By chance, today brings us another look at Catholic buildings in Orange County.
In 1950, several priests from the Norbertine Abbey of St. Michael in Hungary got word that they were to be arrested the next day. They fled in the night and hiked across the border to Austria, and then to New York City. Eventually they hooked up with a Norbertine abbey in Wisconsin, where they spent several years raising money.
Orange County being a hotbed of anti-communism in the late '50s and '60s, the archbishop of Los Angeles invited the exiled priests to set up a monastic community in Santa Ana, which was later granted the title of abbey. The order prospered, and in 2018 finished raising a vast sum of money to build a new abbey. I would have thought that the Catholic community of Orange County would be tapped out by then, what with the gigantic cost of buying the Crystal Cathedral and converting it into Christ Cathedral, but I guess not. Three years and $120 million later, the new abbey opened.
I was puttering around yesterday in Silverado Canyon, looking for photo-worthy subjects, when I came across the abbey. It had always been a closed construction site when I'd driven by before, but it turns out it opened just a few weeks ago. So let's take a look.
The abbey is a handsome structure that looks like it could have been airlifted in from Tuscany. You probably couldn't tell the difference if I hadn't already told you it was located in Silverado Canyon in Orange County:
Here's a closer look at the church and the belltower:
The interior is lovely:
There's a rose window above the entrance to the church, but for some reason it didn't occur to me to take a picture of it. However, I did take a picture of the colorful illumination the window throws on the floor just beyond the baptismal font. At least, that's where it throws it at the hour of day I was there:
And here's what the entire 40-acre campus looks like:
I like it better than the Crystal Cathedral.
Rather... large for how few people are there?
I'm guessing it is also used for spiritual retreats, aka Catholic Spa hahaha.
It's Tuesday, though.
Yes and?
Well, when the Catholic Church isn't busy covering up the multiple pedophile rings it covers up, what else is it going to do with its billions of dollars? Help the fucking poor? Gross.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Charities_USA
"In 2005 Forbes magazine ranked it [Catholic Charities] as the fifth largest charity in the United States in terms of total revenue. The organization serves millions of people a year, regardless of their religious, social, or economic backgrounds. In 2019, 12 million persons were served at more than 2600 locations. Next to the federal government, Catholic Charities is the largest US social-safety-net provider."
For $120 million that ain't no bell tower. That's a campanile!
I have to disagree with you on its identity.
The "stucco" façade betrays its location, in large part because it has regular expansion joints baked in, mismatched between the front and side elevations. That's only something you'd see in the US, specifically the southern half of the country as the northern half tends to stay away from "stucco".
The openings are framed, not in stone, but in cast concrete. And because this is a modern building, the depth of the walls are betrayed by a lack of deep shadows in the windows. Were this an authentic period structure, the construction technology would have not afforded these shallow openings.
And it's doubtful any old Europe architect would have designed a church roof to dump rainwater onto the side of a bell tower's wall. New construction with concrete structure tempts modern architects to entertain such folly.
This is the Disney Fantasyland version of authentic southern European religious architecture. In Europe, they have moved on from trying to recreate period architecture. In the US, the majority of Americans are enthralled with fake historical structures and superficial façades. See: Las Vegas strip.
Plus: If the building fooled you the terrain looks nothing like Tuscany. It looks like the stunted "forest" of water poor California.
For sure. And the California Poppies are a dead giveaway.
https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/the-most-beautiful-rainforests-in-the-united-states/
Years ago we owned a stucco house in Minneapolis; it was far from the only one. It was 50 years old at the time; the attic wasn’t properly vented. The stucco continued onto the soffits; cutting through to install soffit vents chewed up several masonry ‘blades’ (abrasive disks). I held an electric circular saw overhead while it slowly cut through, wearing goggles and a respirator — nasty work.
There is a reason why I used quotation marks: "stucco".
Throughout the US until the early 2000s, what used to be traditional stucco had been transformed, post-70s energy efficiency changes, to EIFS. It was standard throughout the US, which was a mistake. Problems didn't show up in the southern (particularly the southwestern) part of the US, but it definitely did in the northern.
Even now, with vented EIFS, most builders in the northern half of the country shy away from anything to do with the system. Parging with modified cementitious mixes can also be problematic in the northern half of the country.
But hey, whatever.
How do they justify spending that much money? Don't they take a vow of poverty? I guess they keep that with their vow of chastity.
Depends on the order. But just because they take a vow of poverty does not mean that God does.
Religious poverty =/= being destitute. It means individual members of the order don't own anything personally.
Ah, the old "I don't own anything personally" dodge.
My comment above (about the "dodge") included jte21's post, to which I was replying. It was inside "blockquote" tags, and when I tried to submit my comment I got an error that said "Unacceptable!" The message also included that it was from "Mod_security." I removed the quote and the tags, and then my comment was acceptable. So is Kevin implementing some kind of automated comment moderation now? "Bout time, but are we rejecting HTML markup?
Man, that's America, right? More parking than buildings at a place where people generally don't go anywhere.
The Testarosa Winery in Los Gatos is lusting for the Abbey. Defunct catholic facilities make great wineries. Also great B&B's.
I remember doing an over night in the Nunnery on Black Mt Rd in Los Gatos. In the great room the walls had photos of the women. Lots of Italian and Irish women then they just petered out.