The recent funeral of a friend's father was held in Roman Catholic St. Joseph Co-Cathedral, a Romanesque-style church, which was constructed in 1923. Since St. Joseph is a place of note in tourist information, I decided to take pictures after the service and post a few of them. It's a grand church which was renovated just a few years ago. The parish is quite old, dating from 1817, when it began as a mission church, and the present building is the third church structure.
When the Roman Catholic Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux was split off from the Archdiocese of New Orleans in 1977, St. Francis de Sales Church in Houma, Louisiana, was chosen as the cathedral church. The word-of-mouth back story is that the pastor and certain parishioners of St. Joseph were upset that their church was not chosen as the cathedral, because it was the oldest parish in the new diocese. The powers then decided to make St. Joseph a co-cathedral to appease the folks at the church.
Pictured above is one of two large stained glass windows at either end of the transept of the church. The stained glass in the church is beautiful. In a quick search, I couldn't find information about the history of the glassworks in the church, who designed them or who did the work.
Pictured above are the ceiling
Unfortunately, the colors in the rose window don't show at all in this picture. According to Monsignor Barbier, the pastor at the time the present building was constructed, the window was modeled after the rose window in Notre Dame de Paris.
And last is St. Valerie's bier, which I always found creepy, as the poor dear seems to be writhing on her bed. When my children were young, the bier stood in one of the side aisles, and they were a bit spooked by it when they had to pass it on the way to a pew. The case holds a relic of St. Valerie. The bier now stands against a wall, a more appropriate position, surely.
Information for the post was taken, in part, from this history of St. Joseph Co-Cathedral
Picture at the head of the post from Yelp. More pictures here.
There's a bit more detail on your saint and Thibodaux on Wiki. Interesting church. Elaborate plasterwork.
ReplyDeleteSo the ceiling is plasterwork? I'll make a correction.
ReplyDeleteSplendid old church. You're right about the ceiling mural. The ceiling itself is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteJust a guess, but the windows might be from a local firm in New Orleans, or just as likely, from St. Louis; lots of stained glass works there at one time.
Lovely church! You take great pictures of it to, it really gives me a feel of the place.
ReplyDeleteCounterlight, thank you for validating my opinion of the ceiling mural. It's jarring, because the rest of the church interior is of such high quality.
ReplyDeleteI took pictures of some of the statues around and about in the church, and I may post them later.
Ciss, thanks. I did Picasa improvements for some of the pictures, because the combination of natural light through stained glass and artificial light produces weird effects at times.
I have always wanted to go see the St. Valerie relic. I had no idea it existed until my daughter was born (Valerie) and someone told me about it.
ReplyDeleteWe had the diocesan convention in Thibodaux about 1999, with the eucharist in St. Joseph's. I was delighted at the space around the altar, which allowed us to use lots of movement. Most Episcopal churches are terribly crowded up there.
ReplyDeleteMelanie, welcome! You're practically my neighbor. I'd think that the St. Valerie bier is not going anywhere, so any time you're in Thibodaux, just pop in to St. Joseph. I'm not sure, but I believe that the doors stay open in the daytime hours.
ReplyDeleteOrmonde, I believe that I was traveling during the convention here in Thibodaux. Whatever I was doing, I don't believe I attended any of the activities. I could be wrong. That was a long time ago.