Image and Likeness

Four sculptures commissioned in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, as part of the former Catholic Memorial to September 11 in Battery Park City, are slated to move to a new home in Tribeca.

	Saint Michael

The statues, by acclaimed sculptor John Collier, were once part of the Saint Joseph Chapel, a Catholic house of worship that — owing to its proximity to the World Trade Center site — successively served as a morgue, an emergency command center, and a respite station for first responders in the weeks and months after the attacks. These uses effectively wrecked the facility, which was rebuilt and reconsecrated in 2005, by then-Cardinal Egan. This ceremony included the unveiling of numerous new piece of devotional art. Among them were four bronzes, cast in the “assemblage” style most associated with Rodin, which portrayed four iconic Christian figures, each of which had a special resonance with people who had perished on September 11: St. Florian (the patron of firefighters), St. Michael (the protector of police officers), St. Joseph (representing workers), St Mary Magdalene (honoring those who died aboard the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center, as well as those who grieved over the dead).

Saint Florian

For more than a decade, these works resided within the Saint Joseph Chapel, which was part of the Gateway Plaza residential complex. But in 2015, the Archdiocese of New York began to scale back its financial commitment to operating the Chapel, as part of a broader retrenchment that has included the shuttering of Catholic parishes around New York.

Although parishioners and community leaders fought for more than two years to preserve the Chapel, the Archdiocese was not persuaded by their entreaties, and the last masses were held there in January of this year. The former house of worship now appears poised to become high-end retail space.

	St. Joseph

All of which left the four sculptures in limbo. St. Peter’s Church, on Barclay Street (a larger facility, of which the Saint Joseph Chapel functioned as a satellite) announced a few weeks after the closing that it would take the statues, which it plans to display on its front steps. But St. Peter’s (the oldest Roman Catholic parish in New York State) is a legally protected historic site, which means that its facade cannot be altered without permission from the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC).

St. Mary

At its February 27 monthly meeting, Community Board 1 passed a resolution urging the LPC to grant the necessary permission. The resolution reflected that, “the four statues are beautiful, and deserve a home,” and that the plan calls for each to, “be placed on stone-clad concrete bases, matching the church.” CB1 also noted with approval that explanatory plaques will be included on the base of each bronze.

The LPC appears likely to act on this recommendation, which will clear the way for the statues to be installed on the portico of St. Peter’s Church in the weeks ahead.