Seelos monstrance saved

Altarpiece connected to Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos to be returned to New Orleans

Published: Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 8:55 PM     Updated: Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 8:58 PM

By John Pope, The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune Days before it was to be auctioned off in New York City, a 19th-century altarpiece associated with Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos has been removed from the sale and will be returned to New Orleans. "We are in final negotiations to bring the monstrance back," archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah McDonald said Tuesday.

The 19th-century monstrance pictured here will be returned to New Orleans.

Among the topics of negotiation, she said, is the price to be paid to Sotheby's, the New York auction house that had planned to sell the monstrance today along with other examples of 19th-century furniture and decorative arts.
The monstrance, which is made of gold-plated silver, stands 4 feet high and weighs 13 pounds. It used to be in St. Alphonsus Church in the Irish Channel, where Seelos occasionally heard confessions, and it is depicted in the church's ceiling fresco.
For the purposes of the auction, Sotheby's had said the monstrance is worth between $40,000 and $80,000.
Archbishop Gregory Aymond said last month that that amount was more than the archdiocese could afford. But after people learned of the impending sale, "we received many calls ... offering assistance," McDonald said.
She declined to say whether a donor or group of donors was buying the vessel. Darrell Rocha, a Sotheby's spokesman, said he could offer no information beyond the fact that the monstrance has been withdrawn from today's sale.
Aymond is "directly involved" in the negotiations, McDonald said.
He is attending a bishops conference in Baltimore and was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, C.SS.R, a Redemptorist priest in New Orleans in the late 1860s.

 

The monstrance, a bejeweled vessel shaped like a cross surrounded by a sunburst, contains a glass case, called a luna, in which the consecrated host is displayed for the adoration of the faithful. Catholics believe that, upon consecration, the host becomes the body of Jesus Christ.
The piece's name derives from the Latin word monstrare, meaning "to show."
Although it is definite that the monstrance will return to New Orleans, no one knows yet when it will return or where it will go, McDonald said.
Charles "Jerry" Rosato, a longtime antiques dealer who collects religious artifacts, said he bought it in the late 1990s from the Rev. Alton Carr, St. Mary's pastor, for $5,000 because the parish needed money.
The sale was approved by Monsignor Earl Woods, a friend of Rosato's who was archdiocesan archivist at the time. Woods has since died, and Carr has not returned calls seeking comment.
Rosato consigned the monstrance to Sotheby's because he needed money to pay off a $30,000 Hurricane Katrina-related loan and, he said, the monstrance was the only thing he could use as collateral.
Aymond said last month that the sale violated church law, which forbids the sale of a sacred object to anyone not affiliated with a church.
"Besides being a relic of someone who could be canonized with local ties, a monstrance holds the body of Christ and should never be auctioned off for money," Aymond said then.
The prospect of the monstrance's return is "fantastic," Rosato said, adding, "That's exactly what I wanted."

View full sizeThe bejeweled altarpiece once seen at St. Alphonsus Church was scheduled to be sold at Sotheby's auction house.

 

The monstrance was made in France in 1857. It was in St. Alphonsus Church when Seelos, a native of Bavaria, was in New Orleans. He was assigned to St. Mary's Assumption Church, across Constance Street from St. Alphonsus, because many German-speaking Catholics worshipped there.
However, he occasionally crossed the street to celebrate sacraments for English-speaking worshippers at St. Alphonsus, said the Rev. Byron Miller, the chief advocate for Seelos' canonization.
He was "a tireless sacramental priest," Miller said.
Seelos, who arrived in September 1866 and died of yellow fever 13 months later, has been beatified because a miraculous cure was attributed to his intervention. As a result, "Blessed" precedes his name.
He is one miracle away from sainthood.
More important than the monstrance's connection to Seelos is its iconic importance to the Irish Channel community, said Bill Murphy, who was an altar boy at St. Alphonsus.
The church was closed in 1979 and has since been used as an art and cultural center.
Miller, who called the altarpiece "the prodigal monstrance," said he was "ecstatic" about its impending return.
"It never should have left the city," he said.