Easter Sunday at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, New York City/Photo by Patricia Leslie

St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue in New York City can accommodate 3,000 persons, but on Easter Sunday, it was standing room only at the 10:15 a.m. service.

 

Dollars placed in the collection bags on the crowded day will help the church pay a portion of a massive renovation project estimated to cost $175 million.  The building's exterior and stained-glass windows are being cleaned, and improvements to crumbling brick and marble damaged by acid rain are underway.  Completion of the project is scheduled for this December, and $100 million has been raised. 

 

James Renwick, Jr. (1818-1895), who designed Washington's Smithsonian "Castle" on the National Mall and the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery, is best know for St. Patrick's, which he created in the Gothic Revival or neo-Gothic style.  The church cornerstone was laid in 1858 but the Civil War caused construction to cease shortly thereafter.  It resumed in 1865, and the cathedral was completed in 1878/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

While an usher collects donations, the Archbishop of New York, His Eminence, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, prepares the incense at the 10:15 a.m. Easter Sunday service at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, New York/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The Archbishop of New York, His Eminence, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, spreads the Gospel at the rear of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, New York during the 10:15 a.m. Easter Sunday service/Photo by Patricia Leslie

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, New York/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The clergy takes a left turn at the rear of the church at the conclusion of the 10:15 a.m. Easter Sunday service at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Fifth Avenue, New York.  This perspective looks in the main entrance where police blocked latecomers who formed a line for the next service.  Standing on church steps, latecomers had an elevated view of the finery in the Easter Parade underway on the street below. Seen on the right is an unknown Chinese message, one of few handwritten signs observed in the area/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

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