Sorin's French church — the plans that were refused and the plan that was built

Spring 1869 – 1871 · the conception

The decision: In the spring of 1869 the Congregation's Provincial Council decided to build a new collegiate church dedicated to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. The account of the conception that survives at anniversary depth is Bishop Daniel R. Jenky's homily for the consecration's 125th anniversary, delivered 16 July 2013 and published in the journal of the Institute for Sacred Architecture — Jenky had been the church's rector from 1977 to 1997. In his telling, Sorin rejected a first design outright: Patrick Keely's baroque church, modeled on the Gesù in Rome, was beyond the Congregation's means. A second, gigantic Gothic design was also rejected as too expensive. What got built came from the community itself: Brother Charles Borromeo "borrowed" the rejected Gothic plans, extensively modified them, and executed the design of the church that stands. The kept account of Keely's refused plan gives its measure — a cruciform church two hundred feet long, with three naves and a transept, a dome over the crossing, two large bell towers, and room for two thousand people.

The architect's name, as the record gives it: The Basilica's own history page dates the drafting to January 1870 and names the St. Louis architect "T. Brady," who drafted plans with input from Sorin, from Fr. Alexis Granger, and from Brother Charles Borromeo Harding. Jenky's homily names "Mr. J. Brady, a well-known architect from Saint Louis." The initial differs between the Basilica's own history and its former rector's anniversary account, and the record prints it both ways: Brady of St. Louis. The National Register nomination for the campus district settles the credit line differently — it names no outside architect at all, crediting Sacred Heart Church, building number 29 in the district, to "Father Alexis Granger, Father Edward Sorin and Brother Charles Harding, architects: 1871–88," a yellow-brick, slate-roofed church whose windows it calls direct revivals of the French Gothic tradition. The three attributions stand together: a St. Louis professional's drafted plans, a brother's borrowed and modified execution, and the Register's credit to the three Holy Cross men who carried it.

The French taste, and the brick: The Basilica's history page describes the church as Gothic Revival built to reflect Sorin's French taste. Jenky's homily gives the conception its material sentence: the church is "a Bible made in brick," its brick formed from the clay of St. Mary's Lake, and it names Fr. Alexis Granger as largely responsible for the church's finance and decoration across the protracted decade of its building. The conception, in other words, is documented as a Frenchman's program executed by his own community on a professional's refused plans — the pattern that explains both the building's French glass and its French bells, ordered through Sorin's own channels in the entries below.

Sources

1. The Most Rev. Daniel R. Jenky, C.S.C. — homily for the 125th anniversary of the consecration, 16 July 2013, published by the Institute for Sacred Architecture (sacredarchitecture.org): the Provincial Council's spring 1869 decision; Keely's refused Gesù plan; the refused Gothic design; Brother Charles Borromeo's borrowed and modified plans; Granger's finance and decoration; the brick of St. Mary's Lake clay.
2. University of Notre Dame — the Basilica's history page (basilica.nd.edu): planning begun spring 1869; T. Brady of St. Louis drafting in January 1870 with Sorin, Granger and Brother Charles Borromeo Harding; Gothic Revival reflecting Sorin's French taste.
3. National Register of Historic Places — nomination 78000053, University of Notre Dame Main and South Quadrangles (National Park Service): Sacred Heart Church credited to Granger, Sorin and Harding, 1871–88; yellow brick and slate; the windows as direct revivals of the French Gothic tradition.
4. The published history of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Notre Dame) — the kept account of Keely's refused cruciform plan: two hundred feet, three naves, a dome, two towers, two thousand seats.