MANSFIELD — In 1944, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of St. Peter’s Parish, Msgr. Gobbel commissioned Hungarian-born John Bernat to paint the interior of the church.
Over the course of the next two years, the entire church was elaborately decorated, including several large murals on the ceilings down to fine details and colors on the capitals, entablature, freize, soffits, and window surrounds.
In 1970, after Vatican II, and the church’s liturgical trends were slanted more for simplicity, the murals behind Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph were painted over. Also, that repainting removed all of the intricate details on the church architectural features. The 1970s color palette included a base of brown and oranges with a purple wainscot.
That design lasted until spring of 1992 when the church had to be repainted after the Thanksgiving Day Fire of 1991. That paint scheme of cremes and gold trim is what you see to this day.
As part of the Preserving Our Past, Preserving Our Future Capital Campaign, St. Peter’s interviewed three companies that specialize in church painting and restoration. Of those companies, St. Peter’s contracted with EverGreene Architectural Arts of New York City. EverGreene provides planning, design, restoration and conversation services in a variety of spaces including sacred, civic, theatrical, institutional, commercial and residential spaces.
The company’s body of work includes Senate Majority Leader’s Office in the U.S. Capitol Building, Severance Hall in Cleveland, and in our diocese St. Aloysius Church in Bowling Green and St. Rose and St. John Church in Lima.
The Properties Committee tasked EverGreen to create a design that preserves and restores all the original artwork from Bernat’s original painting that still exists and present a design that would bring out the intricate Romanesque details in the architecture.
The refurbishing project will begin after Easter Sunday and continue through to the fall.
Emily Sottile, Project Planning Consultant for EverGreene, is leading the design process for the church renovation. She has spent 11 years with EverGreene Architectural Arts and has a Master’s Degree in Art History and is currently pursuing a degree in Theology.
The goal of EverGreene when working on a project is to preserve a beautiful building and make them functional for their current occupants.
In the case of a church or sacred space, it is to provide visual support from the architecture and give people the opportunity in the pews to draw them into prayer and complementation.
The project has three key areas:
Base Painting and Restoration
This includes fixing plaster where it has been damaged over the years. Fortunately, this is very limited. Then all the walls will be cleaned and will receive a fresh coat of paint.
Conservation and cleaning of our Murals
The original murals painted by Bernat are approaching 75 years old and are in overall good shape but can be cleaned and require some touch-up.
Restore artwork to areas of the church where it was removed
Sotille said St. Peter’s Church was designed with an interior that was meant to be decorated with art. However, after the paintings in 1970 and 1992, many of the artistic elements were painted over.
“Areas (of the church architecture) stopped working the way they were intended to,” she said.
A great deal of research went into the process developing the design. Original color photos were provided of the Bernat era paintings to EverGreene. Sottile used inspiration from the original paintings by Bernat and elements from other churches of similar design to develop the new design for St. Peter’s.
In looking at the sanctuary, the first thing you see is the pattern on the wall behind the high altar. Inspired by the original Bernat design, this pattern is taken all the way up the wall and will make the altar stand out.
Directly above three new phrases in Latin will be added: “Sanctus, Dominus Deus, Sabaoth” which translates to “Lord God of Hosts.”
Above the altar, the ceiling field behind arch soffit that includes Christ and murals of the four Gospel Evangelists will be painted in a maize color, and new stenciling will be adding to the ribs around each of the murals — new stenciling will be added to “connect” the murals.
“Historically, there were stripes in the ceiling field that provided some connection,” Sottile said. “Currently the murals float (above the windows). The stars and vines will help to anchor the murals into the surrounding architecture.”
The side chapels of Mary and Joseph also have a calling back to the original work of Bernat. The arch around Mary will be brought back with a new stenciled design and will also be used around Joseph.
Surrounds will be painted behind each statue to allow Mary and Joseph to stand out on the wall. It will also include the addition of new medallions above the statues. The goal is to make this space work together. Sottile said her goal is to create a contrast to break up these big spaces and create scale.
“The design of the side chapels helps to make the statuary become more visible,” Sottile said. “Adding medallions above help bring the statues to scale in that space.”
Of note, before design plans were started, tests were done to attempt to remove paint from behind the altar of Joseph to see if any of the original mural could be exposed. Unfortunately, those tests were not successful.
