Relics during the Summer: An Introduction to a big topic

Left to Right: William Conners, Leo Vaccaro, Carmen Croce, working with the relics in preparation for an exhibit that  Carmen Croce is organizing at Saint Joseph's University.

We've been busy the past few months.  One of our big projects includes identifying and displaying the large relic collection from the church of the Gesu.  In late July, we met with an expert on Philadelphia Catholicism, Carmen Croce, who is putting together an exhibit concerning relics.  He plans to include some relics from the Church of the Gesu and is coordinating their restoration.

For those of you unaware of what relics are, they are physical objects that bear some relation to a saint, Jesus himself, or the Holy Family.  All relics should have paperwork representing their provenance, which in the Gesu's example tend to come in certificate form (and according to this interesting website, that tends to be the norm http://www.ichrusa.com/saintsalive/cert.htm).  More important relics tend to be actual body parts of saints - be it a piece of a bone (ex ossibus) - less important ones are from clothing that the saint wore - say from Joseph's robe (ex pallio).  For our purposes, we have relics that are important for many different reasons.  One relic that we have at the Gesu is a cut branch from the Garden of Gethsemane, and although it bears little religious significance considering that the branch was cut in the 19th instead of the 1st century; it is historically important because it still has a piece of its packaging label indicating that a parishioner most likely sent it specifically to Villiger over 100 years ago.

Which leads us to a mystery for modern Catholics: Why was there such an emphasis on or devotion to relics in this American, urban parish of the 19th century, while that emphasis has not found its way to the modern American parish?

Many sources concerning the early church of the Gesu point towards Burchard Villiger's affinity for relics.  Special mention of it is made in the biography written about Villiger by John J. Ryan, S.J.  Relics are also featured in the 1938 publication of the Jubilee of the Gesu's construction, which quotes an article from 1903 that the Church published exclaiming that "There is scarcely a day in the year for which we have not one, two or even more relics of Saints who are honored in the ecclesiastical calendar on that particular day, and those who come to visit the church will each day find them exposed for the veneration of the faithful in a monstrance on the wooden ledge beneath the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes" (Page 111).  Works that appear to be in Villiger's own hand, which are preserved in the Villiger Archives, also attest to how Villiger organized the relics by date - seemingly so that they could be displayed on the feast day of the saint that they were representing.

The issue of Villiger and relics is by no means a small one and the modern Villiger Archives has a treasure trove of relics, including Latin certificates dating from 1730.

Relics and their certificates.  Notice the branch from the Garden of Gethsemane on the right.

A common question that I get asked (especially by students) when I tell the story of the relics is: Are they real?  And of course, the history major in me has much to say about that question alone.  It seems to be something that cannot be answered easily.  For instance, why would we assume that a relic is not real if it came from a saint who was alive when (or died shortly before) the certificate was signed?  Probably the most obvious example of this is the relic we have of St. John Neumann, the bishop of Philadelphia.  Wouldn't it be unlikely that the relic would not be truly from him?

One relic that the Gesu owns, resting in a beautiful painted reliquary, is a thread from the robe of St. Francis Assisi.  For anything to survive from a man who met Pope Innocent III in 1209 is remarkable, so one might assume that this was merely a fabrication, but considering that a robe still does exist that purportedly belonged to the great medieval saint (http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/1634ee/) maybe that it isn't impossible ...

Relics going out on loan for the exhibit were matched with their proper certificates and carefully packaged.

As for relics of the Holy Family ... it might be impossible to say that they are from them.  But they could still be very old, and I always offer up the story of the True Cross as related in the Catholic Encyclopedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04517a.htm.  Although there are many churches that claim to have pieces of the True Cross, perhaps most of the Churches have at least really very old pieces.  How old?  Assuming that the True Cross on which Christ was crucified on was destroyed in the 1st century, by the 4th century, there is already another one claiming to be the True Cross.  Fragments of that 4th century cross were held as important relics and passed down through the years.

