St. Ignatius Chapel at Seattle University

Originally Posted:
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
12:41:00 AM CDT


Before Rashne, my social director at work, broke her foot while hiking a mountain a few weeks ago and couldn’t come into work, she told me to make sure I visit St. Ignatius Chapel. For some odd reason when I Googled it the first time, a totally elaborate church came up and I thought she was sending me to high mass. I wasn’t too excited. When it came time for me to actually plan a visit to the chapel, I once again went to trusty Google and looked it up. Only this time I got the right results and understood why she was sending me there. I was happy to find out that the chapel was on my bus route home using the stop at Seattle University to get off. My first trip to the church was a do-over. I could only take images of the exterior because a wedding was taking place inside thus preventing my access. I was intrigued by the outside enough to want to come back, so a few days later I made my visit.


Considering it’s on a college campus the chapel has a non-descript feeling. It’s a place of worship rooted in Catholic beliefs, but with no visible denomination affiliations. While the chapel is very modern, it still has a human quality and is inviting. I was completely surprised by the warm feeling I got from it. I think a lot of the “warm” feeling came from the personal touches of hand-blown light fixtures and the deep amber glow coming from the private prayer/sick room off of the sanctuary. It’s the first thing you see upon entering the sanctuary and offers a balance to the spaces. The walls in the private room are covered in beeswax which gives a completely different tactile quality to the room as opposed to the basket weave plaster throughout the rest of the chapel. The beeswax is smooth, soft, and has a sound deadening quality which aids in helping the private room stay quite.

My pictures do a better job of telling the story on this one than I can do by writing about it.

http://www.seattleu.edu/missionministry/chapel/