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Late Nite Catechism by [jonrev]

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Midnights at that one church... fifteen(ish) minute exposure.

Gary, Indiana

The Catechism. by Justin Nixon

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Model: Jackie White

Make up/ Hair: Jenn Diachenko

Lighting Assistant: Colt White

Location: Cape Henlopen State Park

Einstein 640 camera right with beauty dish

Vagabond Mini Lithium Battery pack

PocketWizard PowerMC2 on strobe

PocketWizard MiniTT1 on camera

Sneek peak from a new series: "Adrift"

Pope Saint Pius V by Lawrence OP

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"Antonio Ghislieri was born in 1504 in Bosco, Italy. At the age of fourteen he received the habit of the Friars Preachers, taking the name Michael. He was ordained in 1528 and became a lector, taught sacred theology and was prior of several communities, being known for the integrity and austerity of his life. In 1551 he was appointed Commissary General of the Roman Inquisition, afterwards become bishop of Nepi and Sutri. In 1557 he was named cardinal by Paul IV and in 1560 he was given the Piedmontese diocese of Mondovi by Pius IV.

On 7 January 1566 he was elected to the highest pastoral office, taking the name Pius. Supported by St Charles Borromeo, he dedicated himself to the salvation of the souls and the reform of the Church. He strenuously defended the Catholic faith against the Reformers, concerned himself with the propogation of that faith, and put into effect the decrees of the Council of Trent. He radically reformed the Roman curia; he published the Roman Catechism (1566); he promoted as a solid formation for seminarians the Summa Theologiae of St Thomas Aquinas, whom he named the fifth ‘angelic’ Latin Doctor of the Church in 1567; he efficaciously promoted the unity and renewal of the liturgy, promulgating new editions of the Roman Breviary (1568) and Missal (1570); he upheld the unity of the dogmatic traditions of East and West, honouring four major doctors of each.

He had a most holy death in Rome on 1 May 1572, was beatified one-hundred years later by Clement X, and was canonized by Clement XI on 22 May 1712. His body is venerated at the basilica of St Mary Major, Rome".

This statue of St Pius V, with St Catherine of Siena behind him, is in the Dominican church in Puebla, Mexico.

White~ by Eleven ~ NYC~ Teresa

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ODC~ 3/3/12 - Classic

9. Does not God, then, wrong man by requiring of him in his law that which he can not perform? by ON BORROWED TIME

No; for God so made man that he could perform it (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10†; Luke 10:30; Gen 1:31†; Eccl 7:29†); but man, through the instigation of the devil (Gen 3:13†; John 8:44†; 1 Tim 2:14†; 2 Cor 11:3†), by willful disobedience (Gen 3:6–7†), deprived himself and all his posterity of this power (Rom 5:12; Ps 51:5†)

The text of the catechism is reproduced from, “The Heidelberg Catechism. A.D. 1563,” in Philip Schaff and David S. Schaff, eds., The Creeds of Christendom (1931; repr., Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 3:307–55.

Hauptkirche Sankt Michaelis # 1 by just.Luc

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Stained glass window in St. Michael's Church in Hamburg, Germany.

Flickr buddy Seth www.flickr.com/photos/coffeeandcloves/ sheds some light on the scene :

Beautiful picture! I don't think it's a biblical scene exactly, more an allegorical treatment of Christian themes: the angels are both treading on serpents which is classic imagery from Genesis (although in Catholic circles usually a motif presented with Mary), one holds a crown of thorns as reference to the Passion and the other what looks like a crown of roses (?) which I suppose would be a reference to the Resurrection. The descent of the Holy Spirit as a dove recalls the baptism of Christ as well as Pentecost, and the ship is a traditional symbol of the Church itself. The rays of light and pillars in the middle recalls the descent of the New Jerusalem in Revelations. So in a way it's a visual catechism (in good stained glass window form) about salvation history.

Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905, f. 02r by e-codices

Manuscript title: Codex Testeriano Bodmer

Manuscript summary: Testeriano denotes catechism manuscripts in a pictographic script attributed to the Franciscan friar and missionary Jacobo de Testera (16th century). Writing had already developed in 12th century Central America as a mixture of ideograms, pictograms and phonetic symbols, but the original handwritten witnesses thereof were destroyed in the Spanish Conquest in the 16th century. In order to communicate with the indigenous population, Christian missionaries later adopted this writing system, but they invented many symbols since the goal was to communicate a new, Christian content. For instance, three crowned heads represent the Trinity and thus God, while two crowned heads with key and sword represent the apostles Peter and Paul. The manuscript is read from left to right across both pages; different parts are separated by decorative vertical vignettes. The manuscript contains several short prayers (among them pp. 1v-2r Persignum, 2v-4r Ave Maria, 4v-8r Credo) and a long prayer (pp. 27v-35r) which represents a repetition of the Christian doctrine.

Origin: Mexico

Period: 16th century

Image source: Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905: Codex Testeriano Bodmer (www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/fmb/cb-0905).

Selfie, Jubé, Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, 5ème, Paris, Île-de-France, France by Billy Wilson

"The most unusual feature of the church is the jubé or rood screen, created in about 1530, the only existing example in Paris. It is an elaborate sculptural screen which separates the nave from the choir. The screen was used as a platform to read the scripture to the ordinary parishioners. They were very common during the Middle Ages, but were largely abolished in the 17th and 18th centuries under a decree of the Council of Trent (1545–1563) which aimed at making the ceremonies in the choir more visible to the ordinary parishioners in the nave.

The screen was designed by Antoine Beaucorps, and while its purpose is Gothic, its decoration is French Renaissance. It takes the form of an arched bridge facing the choir with three arcades. A tribune for readings occupies the center facing the nave. Two very elegant spiral stairways give access to the tribune from the sides. The decoration includes two statues of "Renommées", or "Renowned ones," based on classical Roman statues, holding olive branches and crowns.

