around 1529 in Amiens, in the province of Picardy. He was likely related to the anatomist Jacques Dubois. Dubois f ...

. The altar itself is of stone, and has three carved panels depicting the Madonna and Child with angels on either side, below a

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.), ...

. At the east end of the nave, close to the entrance, is a small gallery, housing a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

, which is accessed via a marble-floored vestibule. There is also a chapel dedicated to St John Ogilvie, who was born nearby.

Windows

St Thomas's has a number of

windows. The main window in the north transept gable is a war memorial, dated 1918, depicting 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 ...

. The corresponding window in the south transept, signed by J.H. Mauméjean Frères of Paris, shows Christ the Good Shepherd. Each of these main windows is flanked by two smaller windows, dating to the 1970s, by Dom Ninian Sloane of

Pluscarden Abbey Pluscarden Abbey is a Catholic Benedictine monastery in the glen of the Black Burn, southwest of Elgin, Moray, Scotland. It was founded in 1230 by Alexander II for the Valliscaulian Order. In 1454, following a merger with the priory of Urqu ...

History

The church was designed by

, a Catholic priest and architect, and William Robertson, a well-regarded architect based in Elgin. It was intended to replace the cottage and chapel at Kempcairn that had been used by the local Catholic congregation prior to the 1829 emancipation of Catholics in Scotland. The construction was paid for using money collected by Lovi on a European fund-raising trip, during which Charles X, the King of France, donated the painting by Dubois of St Thomas, which forms the

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

. It was opened for worship on 1 August 1831, but work continued on the building until it was completed in 1832. In 1916, the interior was extensively renovated, and the large dome added, by

. Wood from the

campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...

, which had been in its place originally, was used to build the gazebo currently present in the church's garden. It was designated a

Category B listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1972, and upgraded to Category A in 1988. It underwent repairs and restoration in 1996, carried out by Oliver Humphries partners.

Current usage

The church is still an active place of worship, presided over by its dean, Father Colin Stuart. There are Masses every day except Wednesdays, and confessions are heard on Fridays.

References

External links

Church website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Thomas's Church, Keith Category A listed buildings in Moray Roman Catholic churches in Scotland Listed churches in Scotland Baroque architecture in Scotland Baroque church buildings in the United Kingdom Keith, Moray Neoclassical church buildings in Scotland