Priest's death stuns church community

Fr. Samuel Aririatu, RIP

Most Holy Trinity - St. Mary Church, Brooklyn, NY

On Sunday afternoon I drove to Brooklyn to take the tour of Most Holy Trinity run by Urban Oyster. This parish was my family's parish from at least 1880 to around 1930. It was where my grandfather was baptized and where he married my grandmother. The parish merged with a nearby parish St. Marys some years ago. I was happy to see two things:

1. The parish is still an active parish serving Catholics in the area and not just a relic of 'time gone by'.
   
2. The parish Church was renovated but not ruined with many original parts of the Church refurbished rather than tossed away.
   

I recommend this tour highly - tour guides Cindy and Fr. Timothy do an excellent job giving the background of the parish and its importance in the community. MHT was a German national parish and Williamsburg was a heavily German area. The tour explored the whole Church, from the beautiful sanctuary to the bell tower (scary) to the crypt below. Cindy and Fr. Dore also went into some of the Christmas customs and the history behind some of the statues in the Church. The tour ended in the cozy rathskellar in the rectory. I hope to take the Brewed in Brooklyn tour that delves into the history of the German brewers in the neighborhood. (My family sold liquor wholesale so they did business with the local brewers). Below are some pictures from MHT - click to enlarge.

The facade - I did not even get the giant towers in so check out the extensive parish website for photos of them. The tops are covered in copper which was coated with brown material to match the rest of the towers. This was due to the towers literally falling apart.



The sanctuary with high altar - the top of the table altar is just visible.



Closer view of the high altar (where my grandparents wedding Mass was offered!)




The pulpit -
More pictures will be posted later. For more information on this great Church, check out the Tour of the Church page on the MHT website, which has to be one of the best parish websites I have seen.

More pictures from Most Holy Trinity -

This one shows the Sanctuary from the triforium level (a cool hallway that goes around the upper part of the Church just underneath the high stained glass windows.



You can see the triforium level in this shot, it is where the spotlights are:



No Church is complete without gory statues - these are of St. Lucy (with eyes on a plate) and St. Rocco and they came from St. Mary's.



This is Fr. Dore in the Rathskellar, notice the beer steins and barrels in the wall above the fireplace -