Rugo Stone and McCrery Architects combined their respective talents at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Annandale, Virginia in the year 2021 for a project that involved the installation of new and beautiful stone altars, sanctuary pavement, mosaic works and two pieces of custom angel statuary for the tabernacle.
Proper stonework is, of course, always 'in style' and frequently amongst some of the very best and strongest examples of the principle of 'noble beauty' in practice. In this regard, I would particularly point our readers to the main altar; it is simple, solid, noble and still ornamental.
There are, of course, many other noteworthy aspects to this project and Rugo Stone offers the following summation of just that:
Rugo Stone created a new, raised, marble sanctuary for the Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Annandale, VA. The new marble altars, the Altar of Sacrifice and Altar of Repose, feature polished Botticino Classico, inlaid Venetian glass mosaic friezes, and inlaid 24-carat gold mosaic Latin lettering. The Altar of Sacrifice also features an artistic Venetian glass inlay of the Sacred Heart, using vivid red and orange tessere. Elsewhere in the sanctuary,Rugo hand-carved and hand-painted two wooden statues of kneeling angels standing 24” tall with gilded wings and two 5’ tall saint statues of Saint John Vianney and Saint Therese of Lisieux. Rugo also hand-carved a 7’ free-standing crucifix with a wooden Corpus of Christ, embedded with a stainless steel anchorage and decorative marble base.The team also crafted statue pedestal marble tops. The flooring of the sanctuary is Botticino Classico marble, uniform with the altars, with accent bands of Highland Heart, a rose-colored marble. All this material was fabricated in-house at Rugo Stone’s studio and installed by our master marble masons.
With that in mind then, let's take a look at the fruits of their labours:
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| A good view of the new marble sanctuary pavement |
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| The main altar, of altar of sacrifice. The text is that of John 1:14, "And the Word was made Flesh," a symbolically appropriate recognition of the altar being that place upon which Christ's Body and Blood is confected. |
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| The altar of reservation continues the text of John 1:14, "and dwelt amongst us," where indeed Christ continues to dwell amongst us within the Sacrament reserved within the tabernacle. You can also see here the custom angel statuary completed by Rugo Stone. |
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| A detail of the mosaic work on the ambo. "In principio era verbum" (In the beginning was the Word). |
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| A detail of some of the stone and detailing as seen on the base of the main altar |
If you'd be interested in learning more, we would invite you to visit Rugo Stone's website or find them on social media.
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