The Necrology of Priests of the Diocese of Tulsa

Holy Family's relatively new Shrines in the back of the church are now complete!

The large wall crucifix predates our 100-year-old church and probably hung inside the original Holy Family Church. That crucifix now hangs inside a Gothic arch made of oak and made to look like it was original to this current church building.

The Shrine is named for Monsignor James F. Halpine and is dedicated to the memory of the deceased priests of the Diocese of Tulsa. In the forty-one years since the creation of the Diocese of Tulsa, sixty diocesan priests have died. There is an engraved plate for each priest with his name, his date of birth, death, and ordination to the priesthood.

Stations of the Cross

We adore you, O Christ,

and we praise you

because by your Holy Cross

you have redeemed the world.

The Stations initially had elaborate frames around them.

Holy Family's Stations of the Cross are being refurbished and repainted. They are sculptures recessed into the walls of the nave. In Holy Family's earliest years, the stations were set inside elaborate frames made to look like the three high altars.




The frames were made of scagliola, the same material as the altars. Scagliola is marble dust mixed with an adhesive. It is beautiful, but not as durable as solid marble.

This is the only known color photo of the original Stations.

In the 1960s and 1970s the Stations were extracted from their frames and installed in recessed niches in the walls of the nave. A large wooden cross hung over each station.


The original vibrant colors having faded over several decades, each station was repainted with a high gloss neutral color in keeping with the muted color scheme chosen during the 1974 renovation.


More recently the high gloss paint was covered by a flat gray paint. The crosses were removed.







We can thank Rev. Matthew La Chance for bringing us small wooden crosses made by Christian artists in the Holy Land using native olive wood. Each cross was laid on the altar stone of the empty Tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Those crosses grace the walls of our church.

Today's Work

Monsignor Gier received donations from a number of parishioners who wished to see the Stations restored to their original vibrant colors. The parish hired the same artist who hand paints our Paschal Candles to paint the Stations.

White primer seals the cracks in the plaster figures in each sculpture.

She began by lightly sanding cracked layers of paint away, then applying a coat of primer. She traces the trees, hills, and clouds in the background, then colors the figures in the foreground using hues from our stained glass windows.

The colored background adds depth and contrast to the figures in the foreground.

The nearly completed Eighth Station dries before it is covered with a protective top coat.

A Troubled Time in the Holy Land

Saint Francis of Assisi (d. 1226) lived in a time when many Christians wished to make pilgrimages to the Holy Land but found both the travel and the destination dangerous - so much so that many Christians chose to remain in their hometowns rather than risk the journey.

Saint Francis developed the Stations as a simple prayer for private and communal use. Over the next two centuries, the devotion quickly spread across Europe and the rest of the world.

Although Holy Family uses the traditional number of Stations: fourteen (They focus on moments during Christ’s Passion from His condemnation to death through His burial in the Holy Sepulchre), the number and content of the Stations varies greatly around the world. Recent innovations in some parishes include a Fifteenth Station: The Resurrection. In 1991, Pope Saint John Paul II led the traditional Good Friday Stations at the Colosseum in Rome using a new list of stations including Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and Jesus’ Arrest.

Insulation will keep us cool in the summer

For the first time in Holy Family Church's history, we have insulation in the attic.

The Cathedral's attic above the vaults and below the roof.

The Cathedral has about ten feet of space under the copper roof and above the vaults in the church. The attic runs the length of the Cathedral. In the summertime, that space is about twenty degrees hotter than the ambient air outside. The heat is transferred into the church and makes the air conditioners run longer.

Liquid Insulation is pumped into the attic.

The new insulation is a liquid that is pumped into the attic then sprayed on the underside of the roof. The liquid expands and hardens as it cools. This type of insulation works well for Holy Family because we will not have the pink, fluffy type of insulation resting on the vaulted ceiling.


Our insulation has fire-retardant properties that will complement our existing fire-suppression system.

Green Carpet & Marble Tiles

The new carpet is an olive green similar to the green paint on the lower walls of the nave. Installers will begin laying it this afternoon.

In the center of the church, workers are laying marble tile similar to what is in the sanctuary.

Cathedral's Red Carpet is being removed

An entire generation of Cathedral parishioners remembers nothing but the red carpet that lined the aisles of our church.


Today, carpetlayers are removing the aged carpet from the floor, chipping the glue away, and sweeping the subfloor for the first time in decades. Massgoers should see new carpet this weekend.


The Cathedral's original 1914 floor was polished hard wood. It was covered with linoleum around the time of the 1948 renovation.