National Catholic Register Celebrates Architect of TAC Chapel

The National Catholic Register has published a profile of Duncan Stroik — the design architect of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel at Thomas Aquinas College, California — heralding the Notre Dame professor as “the architect who fought modernism — and inspired a sacred architecture revival.”

Working with late College President Dr. Thomas E. Dillon, Mr. Stroik designed the Chapel with careful attention to detail and symbolism, earning him two Palladio Awards from Traditional Building magazine. Papal biographer and Catholic commentator George Weigel has called the Chapel “the most important U.S. Catholic building yet erected in the 21st century.” 

The crown jewel of the California campus, Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity Chapel has inspired many impromptu visits to the College, from curious tourists to award-winning actors, through its beauty. “For Stroik,” author Jonathan Liedl writes, “the greatest payoff of his work is knowing it’s helped people encounter God — like it did for Sir Anthony Hopkins, who stumbled upon TAC’s chapel on a hike in 2012 and said he had ‘never seen such a beautiful place in my life!’” 

Thanks to the work of Mr. Stroik and fellow architects with a love for beauty, the Register notes an increased interest in traditional church architecture among the clergy and laypeople alike, including his students at the University of Notre Dame. “We’re still fighting a battle against Modernism,” the architect observes. “But, at least for sacred architecture in the United States, we’ve done a good job of turning the corner.”