Saint Dymphna a saint for our times

Saint Dymphna, a 7th century Irish saint, took refuge in Geel among the Flemish. The glass shows an Irish harp, a crown (she was daughter of a kingling), and the sword he beheaded her. She is the patroness, primarily, of mental illness; but also: anxiety, depression, stress, mental and neurological  conditions. Beyond that, she is also a patroness, of runaways, and survivors of incest and sexual assault. One would think she would be better known considering her scope of patronage, and how all those ills  are so serious, and widespread among us.

The first church dedicated to her is in G(h)eel, i read that the first in the United States was in Massillon Ohio. Geel has been known since, at least, the 13th century for the successful treatment of mental illness. In a practice that is still considered too radical, and revolutionary; patients stay in town with a unrelated family, and return to hospital at night. For it was in Geel she went to hide from the incestuous attentions of her father.

A chapel and shrine to St. Dymphna was built on the grounds of  Massillon State Hospital, and was dedicated on her feast day (May 15th) 1938. Catholic Order of Foresters paid for the building. In 1892, the hospital opened as Eastern Ohio Mental Asylum, and was the first state hospital in the United States. Its name has been changed three times, it is now called Heartland Behavioral Health Center. When it was built, the hospital had many employees and over three thousand patients. The patients dwindled to well under two hundred. The chapel was closed in November 2012, and the shrine moved to St. Mary's in Massillon. I heard that, the chapel burned. Some of the religious items, and sacred art went to St. Mary's. The fotos above are from a three panel window, now part of a light box in the baptistery room of St. Mary's.

Very early in the afternoon of August 4th, 2015 a fire began by an electrical outlet in the baptistery of St. Mary Massillon. The statue of Dymphna became charcoal. The baptismal fount had a granite base, temperatures of 2900°F melted some of the stone. Black soot coated the rest of the church. Months of scaffolding was needed to clean the ceiling, and walls, and then to paint them. Mass was then held on Christmas Eve of 2016.

The present church was built in 1876 in Gothic Revival, as a German parish. The stone tracery of a rose window has a star. The nave windows are newer, and are dalles de verre, and i did not get good fotos of them.

The front of the church has statues of Mary and Child, Peter, and Paul. This is Peter above. That is not a crown, but spikes to deter pigeons.

The parish has a graveyard in the back.

lost and found window sill

2021 Miscellany #7

 

Yestereve, there were visiting celebrity birds at the Lorain Impound. Saw a glossy ibis, mostly the butt end. Birdie in the phragmites, viewed over water, and behind a thin line of phragmites--foto fail. In the last minutes of light, visited the rose garden at Lakeview Park. Played with flash. Early in the rose season, but that near 90 degree day was not good for the blooms.

very young bunches of grapes

St. Colman beyond the electric rail line, as viewed through a small link fence on West 44th.

Twin cannons repositioned to face E. 116th entrance of Calvary Cemetery. It is now in front of St. Margaret of Hungary Parish Memorial. A Christian burial ground should not look like a military cemetery. [foto May 26th]

Garfield's Gargoyles

 

President and Mrs. James Garfield are buried in Lake View Cemetery Cleveland. The graveyard is marking its 150 years with a clean up and restoration of the monument. Acid rain, industrial soot, other pollution, and weathering have discolored and deteriorated the building.  Scaffolding has been removed, which was used to clean the stone, patch the mortar, and remove vegetation. This foto is from 5 August 2020.

On top of the dome, below the roof are six gargoyles. Another six are below the belvedere. Gargoyle is related to gargle, for they are rain spouts carved as grotesques. Latin, French, Spanish, Portuguese all have similar words for throat, or gullet. Do not know if these are functional here after restoration.

before cleaning on 8 16 11 [quality and quantity of light determines clarity and color]

after cleaning on 8 1 20

 before cleaning on 7 23 17

after cleaning on 7 20 20

before cleaning on 8 5 11

 
after cleaning on 8 5 20

 after cleaning on 8 1 20

after cleaning on 8 5 20

after cleaning on 8 5 20

summer east side foto safari

It is a hot summer, and we are supposed to be six feet away from passerbys. Hounds are to be walked. One scenic place, with trees, and little traffic is Lake View Cemetery. In the Metroparks, we have to move over for bicycles; not so there. The landscaping, and graves are well maintained, and there is much to see. This statue is of a girl pushing a wheelbarrow., don't know the sculptor, or date of installation; but it has been recently shown in promotion.

This is of similar art. It is on Cleveland State's campus, and is part of a larger work. The sculptor had created the work in miniature, and i suppose someone asked him for a life size, The original was called "Memories". This has been there at least from 2017. Paul Tadlock is a prolific sculptor from New Braunfels Texas.

