St. Thomas the Apostle
Mass Schedule
Mon. - Sat. 8 AM
Saturday 5 PM
Sunday 8 & 11 AM
Holyday Masses
Day Before 5:30 PM
Holyday 8 AM
Confessions
Sat. 3:30 - 4:30 PM
Adoration Chapel
Mon. - Fri.
9 AM - 11 PM
Blessing of expectant mothers and families after Mass on the 1st Sunday of each month.
Irondequoit Catholic Community celebrating over 100 years
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The Church -- A Walk Around Guide
by
Fr. Robert F. McNamara
 | Planning for the present handsome church began in 1958. Ground was broken on March 25, 1963 and the church was dedicated on Palm Sunday, April 11, 1965. Its skeleton is of reinforced concrete poured on the spot and then rubbed down; its walls, inner and outer, are of pink brick. The church was built to seat 1,000, with no obstructed view of the sanctuary. |
The roof over the nave and transepts are thin skins of reinforced concrete, seemingly "saucer domes," but technically "translational shells"; that is, not round but square-ended structures.
Entering the church proper, we look east down the nave to the main altar with its canopy, the altarpiece of the Blessed Trinity and beyond it, the Lady Chapel, which housed the Blessed Sacrament. The floor plan of the church is that of a Greek Cross, the Lady Chapel being the head of the cross, the nave its shank, and the transepts or wings its arms.
| As we walk down the main slate-aisle nave towards the main altar, we will notice the cream-colored stations of the cross that run along the nave walls and around the corners into the transepts. These stations, in high relief, were carved in cast stone in a moderately contemporary style by a Lithuanian-born New York City sculptor, Vytautas Kasuba. He also carved the Last Supper, which is set into the front of the main altar. |  |
Looking at the main altar, it stands under the crown of a sacred canopy or baldachino, it stands forth impressively in a sanctuary rich with slate and marbles supported by uprights of Francia Red. The altar table is of Liotz marble. The base is very Roman: Polished Travertine decorated by "strigilation," a favorite Roman ormentation consisting in rows of vertical "S"-shaped channels carved into the stone.
According to custom, when the altar was consecrated several relics of martyrs were sealed into a receptacle in the back underside of the marble table: Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Thomas the Apostle, St. John the Baptist, and the black martyrs of Uganda (canonized in 1964). In the Holy Year of 1975 Msgr. Burns set in place as a permanent cover of this receptacle a special slab of polished Roman Travertine from St. Peter's Basilica. It was a gift from Count Enrico Galeazzi, official architect of Vatican City.
Among the other items in the sanctuary ensemble are: The rosewood pulpit, the communion rail, and two Baroque gilded pedestal candlesticks of Mexican origin.
| Most eye-catching in the sanctuary composite is the round-framed sculpture of the Holy Trinity. Hammered aluminum, gilded and polychromed, it follows a theological pattern often used by Renaissance artists: The Father sustains the Son on the cross, and between them flutters the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Since Christ is shown crucified, this image also serves as the required altar-crucifix. |  |
None of the windows in the church proper is of "stained glass"; i.e., thin pieced of painted colored glass bound into a pattern by channeled strips of lead. Instead, they are made of thick, irregular chunks of glass bound together by what is called epoxy resin. Chunk glass rivals even the finest stained glass, if not in detail (chunk glass is coarser than leaded glass), at least in richness and monumentality. All the windows are designed by one artist. Most of them are simply abstract patterns, breaking up the light into a host of colors.
 | Looking from the main altar down the main nave we see the west window. It was intended to a Madonna and Child flanked by other saints. All the figures but the Virgin and Child were eventually eliminated. This window is self-explanatory. |
The two transept windows do require further explanation. St. Thomas, the "Twin," picked by Christ as one of the twelve, figures in both. The choice of Thomas the Apostle was appropriate for the name of the church and the windows. Like most of us, he was no saint when called. He was slow to believe and, like the rest of the Apostles, he had forsaken Our Lord after his arrest in Gethsemani. But after the resurrection he became a firm believer; and many years after Pentecost, a heroic martyr.
