On a windswept and snow-laden recent Sunday morning, the friars of the Priory of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies gathered in the Academic Courtyard for a once-in-120-year liturgical event: the blessing of a new bell. Despite having built a grand tower to the glory of God in 1905, the priory (located across from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in northeast D.C.) has remained without a bell all these years. That is, until now.
Delivered just a couple days before, the 980-lb. bell waited patiently on a wooden pallet in the crisp January air. It is still a couple weeks until it is lifted into the tower, allowing a moment for the friars to offer a blessing. Euphonious hymns and perfumed incense filled the air, as Father Gregory Schnakenberg, OP, prior of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, led the rededication.
“We need our lives interrupted by things that are beautiful,” said Fr. Schnakenberg in a brief homily reflecting on the role of bells within the church community. In a tradition dating back centuries, ringing bells would announce the hours of monastic prayer – in the morning, at midday, and in the evening. At these times, the bells offer a gentle reminder to pause and turn one’s attention to God.
Image: A choir of friars accompanies a processional through the Academic Courtyard at the Dominican House of Studies ahead of a blessing of the St. Gabriel bell on Jan. 12, 2025. Courtesy: Dominican House of Studies.
Image: Father Gregory Schnakenberg, OP, prior of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies, sprinkles the St. Gabriel bell with holy water during a blessing and rededication in the Academic Courtyard of the priory on Jan. 12, 2025. Courtesy: Dominican House of Studies.
A brief history of the bell
The bell, cast in 1929 by the Meneely Bell Foundry for Calvary Episcopal Church in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, comprised part of an original 14-bell chime. Over time, the tower that supported these bells was deemed structurally unfit to safely house them. Uninsurable, the bells were removed to a below-grade storage room, which subsequently flooded. At this time, the congregation agreed it was best to part ways with the bells.
McShane Bell Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, acquired the bells at auction in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, in 2021. Not finding a buyer for the entire set, the bells were separated into smaller lots and installed within belfries at various churches, universities, and civic organizations. The priory’s bell, one of the last to find a new home, was subsequently polished and engraved at the prior’s direction, to be rededicated to the archangel Gabriel. An inscription in Latin was engraved by McShane Bell Co. onto the obverse, reading:
Ad honorem S. Gabriel Archangeli qui ad Mariam Immaculatam Virginem Verbi Dei incarnationem nuntiavit cano. In hac ecclesia Catholica sono nunc quia filii S. Dominici me huc transtulerunt Renovaveruntque familiis Lyons et Smith aliisque Benefactoribus adjuvantibus. A.D. MMXXI.
Transcribed into English, it intones:
I sing to the honor of Saint Gabriel the Archangel, who announced to Mary, the Virgin Immaculate, the incarnation of the Word of God. I sound now in this Catholic church for, through the help of the Lyons and Smith families and other benefactors, the sons of Saint Dominic have brought me here and restored me. A.D. 2024.
Image: Friars of the Priory of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies pause after the blessing in the Academic Courtyard to read the Latin inscription on the St. Gabriel bell on Jan. 12, 2025. Courtesy: Dominican House of Studies.
Soon, friars and neighbors alike will hear this bell resound for the first time in its new home, adding to the soundscape and rituals of the day, and calling all to assemble in the chapel to pray. After 120 years, how sweet it will finally sound.
Cover image: Friars and guests of the Priory of the Immaculate Conception gather in the snow-covered Academic Courtyard of the Dominican House of Studies for a blessing of the St. Gabriel bell on Jan. 12, 2025. Courtesy: Dominican House of Studies.
