“In the beauty of the cathedral, we have succeeded in proclaiming God and Christ and all his mysteries in a visible way,” Pope Benedict XVI told priests and seminarians at the cathedral in Bressanone, Italy, in August 2008.
Photographing all 193 cathedrals and 93 basilicas across the United States would seem like a daunting project for anyone, but 10 years ago Andrew Masi decided to visit and photograph every cathedral and basilica from east to west, north to south.
On Sunday, July 21, Maci returned to the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey, where his idea was firmly established. He considered the visit a “homecoming” to the place where he decided to begin this quest, and a “spiritual pilgrimage to visit and photograph every Catholic cathedral and basilica in the United States,” he told the Register. “We just celebrated our 10th anniversary this April.”
Masi’s idea began during a visit to Newark Cathedral on Easter Sunday 2014. While waiting for mass to begin, he recalls, “I gazed out at the majestic Cathedral, taking in everything from the architecture to the large, life-sized Stations of the Cross to the beautiful stained-glass windows to the magnificent pipe organ.”
He kept thinking, “Are all the cathedrals in America as grand and big and amazing as this one?” That’s when the idea came to him to see it for himself and take some photos.
That small seed sprouted into many journeys, and to date he has visited and photographed 104 cathedrals and 59 basilicas in 37 states.
Masi, 37, said she has always “loved traveling and photography” so what better way to combine her two great interests than to visit beautiful states across the US and see the country for herself.
He spreads his trips out throughout the year. Maci flies to his destinations, rents a car, then drives to nearby locations. For example, on his next trip over Labor Day weekend, he’ll fly to Denver to visit the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and says he’s “really looking forward to seeing that beautiful cathedral.” The trip will also include St. Mary’s Cathedral in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and Sacred Heart Cathedral in Pueblo, Colorado, before stopping off at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
On our next trip, we will visit the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Salvation in Oklahoma City, which just celebrates its 100th anniversary in October.
Share the highlights (click the image)
In this milestone year, Masi is grateful for his past travels. He began his journey with a place that was particularly meaningful to him: the Basilica of St. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia, a church that has been visited by St. John Paul II and Pope Francis. “Not only is that church big and historic, but the interior is also very beautiful. When you enter the central part of the church, it’s like looking into one of the Roman basilicas. You feel like you’re in Rome. It’s really amazing.”
Another highlight was the Cathedral of St. Louis in St. Louis, visited by Pope John Paul II. “It’s indescribable,” Masi says. “It’s just incredible. It has the largest collection of mosaics in the world.” The mosaics that fill the cathedral are the largest installation in the Western Hemisphere. “Can you imagine how many man-hours and parts went into building this cathedral? It’s impossible to count. And it was built years before all this advanced technology, when everything was done by hand.”
St. Louis Cathedral
Another favorite is the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. “The Stations of the Cross are like a painting. It’s like looking at a Leonardo da Vinci painting,” he says. “When you see the Stations of the Cross, you’re drawn in and you’re immersed in that world.”
Yet another highlight was a pilgrimage to St. Augustine’s Cathedral in his hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
The Cathedral of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky, is home to two of the largest rose windows in the United States. “I took a photo of the rose window when I visited there in 2018, and the sunlight was shining on the window. I remember it was designed to resemble Notre Dame de Paris.” The cathedral also features a spectacular 67-by-24-foot transept window, believed to be the largest hand-blown stained-glass window in the world.
Masi’s efforts have brought great joy to those who view the 18,229 photos posted to date on his Flickr site.
“They say: ‘I can’t go to these places because I don’t have the time or the money,’ or ‘I can’t because I’m old,’ or ‘I have health problems.’ But I take virtual tours, and it’s like a self-guided tour, and I go step by step to the cathedrals and basilicas.”
Father Bismarck Chau, rector of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark, called the building “an incredible structure with incredible detail, and you really feel God,” adding that he believed Maci “experienced it in his heart, and it brought him closer to God.”
Father Chau continued, “He’s started a new journey, and that journey is really impacting other people’s lives, to one degree or another. He’s shown a lot of people the beauty of the Catholic Church in the United States, and I think that’s something to be celebrated.”
“I think he really represents the universality of the Church very well,” Father Chau explained, “That’s how I’ve come to understand it. When you look at his paintings, you see how different the expressions of faith are in different cities, but it’s one faith. When you look at the paintings, you see Mary, you see the cross, you see the altar. That’s what unites us. So it’s beautiful to see the different structures of the Church for the worship of God.”
And although it’s not easy to count, there are many ways in which people are inspired by or seek the Catholic faith.
“God himself is beauty and he somehow draws us in,” Father Chau said. “As a priest, I look at these paintings differently, maybe seeking that beauty, observing the intricacy of the design in the paintings and sculptures in marble and stone. To me, that’s beautiful.”
Masi hopes that her photo diary will help people deepen their faith.
He responded thoughtfully: “If I can inspire just one person or make a difference in someone’s life through the pictures I have painted in my story, I would consider it a blessing from God.”
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