Break ground for Pilgrim Chapel

STIRLING  Bishop Kevin Sweeney helped the Shrine of St. Joseph here break ground on its much-anticipated St. Joseph Shrine Pilgrim Chapel on Sept. 15. 
It will provide a focal point of devotion for pilgrims for prayer to Jesus through the adoptive father of Jesus and contemplation of his role in Salvation history. With expected completion this spring, the 1,500-square-foot wooden chapel will feature as its centerpiece a large luminescent “Life of St. Joseph” mosaic of Joseph holding the Christ Child.

During the groundbreaking, Bishop Sweeney blessed the site with Holy Water and with other shrine dignitaries turned the soil with a ceremonial gold shovel for the Pilgrim Chapel. It has been designed with a rare reciprocal-frame roof that consists of 16 large self-supporting wood beams that require no center support — one of only a few in the U.S. Construction on the project should begin this month.

In a circular devotional space inside the chapel, a semi-circular wall will hold several staggered rows of votive candles to help illuminate the 10-foot-tall, 6-foot-wide mosaic, which will be framed with smaller depictions of pivotal moments in Joseph’s life. The art was designed and created by artist Leopold Forstner between 1925 and 1927 as the altarpiece of the main altar in St. Joseph Seraphic Seminary in Callicoon, N.Y, which closed in 1972. Installation of the mosaic in the Pilgrim Chapel will mark the first time that it has been displayed publicly at the shrine, said Trinitarian Father Dennis Berry, the director of the shrine.

“The Pilgrim Chapel will be a beautiful, unique and holy place to encourage the thousands of pilgrims that visit the shrine annually to pray for peace and contemplate Joseph’s role in the Church and God’s people. It also will provide an indispensable opportunity for evangelization in our time,” said Father Berry, a member of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, who founded the shrine in 1924 and continue to operate it. He called Bishop Sweeney’s visit “wonderful. He was gracious and interested in what we are doing at the shrine. We were glad to have him here,” he said.

Among those participating in the groundbreaking — the culmination of four years of dreaming and planning — were Bishop Sweeney; Father Berry, who also gave a presentation on the history and ministry of the shrine; and Trinitarian Father Michael Barth, superior general of the Missionary Servants. The design of the Pilgrim Chapel also will feature a semi-circle of benches that face the mosaic so pilgrims can pray and meditate. A skylight and windows in the peaked roof will let in light. Pilgrims will enter the chapel through glass doors and a small foyer.

“Since the beginning of the shrine, people have been asking us, ‘Where is the shrine to St. Joseph?’ because we are the Shrine of St. Joseph. We didn’t have one specific place but now we will with the Pilgrim Chapel,” said Father Berry. The shrine’s campus, he said, houses a larger Upper Chapel that will sit next to the Pilgrim Chapel and a gazebo that shelters a statue of St. Joseph from the shrine’s original site nearby, founded by Father Thomas Judge.

Bishop Sweeney noted that the Shrine of St. Joseph is filled with “a great feeling of mission and invites a sense of prayer.”

“The groundbreaking was a wonderful experience. It’s a sign of life and growth — that the mission continues,” Bishop Sweeney said.

Like Joseph, the “Life of St. Joseph” mosaic traveled great distances. In the 1970s, the Franciscans of the Holy Name Province, which operated St. Joseph Seraphic Seminary, willed the piece to the Little Sisters of the Poor in Totowa, who in turn contacted the Missionary Servants when they could not find a suitable use for it. In 1982, Trinitarian Brother Martin Pacholek drove to Totowa to transport the one-ton piece of art to the shrine where it has been in a storage facility for 38 years.

“When I first saw the mosaic, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of joy as I experienced the outstanding beauty and sacredness of this exceptional artwork,” said Father Berry, who was disappointed that the public could not enjoy the mosaic.

Forstner used a combination of enamels and colorful mosaic glass, fabricated and assembled it in a special process of production from the early 20th century. At its center, it shows Joseph holding the Christ Child out “to those who labor and find life burdensome” (Mt 11:28). It also suggests that only those who, like this Child, learn to be “gentle and lowly in heart … will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:29). In the portrait, Joseph is “protecting Jesus with his large hand covering the Child’s midsection” to show him “defending the Child’s message against the accusations of naiveté and impracticality of the world-weary and jaded,” Father Berry wrote.

Framing the center portrait are four depictions from Joseph’s life: his marriage to Mary, the birth of Jesus, Jesus in the temple and the death of Joseph, which show “Joseph’s commitment to his faith, fatherhood, family and the love of God.” These depictions also correspond to the four pillars of the shrine’s ministry: spiritual and apostolic formation, peace and human rights, worship and recovery, health and healing, Father Berry said.

Volunteers, including community members and professionals, have been planning to make Brother Martin’s dream a reality. The process up until now has consisted of drawing up a design, securing town approval and hiring contractors. The project will include making the shrine campus ever more handicapped accessible as well.

Those interested in donating through the shrine’s “Society of Angels” capital campaign, can visit the shrine’s website, www.shrineofsaintjoseph.com, or call the shrine at (908) 647-0208.