The Nave and Side Altars (8/9)
This is the eighth of a 9-part series explaining various aspects of the floor plan of a church. Holy Mother Church has deliberately filled her buildings with great symbolism; this series will introduce some of the many facets involved in designing and building this home for the Immaculata.
NB: These images and renderings are still approximations of the final design. They are meant to give general knowledge and perspective rather than a precise and final version of what will be built.
“The Nave”
By Fr. Patrick Rutledge
In this floor-plan series we have discussed a great deal about the most important parts of the Immaculata – their significance and appeal. For anyone who regularly attends Assumption chapel here in St. Mary’s, perhaps the most appealing aspect of this new church, from a practical standpoint, is its size. Since space is a real problem at Sunday Masses in St. Marys, the sheer quantity of seats in the Immaculata is not an insignificant point.
Four times the square footage of our current Assumption chapel, the Immaculata will be able to seat close to 1300 people on the first floor nave, with an additional seating for over 100 in the choir loft and 100 in the cry room… yes, I said the cry room. We might be making architectural history with a cry room that size, but I can tell you that our dear mothers will greatly appreciate this improvement in size from our current one, which only offers an oblique view of the altar and often overflows into our vestibule. News of this cry room’s size was perhaps the most applauded revelation back at the kick-off event last year. Though the design team preferred not to have bathrooms in any of the areas near the nave and sacred spaces, building code requires bathrooms every two floors. Therefore instead of placing them in the vestibule or choir loft, a few bathrooms with very discreet functionality will be placed adjacent to the cry room, which will only be open to mothers in need.
Our goal in determining this amount of seating in the church is to comfortably seat our largest regular ceremonies, even if the more unique ones in the year may still well be crowded (e.g. Good Friday Liturgy or Midnight Mass). Though it was not our intention from the outset, this does mean that the Immaculata will have the greatest seating capacity of any Catholic church in the state of Kansas. We know that some day seating in this church will most likely be insufficient, but at that point it would make more sense to branch out rather than to keep building larger and larger churches.
In the planning process, we were also cognizant of what the grandeur of these dimensions would do to the line of sight from certain parts of the church. For example, with how high the choir loft is, view of the altar from its back most seats could easily have been impeded – or – larger portions of seats in the transepts may not have had good line of sight to the altar. Careful planning, however, teamed with proper placement of the altar, and some ingenuity maximized as much as possible this line of sight so that almost everywhere in the church one sits, with a few exceptions, the main altar can be seen. There were also multiple discussions in the planning phases to allow for sufficient handicap seating.
At the back portion of the nave, eight confessionals will allow plenty of confessors to shrive even the largest number of penitents, especially in weeks like Holy Week when over 60 man-hours of confessions are heard. Penitents, as they currently do, will be able pray in the pews as they wait for their chance to access Our Lord’s mercy. Again, consideration was made for the confessionals to allow wheelchair accessibility.
Lastly some words about the other side chapels and devotional spaces. Two of the most beloved devotional spaces in our current chapel are the side altar of Our Lady of Sorrows, which draws crowds every Saturday for public devotions, and our relic chapel, which presents roughly 1200 relics for veneration. These two spaces are so well loved in St. Mary’s, that it would be a great loss to not transfer them to the Immaculata. But we will not only move them to the church once it is built, but we will place Our Lady of Sorrows amongst the relics, since the Queen of Martyrs is fittingly placed amongst so many martyrs and other saints.
Two other side chapels halfway up the nave will allow for private Masses, private devotions, and even a respite from the vast spaces of the main nave of the church. One of these side chapels will be dedicated our beloved St. Joseph, who has preserved and blessed St. Mary’s for so many decades, making it possible to keep things running when it seemed our back was against the wall. The other chapel will most likely be dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, for not only does she hold a beloved place in many of our hearts as patroness of the Americas, but her role as the protectress of the innocent will inspire us to be a louder for voice for the unborn, especially at our annual pro-life rosary along the streets of St. Marys.
Finally, on the north and south walls of the transepts, there will be four additional devotional niches with votive stands. Though still not completely determined, these niches will present devotions that already have a place in the hearts of our parishioners or that would be fitting devotions for this church. One option that has been considered would place in one of the niches the statue that we take in procession every year on our annual rosary procession in October.
The pilgrim statue or a replica of it, may be used for that purpose. Perhaps another niche will be dedicated to Bl. Philippine Duchesne, a local favorite and beloved by the Pottawatomie Indians, remembrances and symbols of whom are already in various spots on our academic campus. Maximilian Kolbe, who promoted devotion to the Immaculata with such zeal, might also be source of devotion in this church dedicated to Her. Lastly, Il Santo Bambino, will move up to the Immaculata from above the choir stalls in our current chapel. This statue was carved by a prestigious Roman sculptor and was touched to the Santo Bambino in the church of Santa Maria in Ara Coeli in Rome. The original was greatly venerated in Rome, taken to console the sick, and often a cause of miracles. It was historically brought to the piazza outside the church and used to bless the city of Rome on Christmas Day and Epiphany. Many other charming stories are attached to the statue and perhaps it will hold an even greater place in our hearts in one of these more visible niches of the Immaculata.