​Written by  Fr. Dennis O'Neill

In 1914, Col. Robert R. McCormick, future editor of the Chicago Tribune, was in Ypres, Belgium. When he visited the site of the recently bombed-out cathedral, he took a stone from the building as a souvenir. He liked the feel it gave him of connection with history. It became the first stone in a collection of stones from famous buildings and places throughout the world, which ultimately grew to 150. When he built and opened Tribune Tower in 1925, he had the stones, with inscriptions of explanation, inserted in the outer walls of the building at eye-level, thus guaranteeing that everyone could enjoy them.

To his thinking, the most special of the stones came to him in 1949. It was taken from the ceiling of the grotto of the Nativity beneath the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. This was the cave where the birth of Christ took place. The Orthodox archbishop of Bethlehem scraped the stone loose, witnessed by the mayor of Bethlehem, and sent it to Col. McCormick. The Colonel considered it so important that this is the one stone he chose to display indoors. He placed in a big brass reliquary in the shape of the star of Bethlehem, fixed it to the wall of the lobby, and had an inscription carved in the adjoining marble panel.

Tribune Tower was sold to a developer in 2016. The Chicago Tribune vacated the building in 2018. Since then, it is being converted into luxury condominiums. Because of this, the stone from Bethlehem had to be extracted from the lobby. This was done recently. The stone, the reliquary star, and the adjoining inscription on a marble panel all arrived at St. Martha of Bethany/Shrine of All Saints on December 23rd as a special Christmas gift. This gift comes our way due to the inspiration and suggestion of the late attorney Philip A. Doran, a good friend of Father Dennis. When he heard that the contractors were trying to sort out what to do with the relic, he suggested that it come to our Shrine of All Saints. Alas, after a long struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, Phil Doran passed away at the end of this past September. Please pray for his dear, thoughtful, generous soul.

This beautiful installation was the creation of Scott Sander.  He even made the frame to resemble a Christmas stable. Very many thanks, Scott.  Scott has created many beautiful things for our churches through the years. In doing so, he continued the beautiful work of his late father, Bernard Olaf Sander, who created both of our altars, our ambos and lecterns and the baptismal font in the small church.   

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