McBride Connection: Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis

This is the second of several occasional articles on McBride High School: its history, its closing and its impact. This article remembers William Cullen McBride and his wife Katherine Manan McBride and their gift of the high altar and the baldacchino to the then newly built St. Louis New Cathedral.* Richard Ganahl, McBride HS,  Class 1969

The Altar and Baldacchino. Gifted by Mr. &

Mrs. McBride. Copyright 2016, Cathedral 

Basilica of St. Louis, photography by 

M.L. Olsen, all rights reserved. 

If you are lucky enough to be a Mick, and even luckier still to be whispering to God in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis during this coming Holy Week, then direct your gaze on the Basilica’s magnificent high altar and baldacchino when your prayers start to wander.

For at this altar, you can bask (as only a Mick might) in the glorious generosity of McBride’s namesake William Cullen McBride and his wife Katherine Manan McBride. 

‘And, how is this so,’ you ask?

The story starts on January 13, 1859 in Butler County, Pennsylvania, just north of Pittsburgh and only 636 miles east of St. Louis, MO, when William Cullen McBride was born the eldest son of Thomas and Ellen McBride.

Mr. McBride inherited his father’s wildcatter spirit, and became America’s largest independent oil producer with an estate valued at more than $10 million (or $216 million in today’s dollars) at the time of his premature death in 1917 at 58 years old.

Mr. McBride’s life is vividly recorded in Brother Thomas J. Treadaway’s S.M. (1933) Biographical and Character Sketch of Wm. Cullen McBride. The McBride couple moved to St. Louis in 1908, and lived a plentiful yet pious life with their four daughters Ellen, Laura, Kathleen and Dorothy.

Their charitable spirit was touched when Archbishop John Glennon convened a meeting of prominent Catholic layman during the construction of the Basilica to discuss his plans to ‘install an altar suitable to the finest church in America.’’ The Archbishop estimated the cost of the designed altar at $50,000.

Art World Volume II

Brother Treadaway writes Mr. McBride confided to the Archbishop when taking leave, “I think we shall be able to put up this altar, if it does not cost more than $100,000.” The ‘we’ he referenced meant simply that he and Mrs. McBride would pay the entire cost of the Basilica’s magnificent high altar and baldacchino which included more than 400 tons of marble, all design, transportation and construction costs.

The designer George Barnett described the altar as, “an Emperor’s tribute to God.” The altar’s ecclesiastical enrichments were completed by the Gorham Manufacturing Company, New York. Contemporary accounts lavished praise upon its completion claiming it ‘represented the ultimate in ecclesiastical monuments anywhere.’  

Art World Volume II: p 263

The magazine Art World (New York), congratulated, “church authorities for having given their city a perpetual and inspiring feast for the eyes such as will command the veneration of the faithful…this noble structure:”

is circular in form, thirty-six feet in diameter…(and) reach(es) a climax of intensity and richness round the Tabernacle Door, which is of burnished gold inlaid with mother of pearl and lapis luzuli and encrusted with amethysts, topazes, crystals and other precious stones…in the front…four panels contain decorative portraits of the four Latin fathers, Stints Ambrose, Gregory, Jerome and Augustine, executed in mosaic…The Baldacchino…towers sixty feet and is supported by fourteen monolithic columns…symbolically arranged…under the rood arch and back of the altar…looms a large ornamental bronze cross, upon which hangs a life-size figure of the

The Baldacchino. Copyright 2016, Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis,

photography by M.L. Olsen, all rights reserved. 

Savior in white marble…the workmanship of both the mosaic and carving is of true Byzantine character…and it can well be said to rival the great works on the European continent, and probably even realize(s) the dream of the architect George Barnett, who expressed his majestic conception when he exclaimed “I want this to be an Emperor’s tribute to God!”

           

The Lotus Magazine: Decorations in Mosaic: p 216

The Lotus Magazine detailed the altar’s adornments in an essay of the day titled “Decorations in Mosaics: Cathedral of St. Louis.” It writes: 

Besides innumerable conventional and symbolic designs, the figures carried out in mosaic are the four Latin fathers...and the four archangels on the interior dome - St. Michel, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael and St. Uriel, while at the top of the interior of the dome are the emblems of the Trinity. The

The Lotus Magazine: p 217

nine choirs of angels in the sanctuary - Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, Dominations, Powers, VIrtues, Principalities, Archangels and Angels are also in mosaics. The four marble statues of the evangelists are on the semicircular projecting sides of the baldachino...while the marble mosaic floor is produced with such a variety of rich marbles that the general effect is like in brilliance to a Persian rug.  

The Basilica hosted a dedication ceremony in 1914 even though it was not fully completed. It was officially consecrated on June 29, 1926. 

When were the altar and the baldacchino finally completed? Did Mr. McBride participate in any of the dedication ceremonies? Did he receive Holy Communion at the Basilica's high altar? For now, at least, these questions must remain a mystery. His May 1917 death in California occurred during the time when national magazines were celebrating the magnificent monuments, and he is mentioned only as their benefactor. 

We do know, however, that his oldest daughter Ellen's marriage to Balfour Stuart Craib was the first marriage celebrated at the new altar. It was the second marriage for both Ellen and Balfour after their respective spouses Ralph and Mollie (who were brother and sister!) both died possibly in the St. Louis influenza outbreak. 

How Ellen and Balfour met, and what became of them are stories for a future installment on the many legacies associated with McBride High School. For now, let's reflect on the McBride connection with the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, and all the peace found, and prayers shared at the McBrides' gifted high altar and baldacchino. Peace be with them.   

* Pope John Paul II designated the Cathedral a Basilica in 1997.         

I am grateful to Rena Schergen of the St. Louis Archdiocese Archives, and to Nicole A. Heerlein of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. Their patience, guidance and support have been invaluable in this research. We are an amazingly complex  combination of our cultural and historical heritage. Embrace your past, and fearlessly discover why you may be who you are. Do you have stories about McBride's history? Then send them to me at rganahl@gmail.com. Thanks! 

This article and its contents are Copyrighted 2016 by Richard J. Ganahl III