Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Notre Dame)

other basilicas of the same name

In 1686, Fr. Claude Jean Allouez, S. J., established the Ste Marie des Lacs mission on the south shore of the St. Mary's lake, in order to serve the local Potawatomi tribe along with French trappers and settlers in the area. The French Catholic missionaries were expelled by the British from the area following the French and Indian War in 1763, but in 1832 Ste Marie des Lacs was re established by Stephen Badin and the Log Chapel was built.

When Rev. Edward Sorin, C. S. C., established the University of Notre Dame, the community held religious services in the small log cabin built by Stephen Badin. This was replaced by a larger log cabin built by Sorin and dedicated on 19 March 1843, slightly to the east of Badin's log chapel and about the same size. Sorin's log chapel had become much too small for the needs of the growing college, and despite the lack of funds, Sorin decided to start construction on a proper church building in August 1847. School leaders decided to spend $1500 to construct a new edifice. Work began on 25 May 1848, and the structure was dedicated on 12 November the following year. The solemn consecration took place a year later, on 11 November 1849, with Bishop of Vincennes, Maurice de St. Palais presiding. The building was 90 feet long, 38 wide, and 20 high, with twin towers on its front, and was located next to the college building. The church was built in Carpenter Gothic. The chancel organ had 1527 pipes and part of the statuary was donated by King Louis Philippe of France. The church contained two round stained glass windows purchased from the Carmel du Mans Glassworks of Le Mans. A third window, a gift to Sorin from the Carmelites, depicted “The Divine Face.” The infant was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery before being moved to the family plot at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.

The university's needs soon outgrew the small first church and in spring of 1869 the leaders decided to build a new church dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, despite the lack of funds in the school's treasury. Popular architect Patrick Keely drew the first plans which envisioned a baroque plan similar to the Church of the Gesu in Rome. Because of the limited budget, the church at Notre Dame was not to be as large or as elaborate as the Roman edifice, but rather the size of the church of the same name in Montreal. The original plan featured a cruciform church two hundred feet in length with three naves and a transept, a dome over the crossing, two large bell towers, and a capacity of 2,000. The estimated cost would be around $100,000. Fr. Sorin decided that these plans were too grandiose, and that the church could not cost more than half that sum, since at the moment they had only about $8,000 at hand. In January 1870, a new architect, Mr. T. Brady from St. Louis, drew new plans for the church. It is not sure who drew the definite plans, but it is likely that also Fr. Sorin, Rev. Alexis Granger, C. S. C., and Irish born Brother Charles Borromeo Harding, C. S. C., a self taught campus builder, were part of the planning and building. The new church was erected in Gothic Revival architecture rather than baroque, reflecting Fr. Sorin's French taste and his will to build a remarkable and striking landmark. When the new church was begun in 1870, Fr. Sorin decided to order glass windows from the Carmel du Mans Glassworks, owned by the Carmelite nuns, who had provided windows for the first church in 1863 and with whom Sorin had a long standing relationship. This was a large order, which amounted to more than 450 square meters of glass. Meanwhile, the Carmel du Mans Glassworks had been suffering financial troubles, also in part due to the Franco Prussian war of 1870. To keep the business solvent and the workers employed, the Carmelites replaced the windows of their own chapel in 1871, featuring Carmelite saints (these drawings would also be re used in the windows sold to Notre Dame). In 1873, the Carmelite nuns sold the Glasswork business to Edouard Rathouis, glasswork importer and nephew of Mother Eléonore, mother prioress of the nuns. This sale occurred only a few months after the order for the Notre Dame windows had begun, hence only the first windows painted in 1874 were made by the Carmelites themselves. The church was the location of the funeral of Knute Rockne, following his death in a plane crash in 1931. CBS, WGN in Chicago and WSBT, a local station, broadcast the services from the church. In 1931, it underwent its first thorough renovation by New York architect Wilfred E. Anthony. A new automatic clock was placed in the tower and the chimes were automated so that bells would strike on the quarter hour. Additionally, bars of some music were also automated to ring on occasion. On 25 October 1936 the church was visited by Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, future Pope Pius XII, on his stop at Notre Dame during his visit to the United States.