This is part of a grave sculpture for a married couple at Lake View. This cropping looks like a portal.

buckeyes in growth

Paul Tadlock's smith is across Fenn Tower, and promoting engineering at the college. This version is "Learning the Trade".

National Town and Country Club opened in 1930, and had one event (a Christmas lunch), and Hoover's Depression closed it. It is 22 stories high (then Cleveland's third tallest building), and was bought by Fenn College in 1937, and has been Fenn Tower since.  Fenn College was the precursor to Cleveland State University. Fenn was on of the three founders of Sherwin-Williams Paint Co., he was the one not named Sherwin or Williams. There are three art deco rams on the front.

This painting is new at #GraffitiHeart building on Superior & East 49th.

Her head looks similar to Peace in the Cultural Gardens [click], but also the Guardian Pylons on the Lorain&Carnegie Bridge. Artist Beau Stanton of Brooklyn and Los Angeles had some more painting to go, and the weekend will be/was rainy. Whether the flower is a lotus, or dahlia is your guess.

Daffodils by thousands

 

I have been looking at the spring bloom of daffodils at Lake View Cemetery since 2012. This is easily, the best in that memory. In this time of respiratory plague, some people have time, but few places to go; and this spot is great. Only thing that was needed was more light. It was grey, and the sun could not burn through the clouds. If the sun was out, the color would have been more brilliant still.

 

2017 Miscellany #9

  outside Firestone High Akron

Patrick Garnett, one of the greasy pole climbers at St. Rocco's

hawk on railroad bridge Cleveland Calvary Cemetery

 

gravestones behind Lakewood Historical Society, bodies interred elsewhere

 

Cleveland Cultural Gardens passport

no kicking of tires

gargoyle

The roof of the porch of the war chapel at Glendale Cemetery Akron Ohio has two gargoyles.

twa greyhunds visit a graveyard

Cleveland's prestige graveyard is Lake View. There is a spot, they call Daffodil Hill. There is a regular parking spot before it, for a dozen plus vehicles. To-day, would reach near 80º, that lot was near full when we came. The twa greyhunds found their way into the blooming bulbs.

Bishop Koudelka

Joseph Maria Koudelka *1852 Chilstova, Bohemia; Superior, Wisconsin 1921†.

Between the suppressed St. Procop Catholic Church and Interstate 90 there lays St. Mary's Cemetery. When entering from West 41st there is the Priests' Circle. A dozen, mostly German, priests are buried. One was a bishop. His monument has Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The sheep on the left stands on two legs, recently twisted wire was inserted in the stump of a third leg. A plaque has been absent for awhile, scrappers? and neglect.

Koudelka's family came to America (Wisconsin) in 1869. He entered the seminary in Milwaukee and transferred to Cleveland in 1874. Koudelka was ordained a deacon in February 1875 and was given charge of St. Procop. Procop's was the first Czech (Bohemian) parish on the west side of Cleveland, founded in 1872. In October of '75, Fr. Koudelka said his first Mass. In May 1882 Koudelka went to St. Louis, Missouri to edit a Catholic Czech publication. His parish refused any other priest, and was put under an inderdict (Bishop Gilmour suspended access to sacraments) from February '84 to July '85 when an acceptable priest was named pastor.

In 1883 a mission of German speaking St. Mary Cleveland was raised to a parish. The first pastor was Joseph Koudelka, he was called back from St. Louis. Koudelka was a polyglot, a writer, and an artist and well received by the Germans. His new St. Michael's was for years the most impressive church in the city, and is still a landmark from miles away in many directions.

In 1908 [February 25], he was ordained an auxiliary bishop for special pastoral care for the Slavonic peoples. The Catholic Church in Cleveland suffered ethnic rivalries. There was a division between "the English" and "the Germans". The "English" were Irish; and "the Germans" were those whose first language was not English. There were no real English, and inside the city most of the "Germans" were not German. Cleveland's bishop was Ignatius Horstmann, *1840 Philadelphia, 1908 [May 13]†. The Irish clergy boycotted the ordination of the first auxiliary, and none signed the book of witness. This was reflected nationally too, Irish bishops were not fond of the 'new migration' from Europe.

In 1911 Koudelka was auxiliary in Milwaukee. In 1913 he became bishop of Superior, Wisconsin. When he died, his requiem was held at St. Michael's, and he was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery Cleveland.

portrait on episcopal chair at Saint Michael Cleveland

previously posted at: http://bones1234.blogspot.com/2012/08/bishop-koudelka.html
a related essay: http://bones1234.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-pastoral-care-of-sheep.html
another such: http://bones1234.blogspot.com/2012/09/kasimir-reichlin.html