Flying buttresses. Vibrant stained glass.

One grand basilica may look iconic and French — but it’s in Kentucky.

The Diocese of Covington is home to an outstanding treasure of the Church — St. Mary’s Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption. It has an exterior modeled after Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, complete with flying buttresses and tympanum over the entries, just as Bishop Camillus Paul Maes, the third bishop, wanted it done when he hired Detroit architect Leon Coquard to design the new cathedral in 1892.

In addition, the interior is patterned after the Abbey Church of St. Denis in France, which became notable as the first major edifice moving from Romanesque to Gothic style. Coquard would go on to design another stunning church, the Cathedral-Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver.

Begun in 1895, this cathedral was innovative as well, with its steel-frame construction supporting its columns and walls of Indiana limestone. On Jan. 27, 1901, the magnificent cathedral was dedicated, but still unfinished because of needed funds. Seven years later, construction restarted; and by 1910, the gargoyles and chimeras duplicating those of the City of Light’s Notre Dame were added. 

Yet it would be more than a century before Bishop Maes’ vision for the façade would be complete.

But something important appeared in the early 1900s. Stained-glass windows made in Germany by the famed Franz Mayer and Co. of Munich were installed and gave this new cathedral a grand “personal” style. Double rows of very large pictorial windows made the nave’s walls look as if they were made of stained glass framed by Gothic arches.

“The walls are more glassy than you’ll find in most European cathedrals,” explained award-winning church architect Duncan Stroik. “There is more glass, but there is more light glass. This is a brighter church than most European cathedrals, most French cathedrals … and you can see what’s going on from faraway.” In all, 82 “Munich Pictorial Style” windows installed between 1908 and 1923 fill this cathedral with color and light.

The most remarkable window, the pièce de résistance, fills the north transept. Considered to be the world’s largest handmade church stained-glass window, measuring 67 feet by 24 feet, it inspires the faithful with two major scenes. The upper part illustrates the Coronation of the Virgin Mary after her assumption. The “foundation” below this heavenly scene presents the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431, proclaiming Mary the Theotokos, the God-Bearer, the Mother of God. 

Like the others, this window, the artistry of Franz Mayer, was installed in 1911 and then restored 90 years later at the beginning of this century.

Along the nave, the windows radiate with Gospel stories: There is St. Paul and his conversion on the road to Damascus; the main aisle is lined with events in the life of Jesus when a child; on the other side, windows illustrate events after Jesus’ resurrection.

Midway to the soaring ceiling — 81 feet high — arched colonnades with Corinthian columns line the nave, the transepts and the sanctuary’s apse. The colonnades separate these large stained-glass scenes from the rows of tall lancet windows that line the clerestory and continue the “walls” of stained glass color and light. These 40 lancet windows present the doctors of the Church.

Not one but two rose windows, each 26 feet in diameter, add to the beauty. One has attractive floral designs surrounding a papal tiara. The other features the Alpha and Omega.

The 54-feet deep apse also has double rows of windows circling it. The first row brings to life five miracles of Jesus — the Multiplication of the Loaves and ­Fish, raising the daughter of Jairus and son of the widow of Nain, calming of the storm, and the Wedding at Cana. Higher above, windows are constant reminders of the seven sacraments.

Then in mid-century came the 100th anniversary of the Diocese of Covington. That year, on Dec. 8, 1953, on a solemnity of our Blessed Mother, Venerable Pope Pius XII named and honored this cathedral as a basilica.

That same decade, the nave’s sea of marble flooring in different shades, especially light tones, from pinkish to green, became part of a mid-20th century major renovation. The baldachin of Appalachian oak and carved with saints and seraphim and “crowned” with a statue of Our Lady of the Assumption, was also added. So were the ornately carved wooden screens and pulpit. The baldachin also frames the large crucifix, depicting Our Lady and St. John present at the cross.

