HISTORY

The mission of St. John the Evangelist was established in 1839 only ten years after the act of Parliament of 1829 had granted a decree of "Catholic Emancipation". A school was opened and this served as a chapel for Mass on Sundays. Each day priests walked across the open fields which in those days separated Islington from the city and the chapel of St. Mary Moorfields from which this mission was founded. The architect J. J. Scoles was asked to design a new building on some land acquired by Dr. Griffiths, the Vicar Apostolic of the London District. At that time there were no parishes and no dioceses, with "Vicars Apostolic" administering areas under the direct control of Rome.

Even before the church was opened it was involved in controversy when the famous architect A. W. N. Pugin attacked the design of the church. He believed in building churches with pointed, "Christian", arches and Scoles, design was with rounded arches in the "Anglo-Norman" style. At the time of opening the two towers planned were not built. In 1850, a convert clergyman, Frederick Oakeley, was appointed to the parish. A friend of John Henry Newman, Oakeley was noted for his interest in music and the liturgy and established a reputation for the parish in these areas, which would last for over 100 years. His concern for people in prison and the poor of the parish would also cause officials to alter policies and change public attitudes. When Oakeley eventually had the towers completed he changed the original plans of' Scoles and had them smaller and not matching, something of which Pugin would have greatly approved.

The Baptistery.

On entering the church and looking to the right we come to the baptistery. Three large paintings provide a setting for a square baptismal font set with sacred symbols. To the left an inscription at the bottom identifies the picture as a copy of "The Conversion of Hermogenes" a fresco by Mantegna in the Eremitani church in Padua. St. James is shown baptising the former sorcerer who has set aside his books. The message is that Christ's power and wisdom are greater than any other. Ahead we see Christ calling Lazarus from the tomb, reminding people that Baptism brings to Christians a new, risen life in Christ. To the right the picture of the Baptism of Jesus reminds us of the words spoken from heaven, "You are my beloved Son, in you I am well pleased." Words now addressed to every child of God.

The Chapel of St. Francis.
Oakeley set up an altar to St. Francis in 1850, and in 1851 obtained for the chapel from Pope Pius IX the Plenary Indulgence of the Portiuncula. At that time there were few Franciscans in England and the chapel must have been one of the earliest post Reformation Franciscan shrines. Edward Armitage, an important Victorian painter, provided two large canvases on the side and back walls. The Institution of the Franciscan Order was painted in 1887 to replace an earlier fresco which had decayed. It shows Francis receiving confirmation of the rule of the order from Pope Innocent III. The richness of the clothes and the jewels of the mitres and tiara contrast with the poverty of the Franciscan habits. On the back wall of the chapel is a painting of the meeting between St. Francis and St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers. They lived at the same time and both founded new orders, the Franciscans famous for their humility and simplicity of life and the Dominicans for their scholarship and zeal. The two paintings highlight the universality of the Catholic Church, home to rich and poor, to the simple and the intellectual.

The Chapel of St. Joseph.
The fine statue of St. Joseph shows him as patron of the Universal Church, holding the Christ child. The statue was the gift to the parish of Cardinal Bourne. It had stood in the parish of St. Mary's Horseferry Road. The chapel contains tablets which commemorate the first three rectors of this parish. At present the chapel also contains a statue of the patron of the parish, St John. This statue dates from the 1850's and for many years stood at the front of the church at the left, hand side of the sanctuary. In the 1960's it was placed high in the apse and was brought down again to the main body of the church only in recent times. St. John's symbol, the eagle, is at his feet and on the scroll in his hands are, in Latin, the opening words of his gospel, "In the beginning was the Word."

The Lady Chapel.
The statue of Our Lady is German and was brought to the church in 1850, probably from Munich. It attracted anti-Catholic protesters in its early days but was also the subject of great devotion. The altar is a privileged altar.

