Lady
Chapel
 n the 1960s, the LADY CHAPEL was constructed in an area once occupied by a one-manual, five rank, Kimball pipe organ, and the Baptismal Chapel. The organ was moved to Saint Peter’s Church, West Allis, Wisconsin, and the Baptismal Font was relocated to its present and original site. The present oak altar was once used in the chapel on the opposite side of the chancel. A new altar replaced it when that chapel was renovated in 1944. Bishop Benjamin Ivins then gave the altar to The Sisters of the Holy Nativity, who were serving the cathedral at that time, for use in their private chapel on the second floor of the Guild Hall building. When the Sisters were recalled by their motherhouse in the 1960s, the altar was relocated in the newly appointed Lady Chapel. Symbols of the Eucharist are centered in the flanking panels of the reredos. A relief carving of a pelican and her young, symbolic of Christ’s sacrificial offering, adorns the tabernacle door. This chapel is used often for weekday liturgies and private prayer. |
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The wooden figure of the Virgin Mary was carved from solid oak by the Florentine sculptor, Pecosia, and was placed in the cathedral in 1944. The pedastal on which the figure stands was constructed from one of the columns that at one time was a part of the colonnades that flanked the two entryways. |
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The “Madonna di Francesco I” painting was part of one of the cathedral’s very early altars and is believed to be over 250 years old. The signature “Raphael Umbriano” is alongside a sixteenth century date. It is a copy of a Raphael Sanzio original that now hangs in the Louvre. |