Proclaiming Eucharist to the World
WELCOME TO SAINT JEAN BAPTISTE CHURCH
Founded in 1882 as a national parish for the French Canadian population of Yorkville on Manhattan's Upper East Side, Saint Jean Baptiste Church quickly became a spiritual center embracing many nationalities. The faith community which gathers here is as diverse as the city of New York itself.
Since 1900, the church has been under the care of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, an international religious order dedicated to the Eucharist, the central sacrament of Catholic life and worship. It was the first foundation of the Congregation in the United States. Saint Jean Baptiste High School, founded in 1929, is administered by sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame.
The present church opened in spring 1913. Its design, by Nicholas Serracino, won first prize at the International Exhibition in Turin, Italy, in 1911. It is of Italian Renaissance classical revival, with twin towers of 150 feet rising from the façade and a central dome soaring 175 feet above the floor. A major restoration of the church was completed in late 1997.
On entering the church from the northwest, you immediately see an imposing statue of the church’s patron, the Jewish prophet John the Baptist. It depicts John holding a cruciform staff, with a lamb’s hoof around his neck and a lamb at his feet. It was John who called Jesus the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn 1:29).
Beneath the dome stands the stately altar of sacrifice on which the Eucharist is celebrated. The marble of the altar is from the main altar that was located in the lower church. The sacred monogram IHS, inscribed on the frontal of the altar, incorporates the first three letters of the name Jesus (IHΣOYΣ) in Greek. It is here that exposition of the Blessed Sacrament occurs during daytime hours, for prayerful contemplation. At the back of the sanctuary is the high altar, testimony to the Catholic Church’s long tradition of Eucharistic faith and practice. Side altars honor Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament, Saint Joseph, Saint Peter Julian Eymard, and Saint Anthony of Padua.
The three tiers of stained glass windows were crafted in Chartres, France, just prior to World War I. Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is the only other Catholic church in New York City with windows from the renowned studios of Chartres.
In the southwest corner is the Shrine of Saint Anne. Devotion to Saint Anne, the grandmother of Jesus, has flourished at Saint Jean’s since 1892. The church was consecrated by Edward Cardinal Egan on December 6, 2007, at the conclusion of the parish 125th anniversary celebration.
A CENTER OF EUCHARISTIC WORSHIP AND LIFE
Unlike most parishes, Saint Jean Baptiste is administered not by Diocesan priests, but by a religious order. As our name, the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, indicates, we are dedicated to the Eucharist. As a community, the religious here live together as a family, sharing life, prayer, and ministry. Like other religious, men and women, we consecrate our lives to God and to the church by the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in the service of people everywhere. Our Rule of Life states:
By our profession of religious life, we respond to the call of the Lord who invites us to leave all things to follow him, and we publicly commit ourselves within the church to live in chastity, poverty, and obedience.
Religious profession incorporates us into a community of brothers and expresses our determination to live the Gospel in a radical way.
Nourished by Christ, who gives himself to us totally in the Eucharist, we express, in our form of life, the gift of ourselves as it was lived and taught by our Holy Founder.
Our vows express our consecration to God in the service of our fellow human beings, and witness to a world yet to come in the spirit of the beatitudes.
The priests and brothers at Saint Jean Baptiste are part of a worldwide Congregation whose "ideal is to live the mystery of the Eucharist fully" (Rule of Life, 1). We believe that the Eucharist has the power to transform individuals and society itself so that the mercy and love characteristic of God's kingdom can be clearly manifested and lived. Our spirituality centers on the Eucharistic celebration, the Mass, the sacramental representation of Christ's paschal mystery, in which the love of Jesus as expressed in his life, death, and resurrection are shared with his people. Rule of Life, 21 expresses it this way:
Called to live as a Eucharistic community, we seek, by our vocation and way of life, to give a more explicit witness to the life of Christ which springs from this sacrament.
The celebration of the memorial of the Lord is at the center of our personal and communal life. It is the starting point for our understanding of the Eucharist and inspires our prayer and ministry.
Placing emphasis on the celebration of the Eucharist, religious of the Blessed Sacrament also stress prayer before the Blessed Sacrament as a key means of interiorizing the Gospel values celebrated at the altar. Number 31 of the Rule of Life states:
By drawing our attention to the signs of the sacrament, exposition of the Holy Eucharist calls to mind the celebration of the memorial of the Lord.
It invites us to recognize and adore the presence of Christ in the gift of his body given up for us and of his blood poured out for a new covenant.
Thus exposition facilitates our communion with Christ who offers himself to us as the bread of life, nourishment shared for a community of brothers. We practice and encourage it, mindful of the pastoral needs of the local church.
