It's real name is the Saint Joseph, The Worker Chapel.
But because of its very unique altar, it is popularly called by tour guides, tourists, and travel magazines as The Chapel of The Angry Christ.
Yes, that's what I thought as a young grade-schooler at the Saint Mary Mazarello School that was located 200 meters from this chapel. My earliest memory of the chapel was when our teacher would drag the whole class to go with her to pray Via Crucis, or the Stations of the Cross. This must have been in March of those years when the Lenten season started while there were still classes.
As our teacher was reciting her prayers while we hopped from one station to another, my eyes, on the other hand, wandered around the chapel and were mesmerized by the 'angry man' painting on the altar.
(The whole ceiling over the altar is full of artwork as well. When the celebrant priest looks up, he could see faces of damned soul in Purgatory. All the sides of those walls have been painted. Just like Michelangelo as he painted the Sistine Chapel, Alfonso Ossorio must have used scaffoldings but made of bamboos.
Today's equivalent of the all-seeing eye is probablythe city-wide CCTV system.😀)
Although He was 'angry' and intimidating, as a kid, I was not at all scared because of the colors. As you can see in the photos, the painter used a lot of reds, oranges and yellows which to me made the painting less scary.
This painting is a masterpiece of Alfonso Ossorio, the son of the owners of Victorias Milling Company (VMC), then Asia's biggest sugar central. Located inside the VMC compound in Victorias City in Negros Occidental, Philippines, this chapel has, over the decades, became more and more popular to tourists mainly because of the painting.
While the painting was done by Alfonso Ossorio, the whole chapel was designed by a Czech architect, Antonin Raymond. The mosaic art on the walls of the church was by Belgian artist, Adelaide de Bethune. The Station of the Cross and wooden statues inside the chapel were made by local artist, Benjamin Valenciano, who Filipinized Mary and Joseph by giving them dark skin color and dressed them in local attires. Another local artist, Arcadio Anore made the brass plates at the pulpit and baptistry following the designs of de Buthene.
As a kid, I never got to really appreciate the amazing artistry inside and outside this chapel. It's only now that I am appreciating the artistry, talent, and hard work that all went to create this masterpiece of a place of worship.
Even at the back of the chapel where mosaics of the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary of the Apostles and The Last Supper were created, one can see that the figures were made from brown pieces, although what caught my attention were the long-sleeved shirts of the apostles. With their plain silhouettes and simple colors, they reminded of the Uniqlo shirts. 😂
The chapel construction was started in the late 1940s and was purposely oriented towards the east so that the sun could bathe the altar with light through a glass ceiling. Alfonso Ossorio (August 2, 1916 - December 5, 1990) on was a friend of Jackson Pollack.
(The marker of the sundial bearing the names of Fr. Demetrio Carmona and the Don Bosco students who designed, welded and created it.)
