Saint Brigid's Roman Catholic Church, New York

St. Brigid's Roman Catholic Church, or St. Brigid's
Brigid of Kildare
Saint Brigit of Kildare, or Brigit of Ireland , nicknamed Mary of the Gael is one of Ireland's patron saints along with Saints Patrick and Columba...

, or Famine Church, is a church located on 123 Avenue B and East Seventh Street, on the eastern edge of Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park

Tompkins Square Park is a 10.5 acre public park in the Alphabet City section of the East Village neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is square in shape, and is bounded on the north by East 10th Street, on the east by Avenue B, on the south by East 7th Street, and on the...

in the Alphabet City

Alphabet City, Manhattan

Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the Lower East Side and East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is also known as Loisaida, a Spanglish adaptation of 'Lower East Side'. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter...

section of the East Village

East Village, Manhattan

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

of Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

. Associated with the church is the parish school. Saint Brigid School

St Brigid's School (New York)

St. Brigid's School is a co-educational Catholic school in New York's East Village. Founded in 1856 as part of the parish of St. Brigid's. The school consists of pre-K to 8th grade and is located at 185 East 7th St and Avenue B. The current principal is Donna Vincent, MS Ed., having held this...

consisting of grades Pre-K thru 8, has been in existence since 1856.

The church is named after St. Brigid, the patron saint of babies, blacksmiths, boatmen, cattle, chicken farmers, children whose parents are not married, dairymaids, dairy workers, fugitives, Ireland, mariners, midwives, nuns, poets, printing presses, scholars and travellers. Like the neighborhood it serves, Saint Brigid's Church has had a colorful and tumultuous history since its beginnings in 1848.

Construction

The architect of the church was Patrick Keely

Patrick Keely

Patrick Charles Keely was an Irish-American architect based in Brooklyn, New York and Providence, Rhode Island...

, who handcarved the gothic

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

reredos

Reredos

thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....

himself. Building was begun in 1848 by Irish shipwrights for those fleeing the Great Irish Famine (1845-1849).

St. Brigid's and the East Village

Throughout its history, St. Brigid's opened its doors to people who were more accustomed to having them shut in their new city. Beginning with its construction by Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

immigrants, the church accepted whoever showed up in its pews, even as the East Village

East Village, Manhattan

The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...

changed from German

Germantown

- Places :in the United States* Germantown, California, former name of Artois, California* Germantown, Connecticut* Germantown, Illinois* Germantown, Decatur County, Indiana...

to Irish to Puerto Rican

Loisaida

Loisaida is a term derived from the Latino pronunciation of "Lower East Side", a neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The term was originally coined by poet/activist Bittman "Bimbo" Rivas in his 1974 poem "Loisaida"...

to whoever landed on its doorsteps, in whatever shape. A special feature of the New York Times in 1901, mentioned the church among other Catholic structures in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, describing the group "for the most part...limit[ing] themseves to the functions of a parish church, in districts where social needs are otherwise supplied." Clarifying that the upper church was Irish and the basement used by Italians. In addition, the Sisters of Charity had a convent next door to the church, and there was an attached parochial school.

Fr. Mooney and Bull Run

The second pastor of the church, the Reverend Thomas Mooney, also served as pastor to the nearby 69th New York State Militia. Upon its formation in 1851 it was called the 2nd Regiment of Irish Volunteers, a citizen-militia made up of Irish-Catholic diaspora from the Great Irish Famine. In 1860, Michael Corcoran

Michael Corcoran

Michael Corcoran was an Irish American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War and a close confidant of President Abraham Lincoln. As its colonel, he led the 69th New York regiment to Washington, D.C. and was one of the first to serve in the defense of Washington by building Fort...

, Colonel

Colonel

Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...

of the 69th, refused to parade them past the Prince of Wales

Edward VII of the United Kingdom

Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...

to protest the British response to the famine.

