Sanctuary Perspective

Our Lady, Queen of the English Martyrs Roman Catholic Church, Chicago. View towards high altar. Matthew Alderman, Fall 2005.

As the pilgrim’s eye moves down the nave, it alights first on the great crucifix of the rood beam, serving as a threshold to the chancel and sanctuary, and then on the polychrome gilt framework of the high altar with its image of the Virgin flanked by Saints John Fisher and Thomas More.

Matthew Alderman is a recent graduate of the School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, and a contributor to the blogs The Shrine of the Holy Whapping, the New Liturgical Movement, and the Society of St. Barbara. He has recently taken a job with a classical residential architectural firm in Manhattan.