The Altar.
The main altar of the church was put here in 1973. It is decorated with symbols popular at that time which tried to reproduce the kind of symbol used in the early days of the Church and known to us from such places as the catacombs. The bread and fish at the centre, five small loaves and two fish, remind us of the feeding of the five thousand. The anchors at either side were symbols of hope, safe haven, being sheltered in port. Note the bottoms of the anchors are letters, an "A" the first letter of the Greek alphabet, alpha, and what looks like a "w", in fact a small omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet. In the book of the Apocalypse Jesus says, "I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end." The birds are most probably a representation of the quail which fell into the Israelite camp as it dwelt in the wilderness after leaving Egypt. The small crosses are traditionally the representation of the manna, also known as the bread of heaven, the small sweet flakes which settled on the Israelite camp. The quail and bread helped to feed the children of Israel for the forty years of their wanderings in the desert. The IC at one end of the altar represents the first and last letters, in Greek, of the name Jesus. The XC below are the first and last letters of the name Christ. At the other end the word NIKA is Greek for victor or conqueror. On the lectern some of these symbols are reused. This time we have capital A and Ω, alpha and omega, as well as the anchor with a small omega below.

The Tabernacle.

The tabernacle is set upon a reduced altar of marble. A mosaic of the Lamb of God is set in the central round panel. To the left-hand side is a mosaic of the or X and P Joined. In Greek the X is a Ch and the P is our "r" so this was a frequent shorthand for the name Christ. It is thought to be the symbol which the Emperor Constantine had painted on the shields of his army after his vision when he heard the words "In this sign conquer". On the other side we see the letters alpha and omega again, this time entwined.

The Apse.

In the dome of the apse the painting of the Transfiguration of our Lord was executed in 1963. On the right of our Lord is Moses holding the tablets of stone which contain the Ten Commandments. On the left is the figure of Elijah, his mantle, which will one day fall to Elisha, flowing from his shoulder. Beneath the painting we see the word uttered at the scene, "This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, Listen to Him." Words which join the font and the altar, the two main focus points of the church.

The Blessed Sacrament Chapel.

Going beyond the vestry doors and crying room, we come to the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. The walls were first painted by H.A. Bulmer in the 1850's at a cost of more than three times that of any of the other chapels. Interestingly enough the pattern used for the lower level is very like the kind of pattern used by Pugin in his decoration. The amount of gold paint used makes it somewhat richer than is usual. The altar is one of the finest in the church with marble patterning and carvings. The heads represent the four evangelists, the angel for St. Matthew, the lion for St. Mark, the ox for St. Luke and the eagle for St. John. The Lamb of God at the centre again reminds us of the words "This is the Lamb of God" used by St. John the Baptist of Jesus and repeated before Holy Communion in every Mass. In penal days St. Cuthbert Mayne was arrested for having a Lamb of God medal about his neck and was later executed. Even in the 1850s, when the church was decorated, there was some prejudice against this symbol, some referring to it as the "Pope medallion." The tabernacle set upon the altar is carefully decorated with corn and bunches of grapes, as also is the back of the altar, the reredos. On the plinth above the altar is a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Statue of Saint Vincent de Paul.

The statue of St. Vincent de Paul was given to the church by the Limehouse convent of the Daughters of Charity in 1999. St. Vincent de Paul laboured for the poor in France and founded orders of men and women to further his work. In this, as many other, parishes a lay organisation, "The Society of St. Vincent de Paul” helps those in need in the local community.

The Stations of the Cross.

Around the church are fourteen paintings which show our Lord's last journey as He went from the judgement seat of Pontius Pilate to Golgotha and then on to the tomb. The set here is Belgium from around 1880 and was placed here by Canon Pycke, the second Rector, himself a native of Belgium. At that time many restorations of the great Belgium churches were taking place and sets of ornaments were produced in an antique fashion to recreate the golden age of Flemish art, the fifteenth century. This is one of those sets. Note especially the clothes, the armour and weapons of the soldiers and the buildings in the paintings.