The Altar Boy in St. Matthew’s Mural? That’s My Dad.

Presidents, a pope, a future saint and everyday people have entered the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., under the watchful eye of my father: the altar boy standing to the right of Cardinal Gibbons in the majestic mural over the front door.

Jerry Hannan stands to the right of Cardinal Gibbons in the entrance mural. Image courtesy of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.

St. Matthew’s has meant a great deal to my family for more than 100 years. It was the home parish for both of my parents, who met and were married there. One of my uncles, Bishop Philip M. Hannan, delivered the eulogy at the funeral of his friend, President John F. Kennedy, on November 25, 1963. High school graduations, weddings and funerals for a host of loved ones and friends have taken place, too. In happy times and sad, my siblings and I always glance up to the mural and wink “Hi, Daddy!”

The inclusion of young Patrick Jeremiah “Jerry” Hannan in the painting was a thank-you gift from the parish to the family, who mixed the mortar that adhered the mosaics of the four Evangelists in the columns that hold up the cathedral’s dome.

In the early 1920s, the Italian craftsmen who arrived at St. Matthews to install the mosaics were dismayed that appropriate mortar was not ready. They provided the recipe for the slaked lime to the pastor, Monsignor Edward Buckey, advising it would take a full year to prepare.

My grandparents, Lillian and Frank Hannan, volunteered their 7 sons to mix the mortar for the St. Matthews murals.

Msgr. Buckey turned to Frank Hannan, a parishioner and friend, for help. My grandfather and his wife, Lillian, lived less than five blocks away at the northeast corner of 17^th and P Streets, N.W.

Grandpa Hannan, a plumber who’d emigrated from Ireland, assigned his seven sons to help prepare the mortar. He created a large bin for it in a nearby carriage house. As explained by the Catholic Historical Society in a Spring 2006 article:

“Slaking the lime, that is, wetting it down, required application of two full pails of water three times a week. The water had to be hauled in both hot weather and cold, up the block-long rocky alley to the heavy door of the carriage house and up the steps to the bin. The mass of lime was 10 feet long, five feet wide and four feet deep. In what to the boys seemed a lifetime, the long year was finally over.”

Mortar stirred for a year by the Hannan boys still binds mosaics of St. Mark and the other Gospel writers. Image by St. Matthew’s Cathedral.

When the artisans returned from Italy a year later, they pronounced the mortar to be excellent. Their exquisite mosaics of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were dedicated in 1925.

Plans soon began for a large mural over the front door. Titled “Saintly and Eminent Personages of the Americas,” it depicts notable Catholics from North and South America surrounding Cardinal James Gibbons, the former archbishop of Baltimore, who had laid the cornerstone for St. Matthews in 1893.

The artist wanted to paint the altar boys on either side of Cardinal James Gibbons from life. Msgr. Buckey selected William Sands, a son of a noted diplomat and parishioner, to be on the left.

Msgr. Buckey decided the other server should be from the Hannan family, who’d mixed the mortar for the Evangelists’ mosaics. He shared the good news with the family one Sunday after Mass, asking my grandmother, “Which of the boys will it be?”

Grandma went to the kitchen and got a broom. She tore off seven straws, placed them in her fist so the tops were even and lined up all seven sons in the parlor to pick a straw.

Jerry – who had been only three when the mortar was mixed – picked the short straw, and was featured in the mural.

The photo of my dad taken at the Harris & Ewing studio in downtown Washington helped the mural’s artist to render him in oil paint for all time. The mural was completed in 1931, when Jerry was nine.

Born on St. Patrick’s Day, my father was said to have the luck of the Irish. His brother Bill said as much in recalling the mural at St. Matthew’s Cathedral: “The youngest and the luckiest… now becomes the untouchable of the Hannans. He looks down upon us from the highest place in the church.”

WHO’S IN THE MURAL? Important historical personages of the Catholic Church in the Americas, particularly Baltimore and Washington, D.C., are featured in the lunette above the Cathedral’s main entry.

Right side (right to left): Frances Mary Saul, Sr. Benedicta Fenwick, B. Francis Saul, General Simon Bolivar, St. Philippine Duchesne, St. Rose of Lima (Peru), Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, St. Isaac Jogues;

Center: Archbishop Curley, Fr. William Matthews, Cardinal Gibbons and two servers (William Sands and Patrick Hannan) as well as Monsignor Thomas Lee and Archbishop John Carroll;

Left: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Edward Douglass White, St. Katharine Drexel, General Charles Ewing, Dame Margaret Brent and Mother Angelica Holton.

VISIT THE CATHEDRAL

Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle

1725 Rhode Island Ave NW

Washington, DC 20036

Phone: (202) 347-3215

Website: https://www.stmatthewscathedral.org/