[Series name, Box number],[Collection title]. Ade Bethune Collection. St. Catherine University Library, St. Paul, MN 55105.
Ade Bethune donated her personal and business papers, sketches, artwork, books, and artifacts to the College of St Catherine (now St. Catherine University) over the period from 1984-2002.
Marie Adélaïde de Bethune (1914-2002), known as Ade Bethune, was born in Brussels, Belgium. She and her family immigrated to the United States and settled in New York in 1928. There, she attended Cathedral High School, the National Academy of Design, and Cooper Union. Newport, Rhode Island became her permanent home in 1938.
Her early years as a young artist in 1930s New York were spent with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement, and her designs of Biblical scenes and common, working class individuals were often published in the Catholic Worker newspaper. This early work helped lead to her first church commission in 1936. Also about this time Bethune was persuaded by Day to take a 2-week course on the liturgy taught by Father Gerald Ellard, S.J. Based on her enthusiasm for the course, she became involved in the Liturgical Movement. In the mid-1950s she began writing about church architecture and how it could support and enhance the liturgy.
A strong proponent of Vatican II and its architectural and procedural changes within the Catholic Church, Ade Bethune worked to design and renovate churches to meet these new, open guidelines; she consulted for other church architects as well. Beginning in the 1970s, Bethune's expertise was called upon by many liturgical organizations and commissions, such as the Diocese of Providence (Rhode Island. Bethune was active during a transition period in which the Diocese's Liturgical Commission was reorganized and renamed to the Office for Worship. Regionally, Bethune was involved with both the New England Liturgical Committee (NELC) and Region 1 (New England) of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions. She attended meetings through the early 1990s, also assisting with liturgical workshops and serving on the search committee for the NELC's Maurice Lavanoux Award in 1979.
Ade Bethune was involved on a national level with the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (FDLC) as well, beginning in 1974 when she was asked to join its Art & Architecture Commission. A major task of the commission was to write a booklet of art and architecture guidelines for member churches. The booklet was never completed, but became the basis for Rev. Robert Hovda's "Environment & Art in Catholic Worship," published by the FDLC.
As a “major twentieth-century liturgical pioneer,” Ade Bethune received the
These materials reflect Ade Bethune’s involvement, both formally and informally, with liturgical organizations at local, regional, and national levels, especially during the review, revision, and reorganization of liturgical organizations and commissions after the Second Vatican Council. The materials include: early exhibit designs from her participation in the Liturgical Weeks conference; research materials, correspondence, agenda and meeting minutes, and drafts of what eventually became Environment & Art in Catholic Worship (1978), completed by Rev. Robert Hovda and published by the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions; correspondence relating to her participation on the search committee for the New England Liturgical Commission's Maurice Lavanoux award for 1979; and correspondence relating to Bethune receiving the Frederick R. McManus Award in 1998.
This collection is arranged in 5 groups.
The collection was processed and the finding aid written by JoAnna Klein, October-December 2011.
Correspondence and other documents related to Bethune's ideas regarding the design and renovation of specific churches can be found in the
Bethune's involvement with the Diocese of Providence spans a period of reorganization and renaming from the Liturgical Commission to the Office for Worship; therefore, some materials pre-date her active involvement as she acquired research materials for the dissolution and re-creation of the committee. This series includes correspondence, meeting minutes and agendas, research, and by-laws pertaining to the dissolution and reorganization of the Liturgical Commission. There are also renovation suggestions for St. Sebastian's Church in Providence.
This series includes correspondence, meeting minutes, agenda, research, and drafts relating to Bethune's involvement in the FDLC, nationally and regionally.
Materials in 2.1--National Meetings reflect Ade Bethune's attendance at national meetings of the FDLC, along with her participation on the planning committee for the convention in Boston (1975). The contents of the Boston file contain drafts of the white paper, "Parish Liturgy American Style." The files for Memphis (1998) contain information regarding her receiving the Frederick R. McManus Award.
In 2.2--Art and Architecture Commission are documents from Bethune's time on the commission, especially related to a planned booklet of art and architecture guidelines.
The contents of 2.3--Region 1 (New England) contain mostly correspondence with then-Rev. James P. Moroney, who was the regional representative of the FDLC, but the topics are not necessarily limited to regional business.
Files are arranged in chronological order.
Correspondence relating to the creation of a booklet on Art & Architecture, that eventually led to Fr. Hovda's "Environment and Art in Catholic Worship." Folder 1 of 3 contains correspondence with Rev. Florian Gall, who was the chairman of the committee, and covers other topics including stained glass windows commissioned for CLMAA Secretariat's office in Trenton and the FDLC National Meeting in Spokane (1974).
Correspondence between Ade and Rev. James P. Moroney, the representative for Region 1 of the FDLC
Includes by-laws, agenda, meeting minutes, annual reports, and correspondence.
Materials and correspondence related to the Liturgical Conference's National Liturgical weeks, which Ade Bethune attended for a decade beginning in the late 1950s. Also contains items concerning Bethune's rental of a booth each year for her business the St. Leo Shop.
General information, in alphabetical order, is in the first section. The second section contains files for the annual meetings in chronological order.
For more information about Ade Bethune's St. Leo Shop Business, see the
Materials and correspondence relating to conventions and meetings. Includes the liturgical committee for Bethune's parish, St. Joseph's.