BLESSED BY DESIGN

There’s a new altar at the Academy of the Holy Names, and the students are to thank for it.

Seniors Stefania Bonanni, Delaney Cummins, Madison Geddes and Sydney Neff worked with advisors, teachers and artisans in the area to design and create the school’s new altar.

“It’s beautiful,” said Dr. Phyllis Morrison, associate head of school. “I’m so proud.”

The altar was revealed and blessed at the school’s Advent Family Liturgy Mass in the Riley Auditorium on campus on Dec. 8. Mass goers were seated around all sides of the round, portable altar, so that the piece could be celebrated in the center space.

“It was really cool to see our ideas come to life,” Neff said.

Holy Names knew it needed to find a new altar for worship after the school’s St. Joseph’s Chapel closed. Located in the Provincial House building, the chapel was owned by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and the decision to shutter and demolish the structure was made after the sisters stopped using it. The building also housed the AHN Lower School, which closed in 2016.

“That building is being taken down, and we did not have an altar here,” said Dr. Morrison. “A donor made a donation to the school so that an altar could be built or purchased, but it was the hope that the altar would be built and the students would have some role in that, or a major role.”

All four seniors were taking a social justice class with Dr. Morrison when she approached the students about designing the altar. 

“I was super excited,” Cummins said. “I didn’t know a ton about altars and how they are made … they really are a complex piece of the church.”

Father Richard S. Vosko, liturgical designer and consultant in the Diocese, worked with the students on their designs and brought their work to fruition with the help of local artisans. 

“I think one of the most important aspects is that we each had a major role in it,” Geddes said. “If you went up there and pointed something out, each of us could tell you who created the idea of what was really important to everyone.”

Geddes, a student of Holy Names since she was young, knew she wanted to incorporate a piece of the closed chapel in the new altar. Geddes was able to take pieces of marble from St. Joseph’s Chapel and incorporate them into the design around the outside of the altar. 

“I’ve been going to Holy Names for 16 years,” Geddes said. “I grew up in the lower school and I grew up having Mass in that chapel, so I was so upset when I heard it was being taken down.

“Something that was really important to me was the marble on the altar and … I found a way to incorporate the marble from the lower school into th

e altar. I planned on, when I was older, I was going to get married in the chapel, but now there’s a little piece of that chapel that will always be here.”
Delaney had the idea to place a star in the center of the altar top, representing Jesus as the light of the world. Because the altar is also portable (wheels are hidden underneath each of the table’s legs), Delaney had a stone placed inside the central star as “a nice homage to typical stone altars.” 

Bonanni designed three braided-willow branches to wrap around the altar, both as a reminder of the triune of God — a creator, a redeemer and a sanctifier — and tribute to the tradition of braids worn by AHN students.

Neff designed each of the table’s leg to wrap in a curved shape so that the altar would appear more round. Each of the legs also represents the repetition of the number four frequently used in Scripture. 

“None of us had a clear idea of what they wanted it to look like, but all of us contributed a very small part and it all came together with Father Vosko’s help,” Geddes said. “It really did make a beautiful product.”