Above the nave, the ceiling field takes on a light blue color, and the vine pattern continues with the addition of a star field. The star and vine pattern is carried through the rest of the nave.
The pattern begins to simplify below in the arch ribs, pilasters, and entablature and frieze. Instead of detailed stenciling, colors will be used to accentuate these elements.
“The Roman Catholic Church has been the biggest patron of the arts the world has ever known,” Sottile said. “It’s an effective communication tool and can inspire the arts.”
Had not John Bernat come to Mansfield to paint St. Peter’s in 1944, the arts community may not have evolved the way it did. It was Bernat who helped form the Mansfield Fine Arts Guild during his time in our city. That guild went on to establish the Mansfield Art Center – the hub of our community’s art scene.
Bernat also inspired a young Frankie Daniel, the only student under the age of 18 he would let into his studio.
Of course, Frank Daniel would go on to teach art for many years at Malabar and over 25 years at St. Peter’s High School – encouraging many more student artists.
He also inspired Bob Besch ’50, who wrote a memoir in The Mansfield News Journal of John Bernat in 1963 when Bernat was living in Los Angeles and dying from cancer. He told the story about the man Bernat chose to depict St. Peter in the dome of the church.
“The face came from an elderly janitor, a pleasant little man of German extraction who was also a sexton and part-time usher, was a grandfather image with the school children, always ready with a joke, a smile, a poke in the ribs. His countenance would have made Michelangelo revel. He had a face amazingly like that of St. Peter, with the white hair and the cranial baldness typical in representations of the saint in the last days before martyrdom.
“Bernat’s talented brush gave our janitor the necessary beard and clothing. Now the little old man who worked in the obscure corners of the church is known from a different perspective, looking down from the dome, playing a noble and important role.”
For centuries, Catholic Churches have used their windows and walls to illustrate the stories of the Bible to its people. Even in the 21st Century, this restoration is not only an investment in our parish’s regular worship space, but it may inspire one of our students to a life in the visual arts or even a higher calling to a vocation in the church.
It’s also an investment in Mansfield. St. Peter’s will continue to be a leader in showcasing the cultural and visual arts. Our church will continue to tell the story of Christ on its windows and walls and be open to all every Sunday to witness the divine miracle of his death and resurrection.
PROJECT NOTES: The scaffold erection will start right after Easter. So the last time you can “see” St. Peter’s in its current look is Easter Sunday.
The scaffolding will be a dance floor style, similar to the Renaissance’s painting around the chandelier – a floor will be built at the level of the entablature (see the Know Your Architecture) – so views of the ceiling work will be limited. However, work on the wall below that level will be visible.
The work in the sanctuary should be completed by June 11. (This is everything from the altar rails forward.)
There will be a short break to accommodate a wedding and then the week of July 2 scaffolding will start to go up in the Nave Transept and aisles. This will be everything over the pews. Work in the nave should take until October.
During this entire time, Mass will continue as normal on the weekends. Weekday masses may be moved to the high school chapel if necessary.
The pipe organ will be dismantled after Easter and will not return until the painting is complete in the fall. The internal controls in the console will be rebuilt with modern electronics; all the existing pipes will be cleaned some modifications pipes and the addition of a couple of new ranks.
The second part of this phase will take place towards the end of the summer and will include the following:
Replacing the hardwood floors under the pews & restoration of the pews with the addition of new kneelers
Modifications to the floor plan to include two new aisleways on the sides for better traffic flow, a new area for the contemporary music group and some shortened pews for additional handicapped seating for families with a member who uses a wheelchair.
Restoration of several stained glass windows. Several of the larger windows will be removed and have structural improvements made to them and will be reinstalled. The outer storm windows make this a simple process.
There are a handful of smaller cleaning, polishing projects at are working alongside as well.
In total, this phase is a $1.575 million investment in the church worship space. This is in addition to the boiler and sound system that was installed during Phase I of the campaign.
Of course, a majority all the funds raised for the campaign have been made through the sacrifice of St. Peter’s parishioners who want to preserve the hard work and sacrifice of our ancestors who built the church 100 years ago.
St. Peter’s will be hosting the Chamber’s after hours event in August, and the church will be open then for tours.
Jason Crundwell is a 1995 St. Peter’s graduate and the Director of Development & Alumni Relations.