The church is characterized by its curved axis of the nave to the transept, the rood screen (the sole surviving example in Paris) of finely carved stone by Father Biard (1545), his chair designed by Laurent de La Hyre and sculpted by Claude Lestocart and its organ case (1631) (the oldest in the capital). The church also contains the shrine containing the relics of St. Genevieve until 1793 (when they were thrown in the sewer), the tomb of Blaise de Vigenere, of Blaise Pascal, of Racine, and Mg Sibour.

Saint-Étienne-du-Mont is a church in Paris, France, on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in the 5th arrondissement, near the Panthéon. It contains the shrine of St. Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris. The church also contains the tombs of Blaise Pascal and Jean Racine. Jean-Paul Marat is buried in the church's cemetery.

The sculpted tympanum, The Stoning of Saint Stephen, is the work of French sculptor Gabriel-Jules Thomas.

Renowned organist, composer, and improviser Maurice Duruflé held the post of Titular Organist at Saint-Étienne-du-Mont from 1929 until his death in 1986.

The Church of Apostles Peter and Paul was built during the reign of King Clovis, who was buried here with his wife Clotilde as well as Saint Genevieve. Later, it was rededicated as the abbey church of the royal Abbey of Sainte-Genevieve. The abbey church also served as the parish church for the surrounding area until it became too small to accommodate all the faithful. In 1222, Pope Honorius III authorized the establishment of an autonomous church, which was devoted this time to St Etienne, then the patron saint of the old cathedral of Paris.

Soon, the new building was overwhelmed by an increasingly dense population: the Sorbonne and many colleges were located on the territory of the parish. It was enlarged in 1328, but a complete reconstruction became necessary from the 15th century. In 1492, the nearby Génovéfain monks donated a portion of their land for the construction of the new church.

This involved several steps. Under the direction of architect Stephen Viguier, the apse and the bell tower was sketched in 1494, and the first two bells were cast in 1500. The choir of flamboyant Gothic was completed in 1537 and the following year, it was the turn of the frame to be raised. The loft was built around 1530–1535.

In 1541, Guy, Bishop of Megara, blessed the altars of the chapels of the apse. The same year, the parish awarded contracts for the windows and statues from Parisian artisans. The nave, from the Renaissance period, was not hunched before 1584. The first stone of the facade was laid in 1610 by Marguerite de Valois, who had agreed to do so in a personal donation of 3000 pounds.

The church was dedicated on 25 February 1626 by Jean-François de Gondi, first archbishop of Paris, Cardinal de Retz's uncle. Nevertheless, developments continued: in 1636, the organ was installed, the work of Pierre Pescheur. When the organ was damaged by fire in 1760, it was rebuilt by Cliquot. Further work was carried out in 1863 by Cavaillé-Coll, and the present instrument is the work of further revision by Beuchet-Debierre in 1956.

In 1651, a new pulpit was installed. It was also adjusted for the local wardens and housing for the priests.

During the 17th and 18th century, the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont enjoyed great prestige. It was the scene of grand processions where the shrine of Sainte-Genevieve went to Notre Dame and subsequently returned to his church. It also housed the remains of Pierre Perrault, the painter Eustache Le Sueur and Blaise Pascal. Those of Racine and Isaac de Sacy Lemaistre were also transferred in 1711 from Port-Royal in Saint-Etienne.

During the French Revolution, the church was first closed and then turned into a "Temple of Filial Piety." Catholic worship was restored in 1801, benefiting from the Concordat. The following year, the demolition of the abbey church of Sainte-Genevieve Abbey and the breakthrough Street Clovis made St. Stephen an independent building. Under the Second Empire, the church was restored by Victor Baltard: the front was raised and the statues destroyed by the revolutionaries, were returned. Baltard also built the chapel of catechisms.

The 19th century was marked by many events. On 10 January 1805 Pope Pius VII celebrated Mass in the church. In 1833, Frederic Ozanam, a parishioner of St. Stephen, founded with friends the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. On 3 January 1857 Bishop Marie-Dominique-Auguste Sibour, was assassinated with cries of "Down with the goddesses!" by the priest, Jean-Louis Verger, opposed to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. A plaque at the entrance to the nave marks the grave of the prelate, who was to inaugurate the novena of St. Genevieve. The occultist Eliphas Levi was indirectly involved in this tragic event.

On 23 August 1997 Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass there during the visit to Paris on the occasion of World Youth Day.

The 5th arrondissement of Paris (Ve arrondissement) is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as le cinquième.

The arrondissement, also known as Panthéon, is situated on the Rive Gauche of the River Seine. It is one of the capital's central arrondissements. The arrondissement is notable for being the location of the Latin Quarter, a district dominated by universities, colleges, and prestigious high schools since the 12th century when the University of Paris was created. It is also home to the National Museum of Natural History and Jardin des plantes in its eastern part.

The 5th arrondissement is also one of the oldest districts of the city, dating back to ancient times. Traces of the area's past survive in such sites as the Arènes de Lutèce, a Roman amphitheatre, as well as the Thermes de Cluny, a Roman thermae.

Paris (French pronunciation: [paʁi]) is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,150,271 residents as of 2020, in an area of 105 square kilometres (41 square miles). Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science and arts. The City of Paris is the centre and seat of government of the Île-de-France, or Paris Region, which has an estimated official 2020 population of 12,278,210, or about 18 percent of the population of France. The Paris Region had a GDP of €709 billion ($808 billion) in 2017. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Worldwide Cost of Living Survey in 2018, Paris was the second most expensive city in the world, after Singapore, and ahead of Zürich, Hong Kong, Oslo and Geneva. Another source ranked Paris as most expensive, on a par with Singapore and Hong Kong, in 2018.

