New York City

Grand Central Station is one of those landmarks recognizable to everyone who’s been to New York City — and more than a few who haven’t. But how many Catholics know that just four blocks from the “gateway to Manhattan” sits a house of God so glorious its very name proclaims Easter?

I’m speaking, of course, of the Church of Our Saviour.

Servant of God Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen knew this place well. The phenomenally popular “TV priest” lived across the street and frequently visited. Were he still with us, he would surely be pleased with some of the changes made by the church’s current pastor, who is also well known to a sizeable television audience: Father George Rutler, a fixture on EWTN for years.

When my wife Mary and I first stepped inside on a recent visit, our eyes fixed on the sanctuary — a Holy of Holies with a radiant gold tabernacle centered directly behind the altar. Behind the tabernacle is a majestic icon of Christ Pantocrator rising to fill the entire rear sanctuary wall.

This commanding, 28-foot image of Jesus, holding the Gospels in his left hand and blessing with his right, is based on the oldest known icon of Christ Pantocrator (Ruler of All) found in St. Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai. It was painted by parishioner Kim Jan Woo, a professional artist.

There’s no doubt we’re immediately in the presence of the Ruler of All. When Father Rutler became pastor here just days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he quickly returned the tabernacle to the central position on the church’s axis. “The tabernacle would be a sign of Christ’s victory over evil,” he explained to Mary and me. “It was a sign that Our Lord was in the center of the city.”

Father Rutler commissioned artisans in Spain to create this gleaming throne room for the Blessed Sacrament. Designed in Renaissance style, its front door pictures Our Saviour rising in glory from the tomb in Jerusalem — not that any grave, anywhere, could have contained him.

“We have Our Lord’s real presence, the sign of his sacrifice, and the reminder above of his presence in heaven,” said Father Rutler. “We can’t speak of the crucified Christ without the savior, and all this comes into focus in the Blessed Sacrament.”

“The minute the Blessed Sacrament was put back in the sanctuary, the parish was transformed,” he added.

How so? People came to pray in great numbers. Donations poured in to pay off the mortgage on the church, which had never been debt-free since being built in the 1950s. And those minor miracles were just the beginning.

“Our Saviour’s” averages 50 weddings a year. Couples desire to attend its pre-Cana workshops based on John Paul II’s theology of the body. With a baby boomlet under way in the area, baptisms more than doubled starting five or six years ago. Vocations blossomed. Now several parishioners are discerning a religious vocation. Three are currently in the seminary — an archdiocesan record.

Father Rutler installed a statue of St. John Vianney, patron saint of parish priests, modeled on the statue in the Curé’s French parish in Ars, near the altar of Our Lady, for people to pray for all priests and for an increase in vocations.

Ever Ancient, Ever New

Our Saviour’s also pulls back the curtain of heaven and surrounds us in the communion of saints. Many appear in new icons in the sanctuary. Columns at the rear hold 12 portrait-sized saints from America, Europe, Asia and Africa representing the parish’s different nationalities.

They range from the readily recognizable — here’s St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and, over there, Blessed Mother Teresa — to the inspiringly obscure. (Well, the likes of St. Andrew Kim and St. Charles Lwanga provided learning moments for Mary and me, anyway.)

The 12 larger icons at the front sanctuary corners brought our attention to the Four Evangelists, Sts. Michael and Gabriel, Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Nicholas and, closest to the pulpit, St. John Chrysostom.

With their neo-Byzantine looks, all are the work of Woo and were dedicated on Epiphany 2006 to close the parish’s 50th anniversary year.

It’s hard to reckon Our Saviour’s 1950s origins with its bearing, which seems much older. For example, a magnificent pair of the French Landuedoc marble columns, all red-and-white swirls, flank the sanctuary and support an arch that acts as a perfect frame for Christ the Pantocrator.

These high monoliths are believed the largest uncut polished marble columns in the city — and they would have been right at home in the great cathedrals of Old Europe.

The tabernacle table’s supporting antique marble columns, which match the altar’s Byzantine columns, were quarried in Pakistan and obtained by surprise circumstances through a Jewish friend. The columns suggest the Old Covenant supporting the New.

‘From the Beginning’

Only when the tabernacle was installed did Father Rutler realize the angels on the original intricate bronze screen spanning the sanctuary were now facing the tabernacle, worshipping the Blessed Sacrament. It looks planned that way.

“Our Lord had prepared all things,” said Father Rutler, “and had designed this from the beginning.”

Reverence shows in all details to bring honor and glory to Our Saviour’s and subtly raise hearts to heavenly realms. We saw the medieval-looking stained glass windows presented multiple Scriptural scenes, and Our Lady honored at her altar with a bas relief in the style of the Middle Ages.

One altar honors the Sacred Heart with a white marble statue Father Rutler obtained from a nearby church that closed. The other honors St. Jude, with smaller statues of St. Anne and St. Thérèse, to tell of favorite devotions here.

Like a canopy covering everything is the splendid Renaissance coffered ceiling with gilded octagonal honeycombs, muted red inlays and Greek crosses.

A short walk away, tourists gawked at Grand Central. Our hope was they would discover, as we did, the Easter treasures at the Church of Our Saviour.

Staff writer Joseph Pronechen

is based in Trumbull, Connecticut.

Church of Our Saviour

59 Park Ave. at 38th St.

New York, NY 10016

(212) 679-8166

OurSaviourNYC.org

Planning Your Visit

Our Saviour’s has five Sunday and two daily Masses, daily confessions, weekday novenas, and weekly Eucharistic adoration. Visit the website or call the church for a full schedule.