Church of Notre Dame (New York City)

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Facade of the Church of Notre Dame

The Church of Notre Dame in New York City is a parish of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, located at 405 West 114th Street and Morningside Drive, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.

[edit] History

The beginnings of the Church of Notre Dame are connected with the person of Ms. Geraldine Redmond, who donated property along Morningside Drive to the Fathers of Mercy, a French community of priests, requesting they build a chapel to propagate devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes. In 1910, Notre Dame began as a mission of the St. Vincent de Paul Parish on West 23rd Street. The first administrator of the parish was Fr. Maurice Reynauld. While in France in 1913, he affiliated Notre Dame Church with the Shrine of the Blessed Mother in Lourdes, thus enabling worshipers at the Church of Notre Dame in New York City to obtain the spiritual benefits of worshipers at Lourdes.

Over the years the French community was integrated with other ethnic groups. Calling Notre Dame home are many people of Irish, German, Italian, Black, Hispanic and Filipino decent. Today Notre Dame is still just as ethnically diverse as the city and neighborhood in which it thrives.

Time has brought much change and growth to this one time mission. Expansion on the original chapel began after only a few years after it was built (officially dedicated on October 2, 1910 by Archbishop Farley). By 1915 the new larger church was dedicated by Cardinal Farley (February 11, 1915, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes). The main church was modeled after the Church of St. Louis in Paris, known as the final resting place of Napoleon. The expansion would go on intermittently over the next 50 years until completion.

Notre Dame became an official parish in 1919 and grew from a small chapel to the present church in the late 1920s and early 1930s. In 1960 charge of Notre Dame was transferred from the Fathers of Mercy to the Archdiocese of New York.

From the beginning of the Parish, a special arrangement was made with the ecclesiastical authorities in Lourdes, France that Lourdes water would be sent directly from the mother shrine at Lourdes to the Church of Notre Dame. Since that time Lourdes water has been continuously available at the church.

In January, 1967 New York City Landmarks Commission designated the Church and the Rectory of Notre Dame as architectural landmarks.

[edit] Notre Dame Today

In 2003, the Archdiocese of New York entrusted the Polish Province of the Dominican Order with the responsibility of taking care of Notre Dame Parish and all its ministries.

Since 1988, Catholic Campus Ministry at Columbia University became a part of the parish mission of Notre Dame. Along with being associated with Columbia University, Notre Dame’s community includes ministry at St. Luke's Hospital and the Amsterdam Nursing Home. Many parishioners work at these institutions and Notre Dame's pastoral care is very important there. Notre Dame is blessed with beautiful architecture and craftsmanship.