All of this discussion leads back to the main mystery: Why?  Why was it so important?  It is difficult to say exactly what they thought of it in the 19th century.  Villiger did not give an explicit reason (that has survived and been discovered) as to why he was so invested in relics.  Implicitly, he emphasized the feast days of saints.  Perhaps he wanted to remind his parishioners of the day-to-day holiness of those great men and women; of their earthly struggles and spiritual gains; of how they were from every region of the world and served real historical lives.  Furthermore, as we can see from the Golden Jubilee book from the Gesu (quoted earlier in this post), the veneration of saints is something that indicates Catholic identity: "Indifference towards the Saints and a disregard of their relics are suggestive of feebleness of faith, and the chilling influence of a Protestant atmosphere" (Page 111).  So, perhaps the institution of relics was yet another way for marginalized Catholics to create their own space - as per Ann Taves' work The Household of Faith: Roman Catholic Devotions in Mid-Ninetheenth-Century America (Page 124).

Please submit all relic questions you have, the iron is hot!  Also, thank you to Bill Avington for taking the group picture at the top of the page!

The 100 year anniversary of Al Travers' game

Aloysius Joseph Travers, S.J., an alumnus of the Prep, pitched his legendary American League game one hundred years ago this month: 18 May 1912.

Although a more detailed account of this amazing story is in order, please accept these links temporarily:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/traveal01.shtml

http://www.philadelphiaathletics.org/history/father.htm

Restored Pews: Before and After!

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

These pews are constructed of ¾” quartersawn oak backs and sides, with 1½” thick elm seats.  Sadly, the oak chairs have long since disappeared, and only eight of the original eighteen pews remain, and can be found on the 2nd floor of Jesuit Hall and in the 3rd floor link.  These pews are the only original furniture left from the opening of the building, the centennial of which we will celebrate in September 2012.  After a hundred years, some of the pews have fallen into disrepair.  


Over the 2011-2012 Christmas break, an alumnus paid to have the worst of them repaired.  See the photos of “before” and “after”.  They are not only quite valuable on the antique market, but they are the last remaining physical strands that tie us to the Jesuit Community House - an important chapter in the history of the Prep and the College (SJU).  


If you are interested in a tour of the chapel and the newly renovated Jesuit Hall, or if you would like to sponsor the restoration of one of the century-old pews in the name of a loved one, please get in touch with Bill Conners at wconners@sjprep.org.        

The Pews of Jesuit Hall

In the summer of 1912, the Jesuit Community was preparing to move into their new home at 18^th and Thompson – the building we call today “Jesuit Hall” (see photo).  With its mosaics, brass sconces, and large stained glass windows, the chapel was to be the most spectacular room in the building (photo, ca. 1927).  Great care was taken by our president, Rev. Charles Lyons, S.J., to procure the best pews at the best price.  In the holdings of the Villiger Archives are found bids for the pews from four competing firms, including the winning bid from the American Seating Co. for $633.80 (scan).

The Chapel and her pews, circa 1927.

So what was $633.80 worth in 1912?  For the average workingman, that sum was equal to around seven months’ wages.  And for that amount, the shrewd Fr. Lyons was able to squeeze eighteen pews plus 124 oak chairs out of the American Seating Co.

The American Seating Company: For Churches, Opera, Railroads, and the Prep.

These pews are constructed of ¾” quartersawn oak backs and sides, with 1½” thick elm seats.  Sadly, the oak chairs have long since disappeared, and only eight of the original eighteen pews remain, and can be found on the 2nd floor of Jesuit Hall and in the 3rd floor link.  These pews are the only original furniture left from the opening of the building, the centennial of which we will celebrate next fall.  After a hundred years, some of the pews have fallen into disrepair. 

The cost of Pews in 1912 = $633.80
The satisfaction of getting it right = Priceless

Over the 2011-2012 Christmas break, a generous alumnus paid to have the worst of them repaired.  See the photos of “before” and “after”.  They are not only quite valuable on the antique market, but they are the last remaining physical strands that tie us to the Jesuit Community House - an important chapter in the history of the Prep and the College (SJU). 

