Saint Joseph Oratory

Saint Turibius Chapel | Saint Rose of Lima Chapel | Saint Pius X Chapel
The Four Chapels of the Josephinum

The beautiful St. Joseph Oratory is the chapel used by the School of Theology for the Liturgy of the Hours, daily Mass and devotional exercises. Originally it was an oratory, meaning that it was used for common and private prayers, lectures, and spiritual conferences. The oratory contains some of the finest examples of sacred art at the Josephinum.

On the north and south walls, 12 stained glass, double-lancet windows depict the life of Christ, beginning with the betrothal of Mary and Joseph through the sending of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The four windows on the east wall symbolically represent the four cardinal virtues: Prudence, Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.

The windows were designed, crafted and installed by Haurand Studios of Englewood, N.J. in 1958. Prior to that time, the windows had been plain, frosted glass. Above each window, around the walls of the oratory, Gothic script relates the text of the Prologue of St. John’s Gospel: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God …Symbolic paintings under the text illustrate the meaning.

Gerhard Lamers, the German ecclesiastical artist who, in the mid-1930s designed and executed the murals in St. Joseph and the other wall paintings at the Josephinum, decorated more than 100 churches in Europe. His paintings are in four churches in Columbus, including St. Mary Church in German Village.

In December 1999, a fire in the Theology wing damaged the chapel, but miraculously only the exterior roof burned. Water and smoke streaked the ceiling and walls, but the stained-glass windows and statuary were unbroken.

Standing water soaked through the hardwood floors, causing them to warp and ripple. The floors and exterior roof on the chapel were replaced, but a massive clean-up effort restored the chapel to its original beauty.

The organ in St. Joseph’s was purchased after the fire destroyed the existing electronic organ. The Columbus organ firm, Peebles-Herzog, added four ranks of pipes to a six-rank instrument purchased from a church in Nevada. The resulting instrument, installed January 2001, has nine ranks of pipes with 27 stops, comprising 633 pipes. The instrument has two manuals and a pedal keyboard.

A wood enclosure surrounds all but the largest bass pipes. The enclosure has expression louvers (called a swell) that control the volume of the pipes. The modest organ successfully supports the chant of daily services of Lauds, Mass, and Vespers in St. Joseph’s, seating one hundred.

The oratory retains its name, originating from the Latin word ora, meaning “to pray,” because it will always be a place for the personal and communal prayer of the Josephinum’s seminarians.