Between the late 60s and early 70s, the church was renovated with the intention of bringing it in line with the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council. The high altar was retained, but moved back and an ornate wooden freestanding altar was placed at the crossing. The choir stalls were removed from the presbytery and moved to the Lady Chapel and the stations of the Cross painted by Gregori were put in storage. In 1969, the altar rail were removed and the pulpit was substituted with one at a shorter height. These changes, in line with the direction of the council, were meant to remove barriers between the celebrant and the congregation. The basilica was the site of the funeral of many members of the community, including that of Theodore Hesburgh and Regis Philbin. On 28 October 2021 Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople visited the basilica where he delivered an address on environmental stewardship and received an honorary degree. The Patriarch was accompanied by Archbishop Elpidophoros of America and the official delegation also included Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon, Metropolitan Iosif of Proikonissos, Metropolitan Ioustinos of Nea Krini and Kalamaria and the basilica hosted a concert by the Archdiocesan Byzantine choir of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of America. The Patriarch was originally scheduled to deliver the commencement address at Notre Dame in 2020, but had to cancel due to COVID 19.

Plans for a memorial for Notre Dame's contributions to World War I began in 1919 shortly after the Armistice. Funds were collected by the Notre Dame Service Club and the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Notre Dame architects Francis Kervick and Vincent Fagan designed the work for a memorial door on the east transept of the basilica. The final design featured a door surmounted by a pointed arch and flanked by two buttresses, all in gothic style and yellow brick as the rest of the basilica. Initially, the memorial was meant to commemorate all 2,500 Notre Dame affiliates who fought in the war, including future presidents Rev. Matthew J. Walsh and Rev. Charles L. O'Donnell who had served as military chaplains. However, later revisions to the plan reduced it to two plaques flanking the door and commemorating the 46 Notre Dame students, alumni, and faculty who died in combat. The door itself is in oak with iron hinges, and contains two stained glass windows displaying the Tudor Rose and the Poppy. The stone lintel topping the door is inscribed with the words “In Glory Everlasting”, while above the lintel a carved panel depicts two eagles supporting a shield with the old university seal (in use before 1930) and carrying in their claws a ribbon which the words “God, Country, Notre Dame.” Above the door, the words "Our Gallant Dead" are inscribed in the stone facade. Statues of Jean of Arc and St. Michael by Rev. John J. Bednar, CSC, were added to the niches in the buttresses above the door in 1944, during the a campus beautification project. President Rev. Matthew J. Walsh dedicated the World War I Memorial Door on Memorial Day 30 May 1924 with a military mass. The ceilings are filled with a starry sky with angels, while the walls and transept are decorated with figures of saints. Each of the 12 bays of the vaulted veilinceuling is decorated with an angel, for a total of 96 painted angels. Gregori also painted the stations of the Cross that decorate the walls of the main nave. The neogothic style of the frescoes is similar to that of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, which was done by Bernardino Riccardi, Pietro Gagliardi, Tommaso Greggia, and Raffaele Casnedi in the mid 1800s. This style was inspired by Italian gothic decorations, such as the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi or the Scrovegni Chapel. The saints depicted on the left side of the nave: Apollonia, Anthony, Bernard of Clairvaux, Dominic, Francis, Stanislaus Kostka, Aloysius Gonzaga, Rose of Lima, Agnes. On the right side of the nave: John the Baptist, John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene, St Alexius, Benedict Joseph Labre, Thomas Aquinas, St. Jerome, St. Lucy, St. Cecilia. On the left side of the choir the paintings of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Gregory the Great, Ignatius of Loyola and on the right side of the choir: Immaculate Heart of Mary, Augustine of Hippo, Benedict of Nursia. At the crossing, the ceiling is gold instead of blue, marking the sanctuary of the church, and is adorned with the figures of the four evangelists and Old testament prophets: Isaiah holding a scroll, David with a harp, Jeremiah with a scroll, and Moses with the tablet of the law, plus the evangelists Matthew (angel), John (eagle), Luke (ox), and Mark (lion) from the New Testament. The frescoes in the transept episodes of the life of Mary, such as the Nativity of Mary, Presentation of Mary, the Annunciation, Marriage of the Virgin, the Visitation, Nativity of Jesus, Mary Queen of Heaven. At the end of apse, on the left wall, there is a mural depicting apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes to St. Bernadette in 1858 and on the right one a mural depicting the death of St. Joseph. In the Lady Chapel, Gregori painted the luminous exaltation of the Cross, where the True Cross is exalted under the motto, Spes Unica. At the center of the fresco is the cross, supported by angels. A holy host carrying the instruments of Christ's passion surrounds the cross. Saints and prophets are arranged all around: St. Patrick is depicted behind St. Mark, holding a clover, and was added by Gregori after requests from the student body to honor its Irish heritage. In the foreground there are the figures of Saint Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, and Saint Macarius, the bishop of Jerusalem, who are said to have found the Cross in 325 AD.

