Month: February 2025

If you look up at this elevation today you won’t see twelve statues, but you will see two on the west front. Tom Fedorek, Senior Guide, pointed them out to me last fall and indicated their names, St. Andrew and St.Philip.

The statues begin on the east face of the north tower, proceed to the north face, then march across the west front and are supposed to wrap around the south tower and end on the east facade of the south tower. Only 5 of the Apostles were sculpted and carved.

Tom has graciously sent us the names, images and locations as well as the iconographic attributes that identify these five apostles. They are eight feet tall, 3 1/2 tons and are of Indiana limestone.

The Sculptor and The Carver

We have not found documentation verifying the five apostles’ sculptor and carver. John Angel worked on the north tower. His sculptures appear on the porch, the portal of the martyrs. He also sculpted the tympanum and the trumeau featuring St. Peter. The Ardolinos, brothers and cousins, carved his models. The Ardolinos carved most of these in situ in the 1930s. The figures of the five Apostles appear to be studio carved and then placed in the buttress niches. For now, the attribution points towards John Angel and the Ardolinos.

■

• A Guide To The Cathedral Church Of Saint John The Divine In The City of New York, originally compiled by Edward Hagaman Hall, L.H.D, published by the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church, 1965, Seventeenth Edition.
• The Living Cathedral, St. John the Divine, A History and Guide, Howard E. Quirk, 1993, Crossroad, New York.
• Senior Guide, Tom Fedorek, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

On January 19, 2025, President Joe Biden commuted Leonard Peltier’s sentence. He will be free to serve the remainder of his sentence at home under home confinement. Leonard has served 50 years of two consecutive life sentences in various institutions. His home will be with the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota. For forty years, there has been a connection between the Cathedral and Leonard Peltier’s eagle.

Leonard’s sentence, was the result of a shoot-out near the Pine Ridge reservation in June of 1975, where two FBI agents were killed. Leonard, who has always maintained his innocence, was convicted of these killings. Many in law enforcement fought against any type of clemency for Peltier. Many others, including the Dalai Lama, Pope Francis and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark fought for it, as did many human rights organizations worldwide and Dean James Parks Morton. We are reminded that there are always three sides to every story.

In 1985, Dean Morton assembled a group supporting Leonard’s freedom at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Among them was Steve Robideau, President of the American Indian Movement, Chief Billy Redwing Tayac and civil rights attorney William Kunstler.

The Carving

Leading up to the gathering, Dean Morton approached Master Carver Nick Fairplay and asked him to carve something representing Leonard to go on the Cathedral. Nick had recently carved an eagle to go up on the Southwest Tower and was about to begin on another creature for the same size stone to be near it.

Fairplay decided on a second eagle to go with the first, but this time with the face of Leonard Peltier. He was provided a photograph and went to work.

The Forum concluded with a ceremony at the altar of the Cathedral featuring Native American customs and traditional Anglican rituals.

■

• White House Press Release, The White House, January 20, 2025, Statement from President Joe Biden.
• With Companions for the Journey, James Parks Morton, An Annotated Memoir, Pamela Morton and Polly Barton, 2021.
• Special thanks to Pamela Morton for the many images of the Cathedral events and Nick Fairplay’s involement.
• Thank you to Divine Stone co-author for the historic images of the canopy stones.