Category: Divine Stone

Tom Fedorek became a docent at the Cathedral in 1984. He knew Alan Bird and several of the cutters and carvers. He is now the Senior Volunteer Guide. His video presentations on the Portal of Paradise are must see and hear. They cover the history of this 12 year endeavor, the design elements and the people who worked on it. Additionally, the biblical connections are defined. Each of the four episodes are important. If you don’t have time at one sitting for them all, please come back. Enjoy Tom Fedorek’s guide to the Portal of Paradise.

Episode 1 – 8 minutes, 12 seconds

Episode 2 – 13 minutes, 53 seconds

Episode 3 – 13 minutes, 39 seconds

Episode 4 – 15 minutes, 58 seconds

In this last video, there isn’t the usual discussion of the base for the final statue, that of John the Baptist. We asked Tom to tell us about the carver of that base and its symbolism. Here is what he told us.

“The base stone was carved by Jean-Claude Marchionni. JC’s work tends to be busier and more roughly textured than Simon’s.

“As for the symbolism, Isaiah writes of the prophet called to announce the coming of the Lord and the deliverance of his people from exile: ‘A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God’. (Isaiah 40:3) The Gospel writers understood John the Baptist, the immediate forerunner of Jesus, to be his prophet. All four Gospels refer to John as ‘the voice of one crying in the wilderness.’ “

I believe we are intended to interpret the ears on the base stone as the world waiting expectantly to at long last hear the voice prophesied by Isaiah

– Tom Fedorek

Lastly, of note is the small dog with the camera around its neck. The dog’s name is Cooper and celebrates both Martha Cooper, a photographer who documented the portal carving project for four years, as well as the thousands of camera-toting tourists who flock to the Cathedral each year. This concludes Tom Fedorek’s Guide to the Portal of Paradise.

• We are indebted to Tom Fedorek for his presentations and his knowledge of the Cathedral, and the overall work of the Department of Education and Visitor Services.
• As well, our gratitude to Ruth Whaley, Manager, Community and Educational Initiatives for the work that they do.

We are saddened to learn of the passing of Mary Bloom, photographer. Mary was a photographer-in-residence at the Cathedral for twenty years. Her many images documented the events and people who came and went during those times. Her time at the Cathedral coincided with the Dean Morton Era stoneyard and of course she photographed that as well.

Nelson Mandela was one of the distinguished people who came to the Cathedral. While she could have photographed him anywhere in that magnificent building, she led him to the stoneyard. There, she placed him by the carving of his likeness. She said she wanted the stone carver to know that Mandela had seen the carving.

Feast of St. Francis, the Annual Blessing of the Animals

For 30 years, on the first Sunday in October, the Cathedral holds the Blessing of the Animals. It was this past Sunday. Mary was one of the c0-founders, an event that Dean Morton brought to life. Most years she organized the procession up the great aisle to the altar in the central crossing.

Additionally, Mary spent many years as the staff photographer for the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

Along with Robert F. Rodriguez, Martha Cooper and Deborah Doerflien, Mary Bloom – photographer preserved the visual story of the Cathedral and the stoneyard. For this we are grateful.

Mary corresponded with us a month ago saying that she was again starting to scan the images she wanted to share with us. In closing, she said “Sorry for the delay…life gets in the way.”

We hope she is now being greeted by the throngs of animals she adored.

Photojournalist Robert F. Rodriguez chronicled the Dean Morton Era stoneyard almost from its beginning. He has been in the process of digitizing thousands of his images. As he began digitizing this latest batch, he was struck with the fact that they were images he took forty years ago. Today, Robert sent them to us and we are grateful.

Robert’s images here capture a day in the life of the stoneyard. Everyone busy, active, producing stones for the Southwest Tower. We see large quarry blocks that have arrived and soon to be marked for sawing.

As he saw these images after all this time, he thinks about them and well….Robert says it best…

” April 13, 1981 seemed like a routine day in the stoneyard… all the stonecutters were at their bankers, the clink-clink of chisels reverberating. Alan Bird and Ruben Gibson were playing an unending game of musical limestone blocks. They were squeezing cut stones into tight spaces. A small group of well dressed tourists stopped by to see progress.

• 

• 

• 

…But seen through a 40 year prism, the day becomes a snapshot, a day preserved, a day recorded for posterity.

I’ve been scanning and digitizing my stoneyard negatives for some time now and, as I was entering the date, it stuck me that these seemingly mundane events at the stoneyard happened exactly forty years ago. How the years have passed and I feel fortunate that I can look back at the day and have a record to show what happened.

