New Saint Cecilia Chapel

Nashville, Tennessee

Situated within the Motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia

This convent Chapel built for the Dominican nuns at their Motherhouse was designed as part of an overall expansion and renovation project. This large Chapel was conceived as the center of the large and growing congregation and is arranged to accommodate all its members in an antiphonally-arranged choir. This Chapel now enables the nuns to fulfill their constitution and liturgical norms for the first time in the nuns’ 175 year history. The Design takes its precedence from the Roman Basilica, with antiphonal choir-stall seating for 300 nuns. The Chapel itself, along with a narthex, exo-narthex and Sacristy, completes the enclosure of adjacent existing buildings, to form an interior cloister.

Commissioned by Mother Rose Marie Masserano, OP.

See and hear the YouTube video of the nuns’ beautiful singing in the New Chapel

The community was delighted with the design that Mr. McCrery developed. It met the needs of the community while creatively addressing the connection between the motherhouse and the new chapel, understanding the contemplative basis on which Dominican life is based. Sister Rose Marie Masserano, O.P., Former Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia