Pennsylvania’ s capital city of Harrisburg is not only a fascinating place to visit for its state governmental offices and Capitol building, but it is also a city of churches, many of them historic, all of them welcoming and worth a visit. Within walking distance of the main street and the Capitol there are no fewer than a dozen churches of different denominations.Cathedral
Within half a block of those 61 steps leading up to the State Street main bronze doors of the Capitol is St. Patrick’s Cathedral, one of several catholic churches in the city, but clearly the one with the most history and Renaissance style architecture. It is also the church that has a copper dome 170 feet high, a well as a dome within a dome. Caretakers have to climb between an interior and exterior dome to change the eight lights that shine down on the altar.
Some 20 years ago, parishioners also approved spotlights that illuminate the upper dome at night, making the lighted Cathedral part of the nighttime skyline of the Capital.
It was priests from Germany who first brough the catholic religion to this part of Pennsylvania, arriving in the early 18th century and setting up a small mission in Harrisburg later a small church on the same site. When Irish laborers who built the canals and railroads in Pennsylvania came, they wanted a church closer to the riverfront , purchased the present site on State Street and Saint Patrick’s Church was constructed in 1926 and placed under the patronage of Saint Patrick.
Within 20 years, the church was enlarged, and by the beginning of the 20th century, the plans to construct a church more in keeping with its title as the Cathedral of the Diocese of Harrisburg . It is this Cathedrl that was dedicated in 1907 preserving the history of the earlier settlers but providing a more formal setting for the primary church of the Diocese.
The design is Romanesque-Renaissance style, cross-shaped, with the main altar patterned after the altar at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome designed by the sculptor Bernini.
The church is built of in the 1700s.granite from North Carolina and is on the site of that first mission church the early German Jesuits had built.
There are 50 stained glass windows in the main body of the church, including 12 Apostle windows depicting the 12 Apostles and windows on both sides of the church depicting many scenes and stories from the Bible. In the upper portion of the church, the windows have symbols, including IHS, the first three letters of the Greek alphabet in spelling Jesus, as well as a pelican and her young, a martyr’s harp,Wheat and a chalice and the Keys of the kingdom.
The transept windows show the Wedding Feast at Cana on one side and Saint Patrick bringing the faith to Ireland with a shamrock on the other, using the shamrock to teach the King and Queen of Tara how to help people and understand the mystery of the Trinity.
There are shrines inside the church to both Mary the Mother of God and St. Joseph and a historic organ now in a console with an Organ control system but containing 2,600 pipes.
Another shrine located in the rear of the Cathedral is a bronze crucifix created by Samuel Murray of Philadelphia, the early 20th century sculptor also known for creating the Commodore Barry statue in Independence Suare in Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Memorial at Gettysburg.
As the Cathedral for the Diocese of Harrisburg, the church serves as the Mother Church for more than 242,000 Catholics in 15 counties in central Pennsylvania. The churchgoers are proud of the history of St. Patrick’s, leave the doors open throughout the day with an invitation for visits, be they be historical treks or moments of prayer/ They also offer books that aid in self-guided tours of the building.
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