As i have mentioned, there is a Saint Joan of Arc chapel in St. Jerome's Church, Cleve., O. Everyone should see it. There used to be two tabernacles at St. Jerome's. One had been on the high altar, but it was decided to have just one to confirm with rubrics. It rests on an altar in the transept with the windows that tell Saint Joan's story.
Now, Saint Joan was belatedly canonised. Her case was written in the transcripts of her trial. She held up under the persecution of Bishop Cauchon, an employee of the english government in occupied France. She was faultless in her faith.
She became the spirit of French resistance for all time. This accidental warrior was in the popular imagination a knight. In World War I, she became a propaganda poster to sell US war bonds. Her image has been used to sell cheese, and all sorts of things. Her story has been told in wonderful plays and movies, and in wretched ones.
Ste. Jeanne d'Arc is what we wish her to be. She will always be connected with a romanticism of bravery, a constancy of divine purpose. The shortened form of the answer she gave to a woman, whom asked her why go on such a dangerous path?, has been, “I am not afraid. I was born to do this.”
Poster created by Tom Pepper for Mohawk College, Brantford Ontario.
The vault of the nave of St. Jerome's, Collinwood has six wooden arches. Each terminates with a grotesque, twelve cornice chimeras. What are they? Not all architectural decoration is easily decipherable. Without the original description, a later onlooker conjectures, or surrenders.
They are inside, and not stone. Outside, if they spat out water they would be functioning gargoyles. Now, since Jerome is sometimes depicted with a lion, lion characteristics might they be. No, manes do not flow out of one's mouth. The eyes are anthropoid. Chimeras are mythological monsters pastiched together.
The profile has stylized ten petaled flowers. Many flowers follow a Fibonacci number [... 5, 8, 13, 21 ...]. The genus of passiflora [passionflower] has ten petals, and often are vines. Spanish (and others) religious folklore associates the flowers with Christ's Passion.
The flower looks more like an anemone. There are also more than an hundred species. There are poppy anemone, a group of Saint Brigid's. Which have ten petals? Many anemones have five to eight. The anemone [Greek mythology] came up from Adonis' blood. Are these carved blossoms chimera too?
Saint Jerome's was consecrated on the 9th of October 1994. The, then, associate pastor Fr. Anthony Cassese joyfully told people at Mass, the candles of consecration guaranteed that the church would be open, and could not be closed. He told that not all churches were consecrated, but now Saint Jerome's was.
The diocesan document quotes the words of God to Solomon:
"And the Lord said...'I have consecrated this temple which you have built; I confer my name upon it forever, and my eyes and heart shall be there always." I Kings 9:3
But then again, that is old language, under an old régime. Collinwood was spared a proposed, and expected, parish elimination. The only group which was ordered to reduce, and did not. Parishioners had feared that Jerome's had gotten the short straw. They were extremely displeased with the 'clustering process' at the time. Many are still upset.
There is an Eucharistic Chapel at St. Jerome in Cleveland. It is dedicated to St. Joan of Arc. Joan was not recognised as a saint because of her rôle as Saviour of France, but as a faithful christian under extreme duress and trial. The former bishop of Beauvais, Peter Cauchon was her persecutor.
St. Jerome used to have two tabernacles, one was on the high altar, and one was to the side by the Joan windows. After a time, it was decided that the parish church should only have the one, the one in the chapel. At the time, a comparison was made with St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is unfortunate that people have gone to Mass regularly for years and some have not sat there and 'communed' with God in that spot. At about the time, a man of very modest means, used to sit there for Mass. He turned his chair and faced the congregation. Then, if memory serves well, his life was taken by a snowplow. He travelled without a car.
St. Jerome is still open. They had feared closure. Years before, about the time of the tabernacle change, the church was consecrated. Candles were placed on the nave walls. The current pastor, who had been an associate then, joyfully explained the significance of those candles. A consecrated church had to remain. Unfortunately, that has proven to be a mediæval right, now abrogated. 
The story of Saint Joan appeals to many. A peasant girl who stood against occupying England and their quisling french clerics, whom declared they spoke for God, as they promoted english supremacy.
Another essay, presented on the web, on her day, can be clicked on here.
The windows are presented in pairs. The camera did not process the blue correctly, the blue should be deeply, solidly, truly blue and should not have faded to a sky blue. The red sometimes fades toward yellow.
As i have mentioned, there is a Saint Joan of Arc chapel in St. Jerome's Church, Cleve., O. Everyone should see it. There used to be two tabernacles at St. Jerome's. One had been on the high altar, but it was decided to have just one to confirm with rubrics. It rests on an altar in the transept with the windows that tell Saint Joan's story.
Poster created by Tom Pepper for Mohawk College, Brantford Ontario.
