Walking in Grace: The Tour Guides of the Guild of St. Martin

Stained glass window of St. Martin of Tours

Gathering at the massive bronze doors that mark the entrance to the cathedral, a black robed docent details the stories of the glossy panels. She is one of the many volunteer tour guides who share the beauty and history of Grace Cathedral with visitors from all over the world.

The history of the docents at Grace Cathedral begins in late June of 1957, when Dean C. Julian Bartlett requested that Canon David Forbes create the Guild of St. Martin of Tours (as it was known then) to help greet and orient visitors to the large Gothic structure atop Nob Hill. The guild grew from its first few volunteers, and soon had more than thirty members, who had given tours to nearly 30,000 people in the first two and a half years of the guild's existence. About to celebrate it's fiftieth anniversary, the Guild and its members have helped to raise the cathedral to international prominence as a tourist and pilgrimage destination.

The current President of the Guild of St. Martin is Michael Cooke, who has a passion for storytelling. "I loved showing people around when I was a kid in London. I'm somewhat of a history buff and would tell visiting friends all about the places we'd walk by."

Mr. Cooke's passion for historical detail is evident in his description of the cathedral's architecture, and the exact beginning of the Gothic revival. He tells about the need for medieval churches to expand and accommodate new parishioners and how the Abbot of St. Denis, outside of Paris, set out to create a large area with enormous scope that the abbot called "sacred space." As he leads groups through the sacred space of Grace Cathedral, he takes great care to connect the 350 years of cathedral building in Europe with this modern Gothic structure.

"I am always inspired by walking around the church, being inside this dark place that's brilliantly illuminated by stained glass. There's a wonderful feeling of being in sacred space, of being in God's house."

As the tour guides usher groups of tourists through the cathedral, there are a wide spectrum of people and needs they encounter. Mr. Cooke tells of one such group of inner-city youth from Oakland, who had never been to San Francisco before, let alone a cathedral. "There were about 30 school children, seven and eight-year-olds, and they were absolutely riotous, running everywhere, and I was on my own to lead the tour. I love kids, but I was quite scared. I thought, 'How on earth am I going to conduct this tour.'"

"And I noticed that there was one little girl, gingerly putting her hand into the great font. Her eyes were fixed on the water and said, quite clearly, 'What am I doing?' I said, 'Well, the water is blessed, and you should make a sign of reverence.' So she did, and all of her classmates wanted to do the same. But they didn’t splash around, they simply dipped their hands in, and made the sign of the cross. They were transformed into quiet youngsters, looking around in absolute wonderment."

The Guild of St. Martin conducts guided tours of the cathedral every day of the week. Click here for more information.

Historical material contributed by Michael Lampen, Cathedral Archivist.