Aura Vista

The Labyrinth at St. Paul's Chapel

New York, New York, United States

A regularly walked Chartres-style labyrinth in Trinity Wall Streets 1766 chapel, the church that sheltered rescue workers on September 11, where walking meditation continued through the recovery.

St. Paul's Chapel, the 1766 chapel of Trinity Wall Street, stood through September 11, 2001 without a broken window and became the round-the-clock shelter and relief station for the rescue workers at ground zero for eight months. Its labyrinth practice belongs to that history: a Chartres-style path walked as contemplative practice, used through the recovery period and kept as a regular offering since, an urban walk that has already held the city's worst days.

The chapel is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan, and the combination of George Washington's pew, the 9/11 ministry, and the walking path makes it a dense site of American civil-sacred memory with a live contemplative practice attached.

Visiting

Broadway and Fulton St, NYC; the chapel is open to visitors daily and the labyrinth is offered on scheduled days; see Trinity Church for the walk calendar.

Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Paul's_Chapel_-_New_York_City.jpg), CC BY-SA.

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