Fr. Mooney travelled with the 69th to Virginia and was beloved by the men for his spirit and sagacious counsel. Fr.Mooney held daily Masses for the regiment and served as confessor for the largely Catholic regiment. The regimental choir was headed by Capt. Maxwell O'Sullivan, formerly the choirmaster at St. Brigid's church. Mooney was lauded for his establishment of a temperance society and for encouraging many wayward souls to return to the Faith.

Father Mooney was recalled by New York Archbishop John "Dagger" Hughes in response to Mooney's baptism of a 64 lb. Columbiad cannon. Archbishop Hughes later suggested that Mooney was recalled after climbing the flagstaff of Fort Corcoran. Mooney was in the process of straightening an American flag that became stuck during a flag raising ceremony.

Mooney's return was much bemoaned by the men of the regiment, but Mooney was warmly welcomed on his return to the city by 4,000 parishioners assembled in Tompkins Square. When the 69th returned to New York following the Bull Run Campaign, Mooney marched at the head of the regiment. On August 14th, 1861 a Requiem Mass was held for the men of the 69th NYSM who had been killed in action. The St. Brigid's choir sang Mozart's Requiem during the service. Fr. Mooney was conspicuously present at all future Irish Brigade functions and was much beloved by the men who survived to remember him.

Fr. Kuhn and the riots

During the 1988 Tompkins Square Park Police Riot the church allowed homeless advocates and protesters of the police action to mobilize under its roof.

A year later when a shanty town

Shanty town

A shanty town is a slum settlement of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often plywood, corrugated metal and sheets of plastic...

in the park was dismantled, church pastor Rev. George Kuhn led a group of parishioners taking food to protesters and homeless people holed up in an abandoned school on East Fourth Street. Father Kuhn was arrested when he defied orders to not cross a police line to deliver the food, saying, "I'm working under orders, too. The order I have is to feed the hungry, and that comes from a higher authority."

Controversy Regarding Parish School

In the 1990s the school was ailing: attendance had plummeted from 200 students to 74 in two years, teachers fell from nine to five.

Father Kuhn, who was the church's pastor at the time, attributed it to local poverty. However others in the community reported as the cause anger by some local parents at Father Kuhn because in a dispute over direction and control of the parish school he fired the popular principal, Maureen Delaney, and three teachers in the middle of the school year.

In 1995 a spokeswoman for the Schools of the Archdiocese of New York stated, "The Cardinal believes very much in the school. We are all operating on the premise that St. Brigid will be with us for a while."

In 2005, a partnership between the school and St. John's University started. As of 2010, the school enrolls about 120 students.

Closing and reprieve

The church's main building closed in 2001 because of a crack in the structure. Mass was then held in the adjoining school while the parishioners ralled to raise money to save the church.

In September 2003 the Archdiocese of New York filed with the city an application to convert the church into apartments, but an archdiocese spokesperson said was only protecting its options. In September 2004 the Archdiocese disbanded the parish. The announcement of St. Brigid's closing with only two weeks notice was handled by the vicar general

Vicar general

A vicar general is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese and, thus, is the highest official in a diocese or other particular...

, rather than Cardinal Egan, and without taking questions. In 2006 they began to demolish the church, stating, "It's a hazard. It could have literally fallen over at any point in time,".

At that time the spokesperson for the Archdiocese further insisted the property would not be turned into condominiums or apartments, a fate that befell nearby St. Ann's Church (on East Twelfth Street), which was converted into a dormitory for New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

. The church claims there is no interest in selling the property. "It will be used for some other form of ministry, whether for educational or charitable or healthcare purposes, possibly senior housing," said a spokesperson for the archdiocese.

Criticism of Archdiocese

Some criticized the Archdiocese for what New York Times columnist Dan Barry called its "tone-deaf" handling of parishioner and community concern.

On August 24, 2006, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Kapnick extended an order staying the demolition of the church.

