SAINT FRANCIS CHAPEL

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Saint Francis Chapel, named for St. Francis Xavier of the Society of Jesus, is the main student chapel at John Carroll University, the site of our weekend masses, penance and prayer services, weddings for many a graduate and much prayer by individual members of the University community. In it and opening onto the main chapel is the Eucharistic chapel, the Lady Chapel, the site of most of our daily liturgies.

The location was set aside in 1923 for a 5,000 seat Gothic chapel designed by Cleveland architect Bloodgood Tuttle, that was too magnificent ever to leave the drawing board. In 1929 foundations were dug for a 1000 seat Memorial Chapel which the Depression kept from completion.

In 1947 a wooden frame building was erected on the abandoned foundations and used for ten years as a gymnasium and then as the offices of the School of Business. It was painted to resemble the brick of the rest of the campus, but the color was never true and it became known affectionately as the Pink Barn. In 1970 the building was renovated, faced with brick and became the Fritzsche Religious Center with a small chapel and a multipurpose room where Sunday masses were said. Finally the entire building was renovated by architect Peter van Dijk and dedicated by Bishop Anthony M. Pilla on December 10, 1987.

Partitions were removed to open up generous space and reveal the original wooden trusses of the roof structure. Skylights and a narrow clerestory were cut to admit more natural light. A new facade of Indiana limestone in a basket weave pattern provided a setting for the St. Cecilia rose window, the patroness of organists surrounded by angel musicians. The window, made in Munich in 1906, was salvaged from St. Martin's Slovak Church in downtown Cleveland which was torn down to make way for an exit ramp. Modern abstract windows, designed by Charles Lawrence and crafted locally by the Poremba Studio admit light softly to the body of the chapel. Cold Spring green granite, piercing the facade and side wall delineates an intimate Eucharistic chapel, within but on a different axis from the larger room. The green slate floor of this Lady Chapel is from Vermont and further sets this area apart from the main chapel which is roughly floored in black Pennsylvania slate.

The alcove of the Lady Chapel enshrines an enamel and copper icon of the Virgin and Child, its design based loosely on the seal of Archbishop John Carroll, by Mary Ellen McDermott of the Cleveland Institute of Art. The tabernacle and candles are the work of the late silversmith Solve Hallquist. Local artist Pamela Argentieri crafted the silver evangelary cover and electroformed copper holy water basins, one of which bears the ancient palindrome NIYON ANOMHMATA MH MONAN OYIN [Wash your sins, not just your face]. Both basins are developing a characteristic green patina that matches the copper patina of the main candlesticks and the large outside cross, and the dappled green of the chapel walls and woven green of the chair fabric. The sanctuary is a curving platform of natural teak wood, the altars are blocks of the same material. All the woodwork, including the massive and intricate frame of the rose window is the award-winning work of Leo Leiden.

Figurative art has been minimized to maintain the simplicity of the room. The stations of the cross are done in porcelain with a raku glaze by Suzanne Marie Young. The colors were chosen to harmonize with the stained glass. She also added a fifteenth station of the risen Christ and an icon of St. Francis Xavier, both of the same material.

A white reredos serves as a backdrop to the liturgy. In front of it the main crucifix, a bronze by Megan Dull, provides a central but not demanding focus. As the liturgical year goes by, large batik banners featuring the four evangelists from the Book of Kells, change places on the reredos. They are the work of Bernadette Madden of Dublin, Ireland. The Mellen Organ, the work of Patrick Collon, stands in the northern corner of the room, one of four Spanish-style organs in the United States.

St. Francis Chapel is situated at the crossroad of University traffic, a quiet center in the midst of a busy campus, a gathering place for our community of faith at worship, a refuge for the prayerful student in the late night hours or at any time of day. It is a concrete symbol and expression of this university's Catholic and Jesuit heritage and its commitment to spiritual values.

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