Singing in the Cloister. St Brendan's 'Archangels' by Yvonne Struys, Ter Apel Monastery, Ter Apel, Groningen, The Netherlands
For our annual excursion this year, we 'Orchids' - named thus for endangered subjects such as Hebrew, Neolatin, Sanskrit, Book History etc., etc. at the University of Groningen - went down to the Utter Southeast of the province of Groningen. There we visited the pretty Monastery of Ter Apel.
That late-medieval Monastery of the Order of the Holy Cross was spared destruction after this area fell into the hands of Protestants in 1593. Its buildings were converted to Reformed use and even today it still functions as the parish church. The monastery and its church had fallen into great disrepair at the beginning of the twentieth century, but the City of Groningen in 1930 set aside funds for its ongoing restoration. Recently a new museum wing was added to the Cloister.
Our visit fell on the last days of an appropriate exhibition about the famous legendary sea voyage of one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, Saint Brendan (c.484-c.577). An account of his so-called Navigatio was written around 900, and has been used by teachers of Medieval Latin to hone their students' skills until relatively recently. It's a fascinating and sometimes hair-raising account of the adventures of Brendan and his companions in their search for Earthly Paradise. Of course they find that place: 'The Paradise of Birds', an island somewhere in the Northern Seas. In Sweet Song the Birds - 'messengers of God', and thus by some accounts: 'archangels' - tell of having fallen from Heaven to this earthly paradise through no fault of their own but in the wake of Lucifer's Great Sin. Hence they are happy and painless but not in Heavenly Bliss...
Yvonne Struys (1941-) is the artist for this Brendan Exhibition; on the ground floor of the New Cloister stands her installation of those 'Aartsengelen', Birds of Paradise. They face inward to the Hortus Conclusus - symbolising Heaven - of the Monastery.
The inset is a photo of the monastery taken from the West.
PS Incidentally, if you look carefully in the foreground you will see a curious freak of nature, a Foxglove with a peloric crown flower (see also my: www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/26942623480/in/photost...).
Singing in the Cloister. St Brendan's 'Archangels' by Yvonne Struys, Ter Apel Monastery, Ter Apel, Groningen, The Netherlands
For our annual excursion this year, we 'Orchids' - named thus for endangered subjects such as Hebrew, Neolatin, Sanskrit, Book History etc., etc. at the University of Groningen - went down to the Utter Southeast of the province of Groningen. There we visited the pretty Monastery of Ter Apel.
That late-medieval Monastery of the Order of the Holy Cross was spared destruction after this area fell into the hands of Protestants in 1593. Its buildings were converted to Reformed use and even today it still functions as the parish church. The monastery and its church had fallen into great disrepair at the beginning of the twentieth century, but the City of Groningen in 1930 set aside funds for its ongoing restoration. Recently a new museum wing was added to the Cloister.
Our visit fell on the last days of an appropriate exhibition about the famous legendary sea voyage of one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland, Saint Brendan (c.484-c.577). An account of his so-called Navigatio was written around 900, and has been used by teachers of Medieval Latin to hone their students' skills until relatively recently. It's a fascinating and sometimes hair-raising account of the adventures of Brendan and his companions in their search for Earthly Paradise. Of course they find that place: 'The Paradise of Birds', an island somewhere in the Northern Seas. In Sweet Song the Birds - 'messengers of God', and thus by some accounts: 'archangels' - tell of having fallen from Heaven to this earthly paradise through no fault of their own but in the wake of Lucifer's Great Sin. Hence they are happy and painless but not in Heavenly Bliss...
Yvonne Struys (1941-) is the artist for this Brendan Exhibition; on the ground floor of the New Cloister stands her installation of those 'Aartsengelen', Birds of Paradise. They face inward to the Hortus Conclusus - symbolising Heaven - of the Monastery.
The inset is a photo of the monastery taken from the West.
PS Incidentally, if you look carefully in the foreground you will see a curious freak of nature, a Foxglove with a peloric crown flower (see also my: www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/26942623480/in/photost...).