Destroyed artifact

On July 26, 2006, Judge Barbara Kapnick declined to halt demolition plans, but asked lawyers on both sides to appear in her courtroom to hear arguments on the building's ownership. Before those arguments were to take place, a demolition crew arrived and demolished the stained glass windows and remaining pews, knocked an eight-foot hole into one wall and erected scaffolding.

The seven, 25-foot-tall, painted, stained-glass windows depicted Jesus’ life and bore the names of victims of the Great Irish Famine and benefactors of the church. Community leaders mobilized that afternoon, among them St. Brigid's parishioner and City Councilmember Rosie Mendez

Rosie Mendez

Rosie Mendez is an American Democratic Party politician in New York. She is a member of the New York City Council from Manhattan, representing the 2nd council district, which includes the Lower East Side, Alphabet City and the East Village...

, then-Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer

Scott Stringer

Scott M. Stringer is a New York Democratic politician and currently the 26th Borough President of Manhattan.-Life and career:...

, State Senator Martin Connor

Martin Connor

Martin Connor is a former member of the New York State Senate from Brooklyn, New York. He was first elected to the State Senate in a special election in 1978. He is a Democrat. The 25th Senate District that he represented covers lower Manhattan and an area of Brooklyn down the East River from...

, and Assemblywoman Sylvia Friedman

Sylvia Friedman

Sylvia M. Friedman is a former New York State Assemblywoman. She was elected to fill an unexpired term on February 28, 2006. Friedman has been a long time community activist and a member of her local community board...

.

They made statements denouncing the demolition and accusing the Archdiocese of greed during an overheated real estate market. A spokesperson for the Archdiocese said the demolition had nothing to do with money, again pointing out that there are no designs to sell the property. He also stated that there are no definitive plans for the property yet.

Lawsuit

Earlier in 2006, Justice Kapnick ruled against the Committee to Save St. Brigid's (CSSB) and allowed plans for demolition to proceed. In June, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division

New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division

The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate appellate court in New York State. The Appellate Division is composed of four departments .*The First Department covers the Bronx The Supreme Court of the State of New York, Appellate Division is the intermediate...

upheld that decision.

Then in August Kapnick agreed to hear a separate suit in which the CSSB asserted that ownership and right to demolish are invalid due to the lack of a five-person board of trustees (including two parishioners) governing the church as required by New York law. The archdiocese said it convened such a board, in a single meeting on July 18, where it agreed on demolition. The archdiocese also pointed out that the city did not question the church's ownership when they filed the building permits for demolition.

Anonymous donation revives parish

On May 22, 2008 the Archdiocese of New York announced it had received an “unexpected but very welcome gift” of $20 million from an anonymous donor after a private meeting with Cardinal Edward M. Egan, the archbishop of New York. The gift includes $10 million to restore the building itself; $2 million to establish an endowment for the parish “so that it might best meet the religious and spiritual needs of the people living in the community”; and $8 million to support St. Brigid’s School and other Catholic schools in need.

Cardinal Egan further said in a statement: “This magnificent gift will make it possible for Saint Brigid’s Church to be fittingly restored with its significant structural problems properly addressed. The two additional gifts, to create an endowment for the parish and to support the parish school, are a powerful testament to the donor’s goodness and understanding. He has my heartfelt gratitude, as I recently told him at a meeting in my residence.”

Restoration

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said that a precise date for reopening the parish had not been set. “We obviously need to talk to priests in the area. It’s also going to take some time to restore the building. This is something that’s going to take months, at the very least, if not a couple of years. We can’t really tell yet. We’ve got architects who are starting to develop plans. Then we’re going to have to hire construction firms to do the work. There are significant structural problems that need to be repaired.”

External links

The Committee to Save St. Brigid's Church
Archdiocese of New York's Statement on Saint Brigid's Church, Press Release (on file with the author)
News on St. Brigid's
St. Brigid's School

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