Oratory Tour
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Oratory of St. Mary Magdalene -
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Every detail of the interior and exterior of the Oratory of St. Mary Magdalene proclaims the Catholic truth that Jesus Christ, risen from the dead and worthy of constant adoration in His Holy Eucharist, provides, day and night, a home for His people to pray.
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The Oratory of St. Mary Magdalene was approved by Bishop Rhoades to serve as a chapel of perpetual adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in our Parish’s old graveyard at the corner of Auburn and Wallen Roads. Its architectural form was designed by William Heyer to evoke that of the historic St. Vincent’s church building used for worship (1904-1968) and subsequently as a “Haunted Castle” (mid-1980’s-2007).
The iconographic program of the Oratory is verbally and visually rich and is deliberately intended to serve as a devotional support for a lifetime of contemplative prayer. The Oratory teaches and provides a vocabulary for interiorizing one’s faith and ultimately sharing it by invitation to others to behold what we have seen. Both exteriorly and interiorly, the Oratory speaks with the actual words of Scriptural revelation and reveals to the eye in clear and specific (i.e., non-abstract) ways the mutual self-revelation of the Divine Lover (Jesus Christ) and His Beloved (the believing soul, as exemplified in the person of Mary Magdalene).
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On the Oratory’s exterior, the iconographic program is one of proclamation of the Resurrection, invitation to worship, and angelic protection of the sanctuary of adoration.
On the face of the Oratory’s tower, over the central portal, are inscribed the words of Ps 95:6-7: “O come, let us worship. Let us bow down and kneel before the Lord Who made us, for we are His people.” (Incidentally, Magdala is derived from the Hebrew word migdal, meaning “tower.”) A mosaic lunette above the portal depicts Mary Magdalene meeting the Risen Christ in the garden.
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In a band running above the inurnment niches of the outside wall of the apse is carved the passage from Ezekiel 37:12: Behold, I shall open your graves and have you rise from them, O My people.” Seven carved granite Angels of the Apocalypse preside above the inurnment niches and represent the Angels of the Seven Churches mentioned at the beginning of the Book of Revelation.
There are also eight carved granite Seraphim under the exterior windows of the Oratory (six under the side windows of the nave, two under the oriel windows at the front), depicting the Angels mentioned in the Book of Isaiah who surround the Lord’s throne in perpetual adoration.
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Sheep and Goats
A painted frieze pattern of grazing sheep and goats forms a lower band under the Bible of Poor panels on either side of the nave, alluding to the flocks mentioned in the Song of Songs and to the faithful followers of Christ, who like sheep follow the Good Shepherd wherever He goes. In relation to the sculpture of the Lord reigning from the Cross as the Tree of Life, those who enter the Oratory find themselves between the sheep and the goats described in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 25:31-46, entering into and passing through His divine judgment separating sin from the sinner.
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Bible of the Poor
Further, the forty “Bible of the Poor” panels supported by this decorative wood construction also reproduce an even more detailed lattice pattern. Each of the panels contains a central scene from the life of Christ, flanked on either side by two Old Testament prefigurations of it. These wooden panels were hand-drawn in India ink by a local Fort Wayne artist, Aaron Minier, to reproduce the style of the medieval woodcut scenes detailing the life and love of the Lord for the believing soul, from the Annunciation to the Last Judgment. The Bible of the Poor panels in the Oratory are a new adaptation and arrangement of Biblical scenes and verses designed to include both the twenty mysteries of the Rosary, as well as fourteen scenes from the Passion and saving Death of Christ which could serve as a Way of the Cross devotion. The labeling of the Bible of the Poor panels---in groups of two or three, depending on their placement on a given side of the Oratory windows---takes the form of a Litany of the Lord’s Loveliness, allowing the descriptions of the scenes to form short prayers addressed to the Lord with a variety of salutations declaring His beauty:
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Wooden Shields: Instruments of Christ's Passion
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The circular mosaic in the floor of the Oratory narthex depicts a vanquished serpent. The banding around the mosaic is the declaration from Revelation 12:10: “The accuser of our brethren has been cast out, who night and day accused them before God.” Stepping on this serpent’s head before one’s entry into the nave allows the believer access to the “enclosed Garden” (SS 4:12) of the Song of Songs to contemplate and receive the Fruit of the Tree of Life, Christ the Eucharistic Lord.
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In the floor at the entrance to the sanctuary is a circular mosaic depicting the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. It is inspired by the ancient mosaic with that theme at the church dedicated to that miracle in the Holy Land. The banding around it, from Jn 6:51a, 34, reads: “I am the living Bread come down from Heaven; whoever eats this Bread will live forever. Lord, give us this Bread always.”
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The Asile
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Running down the main aisle of the Oratory is a basket-weave pattern of tiles containing apples and apple blossom mosaics, as if they are the redemptive fruit that has fallen from the abundant harvest of the Tree of Life Crucifix.
One of the square spaces in the central aisle contains a stone from the synagogue in Magdala in the Holy Land.
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The two angels in the glass of the inside entrance door to the Oratory stand as protective sentinels of both the holiness and contemplative silence of this blessed place of adoration. Above this door is a wooden panel originally in a seminary chapel at the University of Notre Dame, quoting Sirach 6:36: “Go to Him early in the morning, and let thy foot wear the steps of His door.”
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