The city is a major railway, highway and air-transport hub served by two international airports: Paris–Charles de Gaulle (the second busiest airport in Europe) and Paris–Orly. Opened in 1900, the city's subway system, the Paris Métro, serves 5.23 million passengers daily; it is the second busiest metro system in Europe after the Moscow Metro. Gare du Nord is the 24th busiest railway station in the world, but the first located outside Japan, with 262 million passengers in 2015 Paris is especially known for its museums and architectural landmarks: the Louvre was the most visited art museum in the world in 2019, with 9.6 million visitors. The Musée d'Orsay, Musée Marmottan Monet, and Musée de l'Orangerie are noted for their collections of French Impressionist art, the Pompidou Centre Musée National d'Art Moderne has the largest collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe, and the Musée Rodin and Musée Picasso exhibit the works of two noted Parisians. The historical district along the Seine in the city centre is classified as a UNESCO Heritage Site, and popular landmarks in the city centre included the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, on the Île de la Cité, now closed for renovation after the 15 April 2019 fire. Other popular tourist sites include the Gothic royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle, also on the Île de la Cité; the Eiffel Tower, constructed for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1889; the Grand Palais and Petit Palais, built for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900; the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Élysées, and the Basilica of Sacré-Coeur on the hill of Montmartre.

Paris received 38 million visitors in 2019, measured by hotel stays, with the largest numbers of foreign visitors coming from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and China. It was ranked as the second most visited travel destination in the world in 2019, after Bangkok and just ahead of London. The football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris. The 80,000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros. The city hosted the Olympic Games in 1900, 1924 and will host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 1938 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, the 2007 Rugby World Cup, as well as the 1960, 1984 and 2016 UEFA European Championships were also held in the city. Every July, the Tour de France bicycle race finishes on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris." - info from Wikipedia.

Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.

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"Catechism" (1887) by Vincenzo Volpe (Campagna/Salerno 1858-notices until 1916) - "Neapolitan painters of 19th century" - Exhibition at friary of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, until February 28, 2016 by Carlo Raso

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www.flickr.com/groups/napolinobilissima/discuss/721576603...

Glastonbury Grail by Steve

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According to legend, Saint Joseph of Arimathea took the cup from the Last Supper and used it to capture the last drops of blood from Jesus's body as he hung on the cross. The Saint then set sail with the grail to Glastonbury England and founded an abbey there.

Baltimore Basilica, Downtown, Baltimore, Maryland, United States by Billy Wilson

"The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also called the Baltimore Basilica, was the first Roman Catholic cathedral built in the United States, and was among the first major religious buildings constructed in the nation after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. As a co-cathedral, it is one of the seats of the Catholic Archdiocese in Baltimore, Maryland. Additionally it is a parish church (ranked minor basilica) and national shrine. It is considered the masterpiece of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, the "Father of American Architecture".

The Basilica was constructed between 1806 and 1863 to a design of Benjamin Henry Latrobe, America's first professionally trained architect and Thomas Jefferson's Architect of the U.S. Capitol. It was built under the guidance of the first American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, John Carroll. The Basilica was blessed and opened for use on May 31, 1821, by the third Archbishop of Baltimore, Ambrose Maréchal. It was consecrated on May 25, 1876, by Archbishop James Roosevelt Bayley.

Many famous events have occurred within its walls, including the funeral Mass of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signatory of the Declaration of Independence. Carroll had been the last of the surviving signers. Most of the first American bishops were consecrated here to fill the ever-multiplying dioceses necessitated by the young country's territorial expansion and the great growth of the American Catholic population. Until recent years, more priests were ordained at the Baltimore Basilica than in any other church in the United States.

The building hosted many of the 19th century meetings that shaped the Catholic Church in America, including seven Provincial Councils and three Plenary Councils. Among other effects, these led to the founding of The Catholic University of America and efforts to evangelize African and Native Americans to Catholicism. The Third Plenary Council, which was the largest meeting of Catholic bishops held outside Rome since the Council of Trent, commissioned the Baltimore Catechism.

In 1862, while in Maryland during the Civil War's Peninsula campaign, Union General Joseph Warren Revere (grandson of Paul Revere) visited the Basilica. General Revere was compelled to convert to Catholicism, and he did so despite the ongoing war. On October 19, 1862, Reverend H. B. Coskery baptized Revere at the Basilica. Revere's Holy Communion took place on October 26.

Downtown Baltimore is the central business district of the city of Baltimore traditionally bounded by Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to the west, Franklin Street to the north, President Street to the east and the Inner Harbor area to the south.

In 1904, downtown Baltimore was almost destroyed by a huge fire with damages estimated at $150 million. Since the City of Baltimore was chartered in 1796, this downtown nucleus has been the focal point of business in the Baltimore metropolitan area. It has also increasingly become a heavily populated neighborhood with over 37,000 residents and new condominiums and apartment homes being built steadily.

Baltimore (/ˈbɔːltɪmɔːr/ BAWL-tim-or, locally: /bɔːldəˈmɔːr/ bawl-da-MOR or /ˈbɔːlmər/ BAWL-mər) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was designated an independent city by the Constitution of Maryland in 1851, and today is the most populous independent city in the United States. As of 2021, the population of the Baltimore metropolitan area was estimated to be 2,838,327, making it the 20th largest metropolitan area in the country. Baltimore is located about 40 miles (64 km) north northeast of Washington, D.C., making it a principal city in the Washington–Baltimore combined statistical area (CSA), the third-largest CSA in the nation, with a 2021 estimated population of 9,946,526.

Prior to European colonization, the Baltimore region was used as hunting grounds by the Susquehannock Native Americans, who were primarily settled further northwest than where the city was later built. Colonists from the Province of Maryland established the Port of Baltimore in 1706 to support the tobacco trade with Europe, and established the Town of Baltimore in 1729. The first printing press and newspapers were introduced to Baltimore by Nicholas Hasselbach and William Goddard respectively, in the mid-18th century.