 | The north window is the "Resurrection Window." We recall that when the risen Jesus first appeared to the Apostles, Thomas was absent. The others told him about the apparition, but he said he would not believe them until he himself saw the Master and examined the wounds of his passion. A week after Easter Sunday, when Christ appeared once again to his disciples, Thomas was there. Jesus showed him the wounds in his hands. This time, Thomas was absolutely convinced. Indeed, he enthusiastically professed his faith in the divinity as well as the humanity of Jesus: "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:38). That final confession put him on a level with St. Mary Magdaline, whom the risen Christ had first sent to the Apostles to announce the good news, "I have seen the Lord!" (John 20:18). Here, in this window, we view the doubting Apostle and the believing woman kneeling in adoration before the glorified Jesus as he shows Thomas his wounded hand. |
Facing this "Resurrection Window" across the church is the south window perhaps best called the "Martyrdom Window."
| Jesus had insisted, in speaking to his disciples, particularly the Apostles, on the importance of the cross. "If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and follow in my steps ... Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will preserve it." (Mark 8:34-35). Peter may have denied Our Lord, and Thomas may have doubted him, but Jesus is always ready to give us a second chance, to allow us time to mature through the bearing of our own crosses. He knew Peter and Thomas, though weak in the flesh were basically strong in spirit. Had not Peter told him, "Lord, at your side I am prepared to face imprisonment and death itself." (Luke 22:33)? Had not Thomas once urged the other Apostles, when Jesus was about to return to hostile Judea, "Let us go along to die with him." (John 11:16)? At the end, having preached the Cross to the world, they were ready to embrace their own crosses.There are many beautiful things in this church. To my mind, the most beautiful is the face of Our Lord in this "Martyrdom Window." Inspired, I imagine, by the stark crosses of the Middle Ages, the artist has put into Christ's countenance a whole world of sadness.In this window, then, we see Christ crucified, his arms extended in welcome to the former denier and the former skeptic. They stand bearing the credentials of their own passion: Peter with the cross on which he hung head downwards; Thomas with the spear that pierced his heart. |  |
As we stand under the central dome we observe the four shrines built into the corners. Three of the shrines feature hand-carved wooden statues from the studio of G. Vinceenzo Mussner, in the famous woodcarving village of Ortisei in northern Italy.
| The northeast shrine is of a virile St. Joseph the Worker |  |
 | The southeast shrine is of Sacred Heart of Jesus |
| The southwest shrine is an unusual statue of St. Anthony of Padua and the Christ-Child. |  |
 | On the other hand, the northwest shrine is a painting: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, foundress of the American Sisters of Charity. The artist, John C. Menihan of Rochester, has represented this very American saint in the central panel of a triptych. Against a background of scenes at her headquarters in Emmitsburg, Maryland, she points heavenward with one hand, while in the other she holds a Rule inscribed with the two chief duties of her sisters: "Heal" and "Teach." On either side of the portrait is a narrative panel. That on the left recalls her work with the sick as a Sister of Charity; that on the right shows her gathering Catholic school children together. |
Although Mother Seton had no direct association with Rochester, her sisters were the first community on nuns to settle here. In 1845 they took charge of our St. Patrick's Orphanage and St. Patrick's School for girls; and in 1857 they established Rochester's first hospital, St. Mary's. Two other items of interest should also be pointed out in connection with this shrine. First, the frame of the triptych is made of wood from a pew of St. Patrick's Cathedral, the first cathedral church of the Diocese of Rochester. Second, our architect, Joseph S. Shanley, was a direct descendant of Mother Seton, who was a widow when she converted from Episcoplianism to Catholicism.
We enter the Eucharistic Lady Chapel through a vast open work screen of wrought iron, the work of Herman Wiemann. The Blessed Sacrament is reserved in a bronze tabernacle transferred from the old church and set on a bright polychrome wooden altar.
 | Here all the lines focus on Christ in the tabernacle. Six bottle-shaped rosewood candlesticks mount the altar steps. Not one but five, antique sanctuary lamps hang lighted before the altar. On the bright brass grill that rises behind the altar, the Mother of the Eucharistic King holds him in her arms. (This polychrome wooded Madonna and Child is a copy of a tender plaster statue long venerated in our "catacomb church.") |  |
The Lady Chapel is also used by the choir at sung Masses. A Rogers electronic organ stands to the right side. Above the two shrines on either side are the chambers constructed to hold the apparatus of a pipe organ, but the true organ has yet to be purchased.
