Challenge

To renew the 1850 interior, enhancing the celebration of liturgies, articulating the present beauty and reflecting the history of the Catholic archdiocese in the sacred structure.

Solution

Conrad Schmitt Studios proposed to uplift the eye and direct it toward the altar through the installation of a new, coffered ceiling with fleur-de-lis symbols, representing the Blessed Virgin Mary, and shamrocks, for the Trinity. The historic, Romanesque interior, including the new ornamental plaster, was painted, gilded and glazed. Gilded accents were added on the column capitals and in the apse. Two exterior domes were also gilded by CSS artisans. New marble flooring includes heraldic images of the coats of arms of the past and present bishops of Mobile, Alabama. The Mobile, Alabama Cathedral today glows brightly with renewal and embraces more archdiocesan history than ever before.

PAPAL RECOGNITION

Traveling from the Ecclesiastical Provinces of Louisville, Mobile, and New Orleans as a part of the Bishops’ Conference of the United States of America, the Holy Father met with the Vatican members of the Bishops’ Conference of the United States of America on December 3, 2004. At this meeting, Archbishop Oscar Hugh Lipscomb presented Saint Pope John Paul II with a photograph of the completed work by CSS at the Cathedral Basilica.