Sheri Barley

We ended the day doing a candlelight walk through the catacombs at the Original St Patrick's Cathedral now called the “St Patricks Old Cathedral”. in what is now Little Italy on Mulberry Street. Most of you know of St Patrick's Cathedral in the heart of Manhattan on 5th avenue. However, well before that time, this Cathedral was opened in a much poorer part of town. Built between 1809 and 1815 in the Gothic Revival Style. It remained the Cathedral of New York City until 1879 when the “new” St Patricks Cathedral was built uptown.

The area that is now Chinatown and Little Italy was once Five Points. The persecuted Catholics from Ireland settled the area in the 1700’s, however until 1778 when the British were defeated in the revolutionary war, Catholicism was banned in New York. Once the British left, Catholic Churches sprang up all over New York, eventually becoming large enough to warrant creation of a Diocese. Once the Irish became established and gained wealth, they moved uptown during the “Gilded Age”. The neighborhood became the home of the persecuted Italian Catholics and the area became known as Little Italy. Later the Chinese would arrive and the area was split between the Italians and Chinese. This once poor area of the city is now the second most expensive neighborhood in all of New York.

Once St Patrick's Cathedral was built uptown, the old Cathedral returned to the status of a Parish since the Archbishop no longer resided in the church. It remained a parish until 2010, when the Pope named it a Basilica.

Fun Facts: A Cathedral is named after the chair where the Bishop sits which is called a Cathedra, the Cathedral is the home of the Cathedra.

A Basilica is the Pope’s House. When he visits an area he must have his own residence while there. Basilica’s are identified by the Umbrellina (the Pope’s Umbrella). The Umbrellina sits over the Cathedra and is given to each of the named Basilica’s by the Catholic Church. In the pictures you will see a brightly colored covering sitting to the left of the dais.

Half of the cost of the original cathedral was donated by Pierre Toussaint, a black slave hairdresser, who is now on track to become the third canonized saint from the Old Cathedral. The others are Elizabeth “Ann” Seton, a nun who opened the first Catholic Orphanage and John Neumann who helped to organize Catholic Religion in the US. Toussaint is the only non Archbishop buried at the new St Patrick's Cathedral.

The American Countess Anna Leary is buried at the catacombs of the Basilica St Patrick. She was name a Countess by Pope Leo XIII for her donations (100 million plus) to Catholic causes.

Martin Scorsese attended the Catholic School at the Basilica St Patrick and is still a member of the church. His movie, 'The Gangs of New York', is about warfare between the various gangs living in Five Points. The area was so named due to a five-way intersection of Walton Street, 27th Street, Washington Street, and East 26th. The 4 streets came together but have five different street corners, the name originated in 1881 when the street cars could not fit all the names on the signs.

The Basilica sits on what was once a Dutch cemetery. The Catholic Church purchased the cemetery and surrounding lands and they decided to build in the church in the middle of the cemetery. They split the cemetery and left the south side graves intact but moved others to the north side to create a new cemetery and built the church in between. Normally grave sites that are next to a church are called graveyards, however, since the cemetery existed before the church it is still called a cemetery.

The catacombs built for the church all hold up to 12 caskets. The catacombs are unsealed and resealed with each subsequent burial until the 12 person limit has been met. There are still vaults which are unsealed and could be opened for additional residents, but the City of New York outlawed any additional human remains to be buried within the city because the bodies were contaminating the water supply. Only cremated remains can be interred at the site.Read more