The Battle of Baltimore was a pivotal engagement during the War of 1812, culminating in the failed British bombardment of Fort McHenry, during which Francis Scott Key wrote a poem that would become "The Star-Spangled Banner", which was eventually designated as the American national anthem in 1931. During the Pratt Street Riot of 1861, the city was the site of some of the earliest violence associated with the American Civil War.

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the oldest railroad in the United States, was built in 1830 and cemented Baltimore's status as a major transportation hub, giving producers in the Midwest and Appalachia access to the city's port. Baltimore's Inner Harbor was once the second leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States. In addition, Baltimore was a major manufacturing center. After a decline in major manufacturing, heavy industry, and restructuring of the rail industry, Baltimore has shifted to a service-oriented economy. Johns Hopkins Hospital and Johns Hopkins University are the city's top two employers. Baltimore and its surrounding region are home to the headquarters of a number of major organizations and government agencies, including the NAACP, ABET, the National Federation of the Blind, Catholic Relief Services, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, World Relief, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the Social Security Administration. Baltimore is also home to the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball and the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League.

Many of Baltimore's neighborhoods have rich histories. The city is home to some of the earliest National Register Historic Districts in the nation, including Fell's Point, Federal Hill, and Mount Vernon. These were added to the National Register between 1969 and 1971, soon after historic preservation legislation was passed. Baltimore has more public statues and monuments per capita than any other city in the country. Nearly one third of the city's buildings (over 65,000) are designated as historic in the National Register, which is more than any other U.S. city. Baltimore has 66 National Register Historic Districts and 33 local historic districts. The historical records of the government of Baltimore are located at the Baltimore City Archives." - info from Wikipedia.

The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.

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Sacred mysteries...Hierophant...Mystagogue...Phaethon...Heliodromus...sun-runner... rite of passage...Mithraism by Hughes Songe

Sacred mysteries are the areas of supernatural phenomena associated with a divinity or a religious ideology. Sacred mysteries may be either:

Religious beliefs, rituals or practices which are kept secret from non-believers, or lower levels of believers, who have not had an initiation into the higher levels of belief (the concealed knowledge may be called esoteric).

Beliefs of the religion which are public knowledge but cannot be easily explained by normal rational or scientific means.

Although the term "mystery" is not often used in anthropology, access by initiation or rite of passage to otherwise secret beliefs is an extremely common feature of indigenous religions all over the world.

A mystagogue or hierophant is a holder and teacher of secret knowledge in the former sense above. Whereas, mysticism may be defined as an area of philosophical or religious thought which focuses on mysteries in the latter sense above.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_mysteries

A. E. Waite wrote that the Hierophant:

...symbolizes also all things that are righteous and sacred on the manifest side. As such, he is the channel of grace belonging to the world of institution as distinct from that of Nature, and he is the leader of salvation for the human race at large. He is the order and the head of the recognized hierarchy, which is the reflection of another and greater hierarchic order; but it may so happen that the pontiff forgets the significance of his symbolic state and acts as if he contained within his proper measures all that his sign signifies or his symbol seeks to shew [sp] forth. He is not, as it has been thought, philosophy—except on the theological side; he is not inspiration; and his is not religion, although he is a mode of its expression.[3]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierophant#Rider_Waite_tarot

A mystagogue (from Greek: μυσταγωγός, mystagogos, "person who initiates into mysteries") is a person who initiates others into mystic beliefs, and an educator or person who has knowledge of the sacred mysteries of a belief system. Another word for mystagogue is hierophant.

Contents

1Origins

2Typologies

3See also

4References

Origins

In ancient mystery religions, a mystagogue would be responsible for leading an initiate into the secret teachings and rituals of a cultus. The initiate would often be blindfolded, and the mystagogue would literally "guide" him into the sacred space.

In the early Christian church, this same concept was used to describe role of the bishop, who was responsible for seeing to it that the catechumens were properly prepared for baptism. Mystagogical homilies, or homilies that dealt with the Church's sacraments, were given to those in the last stages of preparation for full Church membership. Sometimes these mystagogical instructions were not given until after the catechumen had been baptized. The most famous of these mystagogical works are the "Mystagogical Homilies" of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, and the work, "On the Mysteries" by St. Ambrose of Milan.

Typologies

In various organizations, it is the role of the mystagogue to "mystify" pledges. The term is sometimes used to refer to a person who guides people through religious sites, such as churches, and explains the various artifacts. This branch of theology is at times called mystagogy.

In the United States versions of mystagogical legends predate European contact. Early Native American tribes around the Great Lakes region, taught that the mystagogue was a spiritual leader, and upon death would transform into a beast with many heads. The mystagogue would reappear in his beastly form and feed on those who strayed from the tribe if it was not in keeping with their religious customs.[1]

The historical tradition of the mystagogue has carried on today in one way through the fraternity system in American universities, that have historically held a position for a mystagogue at either the chapter or the national level.[2] The mystagogue is a person of great respect, and his knowledge concerning both the physical and spiritual matters of the organization is not questioned. In a way similar to that of some Native American traditions, the mystagogue in the fraternity system has the power to shut down parts of the fraternity which are not in keeping with customs or tradition.

Max Weber, considered to be one of the founders of the modern study of sociology, described the mystagogue as part magician and part prophet, and as one who dispensed "magical actions that contain the boons of salvation."[3]

According to Roy Wallis: "The primary criterion that Weber had in mind in distinguishing the prophet from the mystagogue was that the latter offers a largely magical means of salvation rather than proclaiming a radical religious ethic or an example to be followed."[4]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystagogue

Phaethon (/ˈfeɪ.əθən/; Ancient Greek: Φαέθων, romanized: Phaéthōn, pronounced [pʰa.é.tʰɔːn]), also spelled as Phaëthon, was the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the sun god Helios in Greek mythology. His name was also used by the Ancient Greeks as an alternative name for the planet Jupiter,[1] the motions and cycles of which were personified in poetry and myth.

