FROM MARY ROBISON: RAFFAELE MENCONI AND HIS ARTISTRY

From Nicholas Krasno’s Guide to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin (1999), adapted: “The Renaissance design reredos [in Saint Joseph’s Chapel], the ornamental screen covering the wall at the back of the altar, is modeled by Raffaele Menconi. It is cast of a composition of Caen stone in low relief, painted with gilded highlights added later. Caen stone is Jurassic limestone quarried in northwestern France near the city of Caen, and it is well-suited to carving. Below the plaque, two angels hold a wreath around a chalice and Host. The angels on the base of the wings of the reredos hold cartouches of the same shape as the della Robbia style plaque above.”

Raffaele E. Menconi was born on June 15, 1877, either in Barga or Colognola, Italy. [1] As a young teenager, he moved to Florence and Rome to study sculpture, and he immigrated to the United States, to Hoboken, at the age of seventeen. Menconi’s studio, where he worked with family members from the 1930s until he died, was not far from Saint Mary’s, at 424 West 46th Street (between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, a building where studio apartments now sell for $400,000 and up).

Menconi married Giovanna (Josephine) Zampieri in 1914 in Manhattan. The couple first settled in the West Village on Charles Street, then left for New Jersey. They later moved to Westchester County, to Hastings-on-Hudson, and finally to Greenburgh. They had three children, one of whom, Ralph Joseph Menconi, worked in his father’s studio and became a noted sculptor and designer of coins. Raffaele Menconi died in 1942 in New York at the age of sixty-five.

Raffaele Menconi was one of several artists whose collaborations can be seen throughout Saint Mary’s. He worked closely with architect Eugene Mason to execute Mason’s designs, and it seems likely that he would also have collaborated with Lee Lawrie on the settings for Lawrie’s sculptures of Our Lady of Mercy and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Menconi’s first work here at Saint Mary’s was the reredos [2] above the altar in Saint Joseph’s Chapel, a work which dates to 1912. In 1923, when the existing chapel dedicated to Saint Elizabeth [3] was renovated and became what we now know as the Mercy Chapel, Menconi executed Mason’s design of the niche behind the statue of Our Lady of Mercy. Five years later, he created the niche that holds Lee Lawrie’s statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Raffaele Menconi is best known for the flagpoles of the New York Public Library (now the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building), executed from a design by Thomas Hastings, and cast by Tiffany Studios. A 1956 New York Times article declared that these flagpoles “have no rivals in the world unless they are those in Saint Mark’s Square in Venice.” [4] 

Menconi’s architectural decorations and sculpture can be found in the United States Customs House, the Union Club in New York, the World War I Memorial at Yale University, war memorials in France and England, in public buildings, and in private homes.
— Mary Robison, Parish Archivist and Secretary of the Board of Trustees

Saint Joseph’s Chapel has also been used recently for several art installations that take advantage of Menconi’s reredos as a backdrop. Michael Takeo Magruder’s Reconstructed Landscape(s) – Central Park is currently on display and runs until November 29, 2024. See the Arts at Saint Mary’s page for pictures of recent exhibits in the chapel space.

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH & FOR THE WORLD

We pray for an end to war, division, violence, and injustice, especially in the Middle East, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, Ukraine, Russia, Myanmar, Sudan, and Darfur. We pray for justice and for an end to violence and discord in our city and nation.

We pray for the people and clergy of the Church of All Saints, Margaret Street, London, UK.

We continue to pray for the people of Florida and the southeastern United States as they cope with the aftermath of Hurricane Milton.

We pray for those who have asked us for our prayers, especially Doug, Abraham, Margaret, Jacques, Keith, Claudia, Dorian, Patrick, Frank, Steve, Susanna, Rolf, Richard, Josh, Tony, Paul, Nettie, Chrissy, Cedric, Otis, Don, Andy, Robert, Duncan, Justin, Sheila, Jan, Pat, Marjorie, Carole, Sharon, Quincy, Carlos, José, Brian, Manuel, Hardy, Gypsy, Leroy, Bob, and Liduvina; Laura Katharine, religious; Lind, deacon; and Jay, Julie, Jean, Robby, and Stephen, priests.

We also pray for the repose of the souls of Carmen Tarigo and Ethel Kennedy, and those whose year’s mind falls on October 13, Katie Palmer (1884), John Unger (1900), and Ada Beazley (1965).

IN THIS TRANSITORY LIFE

Carmen Tarigo, the sister of José Vidal, died at her home in Gainesville, Florida, on Monday, September 30, after a long illness. She was seventy-six years old. She is survived by her husband, Robert and her daughter, Jean. Please keep Carmen, Bobby, Jean, José, their family and friends, and all who mourn in your prayers.