If you are interested in a tour of the chapel and the newly renovated Jesuit Hall, or if you would like to sponsor the restoration of one of the century-old pews in the name of a loved one, please get in touch with Bill Conners at wconners@sjprep.org.    

Jack Peranteau – a “Stiles Streeter” We’ll Never Forget!

Jack Peranteau '34 (second from right) crouches into position in the Fall of 1933.

     On the day after Christmas 2011, the Prep lost a great one – John L. “Jack” Peranteau of the Class of 1934.  Jack lived in the neighborhood and was a graduate of the Gesu Elementary School.  Back in the fall of 2009, I had the pleasure of meeting Jack when he drove himself into the Prep to deliver a photograph of the 1933 Catholic League Champion football team (see photos).  We chatted during my lunch period, and he regaled me with stories of the ’33 season – an undefeated team with a scoreless tie against Central High the only blemish on their record (see team schedule). 

From Philadelphia's The Public Ledger

     I was struck by Jack’s good-natured retelling of his role in the game – that after 76 years, he remembered dropping a toss from quarterback Bobby Dougherty – a sure touchdown for the “Stiles Streeters”, as the Prep was known in the newspapers of the day.  Curious, I later consulted the scrapbooks in the Villiger Archives (see scan of article from The Public Ledger).  Sure enough, in the second column of an Inquirer article dated 30 September 1933, I found it … “At the very outset, St. Joseph’s missed a touchdown when a forward pass tossed by Dougherty to Jack Peranteau, who was all alone in the open, slid through the latter’s fingers and fell harmlessly to the ground.”  So there it was in black-and-white … for posterity. 

     Of course, Jack was too humble to mention a few highlights of that storied season – like his play against Roman Catholic on Thanksgiving Day at Shibe Park.  From The Public Ledger, “The speedy wingman (Peranteau), playing well on the defensive, took the occasion to snare half a dozen passes from Dougherty for long gains, while he intercepted several of the (Roman) Catholic aerials, recovered fumbles and also kicked two extra points.” Or the fact that his stellar play earned him the honors of Second Team All Scholastic and First Team All Catholic in 1933. 

     Though that pass slipped through his fingers so many years ago, Jack held a firm grasp on what was important in his life: Mollie and their eight kids, his 26 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren, and his dear alma mater that honored his fidelity with the Golden Hawk Award in 2010.

This schedule is from a scrapbook in the Villiger Archives.

This 1933 football roster is also from the Villiger Archives.

A program from the Thanksgiving Game in 1933.

This picture now hangs in display at St. Joseph's Prep's Jesuit Hall.

How much did you pay for that seat? A tale of pew rents at the Gesu

Two books from the Villiger Archives

     In the Villiger archives this week, we wanted to feature two very special books that we have from the early years of the Gesu Church.   One is the Gesu “Book of Announcements” from 1880, which mostly contains the announcements that were made at Sunday Masses.  The other is a book of monthly financial statements from July 1890 through June 1908.  Both books have a recurrent theme: Pew Rents.

The Gesu and her pews

     As visitors to the Gesu often notice, pews are marked with numbers, and can be locked shut by the swinging oak doors.  Families and others could rent the space that they occupied on Sunday, with set rules, as explained in the 1880 “Book of Announcements” (since the Gesu was under construction until 1888, this announcement book would have been read in what had previously been called The Church of the Holy Family, which was essentially the temporary Church of the Gesu): 

Regulations for renting Pews

in the Church of the Gesu, 18^th & Stiles.

1^st.  The Pew Rents are payable six months in advance.

2^nd.  Four weeks’ delay in paying rent, vacates the Pew.

3^rd.  No pew can be transferred by gift, sale or otherwise, except by the Pastor, & it finally reverts to the Church.

4^th.  The Sexton is authorized to open any unoccupied Pew at the Epistle at High Mass, and after the beginning of Vespers.

