In November 2024, a young man entered the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Midtown Manhattan and strode toward its Sept. 11 memorial, a large piece of twisted steel recovered from the ruins of the World Trade Center topped with a metal rose.
The man ripped out the long-stemmed, gold-plated rose and walked out.
A church security guard quickly identified the 21-year-old thief, who was caught within days of the crime. But the man had tossed the rose. The police searched for it in vain.
The rose was gone. Bereft parishioners called and emailed the church to voice their sadness. News headlines at the time called the theft “heartless.”
But Father Brian Jordan, the church pastor, was secretly relieved.
“I never liked that rose,” he said. “Someone said it was worth $8,000, but I don’t think it was worth 8 cents.”
It was actually valued at $3,000. And its disappearance prompted two parishioners to donate $5,000 each to find a way to replace its loss. Father Jordan used the money to redesign the memorial in a way he felt honored two people who were killed that day, Father Mychal Judge, a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department, and Carol Ann LaPlante, a parishioner and a member of the secular Franciscan order.
The theft “was a blessing in disguise,” Father Jordan said.
He asked a parishioner, Paul Beelitz, retired director of collections and archives at the American Museum of Natural History, to come up with a design so that a new memorial could be ready in time for the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11.
The twisted metal that once held the rose remains the centerpiece of the memorial. Flanking it are several new pieces: a bronze sculpture, built by a retired firefighter, of Father Judge blessing two firefighters; a San Damiano cross made from metal taken from the south tower; and an American flag.
Another artist, a Franciscan brother, was hired to carve a wooden Franciscan Tau cross, a T-shaped symbol that represents the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet and which St. Francis used to sign his name.
Father Jordan said that Ms. LaPlante, 59, always wore a golden Tau cross around her neck. He said she was most likely wearing it when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the north tower, where she worked on the 97th floor at Marsh & McLennan.
The redesigned memorial also includes the dress helmet of Father Judge, who lived in the church’s friary at the time of the attacks. His body was found inside the north tower, where he had followed firefighters responding to the attacks. The death of Father Judge, 68, was listed by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner as the first official casualty from that day.
The wall behind the memorial is painted a deep blue. Mr. Beelitz said he chose the color because it reminded him of the brilliance of the blue sky the morning of Sept. 11.
There was another, rather eerie reason for choosing it: the name the paint manufacturer, Benjamin Moore, gave the shade.
It was called “New York State of Mind.”
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