Louisville, KY - Bellarmine College will break ground for the new Our Lady of the Woods Chapel during its Alumni Jubilee Weekend on Sunday, June 14 at 10:45 a.m.
Dedicated to the memory of the late Archbishop John Floersh, founder of the College, the new chapel will be situated in the seven-acre wooded hillside on the Bellarmine campus overlooking Newburg Road. The chapel will seat approximately 350 and will include a choir loft and pipe organ.
Designed by the Louisville architectural firm of Nolan and Nolan, Our Lady of the Woods Chapel will be completed by the year 2000, during which Bellarmine will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding. The total project cost is $3.7 million. Funds are being secured from private gifts, including two anonymous gifts of $1 million each.
"One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Catholic higher education tradition, the oldest continuous tradition of higher education in the history of the world, is its affirmation of the compatibility of faith and reason," said Dr. Joseph J. McGowan, Jr., president of Bellarmine. "Not only will Our Lady of the Woods Chapel provide beautiful, sacred space for prayer, meditation and liturgy on campus, but along with our recently opened state-of-the-art W. L. Lyons Brown Library, the chapel will clearly symbolize the firm belief of the Bellarmine community in the compatability of faith and reason."