My photographs show a busy banker area with Jose Tapia and James Jamerson working so closely together that they were almost back to back… Poni Baptiste meticulously checking her stone against the zinc templates…Nelson Otero, usually working on the planer, picking up a chisel to work on stone.

• 

• 

• 

The sawing and cutting area was so crammed with a recent delivery of limestone blocks that they could barely find room for the finished stones until they could be stacked outside. Alan Bird, Ruben Gibson and Robert Stanley gingerly hoisted stones and stacked them like huge puzzle pieces.

Truthfully, nothing special happened that day and I have a record to show how my dear colleagues went about their business on this very ‘uneventful’ day.” – Robert F. Rodriguez

• We are indebted to Robert F. Rodriguez for sharing the events of Forty Years Ago, Tuesday, April 13, 1981

The Cathedral dedicated “The Sacrifice” in 1923. They placed the sculpture in the Chapel of St. Ansgar. The Chapel is one of the seven Chapels of Tongues radiating around the Apse and surrounding the Sanctuary. Malvina Hoffman, one of America’s foremost sculptors, carved the 4 1/2 ton piece. She used Caen Stone, a French limestone.

Sculptor Malvina Hoffman

Malvina Hoffman (1885-1966) was born in New York and studied art at several schools there. She became enamored of sculpture as she discovered what she could accomplish with this 3 dimensional medium. She moved to Paris to work and study where she participated in prize winning salon work. While in Paris, she persisted in her desire to work with Auguste Rodin, finally convincing him of her value and talent.

Off and on over the next seven years, until Rodin’s death in 1917, the French master helped Hoffman. He helped her to improve her technical knowledge and understanding of carving, modeling and foundry techniques. Additionally, under Rodin, she improved her artistic discipline and expressive abilities. Student and teacher developed a close friendship and when World War I broke out in 1914, Hoffman helped Rodin store his sculptures before she returned to the United States. After her return to New York, Hoffman improved her understanding of the human form by studying anatomy at the city’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.

“The Sacrifice”

Hoffman’s first major sculpture after the war was “The Sacrifice” a massive memorial to Harvard University’s war dead. In the piece, we see the head of a 12th-century crusader lay on the lap of a draped woman. Mrs. Robert Bacon commissioned the sculpture in memory of her late husband, the U.S. ambassador to France and the alumni of Harvard University who lost their lives during World War I. “The Sacrifice”, dedicated in 1923 at the Cathedral, stayed in St. Ansgar’s Chapel until 1932. It was then that the newly completed War Memorial Chapel at Harvard installed the piece.

The representation of the dead Crusader stands for those who went from Cambridge, England in the 12th century and gave their lives for an ideal. The Crusader is lying upon a cross with his head pillowed in a woman’s lap. According to the traditional position of the feet, this crusader never reached Jerusalem. Crossed feet would indicate one who had made it. The woman may typify Alma Mater (nourishing mother) as well as those women who gave their best to a great cause and made their lonely grief their glory. The two figures symbolize mutual sacrifice.

Caen Stone

Divine Stone celebrates its first year of telling the story of the stonework at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. 52 posts, one a week, all of which can be viewed in the “Archives”, tell part of the story of the amazing stonework and the amazing people who created it.  We are indebted to all who have helped bring these small stories to life through sharing their information, experiences and photos. We are also grateful for the many repositories of historical information from the Library of Congress to the New York Times’ archives that we have used to develop our content, especially for the older periods of construction.

There has been no particular timeline or sequence for the stories posted and this will continue.  We may see Angel Escobar’s graduation just before or after the Cornerstone for the Nave being laid.  We post stories as they develop, but in no particular order. They can easily be reordered for a particular flow, for instance, for a book version of the project.

Going Forward

Going forward in our second year, there will be be a few more posts during architects Heins & La Farge’s construction period culminating with the 1911 consecration of the Cathedral.  We will review the change in architects to that of Cram & Ferguson. As well, we’ll follow the construction of the Nave and the West Front ending with the outbreak of WWII.  There will be a continued focus on the Dean Morton era Stoneyard Institute and posts about the many people who worked on the Southwest Tower.  We will discuss the brief effort of Cathedral Stoneworks. The carvings at the Portal of Paradise will be a high point as we near the end of this phase of Divine Stone. 

We welcome guest authors, storytellers and any others that can add to the stories.  So many people helped make the first year a reality.  Please continue to support us. If you maintain a website of your own, consider a link to www.divinestone.org

The frequency of posting will likely slow somewhat to allow for more research and reaching out.  Mark is working on an article about the Cathedral and our project for a national magazine.

We hope everyone stays warm and safe.

Roger Murphy & Mark Saxe