Presentation recounting the vision and determination of our founder Fr. Paul Wattson who built the first stone building at Graymoor and the first Catholic Church on the Holy Mountain.

1. St. Francis Chapel
Fr. Paul’s “Miracle in the Woods”
Celebrates 100 Years
1912 – 2012

2. Our Founder, Fr. Paul Wattson
• On October 30, 1909 the Society of the
Atonement was received into the Roman
Catholic Church after having been
established as an Anglican order years
earlier by Fr. Paul Wattson and Mother
Lurana White.
• It was Fr. Paul’s vision that the first
stone building at Graymoor, would be its
first Catholic church, St. Francis Chapel.
• Fr. Paul wrote in his diary, “a stone
chapel … where the Holy Sacrifice of
Mass and the Divine Office should daily
be said or sung to the glory of God.”
• Fr. Paul was already dreaming of a time
“… when the missionary Friars of the
Atonement, clothed and professed
within its walls, will be sent forth to
preach the Gospel in many lands.”

3. “Only Father can see how…”
• The cost to build St. Francis Chapel
was expected to be $8,000.
• There was only $200 in the Friar’s
treasury when construction began
on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1911.
• That evening, Mother Lurana jotted
in her diary, “The cornerstone of the
new chapel was laid today. Only
Father can see how it is ever to be
finished!”

4. Graymoor – “The Howling Wilderness”
• It was not only financial
concerns that threatened
the construction of St.
Francis Chapel.
• Though Graymoor is only
50 miles north of New York
City, in 1911, the area of
Putnam County around
Graymoor was sparsely
populated, and the only
major highway, the Albany
Post Road, was a narrow
dirt road. Graymoor was a
half mile from the Post
Road through dense forests
and hills, and St. Francis
Chapel was to be built at the
summit of the steep mount.
• Mother Lurana wrote in her
diary, “the poor archbishop
must think Graymoor a
howling wilderness where
no one living… could exist.”

5. The Architects of St. Francis Chapel
• Needing an architect for the building, Fr. Paul obtained the services of Monsignor John Cyril
Hawes, a former Anglican cleryman, whom Fr. Paul had received into the Catholic Church. In
appreciation for Fr. Paul’s kindness to him, Hawes offered to design the chapel.
– Hawes had built six stone churches in the Bahamas, where he had labored for many years as an
Anglican priest. Shortly after construction started, Hawes was called to England.
– Later ordained as a Catholic priest, Hawes returned to the Bahamas and eventually became known as
the “Hermit of Cat Island”. Monsignor Hawes always considered St. Francis Chapel, his gift to Fr. Paul, to
be one of his finest architectural creations.

6. A Bell Tower Connected to Assisi
• A second architect, Carlton
Strong, a prominent
architect from Pittsburgh
and former president of the
Anglo-Roman Union, was
called upon to oversee
completion of the Chapel. It
was Strong who designed
the interior roof of the
Chapel and the rood beam
effect inside.
• At Fr. Paul’s request, Strong
also modified Hawes’
designs of the bell tower so
that it was similar to the
bell tower of the Basilica of
St. Francis in Assisi as a
reminder of the
connectedness of St. Francis
Chapel of Graymoor with
Assisi, the land of St.
Francis.

7. Offerings From Around the World
• As architectural designs progresses, Fr. Paul
wrote to potential donors:
“St. Francis Chapel on the Mount of the
Atonement is to be built with the faith
that it will be used for divine worship for
the ages to come, and therefore, gifts of
the faithful placed in such a chapel must
call down in a special way the blessings
of God and of Heaven upon their donors.
Such memorials are for centuries, not for
days.”
• The fist offering was a $1 contribution from a
non-Catholic neighbor. Then more donations
came.
• Fr. Paul wrote of the donors: “a poor
missionary priest in India, a poor negress, a
recently baptized Chinaman, a number of
Protestants, several Anglican clerymen, a
converted Jew and one who is still
unconverted.”

8. Brothers Chrisopher Provided Labor
• For many years, in exchange
for a few days of shelter and
hot meals, travelers of the
road (called Brothers
Christopher) would help the
friars and sisters with
projects around Graymoor.
• Unable to afford to pay
masons and stone layers, Fr.
Paul recruited the “Brothers
Christopher” to provide
volunteer labor.

9. No Water
• A few months after
construction began, in
the summer of
1911, the only cistern
near the chapel went
dry.
• To supply the water
for mortar, Brothers
Christopher had to
carry pails of water up
the mountain from a
spring a mile away.

10. • During the
months of
construction, Fr.
Paul wrote about
this on several
occasions. He
lauded their
character, work, l
ife and compared
them to Lazarus
on Judgement
Day.
• Throughout
1911, hundreds
of Brothers
Christopher
worked
thousands of
hours quarrying
the stone and
building St.
Francis Chapel.

11. Notes from Fr. Paul’s Diary
• In July
1911, Fr. Paul
noted in his
diary that the
Brothers
Christopher
“have dug the
sand, quarried
the
stone, mixed
the mortar
and laid the
walls two feet
thick in solid
masonry”.

12. A Monument to the
Brothers Christopher
• The following year, Fr. Paul
would summarize:
“The summit of the Mount
of the Atonement is now
crowned with St. Francis
Chapel and from the lowest
stone in the foundation to
the highest brick in the
Assisian tower, the building
stands a monument to the
skill and industry of the
Brothers Christopher.”