COMING UP

THIS COMING SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13
Virtual Coffee Hour after the Solemn Mass
We love being in touch with those who can’t worship with us in person, but who are part of the Saint Mary’s Community.
Please join us on Sunday after Mass for some conversation and fellowship.
Link will be posted on the livestream page. Contact Father Sammy for more information.

Sunday, October 20
Newcomers Reception in the Rectory
After the Solemn Mass & a Bit of Coffee Hour

Sunday, October 27
Guild Fair in Saint Joseph’s Hall, 12:30–1:30 PM
Speak to Father Jay about set up and preparations if you are a Guild Leader.

Friday, November 1
All Saints’ Day
Morning Prayer 8:00 AM
Mass 12:10 PM
Organ Recital by Ms. Rhonda Edgington 5:30 PM
Solemn Mass 6:00 PM
The Rev’d Kathleen Liles, guest preacher

Saturday, November 2
All Souls’ Day
Sung Mass 12:10 PM
Sermon by Father Matt Jacobson

Sunday, November 3, 2:00 AM
Daylight Saving Time ends. Clocks go back one hour.

NEWS & NOTICES

Postcards for Voting Rights . . . This Sunday, October 13th, after coffee hour, Reha Sterbin will lead a postcarding party for Reclaim Our Vote, a voting rights campaign focused on empowering BIPOC communities. Instruction and materials will be provided.

Adult Formation: Classes continue Sunday mornings at 9:45 AM . . . As we begin our “year of invitation,” we are each sent back into our individual circles of influence as evangelists and servants to share the good news of the reign of God and to renew the world. To that end, our year of invitation includes an “invitation” of our own—God’s invitation into an ever-deepening walk with him. That is the goal of our first “Foundations Course” this October. This four-week study, which begins this coming Sunday, October 6 and is called “Invitation to a Journey,” is about building a “trellis” for us to grow along. Father Sammy will begin with a survey of the purposes of the Church, then move on to examine Anglican Spirituality and experiment with the “Threefold Rule of Prayer” embodied in our Prayer Books. The Foundations Courses aim to increase our proficiency in various aspects of the Christian life and are geared for people curious about Anglican spirituality or interested in joining the Episcopal Church or Saint Mary’s, for longtime practitioners brushing up on the basics of their faith, and for newcomers who seek connections within the parish. In a word, Foundations Courses are for all adults who find themselves around Saint Mary’s!

And we invite you to participate in another Formation offering . . . On Wednesday nights starting October 16, after Evening Prayer and Mass, you are invited up to the rectory for a small group experiment we’re calling “Group Seeks God.” Drawing on years of experience hosting small groups, Father Sammy and Renee will demonstrate how simple practices like hospitality and storytelling create opportunities for engagement and invitation in our everyday worlds. Hopefully this group will serve as proof of concept for more small groups we dream of launching around the city next year.

Malcolm Guite is a much-loved poet here at Saint Mary’s. On Tuesday, October 15 at 7:00 PM (Central Daylight Time), 8:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, New York Time), The School of Theology at Sewanee, the University of the South, will present a lecture by the Rev. Dr. Malcolm Guite. From the seminary website:

The lecture is entitled ‘The Poetry of Music and the Music of Poetry: Some Reflections on John Donne, George Herbert and Others.’ Malcolm Guite is a poet and priest in the Church of England. The author of many books of both poetry and theology, including Sounding the Seasons: Sonnets for the Liturgical Year, and Lifting the Veil: Imagination and the Kingdom of God, Guite has also collected multiple anthologies of poetry, has his own YouTube channel, and frequently collaborates with musicians.

Born in Nigeria, where his father was a Methodist minister, Guite was sent to boarding school in England at a young age. Years later, his return to faith came about through the poetry of John Keats, and he eventually pursued ordination after graduate work on George Herbert, one of the Anglican poets he will speak about next Tuesday. His own poetry is shaped by these traditional forms but is marked by Guite’s use of clear and contemporary language. Like the American poet Christian Wiman, Guite’s work is concerned with the spiritual life and how that interior life can be expressed through creative acts of imagination. For many years a chaplain at Girton College Cambridge, Guite is no stranger to college campuses and to spiritual seekers from all over the world.

Register here for the livestream. The lecture is free and open to the public. All are encouraged to attend.

Coming Up in our Adult Formation Series . . . At 9:45 AM on all the Sundays in November and on December 1, 8, and 15, Father Peter Powell will lead a Bible Study in Saint Joseph’s Hall. The class will be reading and studying the gospel accounts of Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection. These stories are fundamental to our faith so they will be useful to the beginner as well as to the more experienced student. All are welcome. No prior preparation is required. Come and join us.