That is why daily, after Mass, the Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the altar table for Eucharistic adoration and contemplation, so that parishioners, visitors, and those going and coming from work nearby can stop for a few moments of quiet prayer, or for a longer period of time. Some commit to a regular program of prolonged prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
Pope John Paul II said that the religious of the Blessed Sacrament have the special task of contributing to the "new evangelization" by a "deeper penetration of the Eucharistic mystery, together with a commitment to proclaim the Gospel in the diversity of their situations and in harmony with the spirit of their particular times. . . ." The Holy Father at the same time asked that the priests and brothers always "consider the Eucharistic mystery in its totality, in the celebration of the Mass as well as in the cult given to the holy species (the bread and wine) conserved after Mass in order to extend the grace of the sacrifice." The religious of the Blessed Sacrament should "be faithful to the contemplation of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in order to interiorize what the church celebrates. Know how to introduce the faithful to this special form of prayer through your witness and your ministry", he said.
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We seek by our way of life
to give a more explicit witness
to the life of Christ
which flows from the Eucharist
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WHAT BLESSED SACRAMENT RELIGIOUS DO
We Blessed Sacrament religious see our liturgical and prayer life as a part of our mission, an apostolate of witness given to the church of our belief in Christ's continued presence among us, and of his power to transform human life today. In line with this, we work in parishes, give retreats, preach Eucharistic missions, publish books and materials on the Eucharist, teach, counsel, engage in sacramental ministry, work among the poor and disadvantaged, and even reach out to mission lands. The American Province has been responsible for setting up the Australian, British-Irish and Philippine Provinces of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, as well as a mission to Uganda. In all we do, Christ in the Eucharist is our inspiration and our strength.
Called to see everything in the light of the Eucharist, we seek to give a more explicit witness to the life of Christ which springs from this sacrament:
By our life and activities, we share in the mission of the church, so that the Eucharist may be celebrated in truth, that the faithful may grow in their communion with the Lord through Eucharistic adoration in the setting of exposition, that they may commit themselves to the renewal of their Christian communities and collaborate in liberating individuals and society from the forces of evil.
United in the Spirit with those who are poor and weak, we oppose everything which degrades human dignity and we proclaim a more just and brotherly world as we await the coming of the Lord. (Rule of Life, 3)
Again, in number 4 of the Rule of Life:
We cannot live the Eucharist unless we are animated by the Spirit which led Christ to give his life for the world. When he proclaimed the new covenant by the gift of his body and blood to his disciples, it was out of love that the Lord gave himself up.
Sharing in this gift of himself to us, we place ourselves at the service of the kingdom, fulfilling the words of the Apostle: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (cf. Gal 2: 20).
This not only impels the religious of the Blessed Sacrament to live a strong community life, but to work at forming communities in the parishes we staff. These living communities are intended to be communities formed by the word of God as well as challenged by that word to become prophetic witnesses of a truly Christ-like way of life. We are committed to making our parishes places where people are nurtured and formed by Christ so as to become evangelizing communities themselves, imbued with a deep sense of mission and responsibility for promoting love of the Eucharist and the spread of the Gospel:
We will make our parishes into authentic communities shaped by the Eucharist, source and center of their life. They shall be: places of proclamation and the living of the gospel, places of prayer, Eucharistic adoration, and festive celebration, places of sharing and fellowship, places of freedom and human development.
United among themselves, our religious engaged in parish ministry shall collaborate in a special way with committed lay people. (Rule of Life, 41)
Houses of the American Province are located in several major cities in the United States. Though our ministry and style of live may vary somewhat from place to place, the basic inspiration is always the same: the Eucharist, the lens through which we view all of reality and the source of our mission in the church and the world.
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We seek to become,
in the footsteps of Father Eymard,
disciples and apostles of the Eucharist
for a world that challenges us
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ORIGINS AND FOUNDER
The Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (S.S.S., in Latin, Societas Sanctissimi Sacramenti) was founded in Paris, France, in 1856, by a French priest, Peter Julian Eymard, to foster appreciation of and devotion to the Holy Eucharist. Fr. Eymard also established the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, for women, in 1858. He was canonized by Pope John XXIII on December 9, 1962, at the end of the first session of the Second Vatican Council.
Challenged by the religious ignorance and indifference of his time, he searched for an answer to the world's needs and found it in the love of God manifested in a special way in the gift of Christ in the Eucharist.
Members of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament serve in 30 countries. We continue the work of Eucharistic evangelizing begun by Saint Peter Julian Eymard, the Apostle of the Eucharist. Like him, we want to live the Eucharistic mystery fully. We believe that the Eucharist has the power to effect the radical transformation of individuals and society, and we seek to live its power and demands. This motivates us to work for the establishment of Christ's reign here on earth.
If you would like more information about the Blessed Sacrament Community, speak with one of the priests or brothers here at Saint Jean Baptiste Church, call us at 212.288.5082, or e-mail our Vocation Minister.
We hope you will find "Saint Jean's" to be a dynamic community of faith and an oasis of prayer — a place of joy and peace, of healing and affirmation — where you can worship, pray, and come to appreciate more deeply the love of God.
Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament
Blessed Sacrament Vocation Office
Saint Andrew's Church, Lower Manhattan