Built in 1929, St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is located in Seneca Falls, NY. Photo Morgan Gilbard.
95 West Baynard Street, Seneca Falls, NY 13148
(315) 568-5203
Pastor: Fr. James D. Fennessy
Masses: Sunday at 8 and 11 am
Thursday and Friday at 8:30 am
Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic Church. Photo Google Images.
History
The founding congregation of St. Patrick’s, the Catholic Society of Seneca Falls, was founded in 1831. It was composed of eight members under the supervision of Rev. Franklin O’Donohoe. Two other churches have been built and subsequently knocked down on the same site of the current St. Patrick’s since the early 1800s. The St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church standing today was built in 1929, and construction was completed three days before the stock market crash of the Great Depression.
Main Door and Entrance to St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church. Photo Morgan Gilbard.
Outer Iconography
St. Patrick was chosen as the church’s patron saint because the area was originally inhabited by Irish settlers, who also built the nearby Eerie Canal.
A statue of the saint, framed by two vertical rectangular windows and a carved overhang, rests above the north tympanum. Marked by a decorate crozier and mitre, St. Patrick raises one hand and points his head downward, as though looking over those that enter the church. Best known for banishing the snakes from Ireland, St. Patrick is also associated with the shamrock, as he used it to teach Christians the doctrine of the Holy Trinity (Catholic Online). This iconography can be seen repeatedly in the foliage below the Saint’s statue.
Foliage carvings below the statue of St. Patrick, featuring a symbol commonly associated with him, the clover. Photo Morgan Gilbard.
Inside Architecture
St. Patrick’s follows suit with modern Gothic revival churches by running north to south rather than west to east. Although the reasoning behind this decision is unclear, it may because of the canal running west to east only about a mile north of the church; perhaps the architect wanted people on the opposite side of the canal to see the front of the tower rather than the side.
The north entrance opens to a small vestibule containing pamphlets regarding the church’s upcoming events, services, etc. To the right, a spiral staircase leads to a small balcony that overlooks the nave, while the double-doors in the center of the vestibule lead to the nave as well. Like the majority of Catholic churches, St. Patrick’s features a center aisle to allow worshipers to receive communion during services. The east and west tympanums feature side altars and Stations of the Cross for individual prayer. Beyond the wooden cross mounted on the wall of the apse is the sacristy, which is attached to a hallway leading to the priest’s on-site residence.
The church’s nave was purposely designed to be dark, further accentuated by dark wood and stained glass, while the the apse features much lighter wood and stained glass. This was so the priest and altar could be “in the light” of God.
The transept features 12 pillars, each marked with symbols representing the 12 apostles from the Book of Revelations. This is also a reference to heaven being built on the 12 pillars of the apostles.
The church was originally supposed to feature statues lining the nave on either side. However, the church’s construction during the Great Depression forced the congregation to forgo the statues in favor of a set of paintings called the Station of the Cross. These paintings depict the life of Christ and his journey from beginning to end.
The nave of St. Patrick's. Photo Morgan Gilbard.
Stained Glass
St. Patrick’s features 12 archaeological stained glass windows, meant to imitate the stained glass of 13th century Britain, but made by a Rochester company called Pico. The windows feature 24 saints, and a symbol associated with the appropriate saint in the bottom panels.
Photo Morgan Gilbard.
Finger Lakes Gothic Revival 
