inSPIREd Sunday

Sally and Beth host inSPIREd Sunday!  

September 2017 - Victoria BC

St. Andrew's Cathedral is the Roman Catholic cathedral for the diocese of Victoria. Built in the High Victorian Gothic style, St. Andrew's was Victoria's third cathedral to be built. (The first, 1858–1884, is now the Chapel of St. Ann's Academy on Humboldt Street; the second, 1884–1892, was on the site behind the current building now occupied by the St. Andrew's Square office building.)

Based on the plans for a church built in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, Perrault and Mesnard borrowed much from the medieval architecture of European churches. The double asymmetrical towers are typical of Quebec churches and a characteristic of the High Victorian Gothic style. This was an attempt to follow the "unfinished" look that made fourteenth and fifteenth century churches popular.

The main tower boasts a 175 ft (53 m) spire that was designed to hold a clock and a set of bells.

The nave is seventy-two feet long, with a rose window.

An altar was commissioned for use on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Bishop Remi Joseph De Roo's episcopal ordination. Carved by Charles W. Elliott, the first Native American to graduate from St. Louis College, the altar consists of two bentwood boxes. The boxes can be rotated to show four separate designs for the different liturgical seasons. The top of the altar or is carved from yellow cedar (Nootka Cypress) and weighs approximately four hundred pounds.

The cathedral also displays a carved lectern by artist Roy Henry Vickers. It depicts a black and red image of Christ, representing the crucified Christ and the risen Christ.

The Institute for Stained Glass in Canada has documented the stained glass at St Andrew's Catholic Cathedral. The cathedral houses 21 large Portland-style stained glass windows and two large rose windows with a smaller one above the gallery.

The cathedral houses a crypt, where three of Victoria's former Bishops are interred:
Bishop Modeste Demers, the first Bishop of Victoria.
Charles John Seghers, the second and fourth Bishop, murdered in Alaska.

Rt. Rev. John J. Jonckau, a former Vicar General of the Diocese of Victoria who was named as Bishop but died before being consecrated.

There is a monument outside commemorating these three bishops.