Anglican Heritage Pilgrimage: June 9–20, 2025 . . . Father Sammy Wood will be leading a pilgrimage to England in June 2025! For Episcopalians in the Anglican tradition, England holds a place of distinct significance. The Church of Saint Mary the Virgin’s Anglican Heritage Pilgrimage will trace Christianity’s early days in Great Britain, medieval England, and the Reformation as we experience the treasures of our Anglican tradition. Skilled guides will lead our small group through the sacred places that bore witness to Christian saints, Protestant martyrs, and significant events in Anglican church history. Click here for additional details and please speak with Father Sammy if you have any questions. 

Would you like to donate the altar flowers? . . . The following Sundays are available: November 1, 10, 17, and 24. The customary donation requested is $250. Please call the Parish Office for more information (212-869-5830).

A MESSAGE FROM THE BISHOP OF NEW YORK

Blessings on Monday, October 7, 2024

Today is the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks. Last week we hosted Richard Sewell, dean of St. George’s College in Jerusalem. He recounted his experience over the last year. He described the complete devastation the Israel-Gaza war has brought. The College remains closed.

• On October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas took 251 hostages. Ninety-seven people remain in captivity; 35 are presumed dead. Since October 7, 1,139 Israeli citizens have been killed and 8,730 have been injured.

• In the year since, 41,870 people in Gaza have been killed and 97,166 injured. Airstrikes and ground attacks by Israeli Defense Forces have damaged or destroyed 60% of Gaza, including 50% of hospitals and 60% of roads.

• The war in Israel-Gaza has made our local communities less safe. Reported Antisemitic incidents increased by 360% and anti-Muslim /Anti-Palestinian discrimination by 180% since October 7. The FBI has warned of potential attacks around today’s anniversary.

Bishop Shin, Bishop Glasspool, and I have condemned Hamas and the October 7 attacks and called for the return of hostages; condemned IDF attacks on hospitals and civilians and called for unrestricted access of humanitarian aid in Gaza; called for a ceasefire and end to arms shipments into Gaza. We have also encouraged all our communities to reach out to interfaith partners to respond to anti-semitism and Islamophobia.

• Together we also contributed funds to the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.

We’ve had the chance over the last year to listen to people experiencing this trauma. We met with the mother of hostage Hersh Goldberg-Pollan, whose eulogy for her son captured the grief of many of hostage families. We’ve talked with Episcopal clergy from the West Bank and the director of Ahli Arab Hospital. We’ve met with leaders in New York caring for their grieving communities.

One year later the war continues to widen. A just resolution continues to move farther away. 

Last week Dean Sewell made a call that we should all join: “

Speak for humanity. No one is expendable. No one deserves to be erased.”

We pray for all killed and whose lives have been shattered. We add to our prayers now the people of Lebanon and Iran, and the safety of the whole region. We also pray that we continue to use our voices and institutional authority to speak for humanity.

No one is expendable.

Grace & Peace,
+ Matt Heyd, Bishop of New York

STEWARDSHIP CAMPAIGN 2024–2025

Summer comes to an end. You begin to wonder where you put your sweaters. A certain energy returns to your parish community. And so, there is an opportunity once again to think and pray about your relationship with Saint Mary’s, to think about what this parish means to you and to pray about what you feel called to do in return. Stewardship packets will be mailed during the week of October 21 (and the online pledge card for 2025 will be on our website around that time). We hope that you will prayerfully consider how you can commit yourself to Saint Mary’s once again—or perhaps for the first time—by making a pledge to this parish. Without the financial support of each and ever one of us we can’t do what we want and need to do here this year. And without your support Saint Mary’s cannot have the future for which we all pray and dream.

OUTREACH AT SAINT MARY’S

Neighbors in Need . . . If you would like to volunteer or make a cash donation, please speak to MaryJane Boland. We are also eager to receive donations of new or lightly used sneakers and shoes, in all sizes, for both men and women. A Drop-by was held on September 20, and the next one will take place on Friday, October 18, 1:00–3:00 PM. We are looking for a few more good volunteers, who feel called and inspired to give this work a try. Please speak to MaryJane Boland or Father Jay about our work and how you might help.

