St. Monica's Catholic Church


St. Monica's Catholic Church	Bells installed at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels

Links to Carillon Inventories
GCNA	Tower Bells	Bok Tower Gardens

Church member Joanna Shanahan donated her life savings of $10,000 to buy a 35-bell Van Aerschodt carillon that was dedicated on December 22, 1931 by Marcel Michaels.

The carillon had both manual and electric action, but the manual clavier was rarely used and the bells were silent since the mid-1950s. The bell tower was damaged in a 1971 earthquake and the bells were offered for sale but then removed and stored at Mission San Fernando.

The bells were later installed in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles when it opened on September 2, 2002, along with a 36th bell, the largest of the set, that came from St. Timothy's Church in Los Angeles. It was originally one of a set of 48 commissioned by William Randolph Hearst in 1926 for the bell towers at San Simeon. It was cast in 1929 by Marcel Michiels Jr. and delivered to the Castle by 1932. At the time, however, it was discovered that only 36 bells could be installed, so the bell was warehoused at San Simeon until 1956 when it was installed at St. Timothy's Church.

References
1931 Johanna Shanahan (10 Feb 1849 - 14 Oct 1931) grave
Miss Shanahan donated her life savings for a carillon of 35 bells to be cast in Louven, Belgium and placed in St. Monica's Church in Santa Monica. She died before the bells were installed. The bells were removed from the church after the 1971 earthquake and can now be seen above the Plaza at the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

1931 "Fine Carillon at Beach Consecrated by Bishop," The Los Angeles Times, December 23, 1931, Page 2.
Marcel Michaels, carilloneour and bell founder at Tournai, Belgium, who came all the way to to Santa Monica to superintend the installation of the chimes, played on them for the first time.
The carillon was made possible by a gift of $10,000 to the church by Mrs. Joanna Shanahan, deceased, of Santa Monica.

1971 "Carillon for Sale," Randschriften 5:1 (Fall 1971)
Last spring, southern California was rocked by a very severe earthquake which centered on what was long thought to be a dead fault. One of the side effects of this quake was rather severe structural damage to the tower of St. Monica's Catholic Church in Santa Monica. In this tower is a little known instrument which has been silent since the middle 50's.
It is now for sale.

2001 "Legacy of condemned St. Vibiana's Cathedral remains in county," The Tribune, August 12, 2001, Page B4.
Picture of carillon bells.