Contents

1Mythology

1.1Plato's Timaeus

1.2Ovid's version

1.3Clement of Alexandria

1.4Suetonius

1.5Other ancient writers

2Post-classical works

3Shared name

4See also

5Notes

6References

7External links

Mythology

Phaethon was said to be the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the sun god Helios.[2][3] Alternatively, less common genealogies make him a son of Clymenus by Oceanid Merope,[4] of Helios and Rhodos (thus a full brother of the Heliadae)[5] or of Helios and Prote.[6]

Phaethon, challenged by Epaphus and his playmates, sought assurance from his mother that his father was the sun god Helios. She gave him the requested assurance and told him to turn to his father for confirmation. He asked his father for some proof that would demonstrate his relationship with the sun. When the god promised to grant him whatever he wanted, he insisted on being allowed to drive the sun chariot for a day.[7][8] According to some accounts Helios tried to dissuade Phaethon, telling him that even Zeus was not strong enough to steer these horses, but reluctantly kept his promise.[9] Placed in charge of the chariot, Phaethon was unable to control the horses. In some versions, the Earth first froze when the horses climbed too high, but when the chariot then scorched the Earth by swinging too near, Zeus decided to prevent disaster by striking it down with a thunderbolt.[10] Phaethon fell to earth and was killed in the process.[11]

Phaethon was the good friend or lover of Cycnus of Liguria, who profoundly mourned his death and was turned into a swan.[12] Phaethon's seven sisters, the Heliades, also mourned his loss, keeping vigil where Phaethon fell to Earth until the gods turned the sisters into poplar trees, and their tears into amber.[13]

Plato's Timaeus

In Plato's Timaeus, Critias tells the story of Atlantis as recounted to Solon by an Egyptian priest, who prefaced the story by saying:

"There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising out of many causes; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There is a story that even you [Greeks] have preserved, that once upon a time, Phaethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now, this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals."[14]

The Fall of Phaëthon on a Roman sarcophagus (Hermitage Museum)

Ovid's version

In the version of the myth told by Ovid in the Metamorphoses, Phaethon ascends into heaven, the home of his suspected father. His mother Clymene had boasted that his father was the Sun-God or Phoebus. Phaethon went to his father who swore by the river Styx to give Phaethon anything he would ask for in order to prove his divine sonship. Phaethon wanted to drive the chariot of the sun for a day. Phoebus tried to talk him out of it by telling him that not even Jupiter (the king of the gods) would dare to drive it, as the chariot was fiery hot and the horses breathed out flames. He said:

"The first part of the track is steep, and one that my fresh horses at dawn can hardly climb. In mid-heaven it is highest, where to look down on earth and sea often alarms even me and makes my heart tremble with awesome fear. The last part of the track is downwards and needs sure control. Then even Tethys herself, who receives me in her submissive waves, is accustomed to fear that I might dive headlong. Moreover, the rushing sky is constantly turning, and drags along the remote stars, and whirls them in rapid orbits. I move the opposite way, and its momentum does not overcome me as it does all other things, and I ride contrary to its swift rotation. Suppose you are given the chariot. What will you do? Will you be able to counter the turning poles so that the swiftness of the skies does not carry you away? Perhaps you conceive in imagination that there are groves there and cities of the gods and temples with rich gifts. The way runs through the ambush, and apparitions of wild beasts! Even if you keep your course, and do not steer awry, you must still avoid the horns of Taurus the Bull, Sagittarius the Haemonian Archer, raging Leo and Lion's jaw, Scorpio's cruel pincers sweeping out to encircle you from one side, and Cancer's crab-claws reaching out from the other. You will not easily rule those proud horses, breathing out through mouth and nostrils the fires burning in their chests. They scarcely tolerate my control when their fierce spirits are hot, and their necks resist the reins. Beware, my boy, that I am not the source of a gift fatal to you, while something can still be done to set right your request!"[15]

The fall of Phaethon by Adolphe Pierre Sunaert

Phaethon was adamant. When the day came, the fierce horses that drew the chariot felt that it was empty because of the lack of the sun-god's weight and went out of control. Terrified, Phaethon dropped the reins. The horses veered from their course, scorching the earth, burning the vegetation, bringing the blood of the Ethiopians to the surface of their skin and so turning it black, changing much of Africa into a desert, drying up rivers and lakes and shrinking the sea. Earth cried out to Jupiter who was forced to intervene by striking Phaethon with a lightning bolt. Like a falling star, Phaethon plunged blazing into the river Eridanos.

The epitaph on his tomb was:

Here Phaethon lies who in the sun-god's chariot fared. And though greatly he failed, more greatly he dared.[16]

Phoebus, stricken with grief at his son's death, at first refused to resume his work of driving his chariot, but at the appeal of the other gods, including Jupiter, returned to his task.

Clement of Alexandria

According to Clement of Alexandria in his Stromata, "...in the time of Crotopus occurred the burning of Phaethon, and the deluges of Deucalion.[17]

Suetonius

In The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius attributes to the emperor Tiberius the following repeated remark about the future emperor Gaius Caligula: "That to allow Gaius to live would prove the ruin of himself and of all men, and that he was raising a viper for the Roman people and a Phaethon for the world".[18]

Other ancient writers

Phaethon, by Gustave Moreau

Fragments of Euripides' tragedy on this subject suggest that, in his account, Phaethon survives. In reconstructing the lost play and discussing the fragments, James Diggle has discussed the treatment of the Phaethon myth (Diggle 2004).

In the True History by the satirical Greek writer Lucian, Phaëthon is the king of the sun and is at war with the moon.

Post-classical works

Dante refers to the episode in the Inferno, in "Purgatorio" Canto IV and Paradiso Canto XVII of his Divine Comedy.

