page_title: Saint Leonard Catholic Church (Madison, Nebraska)
section_title: Interior
hierarchical_section_title: Saint Leonard Catholic Church (Madison, Nebraska) / Architecture / Church / Interior
caption_attribution_description: English: Stained-glass window in room at southwest corner of St. Leonard's Catholic Church in Madison, Nebraska. The church was designed in Romanesque Revival style by architect Jacob M. Nachtigall, and built in 1913. With its rectory and a garage, it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The window on the left depicts St. Zita.
context_page_description: Saint Leonard Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic church in the city of Madison, in the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. Built in 1913, it has been described as "an outstanding example of the Romanesque Revival style of architecture."
  St. Leonard's parish, named after Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, was organized in 1879. A wood frame church was built in 1881 on the outskirts of Madison, and moved into the city in 1898. In 1902, the basement of the current church was built, and the congregation moved into it, converting the old church to a school. When funds allowed, the basement was extended, and the current brick church completed in 1913.
  In 1989, the church, its 1912 rectory, and the rectory's garage were listed in the National Register of Historic Places, as the work of noted Nebraska architect Jacob M. Nachtigall. A pupil of Thomas Rogers Kimball, Nachtigall designed a number of Catholic churches and other buildings in the state, several of which are also listed in the National Register.
context_section_description: The interior plan of the church consists of a nave, a short transept, and a semicircular apse.  At the west end of the nave is a narthex. At the center of this is a vestibule leading to the church's main entrance; at the church's northwest corner is a reconciliation room, formerly a baptistry; at the southwest corner is a short passage from which a staircase descends to the basement and another rises to the choir loft.  In the loft is the church's organ, a tracker model manufactured by the Hinners Organ Company in 1879; the organ was not originally built for St. Leonard's.
  The nave measures 98 feet (30 m) between the entrance and the communion rail.  An aisle passes down its center; narrower aisles follow the north and south walls.  Two rows of seven circular columns run along the nave.  The columns are made of wood, plastered to conceal the material, and decorated with Corinthian capitals.  The rib-vaulted ceiling rises 30 feet (9.1 m) above the floor.  Fourteen stained-glass windows, depicting scenes from the life of Christ, occupy the nave's walls.  The 13.5-by-5-foot (4.1 m × 1.5 m) windows were produced by the Muenich Art Studio of Chicago.  Between the windows are sculpted stations of the cross.  In three spandrels above columns on each side are fresco paintings.
  Two marble steps rise from the nave to the chancel. At the top of the steps is a hand-carved white wood communion rail, decorated with miniature onyx columns and topped with marble.
  At the northwest and southwest corners of the chancel are two side altars: to the north, a Marian altar; to the south, an altar of St. Joseph.  The original image on the Marian altar depicts Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception; more recently, an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe has been added.  The St. Joseph altar includes a bone relic of St. Leonard of Port Maurice.
  On the Gospel side of the chancel is a large hand-carved wood pulpit, decorated with carved figures of the four Evangelists.
  The chancel is dominated by the high altar, which stands over 20 feet (6.1 m) tall, and which cost its donors $2,080 in 1913.  Like the communion rail, the side altars, and the pulpit, it is made of hand-carved wood decorated with small onyx columns.  At the base is a relief sculpture of the Last Supper; above that is a marble altar table.  The tabernacle is just above that; to either side is a sculpted angel, kneeling to the tabernacle and holding the sanctuary lamps.  Above the tabernacle is a sculpted Crucifixion of Jesus, with the Virgin Mary and the apostle John on either side of the cross.  In separate niches on either side of the crucifixion scene are statues of St. Boniface and St. Patrick, representing the German and Irish ethnicity of the parish in the early 20th century.  Above their niches are figures of angels blowing trumpets; at the top of the altar is a statue of St. Leonard.
  On the half-domed ceiling of the apse is a large oil-painted mural depicting a scene in Heaven.  In the center, God the Father and Jesus are enthroned on a cloud; a stained-glass skylight at the top of the dome depicting the Holy Spirit completes the Trinity.  Flanking the Father and Son are the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist.  Below the cloud is Satan in torment.  At the left and right of the scene is an assemblage of 18 Catholic saints and 10 angels.
  Beside the fourteen large windows in the nave, there are 25 stained-glass windows in the church, depicting saints and symbols of the Catholic Church.  These include St. Cecilia, patron saint of the Archdiocese of Omaha, and a pair of windows depicting St. Boniface and St. Patrick.
  In the 1989 form nominating it for the National Register of Historic Places, it was noted that the church had undergone only minor alterations, including an interior redecoration in 1964, the replacement of roof slates with asphalt shingles in 1977, and the addition of a concrete ramp for access by the handicapped in 1986.
caption: Stained-glass windows in southwestern anteroom: St. Zita at left; unidentified saint at right[14]
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