Favorite Churches Meme

Fr. Longenecker has listed his 10 favorite churches. I assume that to properly participate in this meme you'd have to have actually been to all of the churches you list. Fr. Longenecker didn't tag me, but here's my list in no particular order:

St. Joseph's / Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel, Columbia, VA


Bishop Emeritus Walter F. Sullivan blessed the new grotto
featuring a statue of St. Katharine Drexel with two children
at St. Joseph’s/Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel in Columbia, Virginia
on December 17, 2006. Image Source: The Catholic Virginian.
This was the first parish I attended as a Catholic. It is also the parish where my 2 sons were baptized. You can read about the historical importance of this small parish here.


St. Mary, Mother of the Redeemer, Norwalk, OH


Image Source: Alex Fries
This is my parish church. My 2 daughters were baptized here.


Cathedral of Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, Toledo, OH


Image Source: Toledo Museum of Art
From the Rosary Cathedral website:

The Diocese of Toledo is not a century old and yet for well over forty years of its history, the cathedral or chair of its bishops has sat in this, Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral, as a sign of the presence of the shepherd-servant of Christ’s people in northwestern Ohio. The Cathedral, a masterpiece of art and a monument of immigrant faith, most recently experienced a new birth as the mother church of Toledo in its renewal and renovation according to the directives of the Second Vatican Council. In 1979, Bishop John Donovan, our fifth shepherd, re-dedicated the altar (now brought forward to the people) amid a grateful throng who prayed, praised, and applauded with great gusto on the evening of September 18, opening a fresh chapter in diocesan history. As the mother church of the over 131 parishes of our diocese, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, leads the way as a twentieth century, renovated house of worship, while remaining an American-Medieval Cathedral of Spanish Plateresque style—an album of art; a sacred site; a story of faith in stone, paint, precious metal, glass, and wood.

Mission San Jose, San Antonio, TX

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From Wikipedia:

Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo was established in 1720. Located at 6519 San Jose Drive, it was designated the San Jose Mission National Historic Site in 1941. The historic site was administratively listed on the National Register on October 15, 1966. Mission San Jose was founded by Father Antonio Margil de Jesús.

Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham - Slipper Chapel, Little Walsingham, Norfolk, England



Image Source: First 3 photos from Official Shrine Site of Our Lady of Walsingham (by permission); Photo of image of Our Lady in Slipper Chapel by Catholic Mom of 10
In 1934, the English Bishops named the Slipper Chapel the Roman Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady. The Slipper Chapel's first Mass since the Reformation was celebrated there on August 15, 1934, and on September 8, 1938, the Shrine was re-consecrated by the local Bishop. The most important image in the Chapel is the Statue of Our Lady of Walsingham.


St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle


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This chapel, constructed by Henry III in the early 13th century, and dedicated to St. Edward the Confessor, underwent a radical overhaul during the 14th century reign of Edward III, and was rededicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. George - England's patron saint, to whom the king had personal devotion, and St. Edward the Confessor. St. George's Chapel is most recently famous as the site of the "Service of Prayer and Dedication" following the Marriage of HRH The Prince of Wales (a.k.a. Charles) and HRH The Duchess of Cornwall (a.k.a Camilla).


Gloucester Cathedral, Gloucester, England

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Famous for its beautiful cloisters - used to film some of the school scenes in the Harry Potter movies - and its collection of Green Men, Gloucester Cathedral is probably my favorite amongst the Cathedrals and churches we visited while in England. We arrived early in the morning, so we had the run of the place for a while. The kids loved running around the vast expanse and listening to the reverberation of their voices. Wonderful gift shop - we spent waaaaay too much money here. Just outside the Cathedral Close, through a medieval arched gateway, sits the site of the house of the Tailor of Gloucester, made famous in Beatrix Potter's tale of the same name.


King's College Chapel, Cambridge, England



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It took over 100 years and 6 kings to build King's College Chapel. Begun by Henry VI in 1446, it was finally completed by Henry VIII in 1547. The chapel has a marvelous vault ceiling, which is unsupported by any columns, having only the external walls as means of support. King's College Chapel is probably most famous for the King's College Choir, which perfoms Choral Evensong daily during term at Cambridge and performs the world-renowned Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve.


Catholic Church of Our Lady and St. Finnan, Glenfinnan, Scotland

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The following is from a news article from Historic Scotland describing a Historic Scotland grant the church has received:

This is a Roman Catholic Church built by E W Pugin in 1873 in an area distinguished by its strong post-Reformation RC presence. It contributes by its setting to the sensitive and important wider visual and historical landscape of Glenfinnan. Architecturally, it is a competent work by a nationally known firm of architects and is B-listed. Within a dominantly Presbyterian Scotland, Catholic survival/17th century missionary driven revival were important elements in Lochaber’s historical development. In this context, the building of the church and the choice of site has great cultural resonance. Glenfinnan, at the head of Loch Sheil, was the place where Prince Charles Edward Stuart raised his standard in 1745 – representative of the Catholic Stuart claim to the throne. The church is set on a high knoll and overlooks the Glenfinnan Monument which commemorates the event.

This church is the only church in the U.K. with a monument to Prince Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie).


Dunkeld Cathedral, Dunkeld, Scotland

Image Source: The copyright on this image is owned by Alison Stamp and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License (cc-by-sa-2.0). In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it under this or a similar cc-by-sa license.
From Wikipedia:

Dunkeld Cathedral stands on the north bank of the River Tay in Dunkeld, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Built in square-stone style of predominantly gray sandstone, the cathedral proper was begun in 1260 and completed in 1501. It stands on the site of the former Culdee Monastery of Dunkeld, stones from which can be seen as an irregular reddish streak in the eastern gable.

Because of the long construction period, the cathedral shows mixed architecture. Gothic and Norman elements are intermingled throughout the structure. Although partly in ruins, the cathedral is in regular use today and is open to the public. A small museum offers a collection of relics from monastic and Medieval times.

Relics of Saint Columba, including his bones, were said to have been kept at Dunkeld until the Reformation, at which time they were removed to Ireland. Some believe there are still undiscovered Columban relics buried within the cathedral grounds.

The original monastery at Dunkeld dated from the sixth or early seventh century, founded after an expedition of Saint Columba to the Land of Alba. It was at first a simple collection of wattle huts. During the ninth century Caustantín mac Fergusa constructed a more substantial monastery of reddish sandstone and declared Dunkeld the Primacy (center) of the faith in Alba.

Tag: Anyone else interested in doing this.