Vestibule
“I rejoiced when I heard them say:
‘Let us go to God’s house.’
And now our feet are standing
within your gates, O Jerusalem.”
(Psalm 122)
The Narthex (Vestibule)
As you stand in the entrance to the Cathedral, you are not yet within the original building. When it was first built, there was a single rather squat tower in the centre of the facade on Johnson Street. Between 1889 and 1892, during the episcopate of Bishop (later Archbishop) Cleary, whose name we shall meet in connection with many other improvements, this tower was torn down and the present three towers erected. (When you enter the church proper and look back at the south wall, you will see the frames of the original windows on either side of the organ gallery.)
The magnificent central tower stands 221 feet tall to the base of the copper-covered cross, which itself is a surprising eight feet high. Inside the top portion of the tower hangs the single bell. Patrick was found to be cracked during the Second World War, but restrictions on the use of metal prevented its replacement until 1949. The present bell, also named Patrick, is rung by a computerized mechanism, at noon and 6 p.m. for the Angelus, and ten minutes before all Sunday Masses. It can also be rung manually for weddings and funerals.
The side towers each contain two spacious and lofty rooms, accessible from the stairs in the Narthex (though they are not normally open to the public). A choir room was installed in 1976 in the lower room on the west side, which, as you will see from the nave, is also accessible from the organ gallery through a door installed in the old window. Unfortunately, the other three tower rooms are not at present utilized; the uppermost room on each side is light and airy, with splendid views over the city, and would make an excellent meeting-room if only there were not so many stairs to climb!
Returning to the Narthex itself, the walls of the three parts have been repainted in the same colours and with the same frieze as were used in 1910. The stencil for the frieze was discovered in the tower when it was cleared out for the restoration. The stained-glass windows in the Narthex were donated in 1910, and the Pieta in the west vestibule was donated in 1891 by members of the Hickey family, whose descendents still worship in the Cathedral. The south-end sacristy in the west vestibule was added in the 1980s to facilitate the entrance of processions from the back of the Church.