page_title: Our Lady of Pompeii Church (Manhattan)
section_title: Interior furnishings
hierarchical_section_title: Our Lady of Pompeii Church (Manhattan) / Architecture / Interior furnishings
caption_attribution_description: English: Mother Cabrini Shrine, Our Lady of Pompeii Church, Manhattan, NYC (May 2014)
context_page_description: Our Lady of Pompeii Church, or more formally, the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Pompeii, is a Catholic parish church located in the South Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, in the United States. The church is staffed by Scalabrini Fathers, while the Our Lady of Pompeii School is staffed by Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is located across from Father Demo Square, which is named for the church's third pastor, Antonio Demo.
  The church was founded in 1892 as a national parish to serve Italian-American immigrants who settled in Greenwich Village, eventually becoming the American counterpart to the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompei in Italy and a shrine in its own right. The church has resided at its present location since 1926, when construction on its current edifice began. While it has remained a largely Italian American parish, the church has come to incorporate many other immigrant groups.
context_section_description: The interior of the church was decorated in the Romanesque Revival style, between 1934 and 1937, by Antonio D'Ambrosio, the founder of D'Ambrosio Ecclesiastical Art Studios. The nave is lined with polished marble Corinthian columns, above which is a frieze bearing a Latin inscription of the Hail Mary in golden letters. Above the frieze, within the barrel vault of the ceiling, are painted depictions of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary on the right side of the nave, and depictions of the Sorrowful Mysteries on the left side. On the ceiling are depictions of the Glorious Mysteries.
  The marble reredos contains a painting that is an exact replica of one in the Shrine of Our Lady in Pompei. It was given to the church in 1895 as a gift by Annie Leary. The painting is situated within a Romanesque arch and depicts the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus who is handing a rosary to St. Dominic, while his mother hands a rosary to St. Catherine of Siena. This painting originally adorned the church's 210 Bleecker Street building and was cut and moved to its present location with the construction of the church. It was before this painting that many Italian emigrant parishioners would pray for safe travels before voyaging back to Naples or pray in thanksgiving upon returning to America.
  
  To the left of the mural in the apsidal dome is a depiction of the Church Penitent, represented by souls in purgatory awaiting salvation. To the right is a depiction of the Church Triumphant, specifically the saints in heaven. Beneath the mural in the apse is another frieze that bears the Latin inscription:
  NON ARMA · NON DUCES · SED VIRGO MARIA ROSARII FECIT NON VICTORIES
  (Neither arms nor leaders, but the Virgin Mary of the Rosary made us victors)
  The largest painted accent in the interior is the mural in the semi-dome above the altar, which was created in 1937 and illustrates the Church Militant. The mural depicts the Virgin Mary and Jesus as a child in her lap, as she stands on a cloud, in front of the Sun. Mary is presenting St. Dominic, who is holding and contemplating the cross, with a rosary. St. Catherine of Siena looks on from the distance, as angels fly about them. The lower right corner of the mural, against a background of sky and sea, depicts a galleon in the naval Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571. The miraculous Spanish victory was attributed to divine intercession in response to prayer to Our Lady of the Rosary. One of the angels is handing a rosary to a soldier, which is depicted as the decisive weapon in the battle. Imagery of the Shrine of Our lady of the Rosary in Pompei, Italy is present above the battle, including the shrine's campanile. The religious are tending to poor immigrants, and a woman receives a rosary from a Franciscan friar, symbolizing that the Franciscans from St. Anthony of Padua Church were the first ministers to the Italian immigrants in New York. The mural also depicts St. Charles Borromeo in red, who is the patron saint of the Scalabrinians, and Blessed Giovanni Battista Scalabrini, their founder, as a bishop in white, their founder. Also visible is St. Martin de Porres holding a basket of roses, acknowledging the African American community that worshiped at Our Lady of Pompeii's previous church. This mural was removed in the 1970s, and replaced with less dramatic imagery consistent with the persuasion of the Second Vatican Council. It was later recreated by Antonio D'Ambrosio's son, Anthony D'Ambrosio, based on his father's original drawings.
  Work on the stained glass windows that enclose either aisle began in 1928 and continued into the 1940s. They show scenes from the lives of the saints, the catechism, and the Gospel; in particular, the saints are shown in such a way that illustrates each of the Beatitudes with which they are associated. Individuals depicted in the windows include: St. Stephen, St. Catherine of Siena, St. John the Baptist, St. Peter, St. Paul, the Four Evangelists, and Pope Leo XIII with Mother Cabrini. Additional stained glass windows were added over the narthex in 1986. They depict th
caption: Shrine to Mother Cabrini and Jesus Nazareno
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