The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi's two sandstone crosses — the original, carved at least 123 years ago, and its replacement, completed this year — will be on display side by side inside the sanctuary until next week.

The old cross, erected between 1882 and 1886 on the peak of the cathedral's roof, was removed earlier this year.

"It was literally wobbling on the pedestal and would have likely fallen soon," said James Cutropia, the cathedral's director of finance and administration.

The new cross will be fastened into the same rooftop position between the cathedral's bell towers by Lamoreux Crane Service of Santa Fe early next Wednesday morning. Until then, both are on display in front of the right pews in St. Francis' sanctuary.

"You'll never see it again because nobody ever goes up to the apex of the cathedral," Cutropia said Wednesday.

Cutropia said the 9-inch-long, 3/4-inch-thick iron dowel that held the 900-pound, 40-inch-high cross to its base had become so rusted that it had begun to pressure the sandstone from the inside. When the cross was removed earlier this year, the front of its foot cracked away.

"We do have that in a separate box," Cutropia said. "I didn't want to put those pieces out because they might just disappear."

The old cross eventually will go to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe Museum on Cathedral Place.

Church leaders originally planned to have the new cross made from sandstone from the same Lamy quarry where the cathedral's original sandstone was taken. But none of the 100 blocks quarried there late last year were big enough, so the new cross was made from a similar sandstone quarried in Ohio.

Until this week, the old cross had been at stonecutter Labe Kopelov's shop in Bernalillo so he could replicate it — with the ends carved in a fleur-de-lis pattern around a center resembling a Maltese cross.

The new cross will be held in place by an 18-inch-long, 1-inch-thick, threaded stainless-steel rod — 9 inches inside the base and the other 9 inches inside the cross.

The Very Rev. Monsignor Jerome Martinez y Alire is expected to bless the new cross during Mass at 5:15 p.m. Saturday.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.