Pre Vatican II Church with no middle aisle?

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TraditionalCatholicT

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Hello! First of all, I hope you’re all having a blessed day! 🙂

Anyways, on to my topic of discussion, I was looking through old pictures a Traditional Church
in my town that was wrecked by modernists, and after looking through different pictures through different parts of the timeline, I’ve come to the conclusion that inside the church there is no middle aisle, with just 2 side aisles for the left and right.

Could anyone please explain to me as why this is? I’ve even noticed that there are altar gates in the middle.
Because I think it would be pretty awkward for the Priest and his Deacon/Subdeacon and servers to process unsymmetrically on one side, then having to turn 90 degrees inward to go through the altar gates and reach the high altar.

Apologies for not sending any photos, as I am a new user and unable to do so.

Thanks! I appreciate all answers! 🙃
 
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Perhaps they almost exclusively celebrated low Masses, and thus would enter the sanctuary through the sacristy? That would also mean there’d be only one priest and a few altar servers.

Also, out of curiosity, is your profile picture of any particular Pope? Because I’m struggling to think of any red haired ones. 😅 😜
 
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Fauken said:
Perhaps they almost exclusively celebrated low Masses, and thus would enter the sanctuary through the sacristy? That would also mean there’d be only one priest and a few altar servers.

Also, out of curiosity, is your profile picture of any particular Pope? Because I’m struggling to think of any red haired ones. 😅 😜
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Also yes, I guess you could say that, but from what I’ve read, this is the earliest church in my hometown, so you could see why I’m a little confused, as there must’ve been at least a few high masses or solemn masses?
 
It would help if you let us know exactly how old is this church and/or the general region (as in, country, we don’t need to know your postcode or anything) where you live.
 
It is in North Carolina, USA

It was built and established in 1851 and was the only Catholic Church in the city up until 1940
 
TraditionalCatholicT said:
It is in North Carolina, USA

It was built and established in 1851 and was the only Catholic Church in the city up until 1940
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If it is St Peter’s in Charlotte (founded in 1851), I found several pictures, and it has a center aisle just as churches normally do. I’ve never visited that particular church.

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It has been renovated in the 1970’s when it was taken over by the Jesuits, but if you go onto their website, they will have a history page and all of the photos have centre pews inside of them, blocking the centre aisle.
 
It’s my understanding that Gothic-style churches built in the mid-1800s often had two side aislea and no center aisle. There is one in San Francisco dating to the same era with that design.
 
TraditionalCatholicT said:
It has been renovated in the 1970’s when it was taken over by the Jesuits, but if you go onto their website, they will have a history page and all of the photos have centre pews inside of them, blocking the centre aisle.
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Oh, OK, I see now. The church has since been renovated to insert a center aisle that it didn’t have before, is that right?

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Just throwing this out there, I wonder if the church was originally built that way, for the purpose of separating the men and the women. Not even the 1917 CIC called for this, but Woywod & Smith’s Practical Commentary on the Code of Canon Law said this:

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What I find sort of claustrophobic, are these churches that have only a center aisle, with no side aisles, so that the person at the far end of the pew is sitting directly against the wall. I hope they don’t build churches in this fashion anymore.

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Although I do find the concept of the layout a bit cool, I think it brings up many complications to many things.

For example, for Solemn High Masses or the very grand high feasts or for masses celebrated with a prelate, would the prelate and his ministers just process awkwardly down one lane of the church and exit the other?

Imagine the sort of mess it would be if the bishop wore a cappa magna!

It also brings up complications for stuff such as ordinations and requiem masses, such as trying to fit it in the crowded space.
 
The church in the parish where I grew up was built in 1922. There was no centre aisle until the 70s when the pews that formed the centre section were separated to form one.

In that church entrance processions started with the opening of the sacristy door to the left of the sanctuary, and the walk down three steps to the nave floor, across the front, and through the gate in the altar rail, or simply up the steps once the altar rail was destroyed. For daily Mass the priest and server(s) would have entered the sanctuary from behind the altar, through the hallway from the sacristy.

On a happy note, the altar rail was restored, albeit in wood, for the 100th anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone.
First picture ca. 2018 with the artisan who rebuilt the altar rail
Second picture, ca. 1940s
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HomeschoolDad said:
Just throwing this out there, I wonder if the church was originally built that way, for the purpose of separating the men and the women.
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It was normal behavior in many Catholic cultures for women to sit on one side and men on the other in the 1800s.

Typically there was a “Mary side” of the Church with the statue of Mary up front that was the “women’s side”. Men sat on the “Joseph side”. I don’t think this was a Church requirement, it was just customary.

If you read stuff like Samuel Pepys’ diaries (where he is attending multiple church services on Sunday for the main purpose of eyeing up and sexually harassing young women, despite having a wife at home) you understand why this custom existed. I cheered when one of his targets stuck him with her big hatpin.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
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HomeschoolDad:
Just throwing this out there, I wonder if the church was originally built that way, for the purpose of separating the men and the women.
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It was normal behavior in many Catholic cultures for women to sit on one side and men on the other in the 1800s.

Typically there was a “Mary side” of the Church with the statue of Mary up front that was the “women’s side”. Men sat on the “Joseph side”. I don’t think this was a Church requirement, it was just customary.

If you read stuff like Samuel Pepys’ diaries (where he is attending multiple church services on Sunday for the main purpose of eyeing up and sexually harassing young women, despite having a wife at home) you understand why this custom existed. I cheered when one of his targets stuck him with her big hatpin.
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Just for what it’s worth, in Orthodox Judaism, as well as in Islam, men and women occupy different parts of the synagogue/mosque. Not sure that this is a 100% absolute phenomenon among these religionists, but it does exist.

If you suggested this to contemporary Catholics, they’d look at you as though you had grown a third eye in the middle of your forehead. (The most severe of traditionalists would probably say “hey, hadn’t thought of that, that’s a good idea!”. I am of mixed feelings about it myself, more con than pro.)
 
  • Fire codes today may limit certain features, such as dead end pews. I could guess them requiring also a main aisle up the middle.
  • One wood church in my city stood from 1930 to 1950, when they built their permanent brick church school building. Pictures show no middle aisle, just two aisles dividing the church into three sections.
My mother told me brides complained of no middle aisle for them to “process” with their dad, then with new husband. Some married elsewhere for that reason.
 
commenter said:
Fire codes today may limit certain features, such as dead end pews. I could guess them requiring also a main aisle up the middle.
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If they don’t prohibit dead-end pews, they should. We used to attend a church that had this feature, and I always thought “there’s only one way out!”. If you stop and think about it, this is a horrible fire hazard.
 
So glad I stumbled on this thread from the front page.

I learned something and it’s just a pleasant discussion.

My parish has a church that was built in the 1850s, but it has a center aisle. That’s because it’s so small there couldn’t be two aisles. Oh, well.
 
I live in an area with a lot of old churches, and I suspect a lot of them had the 2 side aisles with the middle one being a more recent innovation. Lots of dead end pews on the sides also.

Some of these churches have pews straight to the back wall of the church, with a tiny narthex or one that is not accessible from the sacristy. The priests and servers need to go down the side aisle and out of the church and then come back in processing up the middle if they want to do that. Except for very solemn Masses they generally don’t bother.
 
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