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For nearly 75 years, the Chapel of the North American Martyrs on Jesuit High School\u2019s Mid-City campus<\/a> has been a central focus in student and alumni life. Dedicated in September 1953, it is where thousands of students, teachers and families have attended Mass and where graduates return for homecoming each fall. It\u2019s so special to some alumni that they choose it as the spot for their wedding and even their funeral.<\/p>\n When the Rev. John Brown, S.J., became Jesuit\u2019s president in 2021, he witnessed the importance of the chapel but also saw something more.<\/p>\n \u201cIt needed not just functional improvements, but I also saw ways we could enhance its beauty,\u201d he said. \u201cWorship space is never only functional. Making things beautiful is fundamental to expression. This space is such an important part of campus life here, I knew it could be so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Brown and his team raised money for a multimillion dollar renovation. Functional repairs included fixing plaster cracks and water damage, updating the sound system and adding a much-needed elevator, restroom and bridal suite to make the chapel more attractive for weddings.<\/p>\n The artistic improvements, overseen by Brown and creative director Brittany Donnes, are even more striking.<\/p>\n The ceiling, once covered with acoustic tile, now bears a dark blue stretched canvas, where images of stars depict constellations as they might have appeared over New Orleans more than 2,000 years ago on the night of Jesus Christ\u2019s resurrection. For the design, the team worked with the Rev. David Brown, S.J., a New Orleans native, former Jesuit physics teacher and an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Adorning the walls of the chapel are portraits of North American martyrs, a group of eight Jesuit missionaries sent to upstate New York and Canada during the 17th century. Killed during their missionary work among warring Iroquois, Mohawk and Huron tribes, the martyrs were canonized in 1930.<\/p>\n While generations of Jesuit students know them because of the chapel bearing their name, John Brown felt the renovation was the perfect time to honor their legacy.<\/p>\n The school commissioned portraits by local liturgical artist Jaclyn Warren, featuring elements based on research done by Brown and others. \u201cI really wanted to help our young men understand the historicity of the martyrs and their lives and deaths,\u201d he said. \u201cEach of them is painted in a realistic style but in prayer or worship.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Brown called the recently completed work phase one of the project. It was done by Ryan Gootee General Contractors LLC, led by CEO Ryan Gootee, President Michael DeGruy and project manager Patrick Thomas, all Jesuit alumni, as well as architect Scott Welty. Brown said phase two may include more artistic elements, including stained glass windows.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve gotten nothing but positive reaction to the work,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIt shows how much we care about the spiritual lives of our students even after they graduate, when they come back to fulfill their spiritual needs. That is a vital part of our ministry, now performed in an even more beautiful space.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was reported by Dominic Massa for The Preservation Resource Center, a nonprofit whose mission is to preserve New Orleans\u2019 historic architecture, neighborhoods and cultural identity.\u00a0Massa, executive vice president and chief operating officer of WYES-TV, is a longtime New Orleans journalist and a 1994 graduate of Jesuit.\u00a0For information, visit prcno.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nola.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For nearly 75 years, the Chapel of the North American Martyrs on Jesuit High School\u2019s Mid-City campus has been a central focus in student and alumni life. Dedicated in September 1953, it is where thousands of students, teachers and families have attended Mass and where graduates return for homecoming each fall. It\u2019s so special to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2301202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2301201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Jesuit-High-School-chapel-renovation-melds-function-beauty-EntertainmentLife.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2301201"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2301203,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301201\/revisions\/2301203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2301202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2301201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2301201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2301201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}