St. Mary, Edgerton

I'm going to have to postpone dealing with the exterior. It's been a long day.
Photo by Jeff and Bridget Bockey

St. Mary, Edgerton

Just about perfect. The place would be at home in the very best sort of English village. Notice the capital on that column. Then the transept window. Wouldn't mind getting a closer look at the glass. It looks excellent.

The pews look a bit simple, but that can be a good thing.

That ceiling is incredible. One of the best I've seen in any parish in the diocese. If you've been reading this blog long, you'll know I'm no fan of banners, but these actually add something to the atmosphere. They don't look like felt, so that helps.

Nice to see lighting fixtures in the aisles. Interesting ones, too. The floor looks like it might be stone.

The architect was William Perry, who designed the cathedral. He was every bit as good on a small scale. That's rare.

Look at the tracery in those windows. Every detail well thought out.
A gem. It's now the church I most want to see. Of course, there are about a dozen close behind in the list.

I'll deal with the exterior tomorrow.

Photos by Jeff and Bridget Bockey

St. Mary, Edgerton

I'll start with the most important feature, the work of John de Rosen. I consider these to be the finest murals in the diocese, and yes, that includes the cathedral.

In fact, I wouldn't feel uncomfortable in saying they're among the artist's best work. Finding work like this in a rural parish is surprising, even to me, and I'm fast coming to expect surprises around here. How many other rural parishes can say they have paintings by an artist whose work is found in the private chapel at Castel Gandolfo?

Unfortunately, the third work, a tryptich altarpiece was closed when the pictures were taken. If you're not familiar with the term, a tryptich is an altarpiece consisting of a central panel, with two side panels that can be closed over the center, like doors. If there are more than two wings, it's called a polyptich. From what I've heard and from the scanned newspaper picture I've seen, this one's magnificent. Good to see the Divine Mercy picture's been added to the base.

The window looks like exceptional work, as everything in this church seems to be.

Photos by Jeff and Bridget Bockey

St. Mary, Edgerton: The Plot Thickens

This is one of the ceiling murals in the aisles of the cathedral. It was painted by John ( Jan Henryk ) de Rosen, one of the most highly respected Catholic artists of the 20th century. De Rosen was born at Warsaw, in 1891 and died at Arlington, Virginia, in 1982. In the course of his life, he left behind a massive number of murals, mosaics, and paintings, in churches from Lvov to San Francisco. Pius XI commissioned two murals for his private chapel at Castel Gandolfo. The great cathedral at St. Louis has many examples of his mosaic work. Possibly his best known work is the enormous Christ in Majesty mosaic, in the apse of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in Washington. HERE'S a brief biographical sketch.
Toledo is fortunate enough in having just the murals he did for the cathedral, but there's more to the story.

In 1945, John de Rosen painted an altarpiece and two murals for St. Mary's in Edgerton. I still haven't seen clear pictures from St. Mary's, but everything I have seen makes me suspect my source may have been right in calling it the most beautiful parish church, not just in the diocese, but in Ohio.

These pictures were scanned from an article in the Chronicle. I'll post more of the story tomorrow.

The Plot Thickens

St. Mary's, in Edgerton, is looking more like an undiscovered treasure every day.
Kevin Hammer has discovered that two murals and a triptych altarpiece, there, were painted, in 1945, by John de Rosen, one of the 20th century's greatest painters of religious art. According to my source, the triptych is painted on a gilt background.
John de Rosen painted some of the murals in the cathedral, as well as at the cathedral in St. Louis. Possibly his most well-known work is the apse mosaic at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, in Washington. There'll be more on him later in the week.
Regular commenter "Holler" ( There's a story behind that moniker, but it's classified. ) confirms that St. Mary's is "spectacular". I have absolute confidence in his ability to spot a good church, though we might disagree on the level of some of the bad ones. He also reminded me of another story from my source. Apparently, the woodwork in the church was made from lumber harvested on land belonging to the parishioners. I've been told each family signed a piece of it.
This one must be photographed, come hell or high water.