Walking Tour to World Trade Center Area part I: St. Peter’s Church
Today is Friday, September 3rd, 2021. I joined Joe’s walking tour to World Trade Center, and its surrounding area. There are many beautiful buildings with beautiful stories there, but I would like to start with St. Peter’s Church. It’s just because it was here where my heart was so touched and I was feeling a lot. I don’t want these feelings to fade out since they are still so vivid right now. When I heard Joe saids, his heart was moved, and he learned from us… I thought that it’s my heart was moved and I learned from him. He told me that his families used to come to St. Peter’s Church, and the good of all the different types of religions made us to be good. This is the reasons I want to write about St. Peter’s church first. And also, when I was sitting inside of the church, all the emotional feelings just came what made my eyes in tears. And I felt the calm, peace and special energy there. I felt the people who were praying there, and saw the gorgeous and sacred paintings, glass windows with words on them, statues, candles, wooden benches with crosses, and other things inside the church.
After I finished writing the first paragraph, i stopped writing until today which is September 6th, 2021. In a short two days, everything is changed and different. Let’s continue the story of St. Peter’s Church. A church, I think it’s a well esteblished place for the surfering people who lost their loved ones (families and friends), are in pain, are sinking, are finding their selves to let their sad stories to be heard, to express their true feelings, and to pray for hope, and courage to keep on living… Many people are trying to put on a smile on their faces, but they are hiding their pain in their hearts. So a safe place like a church is necessary for the human kind.
St. Peter’s Church is a Roman Catholic Church which is located at 22 Barclay Street in New York City. It was designed in Greek Revival style by John R. Haggerty and Thomas Thomas. And it was built in 1836–1840. Its parish is the oldest Roman Catholic parish in New York State. And it’s part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. This new building replaced the old one which was built in 1785–1786, and used for worship until 1834.
In 1965, St. Peter’s Church was designated a New York City landmark. In 1980, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
A German Jesuit missionary, Father Ferdinand Steinmeyer visited the very few scattered Catholics in NYC during the Revolution. He said Mass in the house of a German fellow-countryman in Wall Street and whereever they could find accommodations.
The King of Spain, Charles III gifged 1000 silver pieces to start building the church. It was originally planned to be located on Broad Street, and then in the center of NYC. Because of the anti-Catholic sentiments, the officials of NYC changed the location to Barclay and Church Streets. In 1785, the cornerstone of the original church was laid. In 1786, the first Mass celebrated.
In 1789, a painting of an icon of the Crucifixion and Nunez de Haro, archbishop of Mexico City painted by Mexican artist Jose Vallejo was gave to St. Peter parish. It was hung above the main altar.
There was lots of things happened in St. Peter’s Church. In 1795 and 1798, during the yellow fever epidemics, the first pastor, Father William O’Brien’s tireless service to the New York citizens was remembered. In 1800, at St. Peter’s Chruch, the first free Catholic school in NYS was established. On 3/14/1805, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton converted from the Episcopal Church to Catholicism at St. Peter’s Church. She often prayed before the Crucifixion painting. And she later was canonized as the first native-born United States citizen.
A cornerstone for a bigger St. Peter’s Church was laid in October 1836. By February 1838, the recent church structure was built. From 1899 to 1916, St. Peter’s hosted services for the Byzantine-rite Syrian and Lebanese Catholics in the lower church. Because during that time, they didn’t have their own churches. In 1842, when the founder of the University of Notre Dame, Fr. Edward Frederick Sorin arrived in United States, he celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s.
On 9/10/2001, at Engine 73, Ladder 42, in the Bronx, Father Mychal Judge OFM (chaplain of NYFD) gave the following sermon at a Mass which was for the NYC firefighters:
“You do what God has called you to do. You get on that rig, you go out and do the job. No matter how big the call, no matter how small, you have no idea of what God is calling you to do, but God needs you. He needs me. He needs all of us. God needs us to keep supporting each other, to be kind to each other, to love each other… We love this job, we all do. What a blessing it is! It is a difficult, difficult job, but God calls you to do it, and indeed, He gives you a love for it so that a difficult job will be well done. Isn’t God wonderful?! Isn’t He good to you, to each one of you, and to me? Turn to God each day — put your faith, your trust, your hope and your life in His hands. He’ll take care of you, and you’ll have a good life. And this firehouse will be a great blessing to his neighborhood and to this city. Amen.”
During the September 11 attacks, the roof of St. Peter’s Church was damaged by a part of an airplane’s landing gear. The 1st publicly identified casualty of the attacks, Fr. Mychal was killed by the debris. He was brought to St. Peter’s by the firemen, and laid before the altar. The parish was used for rescue and recovery operations. As Father Kevin Madigan saids, St. Peter’s was the 1st place where firemen brought all the emergency equipment. Bandages, boots, gas masks, hoses, can foods were piled 6 feet high. The workers and volunteers were sleeping in the church, same as in the downstairs church.
Public access to the parish was blocked. St. Peter’s occasionally celebrated Masses just for the rescue workers and the ones with credentials. On 10/28/2001, the first Mass was officially celebrated after September 11. The number of Masses were cut because less people came. And many of people who used to come to St. Peter’s from the World Trade Center were not around no more.
The day after I walked Joe to the subway station (by the station, Joe saids, his family used to go to St. Peter’s Church. I think this is such a beautiful family story and also one of a kind family history. And it’s part of St. Peter’s history too. ), I visited St. Peter’s Church at the first time. When I was there, I felt the energy of a church again, just the same as times I visited a church. I felt calm, peace, and its hard to explain power. And I was lucky enough to participate their 12:30PM Mass. After the Father who was in white with a green gown appeared, more and more people came. There were women, men, and a child. They were young and old. They were workers, fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers. We were strangers. But we were all together, to pray, to tell our pain, suffers, sadness, or secrets. And we were hoping to get some comfort, hope, and courage. My true feelings are difficult to put into words, so I decide to just end my writing here.