The 116 stained glass windows consist of more than 1,200 individual panels and were designed and made by the Carmel du Mans Glassworks, owned first the Carmelite nuns in Le Mans, France and then by Eugène Hucher and associates. The 44 large windows depict 114 life size scenes and 106 smaller scenes. They were installed beginning in 1873, over a period of 15 years. The subjects of the windows were carefully chosen by Fr. Sorin with a pedagogic purpose, and the choice and positioning of the depicted figures is intentional and highly symbolic. Following Northern French custom, windows are read left to right, first the lower panel and then the upper. The windows in the Lady Chapel depict stories for Christ's Life and each side chapel has its own theme that is depicted in its windows. The East and West transepts feature two large windows: the eastern window depicts the Pentecost, and its positioned towards the rising sun to symbolize rebirth, while the western transept depict the Dormition of Mary, and it is positioned towards the setting sun to symbolize the end of earthly life. The Chapel of Holy Angels contains a framed modern painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, painted by art professor Maria Tomasula in 2008. The stained glass windows depict the three major archangels from the Bible: Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. ), and the translation of Saint Eutropius's Relics in 1843. A bronze copy of it is held at the Vatican Museums and a gesso copy to the Ivan Meštrović Gallery in Split. The windows of the chapel depict stories of the Holy Family and the Nativity, with stories centered around Saint Joseph taken from apocrypha. They depict:the Selection of Joseph as Mary's husband (from the Protoevangelium of James), the wedding of Joseph and Mary, the presentation of Jesus at the temple, Joseph Is warned by an angel to flee to Egypt, the Flight into Egypt, and the Death of Joseph. In late 2006, Campus Ministry formed a committee to consider replacement of the basilica organ, headed by Dr. Gail Walton, the basilica's director of music since 1988. The committee performed a nationwide search, and in December 2006 it traveled to Columbus, Ohio, for the dedication of the new Paul Fritts organ in Saint Joseph Cathedral and decided to commission the new organ to Fritts, which became Fritt's second commission from Notre Dame. Previously, Paul Fritts and Company Organ Builders of Tacoma, Washington, had finished a 35 stop organ, also an O’Malley gift, designed in the northern German tradition, for the Reyes Organ and Choral Hall of the new DeBartolo Performing Arts Center in 2004. The Great Recession of 2008 halted the project by taking a hit on the university endowment and benefactions, and the idea of replacing the basilica organ was tabled indefinitely. The project was further dealt a blow by the death of its foremost champion Gail Walton in February 2010. Yet, in the fall of 2010, the university approved a plan to commission a new organ for the basilica and started the search for a donor. As decided previously, organ maker Paul Fritts was commissioned for the project, and initial design work began in 2012 with work on the case in Tacoma beginning in 2013. The project called for a four manual instrument with 70 stops, 5,164 pipes and a case inspired by Dutch masterpieces, and it was to become Fritts’ magnum opus. The basilica closed in Christmas 2013 for the first phase of the organ project, which included a 44 day replacement of the church carpeting with 25,000 slate colored porcelain tiles to improve acoustics. Meanwhile, a third Fritts commission, sponsored by Denis ’67 and Susan McCusker, saw a studio organ designed in 2014 for the Walton Choir Rehearsal Hall in Coleman Morse Center. On 28 December 2015 the Holtkamp organs played its last song, Silent Night, before its dismantling started the next morning. The organ pipes were donated to the reconstruction of a local parish, Saint Pius X in Granger, Indiana. In October 2015, Fritts loaned the church a temporary organ once the Holtkamp was removed. Work commenced on reinforcing the choir loft's concrete and adding steel support structures to the foundation. During the installation of the new organ, the basilica choirs sang next to the interim organ in the west transept. Bishop Daniel Jenky returned to campus to dedicate the instrument on 20 January 2017 which featured a recital by university professor and organist Craig Cramer.