William Shakespeare uses the story of Phaethon in four places, most famously as an allegory in his play Richard II. He also makes Juliet wish "Phaëthon would whip [Apollo's horses] to the west" as she waits for Romeo in Romeo and Juliet 3.2.3.[19] It also appears briefly in The Two Gentlemen of Verona 3.1.154, and twice in Henry VI, Part 3 (1.4.33 and 2.6.12)[20]

John Marston includes reference to Phaeton in The Malcontent whereby Mendoza's monologue describes the '...sparkling glances (of women), ardent as those flames that singed the world by heedless Phaeton!' - Act 1, Scene 5

Jean-Baptiste Lully wrote a musical tragedy, Phaëton, in which he referred indirectly to the fate of Nicolas Fouquet, whose ambitions to imitate Louis XIV—The Sun King—brought about his downfall. This opera is also used in the second version of Paul Hindemith’s opera Cardillac (1952).

Camille Saint-Saëns wrote a symphonic poem entitled Phaéton in 1873.

Niccolò Jommelli wrote an opera Fetonte to an Italian-language libretto by Mattia Verazi using various sources, principally Ovid, for the myth of Phaeton. It was first performed at the Ducal Theatre, Ludwigsburg in February, 1768, where Duke Karl-Eugen of Württemberg maintained an opera troupe.

Wilhelm Waiblinger’s epistolary novel Phaëthon amalgamates the Phaethon myth with Goethe’s Werther as well as Hölderlin’s Hyperion.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe published a poetic reconstruction of Euripides’ fragmented tragedy in Kunst und Altertum (1823), which served as a basis for various full-scale dramatic adaptations such as Marie Wernicke’s Phaethons Sturz (1893), Karl Wilhelm Geißler’s Phaëthon (1889) and Arnold Beer’s Phaeton (1875).

Gerhart Hauptmann’s long poem Helios und Phaethon (1936) omits the cosmic disaster in order to focus on the relationship between godly father and mortal son.

In Otakar Theer's symbolist tragedy Faëthón (1916), the hero epitomizes man's revolt against the world order ("the gods") and against human destiny. The tragedy was adapted in 1962 into a celebrated eponymous radio play by Miloslav Jareš (director) and Jaromír Ptáček (dramaturge).[21]

Paul Goodman’s early Phaëthon, Myth (1934) juxtaposes the Phaethon myth with a grotesque version of a Christological narrative.

Benjamin Britten’s Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for oboe, first performed at the Aldeburgh Festival on 14 June 1951, include the short piece Phaeton, which as a solo piece seems to focus on the individual lost in space rather than the furious effects emphasised by earlier instrumental renditions of the myth.

In Ayn Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, an in-universe opera is composed by the character of Richard Halley where Phaeton succeeds in his attempt to control the chariot of the sun, as an allegory for the power of mankind and individualism.

Donald Cotton wrote a comedy radio play 'The Tragedy of Phaethon' broadcast on BBC Network 3 on 10 February 1965.[22]

Angus Wilson’s novel Setting the World on Fire (1980) opens with the description of a Phaethon painting which proves pivotal to the protagonist’s emerging self-conception, leading up to his production of Lully’s Phaëton.

John C. Wright's The Golden Oecumene Trilogy (2002) features a protagonist named Phaethon, whose father's name is Helion. Mythical references abound.[23]

In 2002, Volkswagen introduced the VW Phaeton.

In 2012, former Disco Inferno frontman Ian Crause adapted the story of Phaethon as The Song of Phaethon for his first musical release in over a decade. Crause used the story as an analogy for Britain's entry into the Second Gulf War.[24]

in 2016 Taffety Punk Theatre premiered Michael Milligan's play "Phaeton" in Washington, DC.[25]

Shared name

The name "Phaethon", which means "Shining One",[26] was given also to Phaethon of Syria, to one of the horses of Eos (the Dawn), the Sun, the constellation Auriga, and the planet Jupiter, while as an adjective it was used to describe the sun and the moon.[27] In some accounts the planet referred to by this name is not Jupiter but Saturn.[28]

When 1 Ceres and 2 Pallas–the first asteroids–were discovered, astronomer Heinrich Olbers suggested that they were fragments of a much larger planet which was later named for Phaethon. However, the Phaeton hypothesis has been superseded by the accretion model, in which the asteroid belt represented the remainder of the protoplanetary disk that never formed a planet due to the gravity of Jupiter. However, fringe theorists still consider the Phaeton hypothesis likely.

In modern times, an asteroid whose orbit brings it close to the sun has been named "3200 Phaethon" after the mythological Phaethon.

The French form of the name "Phaethon" is "Phaéton". This form of the word is applied to a kind of carriage and automobile.[29][30]

An order, family, and genus of birds bear the name Phaethon in their taxonomic nomenclature, the tropicbirds.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaethon

Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries, was a Roman mystery religion centered on the god Mithras. Although inspired by Iranian worship of the Zoroastrian divinity (yazata) Mithra, the Roman Mithras is linked to a new and distinctive imagery, with the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice debated.[a] The mysteries were popular among the Imperial Roman army from about the 1st to the 4th century ce.[2]

Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those "united by the handshake".[b] They met in underground temples, now called mithraea (singular mithraeum), which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome,[3] and was popular throughout the western half of the empire, as far south as Roman Africa and Numidia, as far north as Roman Britain,[4](pp 26–27) and to a lesser extent in Roman Syria in the east.[3]

Mithraism is viewed as a rival of early Christianity.[5](p 147) In the 4th century, Mithraists faced persecution from Christians and the religion was subsequently suppressed and eliminated in the Roman empire by the end of the century.[6]

Numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire.[7] The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene (tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments.[4](p xxi) It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in the city of Rome.[8][full citation needed] No written narratives or theology from the religion survive; limited information can be derived from the inscriptions and brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested.[c]

