Corpus Christi RC Church - Sanctuary and Nave
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places

Corpus Christi Official Website (online June 2022)

2002 Photos

Sanctuary   Nave and sanctuary, including apse dome and reredos The interior of Corpus Christi was fitted with over 11,000 lights -- so many that the architects thought it wise to install a generator in the basement to render the church independent of the public utility system. Lights shine not only from the chandeliers, but also along the soffits of the nave arcade and around the triumphal arch of the sanctuary.                       Details below: Sanctuary                              Apse:  Above the main altar in the semidome, Marion Rzeznik, in collaboration with Gonippo Raggi, reproduced on canvas Raphael's painting Disputa del Santissimo, which represents the triumph of the Blessed Sacrament, which is the source and center of Christian life and worship. Sanctuary                 Disputa del Santissimo - Detail Sanctuary                           Disputa del Santissimo - Detail                  Right:  John the Baptist Sanctuary                           Disputa del Santissimo - Detail                    Monstrance                  Note Jesus's stigmata on hand and foot Sanctuary                       Disputa del Santissimo - Detail                  Notice the figure second from the right:  St, Francis of Assisi - whose face has been changed from the Raphael painting.  The priests who serviced the parish were Franciscans. Sanctuary                 Reredos wall: angels representing two of the sacraments During the administration of the second pastor, Fr. Michael Cieslik, the interior of the church was painted for the first time, and decorated with works of sacred art. The artist, Jozef Mazur,  adorned the sanctuary with paintings of six angels on canvas. They symbolize the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Holy Orders, Matrimony, and Anointing of the Sick, and serve as a background for the main altar.    Sanctuary           Main altar Sanctuary               Italian marble pulpit

Nave Nave  and Choir Loft Nave                     Arcade windows                     Romanesque  arches Nave                      Romanesque  arches             Photo taken from the choir loft   Nave                   Ribs with center boss Nave                        Ribs Nave                                  Spandrel                     IHS Nave                       The capitals of the nave columns were hand carved by J. Shepperd Craig, a Scottish immigrant who settled in Buffalo in the early twentieth century and whose hand touched several churches here.

Special thanks to Corpus Christi Pastor Rev. Karl Kolodziejski, OFM, for his cooperation in 2002

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