The basilica's museum, located behind the sacristy, displays artifacts from the history of the university and the Congregation of Holy Cross. Many items belonged to Fr. Edward Sorin, founder of the university. Items on display also include liturgical vessels and chalices, personal effects of Luigi Gregori, a cassock that belonged to Pope Paul VI, chalices and cassock of Pope Pius IX, and a six foot high processional cross presented to Notre Dame by Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie. Of particular significance, a papal tiara from the 1850s donated to Edward Sorin by Pope Pius IX. It is only one of two in existence outside the Vatican, and of these two the only traditional one, the other being the modernist tiara of Paul VI. The basement holds the Bishop's Museum, which contains pontificalia of various American bishops, dating from the 19th century. It hosts ornate and embroidered vestments, mitres, shoes, caps, sandals, sashes, gloves, Cardinals’ galeros, chalices, vestments embroidered by the daughter of the Empress of Austria. These include Rev. Alexis Granger's sick call satchel, containing oils to anoint the sick; crosier and pectoral cross of the Reverend John Carroll (first Catholic bishop of the United States); a gold screen from the sanctuary of Santa Brigida through which St. Bridget of Sweden used to hear Mass; mitre of bishop Michael Francis Egan (first bishop of Philadelphia); crosier, mitre, and rabbi used by cardinal John McCloskey, first bishop of Albany; maniple from 1840 of the first bishop of California, Francisco García Diego y Moreno; cassock and books written by and about Archbishop Marcos G. McGrath, CSC.

The basilica is the main liturgical center for the university community. Mass is held twice daily, while the university is in session, and once daily during breaks. Each weekend there are three Sunday masses celebrated for students, faculty, staff and community members. The basilica is a popular place for weddings of Notre Dame alumni, hosting several weddings each Saturday, whenever the Fighting Irish do not have a home football game. The basilica has also been the site of final professions and ordination masses for the Congregation of Holy Cross, as well as funerals for the religious community and for alumni. Each Sunday evening the basilica holds Solemn Vespers and a special service during Advent, known as Lessons and Carols. Stations of the Cross is celebrated each Friday during the season of Lent. At other times throughout the year, the basilica hosts special liturgies of all kinds. The Paschal Triduum is celebrated every Easter and it lasts from Holy Thursday with the celebration of the Last Supper until Easter Sunday with Vespers. These celebrations are very popular among students and local inhabitants, and Easter liturgies are always very crowded. Located in the Crypt Church (basement level) of the basilica is Sacred Heart Parish. Two people are buried in the basilica: Cardinal John Francis O'Hara, who is buried in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, and Orestes Brownson, who is buried in the crypt.

Since 2002, Sunday masses from the basilica have been broadcast nationwide. Special care is taken to ensure that broadcasting equipment captures the beauty of the mass without impacting the rite. Currently, the 10:00 A. M. mass is broadcast on CatholicTV, while the 11:45 A. M. mass is broadcast online at NDPrayerCast. org and through iTunes.

The original 23 bells were installed in 1856 and make up the oldest carillon in North America. They were made in France, and each has a name related to Mary. The final bell, which is one of the grandest in the United States was blessed in 1888, during Father Sorin's Golden jubilee and it is named for St. Anthony of Padua, it is an immense non swinging bourdon, more than seven feet tall and weighing 15,400 pounds.