5^th.  In Lent, Advent, the Month of May, & other extraordinary Devotions, the Pewholders are required to notify the Sexton of their intention to occupy their Pew, and the same rule will be observed as above (N^o 4.).

6.  The pews will be free at the early Masses.  Persons who have no pews or seats, will remember their obligation of supporting the Church & the Pastors, & ought to give ten Cents in the Collection, every Sunday.

7.  The only ornament allowed in the Pews is the Cushion, Carpet on floor & Kneeling Stool.

8.  These Regulation will last until the future Church opens.

As of now, there are many unanswered historical puzzles: What rules, if any, changed in 1888 with the opening of the current Gesu?  How many parishioners did not rent pews, and instead contributed 10 cents weekly?  How many people rented pews in the early history of the Gesu?  Where could one acquire a fitting rug and cushion for your pews?  Did the temporary Church of the Gesu (the Church of the Holy Family) have kneelers of its own, or did people need to provide them?

Villiger's financial reports

     Lastly, the bottom line: How much money did these pew rents bring in?  According to the monthly financial statements book in our archives, in the first year recorded (July 1890-June 1891), the Pewholders contributed $11,504.40 towards the parish; which is more than people contributed towards the same year’s collections ($9,850.30 … or 985,030 dimes).  The average American salary in 1890 was $427*; so the Gesu’s pew rents from that year amounted to the yearly average income of nearly 27 Americans.  If we were to place today’s average American salary at $40,000, and if the parish was still collecting pew rents today at the same rate, they would have brought in $1,080,000 this year.

     Needless to say, the pews were important in the Gesu parish.


**(Source for 1890 wages: http://books.google.com/books?id=JONPZKNltBAC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=wage+1890&source=web&ots=PP4JxfJ_AO&sig=I1P0g6cwaSvzYY2iIVa1C9qb5Ps&hl=en#v=onepage&q=wage%201890&f=false via http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_average_hourly_wage_in_1890_i_also_need_to_know_the_living_wage_in_1890)

Villiger Buried Twice in Elysian Fields!

     Today's weather was gorgeous - brisk and sunny - a perfect day for my visit to Fr. Villiger's grave.  Following Mass in the Church of the Gesu in November 1902, according to Rev. John Ryan, S.J., in his 1906 biography of Villiger, the funeral cortege wound its way to Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, PA, where the beloved pastor and school president was buried in the presence of hundreds of mourning parishoners.  
     But according to Mary Kay, a very helpful lady in the cemetery office, Holy Cross records show that Villiger's casket was moved two years later, and reinterred on 4 November 1905, along with that of Rev. Felix Barbelin, S.J., who passed in 1869, and Rev. Patrick Jordan, S.J., who died in 1899 (see pics of headstones).  The most likely explanation for all this activity is that the Jesuits probably purchased their sizable burial plot in 1905 and moved all graves into this space (see scanned map).  Cemetery records show the plot's owner to be "Church & College, St. Josephs".
     I had never heard mention of this site, so when I arrived at "Section X" of the cemetery, I was astonished by the size of the plot and the number of grave markers.  As I stepped between the headstones I recognized many of the names inscribed not only in granite, but in the hearts and minds of a century of St. Joe's men -  "the founders" Barbelin and Villiger; Schnorr - remembered annually with the awarding of the Schnorr Award for service to the Prep; "Pater Magister" D'Alessandro - alumnus and popular Latin teacher; Fay; Smith - the president of SJP my freshman year; Zeits; and well over 100 more priests and brothers of the Society of Jesus (see pics).  
     The grounds crew at Holy Cross watches over the Jesuit plot, but it occured to me that it would be a fitting activity for the Villiger Society to visit at Easter, or perhaps on 2 May to remember Villiger's birthday, to pay our respects and lay a wreath to honor the commitment of the men who rest here.  Homer's Elysian Fields lay on the western edge of the Earth beside the stream Oceanus.  Our Elysium lay on the western edge of Darby Creek along Baily Road in Yeadon.