Praying for the Episcopal Church in Nicaragua . . . The Episcopal Diocese of Nicaragua, along with 92 other churches and religious groups, was formally dissolved by the Nicaraguan government on August 29, and its assets are subject to confiscation. The action came just weeks after the repressive government of President Daniel Ortega revoked the legal status of 1,500 other churches, most of them evangelical and Pentecostal. Since 2018, 5,552 organizations—about 70 percent of the non-governmental organizations that existed at that time—have arbitrarily lost their legal status in the country. The action was announced in the government’s Official Gazette, which cited the diocese for failing to file financial reports with the Ministry of the Interior in 2019–23 and for failing to register the members of its board of directors after March 2023. Similar charges were lodged against the other dissolved organizations, which included the Evangelical Alliance, Christian Reformed Church, and Moravian Church. The Right Reverend Harold Dixon, who has served as Bishop of Nicaragua since 2019, told TLC on September 7, “With God’s help we are okay. Thanks to the Almighty, the churches are working normal. They don’t take anything from us. We will begin from zero. The good Lord is always with us. Pray for us, that is the key,” he added. —The Living Church (TLC), September 9, 2024

ABOUT THE MUSIC AT THE SOLEMN MASS ON SUNDAY OCTOBER 13, 2024, THE TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The organ prelude on Sunday is Fantasia on Wondrous Love by David Hurd, organist and music director at Saint Mary’s. It was composed in the spring of 2016 for an anthology of organ pieces entitled Let All That Hath Breath, published in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Association of Anglican Musicians. It is dedicated in thanksgiving for the lives of David and Cecile Hurd, parents of the composer. The Fantasia is based on a melody from Wm. Walker’s Southern Harmony, 1835, and sets three stanzas of the hymn continuously. The first stanza, “What wondrous love is this,” is a gentle trio with the melody in the alto register played on the pedals. The second stanza, “To God and to the Lamb,” finds the melody in the tenor register, and this is a stronger and more dramatic section. In the third stanza, “And when from death I’m free,” the melody is in canon at the fourth in the alto and soprano registers against a gently undulating accompaniment. A brief coda revisits the opening trio treatment and brings the Fantasia to its tranquil conclusion. 

The setting of the Mass on Sunday is the four-voice Missa secunda of Hans Leo Hassler. Hassler was born in Nuremberg and baptized on October 26, 1564. His musical career bridged the late Renaissance to the early Baroque periods. His initial musical instruction was from his father, Isaak Hassler (c. 1530–1591). Hans Leo left home in 1584 to study in Venice with Andrea Gabrieli (c. 1532–1585) and become a friend and fellow pupil with Gabrieli’s nephew Giovanni (c. 1554–1612). Thus, Hassler was one of the first of a succession of German composers to experience in Italy the musical innovations that were shaping what would later be identified as Baroque style. Hassler was recognized in his day not only as a composer, but also as an organist and a consultant on organ design. Although he was a Protestant, Hassler mostly composed for the Roman church early in his career. His Missa secunda, first published in Nuremberg in 1599, is a model of efficient and concise text setting. The text is mostly set syllabically, and much of the musical texture is homophonic and rhythmically energetic. Often Hassler has the higher two voices and lower two voices singing phrases in playful alternation. These aspects all help to set forth the text with particular clarity.

Giuseppe Ottavio Pitoni (1657–1743) represents a Roman musical culture of more than a century later than Hassler. Pitoni was born in Rieti but was brought to Rome as an infant where he studied music and sang in church choirs. He served at various times as maestro di cappella, or in similar capacities, at Monterotondo, Rieti Cathedral, and many churches in and around Rome. While at Assisi Cathedral, Pitoni devoted himself to studying the works of Palestrina whose influence is apparent in his own compositions. However, Pitoni’s large musical output also reflected the stylistic fashions of his own day and included elements of concertato and polychoral writing. The text of Pitoni’s motet, sung during the communions this morning, is Christus factus est, Philippians 2:8–9, which finds its traditional liturgical usage as the Gradual for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. The power of this scriptural passage, however, is not confined to those occasions, and it has been set chorally by many prominent composers over the centuries. Pitoni’s setting begins in strict four-voice canon. The word mortem (death) is extended and painted with characteristic chromaticism. This is balanced later by the bright coloration of the word exaltavit (has exalted).

Dr. David Hurd will be away from the parish between Monday, October 14, and Sunday, October 27. He will be in Montreal, Quebec, serving on the International Jury at the Canadian International Organ Competition. David is one of nine jurors on this panel of accomplished musicians. The jury is indeed international: one juror is from the United Kingdom; three are from Canada; one is from Sweden; one is from Belgium; one is from France; one is representing both Canada and France; and two, including David, are from the United States. David will also be playing a recital during his time in Montreal: Sunday, October 20, at 11:00 AM at the Church of Saint Andrew and Saint Paul. Congratulations, David, and we look forward to hearing all about it upon your return. Parishioner Clark Anderson will play the service and conduct the choir here at Saint Mary’s on October 20 and 27. Thank you, Clark!

