Saint Thomas', Gothic Revival Roman Catholic church in Saint Helier, Jersey.
Saint Thomas' is a Gothic Revival church in Saint Helier, Jersey, built of light brown and grey stone with a tower on the left rising through a clock stage to a slender spire with pinnacles. The nave extends to the right under a reddish roof, its walls pierced by tall pointed windows; the tower is of Brittany granite and reaches 196 feet to the summit of the cross. Inside, the nave is divided into seven arches on piers of clustered shafts in Crazannes stone, each capital carved with different foliage, flowers and buds.
Catholic worship returned to Jersey with refugees from the French Revolution, and a converted chapel in New Street was dedicated to St Thomas in 1842. In 1880 the mission passed to the French Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and within two years an appeal began for a new church in Val Plaisant, which opened in 1887. Father Donat Michaux raised the money and directed the building, and the church was consecrated on 5 September 1893.
The name Saint Thomas honours Bishop Thomas Griffiths, who opened the first permanent post-Reformation Catholic chapel in New Street in 1842. French-speaking parishioners were so proud of the larger church that they called it La Cathédrale. Frescoes flanking the rose window show St Michael and guardian angels, angels playing instruments and singing, and above them saints including St Louis IX, St Joan of Arc and St Thomas the Apostle.
The church stands in Val Plaisant, and the tower rises 196 feet to the top of the cross, so it can be used as a landmark when walking through Saint Helier. The main portal opens beneath the tower, under a tympanum carved by Louis Dupont showing the risen Christ appearing to St Thomas the Apostle.
The tower is built of Brittany granite and reaches 196 feet to the summit of the cross: 111 feet to the spire windows, then 85 more. The portal tympanum, signed Louis Dupont, shows the risen Christ appearing to St Thomas the Apostle.
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