Contents

1Name

1.1Etymology of Mithras

2Iconography

2.1Bull-slaying scene

2.2Banquet

2.3Birth from a rock

2.4Lion-headed figure

3Rituals and worship

3.1Mithraeum

3.2Degrees of initiation

3.3Ritual re-enactments

3.4Membership

3.5Ethics

4History and development

4.1Mithras before the Roman Mysteries

4.2Beginnings of Roman Mithraism

4.2.1Earliest archaeology

4.2.2Earliest cult locations

4.3Classical literature about Mithras and the Mysteries

4.3.1Statius

4.3.2Justin Martyr

4.3.3Plutarch

4.3.4Dio Cassius

4.3.5Porphyry

4.3.6Mithras Liturgy

4.4Modern debate about origins

4.4.1Cumont's hypothesis: from Persian state religion

4.4.2Criticisms and reassessments of Cumont

4.4.3Modern theories

4.5Later history

4.6Persecution and Christianization

5Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene

6Mithras and other gods

6.1Mithraism and Christianity

7See also

8Notes

9References

10Further reading

11External links

Name

The term "Mithraism" is a modern convention. Writers of the Roman era referred to it by phrases such as "Mithraic mysteries", "mysteries of Mithras" or "mysteries of the Persians".[1][10] Modern sources sometimes refer to the Greco-Roman religion as Roman Mithraism or Western Mithraism to distinguish it from Persian worship of Mithra.[1][11][12]

Etymology of Mithras

Main article: Mithras (name)

Bas-relief of the tauroctony of the mysteries, Metz, France.

The name Mithras (Latin, equivalent to Greek "Μίθρας"[13]) is a form of Mithra, the name of an old, pre-Zoroastrian, and, later on, Zoroastrian, god[d][14] — a relationship understood by Mithraic scholars since the days of Franz Cumont.[e] An early example of the Greek form of the name is in a 4th century bce work by Xenophon, the Cyropaedia, which is a biography of the Persian king Cyrus the Great.[15]

The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of declension. There is archaeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the god's name as "Mithras". However, in Porphyry's Greek text De Abstinentia (Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων), there is a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries by Euboulus and Pallas, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name "Mithra" as an indeclinable foreign word.[16]

Related deity-names in other languages include

Vedic Sanskrit Mitra, the name of a god praised in the Rigveda.[17][18][19] In Sanskrit, mitra means "friend" or "friendship".[20]

the form mi-it-ra-, found in an inscribed peace treaty between the Hittites and the kingdom of Mitanni, from about 1400 bce.[20][21]

Iranian Mithra and Sanskrit Mitra are believed to come from an Indo-Iranian word wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-Iranian/mitrás:mitrás, meaning "contract, agreement, covenant".[22]

Modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a single deity worshipped in several different religions.[23] On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st century bce, and to whom an old name was applied.[f]

Mary Boyce, a researcher of ancient Iranian religions, writes that even though Roman Mithraism seems to have had less Iranian content than historians used to think, nonetheless "as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance".[24]

Iconography

Relief of Mithras as bull-slayer from Neuenheim near Heidelberg, framed by scenes from Mithras' life.

Much about the cult of Mithras is only known from reliefs and sculptures. There have been many attempts to interpret this material.

Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull. Other images of Mithras are found in the Roman temples, for instance Mithras banqueting with Sol, and depictions of the birth of Mithras from a rock. But the image of bull-slaying (tauroctony) is always in the central niche.[9](p 6) Textual sources for a reconstruction of the theology behind this iconography are very rare.[25] (See section Interpretations of the bull-slaying scene below.)

The practice of depicting the god slaying a bull seems to be specific to Roman Mithraism. According to David Ulansey, this is "perhaps the most important example" of evident difference between Iranian and Roman traditions: "... there is no evidence that the Iranian god Mithra ever had anything to do with killing a bull."[9](p 8)

Bull-slaying scene

See also: Mithraeum

A mithraeum found in the ruins of Ostia Antica, Italy.

Temples of Mithras are sunk below ground, windowless, and very distinctive. In cities, the basement of an apartment block might be converted; elsewhere they might be excavated and vaulted over, or converted from a natural cave. Mithraic temples are common in the empire; although unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier, while being somewhat less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria.[4](pp 26–27) According to Walter Burkert, the secret character of Mithraic rituals meant that Mithraism could only be practiced within a Mithraeum.[57] Some new finds at Tienen show evidence of large-scale feasting and suggest that the mystery religion may not have been as secretive as was generally believed.[o]

For the most part, mithraea tend to be small, externally undistinguished, and cheaply constructed; the cult generally preferring to create a new centre rather than expand an existing one. The mithraeum represented the cave to which Mithras carried and then killed the bull; and where stone vaulting could not be afforded, the effect would be imitated with lath and plaster. They are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for some Mithraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the structure.[4](p 73) There is usually a narthex or ante-chamber at the entrance, and often other ancillary rooms for storage and the preparation of food. The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. Mithraeum is a modern coinage and mithraists referred to their sacred structures as speleum or antrum (cave), crypta (underground hallway or corridor), fanum (sacred or holy place), or even templum (a temple or a sacred space).[p]

In their basic form, mithraea were entirely different from the temples and shrines of other cults. In the standard pattern of Roman religious precincts, the temple building functioned as a house for the god, who was intended to be able to view, through the opened doors and columnar portico, sacrificial worship being offered on an altar set in an open courtyard—potentially accessible not only to initiates of the cult, but also to colitores or non-initiated worshippers.[58] Mithraea were the antithesis of this.[59]

Degrees of initiation

In the Suda under the entry Mithras, it states that “No one was permitted to be initiated into them (the mysteries of Mithras), until he should show himself holy and steadfast by undergoing several graduated tests.”[60] Gregory Nazianzen refers to the “tests in the mysteries of Mithras”.[61]