AWAY FROM SAINT MARY’S

The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in the Cornaro Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome

October 15 is the Feast of Saint Teresa of Ávila. From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Saint Teresa of Ávila, orig. Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, (born March 28, 1515, Ávila, Spain—died October 4, 1582, Alba de Tormes; canonized 1622; feast day October 15), Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, and saint. After entering a convent around the age of twenty, she fell seriously ill. She underwent a religious awakening in 1555 and, despite her frail health, initiated the Carmelite Reform, leading the order’s return to its original austere practices, including poverty and seclusion from the world. Against some opposition, she opened new convents (the first in 1562) under the reformed order throughout Spain. Saint John of the Cross joined her in her efforts, establishing reformed Carmelite monasteries. Her doctrines have been accepted as the classical exposition of the contemplative life, and her spiritual writings are still widely read today, among them The Interior Castle (1588). In 1970, she became the first woman elevated to the position of Doctor of the Church.

Saint Teresa is remembered for being a practical woman, an able leader, and a spiritual teacher whose counsel and instruction is marked by a certain simple practicality. But she was also a mystic and had profound experiences of God’s presence. It is this latter aspect of Teresa’s life and experience that the great Italian sculptor architect, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1590–1680), captured in his famous sculpture, The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

The greatest single example of Bernini’s mature art is the Cornaro Chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria, in Rome, which completes the evolution begun early in his career. The chapel, commissioned by Federigo Cardinal Cornaro, is in a shallow transept in the small church. Its focal point is his sculpture of The Ecstasy of St. Teresa (1645–52), a depiction of a mystical experience of the great Spanish Carmelite reformer Teresa of Ávila. In representing Teresa’s vision, during which an angel pierced her heart with a fiery arrow of divine love, Bernini followed Teresa’s own description of the event. The sculptured group, showing the transported saint swooning in the void, covered by cascading drapery, is revealed in celestial light within a niche over the altar, where the architectural and decorative elements are richly joined and articulated. At left and right, in spaces resembling opera boxes, numerous members of the Cornaro family are found in spirited postures of conversation, reading, or prayer. The Cornaro Chapel carries Bernini’s ideal of a three-dimensional picture to its apex. The figures of Saint Teresa and the angel are sculptured in white marble, but the viewer cannot tell whether they are in the round or merely in high relief. The natural daylight that falls on the figures from a hidden source above and behind them is part of the group, as are the gilt rays behind. The Ecstasy of St. Teresa is not sculpture in the conventional sense. Instead, it is a framed pictorial scene made up of sculpture, painting, and light that also includes the worshiper in a religious drama.

We need your help to keep holding our services. Click below, where you can make one-time or recurring donations to support Saint Mary’s. We are very grateful to all those who make such donations and continue to support Saint Mary’s so generously.

Saint Mary’s is a vibrant Anglo-Catholic witness in the heart of NYC. With our identity in Christ and a preference for the poor, we are an inclusive, diverse community called to love God and each other for the life of the world.

[1] Menconi’s birthplace is uncertain. The name is somewhat common (and subject to spelling variations) in immigration records of the early twentieth century, and while Nicholas Krasno’s 1999 Guide to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin and a Wikipedia article about Ralph J. Menconi both state Menconi’s birthplace as Barga, near Carrara, Menconi’s obituary and his family's more recent genealogy research indicate that he was born in Colognola, about 200 miles away.

[2] A reredos is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind or above an altar in a church. It often includes religious images. It can be made of stone, wood, metal, ivory, or a combination of materials. The images may be painted, carved, gilded, composed of mosaics, and/or embedded with niches for statues. Sometimes a tapestry or another fabric such as silk or velvet is used. See “Reredos,” Wikipedia.

[3] The spaces at Saint Mary’s dedicated to Saint Joseph and to Saint Elizabeth—and the abundance of images in which Jesus’ family are depicted—were clearly meant to remind us of Mary and of the Holy Family. But they also tell us that Jesus does not come from nowhere. His human life is embedded in the history of Israel and in the life of a specific human family—and Mary is at the very heart of that family.

[4] Reed, Henry Hope. “For the ‘superfluous in buildings’: a critic’s choice.” New York Times, 4 March 1956.

This edition of The Angelus was written and edited by Father Jay Smith, except as noted. Father Matt Jacobson also edits the newsletter and is responsible for formatting and posting it on the parish website and distributing it via mail and e-mail, with the assistance of Christopher Howatt, parish administrator, and parish volunteer, Clint Best.