At the right and left exit to the chapel are great, colorful double-hung wooden doors, each carved with symbols representing the four evangelists; Matthew and Mark (north doors) and Luke and John (south doors).
 | Incidentally, in the wall next to the south doors, a brick is missing. No community, no church is ever complete. They are always in the process of becoming, of being formed in the image of Christ. So, therefore, the building is never complete, thus the symbolism of the missing brick signifying our incompleteness without Christ. |
Let us go now to the sacristy, behind the north doors. In general, a sacristy (or vestry) explains itself. It is the room containing the sacred vessels, the vestments, and whatever else is used in church services.
First, let me call the two processional crosses to your attention. The lighter one dates from about 1990. Made of walnut, it was designed and executed by Joseph McCutcheon, a student at Rochester Institute of Technology. The corpus is bronze. The heaver cross is particularly interesting in that the carved corpus is carved in the round right into the wood of the cross.
The two other smaller statutes in the sacristy are of St. Peter and St. Paul, at the left end and the right end of the vestry case.
If the windows of the church are of "Faceted dalles" or chunk glass set in epoxy resin, the coats of arms of the Rochester bishops in the sacristy windows are true stained glass, ( thin pieces of colored bubbled glass bound together by lead strips). The six windows on the north wall are group in no special order around the coat-of-arms of Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Montini) whose shield, crowned with the papal tiara, shows a play on the Pope's family name, "Montini" (in Italian, "little mountains").
| At the far left, the arms of Bishop John F. O'Hern (1929-1933) likewise involve a word play: There herons suggest his surname. His Latin motto, " Servire regnare est" meand "To reign is to serve." |  | ||
 | Next comes Bishop Thomas F. Hickey (1909-1928). His motto is "Fides et constantia", "Faith and Constancy." | ||
| The third shield is that of Bishop James E. Kearney (1937-1966), and the motto is "In Te Domine sepravi.", "In Thee have I hope, O Lord." |  | ||
| The arms of Pope Paul VI (1863-1978) occupy the central spot because he was pope when the church was built. |  | ||
 | Next to his shield on the right is that of Bishop Bernard J. McQuaid, the founding bishop of Rochester (1868-1909). His arms feature the cross of St. Andrew, who was patron saint of the ancient diocese of Rochester in England. His motto was "Salus animarum lex suprema.", "The salvation of souls is the supreme law." | ||
| Next comes the escutcheon of Archbishop Edward Mooney, bishop of Rochester, 1933-1937. Since Mooney had the personal title of archbishop, he is given a two-barred archbishop's cross and eight rather than six tassels. (Speaking of tassels: a deacon has two, priest four, bishop six and archbishop eight). Mooney was created a cardinal as Archbishop of Detroit in 1946, so his episcopal hat is not green( like the others), but red. Properly, however, the hat should then have the 14 red tassels of a cardinal. His motto, "Domine servientes" means "Serving the Lord." |  |
 | The last shield on the north side is that of Fulton J. Sheen (1966-1969). His motto is "Da per Materm me venire.", "Let me come to You through your Mother." |  |
The five windows on the east side are reserved for the blazons of bishops after 1969. Two are filled.
 | The first is that of Bishop Joseph L. Hogan (1969-1979). His motto is "Libentissime impendar et superimpendar.", "I will most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your sakes." |  |
 | Bishop Matthew H. Clark (1979- ) whose shield reflects that of John Paul II, the pope who consecrated him, chose a vernacular motto: " God's love endures forever." |  |
Leaving the church by way of the south entrance we go into the south vestibule en route to the baptistry. In ancient days, baptistries were buildings outside the church to signify that baptism gave the privilege of entering the Church. Our baptistry is at some distance from the south entrance. The handsome wrought iron gates, ornamented with gilded baptismal reference (John the Baptist baptizing the Lord, and fish swimming), are another creation of Herman Wiemann. The marble font is from the old church.
Let us return, finally, to the west entrance, but by way of a path outside the church building. There was to have been a concrete bell-tower, 143 feet high, crowning the baptistry. Money ran short, however, and all that was constructed was the base of the four-sided spire. The spire remains, and will probably always remain , a dream rather than a reality.
 | As we continue our walk from the south to the west entrance we pass the grave of Msgr. Richard K. Burns who was the second pastor of St. Thomas and the builder of the present church building. |
