A Reader's Private Chapel

It was a little more than a year ago that we published an article on Private Chapels Brought to Light by Social Distancing and recently one of our readers sent in some photos of their own private chapel which we thought would be of interest to share with our readers. Private chapels have a particular interest to people in part because of their non-public nature and in part because of their very intimate nature as well. 

Our reader -- a priest -- asked if we had any comments on the chapel arrangement. First and foremost: very tastefully done. Classically Roman with the red dossal curtain, six candles, reliquaries (which contain over 56 relics), antependium in the Roman style and carpet leading up to the altar. 

A few thoughts that might even add more beauty and Romanitas to this beautiful chapel:

1. Add a tester over the altar to unite the altar and dossal curtain into a whole and align to the traditional rubrics around this. 

2. Where possible even a very slight predella is also very desireable. In circumstances like these, they might not be particularly high, but even a slightly platform helps to distinguish the altar from the rest of the space.

Evidently there are practical questions here about the height of the ceiling in this particular space and whether these elements are possible -- however, one possible workaround if space is tight might be to "cheat" the tester back so that it does not obstruct the priest. As well, any predella here would evidently have to be very slight, amounting to likely no more than an inch in height. For it I would recommend the same red material and galloons used for the dossal and tester.

How might this all look? Here's a quick digital mock up:

But as noted, these are simply suggestions to add additional beauty to an already beautiful and edifying private chapel. Very well done.