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The Feast of St Nicholas

Today is the Feast of Saint Nicholas, one of my favorite saints. I’m not quite sure why he’s one of my favorites, but it probably has something to do with being the Patron Saint of New York, the greatest land there ever was. Unfortunately, he’s a somewhat neglected saint, perhaps even abused and overwritten as “Santa Claus”, the secular, materialist idol of the marketplace which has usurped both Nicholas’s heritage and subsequent reinvation a la Washington Irving et Thomas Nast.

There are many fine legends of the good Saint, most of which you can find at the most excellent resource which I highly recommend known as the St Nicholas Center.

St. Nicholas was once fairly represented in the great metropolis which he watches over. Above he is seen in the sanctuary mural behind the altar at the Church of Saint Agnes – the best parish in all Manhattan. The mural was actually painted by Sean Delonas, a cartoonist for the New York Post. One of the cherubs pulling at St Nicholas is the son of the muralist.

Behold, the church that was once called New York’s ‘Protestant Cathedral’. It’s hard to believe it’s gone, though I was born after it was demolished to make way for the Sinclair Oil Building. The Collegiate Church of St Nicholas was the oldest congregation in the City, founded in 1628 and housed in this late-nineteenth century building on Fifth Avenue. This photograph by Abbott shows Rockefeller Center rising in the background.

Surprisingly, the congregation – of which some of the most wealthy knickerbockers were members – did not build a new church, instead worshipping at a variety of different locations. I believe it is now dissolved, though perhaps it merged into the West End Collegiate Church.

Published at 12:39 pm on Monday 6 December 2004. Categories: Church Saints Tags: , .
Comments

”Behold, the church that was once called New York’s ‘Protestant Cathedral”

The Episcopal diocese of New York claims that Episcopal church is no longer a ‘Protestant’ denomination,as Anglicanism is a middle way ‘Via Media’ between Catholicism and Protestantism,an autonomous branch of Western Christendom

— Thomas 19 Feb 2008 11:46 am
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