granite quarried in Galway and Dublin, Ireland and grey sandstone from St. John's and Kelly's Island, Conception Bay, Newfoundland. The exterior is 260 ft (85 m) long and 220 ft. (65 m) wide; the two towers rise 150 ft. (48 m) from street level. The total capacity of the Basilica is around 2,500 people, though during the visit of Pope John Paul II in September 1984, 3600 educators gathered in the Basilica-Cathedral to greet the Roman Pontiff. When completed in 1855, the Basilica-Cathedral of St. John The Baptist was the largest church building in North America. The East Tower contains a single bell, the largest in the church. Called the St. John Bell, this two-ton bell was purchased by Bishop Mullock in February 1850. Cast by John Murphy of Dublin, it was the largest ever cast in Ireland at that time, and won a Gold Medal at the Dublin Exhibition of Irish Manufacturers. There are eight bells in the West Tower. The three largest bells were cast by Murphy in 1854 and 1857. The five smaller bells were cast in 1906 by Matthew O'Byrne of the Fountain Head Bell Foundry in Dublin, Ireland. The Basilica-Cathedral contains twenty-eight stained glass windows which adorn the upper walls (clerestory) and are of English and French workmanship. The windows were the gifts of patrons and religious societies, such as the Society of the Holy Rosary and were installed between 1859 and 1905. The 35 stained glass windows in the ambulatory all date from 1954–55 and were the work of Gerard Earley and Company of Dublin; they constitute the largest collection of mid-20th Century Irish Arts and Crafts style stained glass windows in one building in the western hemisphere. Interior The Altar of Sacrifice, which stands at the front of the Sanctuary, enshrines one of the most revered and important pieces of statuary in the Basilica, The Dead Christ, sculpted in Carrara marble by renowned Irish neoclassical sculptor John Hogan in 1854. Having seen earlier versions of this work by Hogan in Dublin and Cork, Bishop Fleming left funds and directions in his last will and testament that a "Dead Christ by Hogan" be purchased for the Cathedral. Prior to coming to Newfoundland, Fleming's successor, Bishop Mullock, also had a version of the Hogan Dead Christ installed in his own chapel, the South Chapel {St. Finbar's} in Cork. Mullock commissioned this rendering of the work