The Sisters of the Visitation Convent in Bethesda tell that in January, 1878, Sister Aloysius Gardiner of the Visitation Convent on Connecticut Avenue and L Streets, where the Mayflower Hotel is now situated, celebrated the “Silver Jubilee of her profession.” At that time her uncle, Mr. Philip Simms of New Orleans, wishing to commemorate the event in a fitting manner, employed the artist, Constantino Brumidi, to paint a large picture for the Convent chapel. The subject was “The Apparition of our Lord to Saint Margaret Mary.” The canvas measured 17 feet in height with the figures life-size.
The painting was done by Brumidi in the Distribution Hall of the old Convent school and then hung in the chapel over the altar for forty-one years. In 1919 when the old Convent was sold and the Sisters moved to their new Convent in Bethesda, Maryland, the Brumidi painting was found to be too large for the new chapel so it was given to Holy Trinity Church, Georgetown, where it still adorns a side wall near the altar.
St. Aloysius Church in the Capitol City displays three paintings by Brumidi—the large mural over the central altar and two
ST. ALOYSIUS MURAL
“St. Charles Borroméo giving Holy Communion to St. Aloysius Gonzaga” is the title of this Brumidi picture, painted in 1859, which is over the main altar of the St. Aloysius Church, Washington, D. C. Brumidi gave to the kneeling figure at the extreme right the features of Father Benedict Sestini, S.J., professor at Georgetown College, Architect of St. Aloysius Church and close friend of Brumidi. Mrs. Stephen A. Douglas is said to have modeled for the beautiful mother of St. Aloysius. Brumidi’s own likeness, faintly painted, can be identified in the center background beneath the ciborium held by St. Charles Borroméo. The present low altar of St. Aloysius Church lays bare the lower part of the Brumidi mural which was intended to be covered permanently by the original high altar.
medallions over the side altars. The church is especially proud of the central mural as Brumidi painted into the picture the likeness of Father Sestini, architect of the church and friend of Brumidi.
The diary of the St. Aloysius Church has the following entry dated October 3, 1859, “Today the picture over the main altar is finished and the last scaffolding is removed from the church.”