'Treasured Vestments'

Exquisite embroidery depicts scenes of the suffering and risen Christ

By MARY ANN POUST

Florence B. D'Urso, the art patron and philanthropist who supports an array of Church efforts, remembers vividly the reaction she had when she first saw the exquisitely beautiful set of embroidered Mass vestments that Cardinal O'Connor entrusted to her on Palm Sunday three years ago.

"I was awestruck," she says. "They literally brought tears to my eyes when I saw them."

The vestments depict the passion and death of Christ and his appearance after his resurrection to the disciples at Emmaus in a succession of scenes, painstakingly embroidered against a brilliant gold background in the process called crosspoint. They evoke the timeless craftsmanship of medieval tapestry and the artistic splendor of Renaissance painting.

The cardinal had discovered the vestments hanging in a closet at St. Patrick's Cathedral some time after he became Archbishop of New York in 1984. He didn't know who they had originally belonged to, but wanted some guidance in their placement because he realized they had artistic and historic value.

Mrs. D'Urso realized that, too--instantly. "They were breathtaking," she told CNY.

Thus began an odyssey that took her--and the collection of a chasuble and four dalmatics with 13 accessory pieces--from her Manhattan home to the archdiocesan archives and to the Vatican, again and again, for consultations with curators, archivists, Church historians and others.

Starting a month after she received the vestments--when she flew to Rome, hand-carrying one of the dalmatics to avoid damage in packing--she relentlessly traced their roots.

"I left no stone unturned," she said.

With precious little documentation to go on, it was eventually established that the vestments were made in France, probably Paris, for Cardinal John M. Farley, who was named Archbishop of New York in 1902 after seven years as an auxiliary and served until his death in 1918. His episcopal coat of arms was woven into the design of most of the pieces and provided solid evidence of ownership.

Cardinal Farley headed the archdiocese during its 100th anniversary celebrations in 1908, and it is theorized the vestments were commissioned for that event and also to commemorate the turn of the century.

As Mrs. D'Urso would come to see, the influence of the Renaissance artist Fra Angelico, a Dominican friar whose work was patronized by Pope Nicolas V, was inescapable and pervasive in the vestments' design.

Nicolas V's private chapel, where he prayed each day as pope, contains the only remaining Fra Angelico mural in the Vatican. Coincidentally, Mrs. D'Urso received the vestments at a time when the chapel was in the midst of a restoration under her patronage and that of the Homeland Foundation.

At a rededication Mass in the Chapel of Nicolas V on April 17, 1997, Mrs. D'Urso arranged for the vestments to be worn by the three celebrants, two of whom are New York priests: Msgr. Eugene V. Clark, the principal celebrant, who is pastor of St. Agnes parish in Manhattan and president of Friends and Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, and Fathers Gregory Mustaciuolo, secretary to Cardinal O'Connor, and Allen Duston, O.P., international coordinator for patrons of the arts in the Vatican Museums.

Two weeks earlier on Easter Sunday, Cardinal O'Connor wore a set of the vestments at Mass in St. Patrick's Cathedral for what may have been the first showing in the archdiocese since Cardinal Farley's time.

"I asked him if he would please wear them, and he agreed," Mrs. D'Urso said.

That he agreed was understandable. In a Dec. 5, 1996, letter to Mrs. D'Urso, typical of their correspondence on the matter, he expressed personal gratitude "for the extraordinary amount of work you have done regarding the vestments," and offered "anything I can do at this stage to help facilitate your work."

Although the cardinal had invited Mrs. D'Urso's research assistance with the vestments, the fact is that she rarely has to be asked to help on Church-related projects, especially those that involve her areas of interest and expertise: art and interior design.

If she sees a project, or a need, she speaks up and offers to do what she can--whether it's the hands-on job of arranging Christmas floral displays in the lobby of archdiocesan headquarters, commissioning a hand-carved headboard for Pope John Paul II to use when he visited New York or funding the restoration of Vatican artwork.

With the vestments, however, Mrs. D'Urso was the one asking for help from the Vatican. As a patron of the Vatican Museums, she has many associates and acquaintances who would, she hoped, be able to shed some light on the puzzle.

On her first trip, with the dalmatic she carried herself, she turned to Msgr. Pietro Amato, curator of the Vatican Museums' Historical Museum of St. John Lateran and a professor of iconography.

"Enthralled" by it, he immediately recognized the influences of artists renowned for their religious works, including Fra Angelico, Guido Reni and Raphael, Mrs. D'Urso said.

In a report on his examination of the dalmatic, Msgr. Amato described it as "a splendid testimony of the art of embroidery and...a precious document on the taste and culture of the Church in the 19th century."

He said the vestment portrays "the theology of the Council of Trent," and is therefore "a firm testimony of the 'history of faith' in America from the 19th to the first half of the 20th century."

The vestment merits conservation and should be passed on to future generations, he wrote, "not only due to the above cultural and religious aspects, but also as a testimony of the material culture, that is, its workmanship.

"Exhibiting it would be a sign of civilization and a work of evangelization through the visual history of theology and the liturgy," he suggested.

At the curator's request, Mrs. D'Urso shipped the rest of the collection to him for examination, and from his subsequent analysis a book--for which he wrote the text--was born.

The book, "Treasured Vestments," published by Mrs. D'Urso and completed this month, details the history and artistry of the collection and pictures them in all of their splendor.

Mrs. D'Urso was preparing to present the book to Cardinal O'Connor in time for Holy Week services as a way of formally reintroducing the vestments to the archdiocese.

Then, she'll turn her attention to planning a future for the vestments that will place them on display in the archdiocese. What she'd like, she says, is an exhibit in St. Patrick's Cathedral then a move to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the millennium celebration.

After that, a permanent exhibition venue will be found, she says firmly, because "they should be seen."

The centerfold of this CNY Easter Issue features photos of the scenes embroidered on the vestments as they appear in the book.