By Michael Patrick O’Brien–
I recently saw a photo of the current seniors from my alma mater, St. Joseph’s High School. They were posing right after graduation, just as did I almost 40 years ago, in front of the lovely and historic back altar of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Ogden, Utah. As a boy, I served at mass in the same church for several years. Due to my very short attention span, that spectacular altar provided me with many moments of delightful diversion from the liturgies from which I sometimes was detached.
The white, carved wood altar was a sight to behold. With seven symmetrically-placed soaring gothic towers, it rose some 25 feet in height, topped by a golden cross, and was over 16 feet wide. Each spire was crafted with extraordinary detail and flourish. The altar stood in the sanctuary, complementing another historic feature of the church─a beautiful blue, gold, and green stained glass window depicting the crucified Christ.
As an altar boy in the mid-1970s, I participated in hundreds of masses, weddings, funerals, and various other services in that church. I always tried to pay close attention, but inevitably my mind and eyes would start to wander and eventually rest upon that altar. I’d wonder what lurked behind it. I’d imagine it would hold my weight as I climbed to the summit for a Kong-like view of the entire congregation. Occasionally, in fleeting moments of maturity, I’d wonder from what exotic places or origins it came.
Years later, even after I had moved on to other parishes and different church activities, I continued to wonder where that amazing altar came from. So, one day I contacted my friend and fellow blogger Gary Topping, the local Catholic historian, and he let me look through the early archives of my old parish (source of the black and white photo). Just as I had imagined, the altar does indeed have a fascinating backstory.
The altar exists because of the efforts of Monsignor Patrick Michael Cushnahan, an Irish priest who served as the pastor of the church for almost half a century. Born in County Donegal, Ireland, Cushnahan founded the Ogden parish in what then was an LDS settlement with very few Catholics present. He arrived in Ogden in 1881 and according to news accounts, while building up the parish, he made friends with his Mormon neighbors, whom he called “his brothers.” News reports also say he once explained his own version of the luck of the Irish: “I was not lucky enough to be born in Utah, but I have had the good luck to be a resident of this wonderful state.”
Cushnahan oversaw the building of the church where I later served as a distracted altar boy. After the church dedication in 1902, he wanted to add an appropriate altar piece. News accounts say he toured through European cathedrals for ideas and patterns but, perhaps surprisingly, found none to this liking. Thus, he commissioned an Ogden architect named F.C. Woods and they designed the altar together. After finally reaching consensus on a proposal after three tries, they hired local carpenters and woodcutters at the nearby shop of A.S. Richter, on 23rd Street, to carve the intricate and elaborate towers, tabernacles, cupolas, decorative lamb and pierced hearts, curves, columns, arches, and entablatures, all from poplar wood. Similar, but smaller, side altars also were created as shrines dedicated to Joseph and Mary.
The team of artisans labored for eight months on the altar. It took fifty or sixty men to assemble and put finishing touches on the final product. The entire work, which cost $5,000, was unveiled before several hundred people early on Christmas morning in 1905. According to a contemporary news report from the Ogden Standard-Examiner, the “impressive” debut occurred as a choir sang in “the mellow light of myriads of twinkling candles and the brilliance of electricity.” The Intermountain Catholic called the new altar an “everlasting ornament.” Cushnahan continued to serve the parish until he died in 1928. With some slight modifications and refurbishing over time, his beloved altar still stands, has been in place for 113 years, and looks ready to remain in service for the rest of its second century. (You can see photos of the altar and church here: https://www.stjosephogden.org/ourhistory/)
I certainly would hestitate to compare myself to the hardworking and industrious Monsignor Cushnahan. I also readily admit, that during my altar boy years, I was not the most attentive, deeply spiritual person attending services at this lovely stone church set on a hill overlooking downtown Ogden. Yet, despite such shortcomings, one thing seems quite clear to me. I had really good taste in altar boy daydreams.
*Mike O’Brien is a writer and attorney living in Salt Lake City, Utah. His book Monastery Mornings, about growing up with the monks at the old Trappist monastery in Huntsville, Utah, will be published by Paraclete Press in August 2021.
