Roderick O Donnell, Author at Catholic Herald

Roderick O Donnell

Debunking the myth of Newman and Notre-Dame

June 06, 2019

In 1851, John Henry Newman received a packet of architectural drawings for his new Oratorian church in Birmingham. It was never built – today’s Birmingham Oratory was designed after his death – but in moments of distress or reflection Newman took them out and pored over them. Which architect had he commissioned? Surely AWN Pugin,

Inside Pugin’s dream church

June 05, 2018

St Augustine’s in Ramsgate, a landmark of the Catholic Revival, has been triumphantly restored and reopened

An island of disappointing chapels

May 31, 2018

The Church has been a patron of art and architecture from the time of Constantine. It has meditated on the importance of beauty and its role in worship from St Thomas Aquinas to Benedict XVI; Pope Francis has other priorities in his teachings. The Holy See now appears for the first time as an exhibitor

An island of disappointing chapels

May 31, 2018

The Vatican's church architecture exhibit is underwhelming

Inside Pugin’s dream church

January 11, 2018

The architect Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1812-52) wrote: “There is nothing worth living for but Christian architecture, and a boat.” For him, both came together on top of the West Cliffs at Ramsgate in Kent, where he built his ideal house – the Grange (1843-4) – and next to it his ideal church, St Augustine’s

The masterwork denounced by Picasso and Dali

August 17, 2017

The Sagrada Familia By Gijs Van Hensbergen, Bloomsbury, £20 The cause for Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) was opened in 1998. Why might this architect be made a saint? He was a bachelor, teetotaller, vegetarian, and a daily Mass-goer, who practised epic self-denial. In 1914, he abandoned his wider architectural practice to devote himself totally to the

An architectural slice of Catholic history

May 04, 2017

Farm Street By Michael Hall, Sheridan Gilley and Maria Perry, Unicorn, £35 London Catholics call their churches by street names, not their dedications. Farm Street is dedicated to Our Lady in Her Immaculate Conception, the devotion made dogmatic by Pius IX in 1854. The church was the achievement of Fr Randal Lythgoe, English Jesuit Provincial

Sorry, no search matching search results found. Please try again.