Baptismal font in Salt Lake City’s Cathedral of the Madeleine

The beginning of the calendar year, flowing out of the Christmas season, brings to the liturgical calendar several reminders of baptism. My journey several weeks ago to Utah for the SEEK25 Conference also found me unexpectedly reflecting on baptism. The conference, which opened on January 1, provided the opportunity to make two visits to the 1909 Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City. Many other attendees of the annual gathering of the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) apparently had the same idea and the church was filled on both days I was there. To occupy myself on the New Year’s Eve flight from Providence to Chicago O’Hare to Utah, I took along two books: New York Times Crossword Puzzles and Liturgical Question Box: Answers to Common Questions about the Modern Liturgy by Peter J. Elliott, also the author of Ceremonies of the Modern Roman Rite. It should come as no surprise to anyone that, as the Portsmouth Abbey’s Liturgist and Master of Ceremonies, I began first to read the latter. In the clouds over Pennsylvania, I made quick work of the Preface and Introduction and delved right into the first chapter: “The Church and Its Furnishings.” A mere three pages into its first section, “Redesigning the Font and Baptistery,” was this quote:

A reminder of Portsmouth’s “paneled room”: linenfold design at the cathedral

After landing safely and picking up a rental car, Oblate Michele Rentschler and I drove to the downtown Salt Palace Convention Center. All of the furnishings for our 10’ x 10’ square booth at the conference had been delivered days earlier and within an hour everything was set up, with furniture in place, and ready to welcome visitors the next day, Wednesday, January 1. After a long and tiring day, we barely managed a decidedly low-key acknowledgement of the coming new year and by 8 p.m. had made our way to our hotel rooms for private vespers and a long sleep. Next day, the first stop of the New Year after a hotel breakfast, was the Cathedral. We arrived midway through the 11 a.m. Mass of the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, the Octave day of the Nativity of the Lord, while also anticipating the Mass we would attend later on this holy day of obligation, at 6 p.m. in the Convention Center.

Reredos in the Cathedral of the Madeleine

As unobtrusively as possible, I walked around the baptismal font to which I had just been introduced in my reading of the previous day. Located immediately inside the main doors, it was exactly as Mr. Elliott described it, combining a traditional style upper font with a lower font. Both fonts hold a drain which leads directly into the ground below, serving the same purpose of proper disposal as a sacrarium in a sacristy. An informative brochure outlining the walking tour explains that the baptismal font had been dedicated in 1993 and is made of Carrara onyx inlaid with glass mosaic. Both upper and lower fonts are octagonal in shape, as are many baptisteries and fonts elsewhere, a number which signifies the eighth day, or eternal life. The text goes on to explain that “the lower font responds to the efforts of Vatican II to restore early Christian baptismal practices and accommodates both the pouring of water and immersion.”

Historical marker for the cathedral

A capacity crowd, like that which had participated in the January 1 Mass, comprised of local parishioners as well as attendees of SEEK25, filled the church again on Sunday, January 5. It was the Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord, and the closing day of the conference. Fittingly, the front cover of the Cathedral’s bilingual weekly bulletin held a colorful image of a painting of the Wise Men from the east presenting their gifts at the manger. A scrolling banner across the page proclaimed, THE WISE STILL SEEK HIM / LOS SABIOS AUN LE BUSCAN. It brought to mind what Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas, had told us in his homily at that conference’s closing Mass that morning in the Salt Palace: “The one whom you seek is seeking you!” Other thoughts emerged while admiring the baptismal fonts, in particular realizing that our first Sunday back at Portsmouth the following Sunday, January 12, would have us celebrating the feast of the Baptism of Jesus himself by John the Baptist. Extending the baptismal experience yet further, another feast later in the month, that of the Conversion of St. Paul, Apostle, on January 25, offered the Church options for the first reading of the Mass. One, from Acts 22:3-16, ends with Ananias, “a devout observer of the law,” telling Saul, “Get up and have yourself baptized and your sins washed away.”

Portsmouth’s octagonal baptismal font

Aside from adult baptisms like those of Jesus and Saul/Paul, most of us are more familiar with infant baptisms. The Portsmouth Abbey community will witness an infant baptism on Sunday, February 16, when the parents of one of our on-campus school families, Thomas and Katie Foote, will bring forward the newest of their three boys, Leo Maximilian Foote, joining his big brothers, Robbie and John Benedict. Leo, born December 27, will be baptized over the antique oak baptismal font gifted to the monks by Kurt M. Edenbach ’91. By the way, it, too, is octagonal. And one more personal note, emerging from my reading of Peter Elliott’s comments on the Cathedral font: great friends from St. Louis, Tom and Jana, welcomed their first blessed event last June, Sistine Grace Rich. In need of a christening gown for the baptism on September 29, I offered them the choice of using my mother’s outfit from 1916, or my own from, well, from several decades later. Happily, they opted for mine.

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