Cathedral of the Madeleine, Roman Catholic cathedral in Salt Lake City, United States.
The Cathedral of the Madeleine is a Catholic cathedral in Salt Lake City, Utah, completed in 1909 to designs by Carl M. Neuhausen and Bernard O. Mecklenburg. Its facade of Utah sandstone is predominantly Neo-Romanesque, while the interior, decorated from 1915 under Bishop Joseph S. Glass with architect John T. Comès, follows Spanish Gothic models. The tympanum over the main doors, carved by Francis Aretz of Pittsburgh, shows Christ as high priest flanked by angels and the twelve apostles.
Pope Leo XIII erected the Diocese of Salt Lake in 1891 and named Lawrence Scanlan its first bishop; Scanlan had bought the site in 1890 for $35,000. Architects Carl M. Neuhausen and Bernard O. Mecklenburg designed the cathedral, built from 1900 to 1909 at a cost of $344,000 and dedicated by Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore. Bishop Joseph S. Glass had the interior decorated from 1915 by John T. Comès, and in 1916 changed the spelling from Magdalene to Magdalein.
The cathedral is the only one in the United States under the patronage of St. Mary Magdalene, whose feast day falls on July 22, two days before Pioneer Day; the date was likely chosen so Catholics could join the Mormon celebrations. The Madeleine Choir School, founded in 1996, is the only co-educational Catholic choir school in the country, and the Cathedral Choir has sung at St. Peter's Basilica and Notre-Dame de Paris.
The main entrance faces west under the carved tympanum, and the 1991 renovation added a plaza outside it. The interior is entered from the west end, with the Lady Chapel on the west side of the sanctuary and the St. Joseph Chapel on the east. The Madeleine Choir School, founded in 1996, uses the building on school days, so weekday mornings are busier.
The cathedral's four west-tower bells are named after St. Joseph, Mary, St. Cecilia and St. Michael; the first two were cast in 1917 by the Maryland Brass Foundry, the other two added in 1993 by the Verdin Company of Cincinnati.
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