St. Patrick's Old Cathedral

St. Patrick's Old Cathedral Review

If you've watched The Godfather, you've peeked inside St. Patrick's Old Cathedral—the interior shots of the infamous baptism scene were filmed here. The unadorned exterior of the cathedral gives no hint to the splendors within, including an 1868 Henry Erben pipe organ. The enormous marble altar surrounded by hand-carved niches (reredos) house an extraordinary collection of sacred statuary and other Gothic exuberance. There's a maze of mortuary vaults underneath the cathedral (older residents of Little Italy recall playing hide-and-seek in the vaults), and the outdoor cemetery is the final resting place for notable New Yorkers such as the Venerable Pierre Toussaint, an African-American who was born a slave in Haiti and made his fortune as a New York hairdresser, and whose many charitable works have resulted in his consideration for sainthood. Also interred here is Bishop Hughes—better known during his time as "Dagger John," a nickname he earned for his fiery temperament and the distinctive pointed cross he always scrawled after signing his name.