13. Mother Lurana Selected Stained Glass
• There are twenty-four windows in St.
Francis Chapel, its sacristy and tower.
Some have figures, others simply designs.
• On September 14, 1911, Mother Lurana
traveled to New York City to choose glass
for the windows. “It is a greenish-amber,
leaded venetian glass,” she wrote in her
diary that night. Most of the windows in
St. Francis Chapel have “greenish-amber”
borders.
• In later years, the glass in the two windows
of the sanctuary were replaced with
stained-glass images commemorating the
two apparitions of Mary appearing as “Our
Lady of the Atonement” that occurred at
Graymoor.

14. St. Christopher Bell
• The Bell for St. Francis Chapel was blessed on
October 4, 1911
• It had been placed in the tower a few days earlier
and named the “St. Christopher Bell” as tribute to
the many Brothers Christopher whose labor was
making Fr. Paul’s dream of a stone chapel a reality.
• The bell was made of steel alloy and was six feet in
height, four feet in diameter and weighted twenty-
two hundred pounds. Fr. Paul wrote of the bell, “The
voice of St. Christopher is rich and deep, sonorous
and sweet, and when it rings out to the full over the
Graymoor hills it can be heard in Garrison and
Peekskill three and four miles distant.”
• The bell was donated by John Reid of Waterbury,
Connecticut. Known as the “miser of Waterbury,”
Reid was very frugal and occasionally stopped at
Graymoor as a Brother Christopher when he
traveled in the Hudson Valley.
• Over the next few years, as he came to know Fr.
Paul and Mother Lurana better, Reid was touched
by Fr. Paul’s selfless compassion and dedication and
offered his assistance. Fr. Paul expected little from
Reid and was quite surprised when Reid provided
funds not only for the St. Christopher bell, but later
gave over $5,000 toward educating young men
studying for priesthood.

15. January 11, 1912
• The day before “dedication day”, Fr. Paul
and Brother Anthony were installing a
large statue of St. Anthony when a
telegram arrived asking the priest to pray
for a gravely ill infant.
• They placed the telegram under the statue
and petitioned St. Anthony for his
assistance.
• A few days later, notice arrived that the
baby had recoverd.

16. Perpetual Novena to St. Anthony
• From then on Fr. Paul
would kneel every
night at St. Anthony
statue and read the
many petitions sent to
him.
• This was the
beginning of what
would become the
Perpetual Novena to
St. Anthony — and Fr.
Paul’s dream for a
great shrine or church
to be built at
Graymoor to honor St.
Anthony.

17. Dedication Day – January 18, 1912
• In less than one year, on January 18, 1912, St. Francis Chapel was dedicated. The evening before the event, Mother Lurana noted
many details of the new chapel in her diary: “a statue of St. Francis in a niche above the high altar and statues of St. Anthony on
the gospel side and St. Clare on the epistle side of the east wall look as though they would speak. St. Peter, the door keeper, is
very properly standing by the west door to let the people in.”
• The dedication ceremony was followed by a Solemn High Mass at which Fr. Paul was the celebrant. A special “Book of
Rememberances” containing over 5,000 names “of all those who contributed and a list of the living and the departed in whose
memory the offerings were made” was placed upon the altar and later sealed in the high altar. Several deacons, priests and
Monsignors attended the dedication services. Fr. Paul later wrote of this most special occasion, “The visiting clergy expressed
their surprise at finding such a noble building. It greatly exceeded their expectations and several called the building of the chapel
“the miracle of Graymoor”.
• Because of the notable architects, many newspapers around the country reported on the dedication of Graymoor’s St. Francis
Chapel -- a stone chapel built atop a steep New York mountain top with volunteers and charitable offerings, calling it the “miracle
in the woods.”

19. Stigmata Altar
• In May 1930, a benefactress gave Graymoor a very special gift for St. Francis Chapel – an altar that
formerly stood in the Chapel of the Stigmata on Mount Alverna, Italy.
• The altar of white marble had been made in Florence in 1892 and had stood for nearly 40 years on
the very spot where St. Francis received the nail wounds of the Crucified in this hands and feet and
the spear wound in his side.
• The Altar arrived at Graymoor in 16 crates and was valued at $8,000 – the same cost of building St.
Francis Chapel.

20. • On several occasions Fr. Paul compared the Mount of Atonement with Mount Alverna. Fr. Paul wrote
of the gift in his diary, “There is a dedicated physical resemblance between the Mount of the
Atonement and Mount Alverna and the altar, which has stood for nearly forty years on the very spot
where St. Francis received the wounds of Christ Crucified and now stands in the sanctuary of St.
Francis Chapel … will serve as a connecting link between the two holy mountains.” “
• Many who have visited the Holy Mountain in Italy … say the the Mount of the Atonement strikingly
resembles it.” He called the stigmata altar “a treasured possession of the Society of the Atonement.”

21. St. Francis Chapel
• Several years later, Fr.
Paul wrote in his
diary, “One of the
works we do at
Graymoor is to give a
place of refuge and
retreat for a time to
those who wish ….”
Through the years, St.
Francis Chapel and
Graymoor became a
pilgrimage site as
thousand came to
experience
Graymoor’s special
spirit.
• In 1955, Rome
granted a Plenary
Indulgence once a day
to those who visited
St. Francis Chapel.

22. Celebrating 100 Years
• Today, St.
Francis Chapel
still stands as
one more
testimony to
Fr. Paul and
the thousands
of persons
whose lives
were touched
because of his
vision.