Light On Dark Water

NOVA Chorale at St. Joseph’s, Covington

I mentioned that I had been out of town for a couple of days. On Sunday my wife and I went to St. Joseph’s Abbey (Benedictine) and Seminary in Covington, Louisiana, for a performance by the NOVA (New Orleans Vocal Arts) Chorale, in which my daughter Clare sings. Covington is across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans. It was held in the abbey church, which I thought quite beautiful, though I am no architecture critic. The interior strikes me as rich without being ornate, simple without being austere. More important for the concert, the building has stunning acoustics, and the choir is extremely good, and the program was very well chosen and sequenced, including a good balance of old and modern music; all in all, it was one of the more memorable concerts I’ve ever attended. 

Of course I forgot to bring my camera, but I did take a few pictures with my phone, and more with my wife’s camera. The latter should be better, but I haven’t had a chance to get them off the camera yet. If they’re good I’ll post some. Meanwhile, these from the phone will give you the general idea:

StJosephExt

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Walker Percy is buried in the abbey cemetery. I had hoped to visit his grave, but the cemetery is fairly big and I had no idea where the grave was, and there was no one around to ask, so I decided not to search. Maybe another time. The Abbey has a nice web site, though in a few minutes of looking around there I didn’t see any pictures of the church.

My wife and I talked about buying ourselves a couple of the products of the Abbey woodworking shop. We don’t anticipate needing them anytime very soon, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.

Maclin Horton
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3 responses to “NOVA Chorale at St. Joseph’s, Covington”

  1. Daniel Nichols

    Wow, what an eclectic looking church; sort of Romanesque Greek Revival southern whatnot? But beautiful too.
    And that is where Dr Percy rests? You really should try and find his grave if you are ever in the area again.
    I once made a pilgrimage to Milledgeville Georgia, to the grave of the Servant of God- and in a few centuries, if the world endures- St Flannery…Okay, not even officially a Servant of God, but I have a personal devotion to her.

    Reply
  2. Mac

    I’ve forgotten almost all of the little I ever knew of architectural styles and terminology, so I can’t comment on the eclectic-ness. But it is beautiful.
    Yep, WP is there, and I’m sure I’ll visit there again sometime. Covington is not that much out of the way if one is going to New Orleans, which we do from time to time, although it took us a while to find the Abbey–I was left with the impression that Louisianians don’t concern themselves overmuch with precise directions. Of the four people we asked for directions, two didn’t know and one was wrong. Even Google Maps was vague. And we didn’t actually see the street sign that marked the turn we were looking for until we were leaving and noticed it lying in the ditch.
    There’s a visitor’s center, and they might be able to point me to the grave. But it wasn’t open, and we were too tired to spend what could easily have been a couple of hours reading gravestones one at a time to find it.
    I should go to Milledgeville, too–it’s not all that far.

    Reply
  3. Paul

    I’d have just gone with “Italianate” (it covers so much!)

    Reply

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