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When a civilization ends, it does not leave behind a tombstone. Instead, it leaves stackings of stones (i.e. buildings.) We lose the remembrance of individual people, the things they said, did, and wrote, but we remember what they built because those things endure for much longer. The Ancient Greeks and Romans tell us about themselves through their Classical Architecture. We remember the Medieval period in Europe from its castles and Gothic Cathedrals. We remember the early 20th century from the Art Deco buildings it left behind. The style tells us something about their priorities, what they believed, what they knew, and what their hopes were. In a sense, the buildings that a culture leaves behind are a kind of epitaph.
Let’s look through the structural epitaphs of our ancestors.
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Immaculata Church (St. Mary’s, Kansas)
| Location | 701 North 2nd Street, Saint Mary’s, KS 66536 |
|---|---|
| Architecture | |
| Type | The Society of St. Pius X |
| Style | Romanesque |
| Groundbreaking | May 31, 2020 |
| Completed | 2023 |
One of the reasons that I look at beautiful old buildings is that I know of no reason that humans stopped prioritizing beauty in construction. The look backward is a reminder not only of what we once did, but also that we can do it again if we can summon the will. We look back to keep the flame of our wills alight. Unfortunately, we have gone so far afield from our ancestral Western beauty aesthetics that there’s a subset of our modern society’s most “learned” who lie both to themselves and others about the topic of beauty and whether or not they can see it. They will often insist that the ugliest blight is interesting, or stunning, or valuable because it’s unique.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a line of dialogue from LOTR: The Two Towers. Specifically I’ve thought a lot about what Eowyn says she fears:
There is a point in an individual human’s life, as well as a society’s existence, wherein terrible things become acceptable because that’s simply how they are done and what the people know. To preserve a culture that values beauty, a culture must create beauty. To lose a culture that values beauty, you abandon the construction of beauty and instead build brutalist soulless monstrosities… and then you continue to do it for a century. You do it until the old way feels beyond living memory. Eventually beauty and the building of beauty moves beyond desire. Eventually some people even lose the ability to correctly identify the beautiful.
There is an easy test here, though. If something is beautiful, the beauty is obvious. You see it and you know. Everyone knows. The beauty isn’t called into doubt – or at least not successfully so. If something is ugly, but the world insists that the ugly thing is beautiful, then the beauty comes hand in hand with a lecture explaining the beauty. The lecture is how you know the thing is actually ugly.
It’s a terrible thing to be so atrophied that you don’t even desire good things anymore. It’s a worthy thing to fear for yourself and your society. Beauty is a good thing. There have actually been numerous studies done indicating as much. People flourish in beauty. They develop depressanxiety disorders surrounded by the lack of it.
Today though, we push back on this particular concern. Try as the enemies of humanity might, beauty is not beyond desire or recall. I am here to remind you that architectural wonders are not limited to some far gone past, or to some far away place. You can still build works of extravagant beauty today. You can build those incredible buildings even in the smallest and most unlikely places imaginable. That is exactly what the Society of Saint Pius X did in St. Mary’s, Kansas very recently. The flame of beauty still burns.
(via civiumarchitects.com)
The Fraternal Society of St. Pius X acquired the former Jesuit college and seminary in St. Marys, Kansas, drawn to the magnificent gothic church edifice standing in the middle of campus. Restoration of the church was nearly complete when an electrical short sparked a fire in the choir loft in November 1978. By the time the fire was brought under control, the roof had collapsed, the interior was completely gutted, and some of the stained glass windows broken. Plans to rebuild the Immaculata commenced at once, but before work could progress, windstorms toppled the surviving stone walls.
Through the decades, various plans were made for the reconstruction of the Immaculata, but none advanced. By the year 2000, the parish had grown to over 2,000 members. The then current rebuilding plans would not even begin to serve the needs of the growing parish and school. Plans to rebuild the Immaculata in its original form were halted and a committee was established to investigate the feasibility of constructing a completely new chapel to meet the needs of St. Mary’s.
In 2017, the decision was made that the New Immaculata should be built north of the academic campus, adjacent to the parish cemetery. The new church follows a traditional cruciform plan and incorporates a baptistery, reliquary chapel, eight confessionals, four side chapels, and a sanctuary encircled by an arcaded ambulatory. A cry room and choir loft occupy the levels above the narthex. Twin bell towers flank the front facade and house five custom bronze bells which can be heard across the prairie landscape summoning the faithful. The crossing of the church is crowned by a twelve-sided cupola. A statue of Our Lady gazes over St. Marys and the Kansas River valley from atop the cupola. The topography of the site allows for a walk-out basement that houses parish offices, a multi-purpose parish hall, classrooms, and restrooms.
This church is incredible and its builders spared no expense. It looks as though it could be a millennia old and in Europe, rather than less than five years old in the middle of Kansas. The beauty is not limited to the building’ exterior, either. It houses murals, statuary, and other art aimed at glorifying God with tremendous beauty.
One of the virtues of a construction being very recent is that its actual building is often far more documented online. There are videos of the construction. TV news stories covering the construction and completion. Even the virtual tours after completion are novel to our period in history. All of it though can remind us of what is possible if we dare to think big and act accordingly.
As they say… you can just do things. In fact, you can do all things. (Phil. 4:13)