At the same time, in the cathedral’s Marian shrine, frieze carvings of linden wood present Our Lady’s Seven Joys and Seven Sorrows for contemplation. They were done in Cologne, Germany, as were carvings in the St. Joseph Shrine. Then, in the 1970s, the Sacred Heart Shrine was completed. The cathedral also has shrines honoring St. Anthony, St. Patrick and Our Lady of Guadalupe, “Patroness of the Americas.”

More renovations began in 2001, including relocating the altar to the “Great Crossing” — the intersection of the nave, transepts and apse. Marble from the original altar was used for this new one, as well as brass gates from the old railings, to connect with the cathedral’s glorious past.

Strong Eucharistic themes are ever present, as in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel off the main sanctuary. The tabernacle, a gift from Ghent, Belgium, in 1913, is gold-plated and inlaid with precious and semi-precious stones. The sacred art, from murals to five beautiful stained-glass windows, also convey Eucharistic themes, from the bread and wine sacrifice of Melchizedek to the first celebration of Corpus Christi in 1247 and the first National Eucharistic Congress in 1895 (the 10th was held in Indianapolis in July).

Among the cathedral-basilica’s artwork are two major murals, also with Eucharistic themes. One large triptych spans from the Old Law’s sacrifice, to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, to a contemporary Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. A second mural captures the moment Jesus breaks bread for the disciples at Emmaus. Both murals were painted by local-but-internationally known artist Frank Duveneck.

More major artwork abounds, including the large mosaic Stations of the Cross done in Venetian glass highlighted with gold and mother of pearl. They are based on the paintings of Bavarian Redemptorist Brother Max Schmalzl, whose religious paintings, illustrations and decorative work in many art mediums were recognized throughout the world in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Beginning with Bishop Maes, the diocese initiated what was to become one of the largest collections of relics in the country. A large number are displayed in the cathedral-basilica’s Relic Shrine of St. Paul, including a bone from the hand/wrist of Paul; just in the last decade, Bishop Emeritus Roger Foys had a new altar made of white oak and gilding to blend with the cathedral’s Gothic style to display many relics for veneration. He consecrated the altar in 2021. Together with many saints of old, the collection includes relics of Sts. John Paul II, Teresa of Calcutta, Damien of Molokai and Charbel Makhlouf; and Blesseds Carlo Acutis, Karl of Austria, Solanus Casey and Stanley Rother.

Appreciative faithful also look forward to the veneration of a relic of the True Cross on the First Friday of every month. At that time, people can personally venerate the True Cross relic.

Also in 2021, Bishop Maes’ dream of having this cathedral’s exterior replicate Notre Dame in Paris took another step forward because, while the towers were yet to be completed, the façade and both side portals — also copies of those in Notre Dame in Paris — were finished and dedicated with statues of two dozen saints in the niches already there awaiting them and the two tympana on either side being added to match the façade’s tympanum already in place.

The statues were carved of Bedford limestone by another world-renowned ecclesiastical artist using the material from the same quarry that provided this limestone when the cathedral was first built.

One new side tympanum presents the Annunciation, while the other presents the Coronation. Both join the story of the Blessed Mother in the center portal’s tympanum — The Assumption, carved in 1914 to reflect the cathedral’s name.

Among the new statues are the patrons of the diocese: Sts. Peter, Paul, Thomas More and Elizabeth of Hungary. Others honor patron saints of the diocese’s parishes and institutions. Statues stand like a roll call of who’s who in heaven, including Sts. Joseph, John the Baptist, Anne, John the Evangelist, Thérèse of Lisieux, Pius X, William of York, Benedict, Boniface, Henry, Catherine of Siena and Charles Borromeo. There is also a statue of Mary with the Child Jesus done in 1923 by the local sculptor of the façade’s tympanum.

Bishop Maes was reinterred in October 2019 in the former baptistery in a marble sarcophagus carved with an image of him, in his full bishop’s attire.

The beauty continues in the gardens, featuring statues of the Immaculate Conception in white marble from 1896 and Our Lady of La Salette. 

In every way, this architectural and artistic treasure honors St. Mary, Our Lady of the Assumption.

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Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption | (covcathedral.com)