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The bell at the entrance to the chapel.
Photo by John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist blog. |
Recently,
The Devoted Classicist enjoyed the opportunity to visit the Miami area Episcopal church, St. Bernard de Clairvaux, in some terms the oldest church in the United States. The building of the Monastery began in Sacramento, Spain, in 1133 and was completed in 1141. Originally, the Monastery was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was named "The Monastery of Our Lady, Queen of the Angels." But when the Cistercian monk Bernard of Clairvaux was canonized, the Monastery was renamed in his honor. Cistercian monks occupied the Monastery until the revolution in the 1830s, when the cloisters were seized and sold to be used as a granary and a stable.
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The Cloister of St. Bernard de Clairvaux.
Photo by John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist blog. |
William Randolph Hearst bought the Cloisters and Monastery in 1925. The buildings were dismantled stone by stone and packed in hay for protection in 11,000 crates numbered for identification. But on arrival in the U.S., there was fear of a possible contagion of hoof and mouth disease and the crates were quarantined, broken open, and the hay burned. The stones were re-crated, but with no attention to the identification and sent to Hearst's warehouse.
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A view down a gallery from the chapel towards the main entrance.
Photo by John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist blog. |
Hearst had financial problems soon after this which forced much of his collection to be sold at auction. These crates remained in the warehouse until 1953, however, when more contents were sold in 1953 after Hearst's death. W. Edgemon and R. Moss bought the stones to reconstruct the Cloisters as a tourist attraction in the Miami, Florida, area. After 19 months and almost $1.5 million (reportedly 12 million in today's dollars), it was named "the world's biggest jigsaw puzzle" by
Time magazine.
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The garden at the entrance to St. Bernard de Clairvaux.
Photo by John J. Tackett for The Devoted Classicist blog. |
When financial difficulties caused the Cloisters to be put up for sale in 1964, Bishop Henry Louttit bought it on behalf of the Diocese of South Florida. But when there were financial difficulties after the reorganization into the three dioceses of Central, Southeast, and Southwest Florida, Col. Robert Pentland, Jr., a philanthropist and benefactor of many Episcopal churches, purchased the Cloisters for the parish. Today, the church of St. Bernard de Clairvaux is an active, culturally diverse Episcopal congregation in the diocese. Also it is open for tours as well as being a popular site for weddings and quinceaneras (the celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday).
