By Danielle Rexrode
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Just 20 minutes from downtown Baltimore, in the quiet suburb of Catonsville, Md., lies Charlestown, an Erickson community home to nearly 1,300 people and one of the area’s best kept secrets: Our Lady of the Angels Chapel.

No matter if they’re Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, or Baptist, people of all faiths will find inspiration in this nearly century-old treasure. Designed as a European basilica in miniature, the chapel features transepts, an 80-foot dome with stained-glass windows, an ambulatory, 7 apse chapels, 15 statues of female saints, and more than 20 life-sized angels.

‘You have to see it to believe it’
“It’s Baltimore’s treasure of art, mosaics, marble, and stained glass, unrivaled in this country— and very few people know it’s here,” says Father Leo J. Larrivee, director of pastoral care at Charlestown.

“Charlestown’s popularity has greatly increased knowledge of the chapel, but many people come just because they heard about it,” says Larrivee. “When Archbishop O’Brien made his first visit to the chapel recently, he remarked that many people had told him about it, but you have to see it to believe it.”

The building originally served as a sacred space for theology students at St. Charles Seminary. Larrivee himself was a seminary student from 1969–1973.

Architecture as art
“The artwork in the chapel is as fine as anything in the world,” says Larrivee. “Although the chapel’s façade suggests an austere interior, its internal features are phenomenal works of genius. The walls of the nave and sanctuary are veined marble that were pulled out of blocks in Italy and then fitted here to match perfectly,” he says.

“When Charlestown first opened its doors, the chapel was not finished. Since then, the statues of saints, the choir of angel mosaics, the restoration of the main altar, the organ, and sanctuary floor were all paid for by Charlestown community members,” says Larrivee.