There were seven grades of initiation into Mithraism, which are listed by St. Jerome.[62] Manfred Clauss states that the number of grades, seven, must be connected to the planets. A mosaic in the Mithraeum of Felicissimus, Ostia Antica depicts these grades, with symbolic emblems that are connected either to the grades or are symbols of the planets. The grades also have an inscription beside them commending each grade into the protection of the different planetary gods.[4](pp 132–133) In ascending order of importance, the initiatory grades were:[4](pp 133–138)

GradeNameSymbolsPlanet or

tutelary

deity

1st

Corax, Corux, or Corvex

(raven or crow)Beaker, caduceusMercury

2nd

Nymphus, Nymphobus

(bridegroom)Lamp, hand bell, veil, circlet or diademVenus

3rd

Miles

(soldier)Pouch, helmet, lance, drum, belt, breastplateMars

4th

Leo

(lion)Batillum, sistrum, laurel wreath, thunderboltsJupiter

5th

Perses

(Persian)Hooked sword, Phrygian cap, sickle,

crescent moon, stars, sling, pouchLuna

6th

Heliodromus

(sun-runner)Torch, images of Helios, whip, robesSol

7th

Pater

(father)Patera, mitre, shepherd's staff, garnet or

ruby ring, chasuble or cape, elaborate jewel-

encrusted robes, with metallic threadsSaturn

Spade, sistrum, lightning bolt

Sword, crescent moon, star, sickle

Torch, crown, whip

Patera, rod, Phrygian cap, sickle

Elsewhere, as at Dura-Europos, Mithraic graffiti survive giving membership lists, in which initiates of a mithraeum are named with their Mithraic grades. At Virunum, the membership list or album sacratorum was maintained as an inscribed plaque, updated year by year as new members were initiated. By cross-referencing these lists it is possible to track some initiates from one mithraeum to another; and also speculatively to identify Mithraic initiates with persons on other contemporary lists such as military service rolls and lists of devotees of non-Mithraic religious sanctuaries. Names of initiates are also found in the dedication inscriptions of altars and other cult objects. Clauss noted in 1990 that overall, only about 14% of Mithraic names inscribed before 250 ce identify the initiate's grade – and hence questioned the traditional view that all initiates belonged to one of the seven grades.[63] Clauss argues that the grades represented a distinct class of priests, sacerdotes. Gordon maintains the former theory of Merkelbach and others, especially noting such examples as Dura where all names are associated with a Mithraic grade. Some scholars maintain that practice may have differed over time, or from one Mithraeum to another.

The highest grade, pater, is by far the most common one found on dedications and inscriptions – and it would appear not to have been unusual for a mithraeum to have several men with this grade. The form pater patrum (father of fathers) is often found, which appears to indicate the pater with primary status. There are several examples of persons, commonly those of higher social status, joining a mithraeum with the status pater – especially in Rome during the 'pagan revival' of the 4th century. It has been suggested that some mithraea may have awarded honorary pater status to sympathetic dignitaries.[64]

The initiate into each grade appears to have been required to undertake a specific ordeal or test,[4](p 103) involving exposure to heat, cold or threatened peril. An 'ordeal pit', dating to the early 3rd century, has been identified in the mithraeum at Carrawburgh. Accounts of the cruelty of the emperor Commodus describes his amusing himself by enacting Mithraic initiation ordeals in homicidal form. By the later 3rd century, the enacted trials appear to have been abated in rigor, as 'ordeal pits' were floored over.

Admission into the community was completed with a handshake with the pater, just as Mithras and Sol shook hands. The initiates were thus referred to as syndexioi (those united by the handshake). The term is used in an inscription by Proficentius[b] and derided by Firmicus Maternus in De errore profanarum religionum,[65] a 4th century Christian work attacking paganism.[66] In ancient Iran, taking the right hand was the traditional way of concluding a treaty or signifying some solemn understanding between two parties.[67]

Ritual re-enactments

Reconstruction of a mithraeum with a mosaic depicting the grades of initiation

Activities of the most prominent deities in Mithraic scenes, Sol and Mithras, were imitated in rituals by the two most senior officers in the cult's hierarchy, the Pater and the Heliodromus.[68] The initiates held a sacramental banquet, replicating the feast of Mithras and Sol.[68]

Reliefs on a cup found in Mainz[69][70] appear to depict a Mithraic initiation. On the cup, the initiate is depicted as being led into a location where a Pater would be seated in the guise of Mithras with a drawn bow. Accompanying the initiate is a mystagogue, who explains the symbolism and theology to the initiate. The Rite is thought to re-enact what has come to be called the ‘Water Miracle’, in which Mithras fires a bolt into a rock, and from the rock now spouts water.

Roger Beck has hypothesized a third processional Mithraic ritual, based on the Mainz cup and Porphyrys. This scene, called ‘Procession of the Sun-Runner’, shows the Heliodromus escorted by two figures representing Cautes and Cautopates (see below) and preceded by an initiate of the grade Miles leading a ritual enactment of the solar journey around the mithraeum, which was intended to represent the cosmos.[71]

Consequently, it has been argued that most Mithraic rituals involved a re-enactment by the initiates of episodes in the Mithras narrative,[4](pp 62–101) a narrative whose main elements were: birth from the rock, striking water from stone with an arrow shot, the killing of the bull, Sol's submission to Mithras, Mithras and Sol feasting on the bull, the ascent of Mithras to heaven in a chariot. A noticeable feature of this narrative (and of its regular depiction in surviving sets of relief carvings) is the absence of female personages (the sole exception being Luna watching the tauroctony in the upper corner opposite Helios).[4](p 33)

Membership

Another dedication to Mithras by legionaries of Legio II Herculia has been excavated at Sitifis (modern Setif in Algeria), so the unit or a subunit must have been transferred at least once.

Only male names appear in surviving inscribed membership lists. Historians including Cumont and Richard Gordon have concluded that the cult was for men only.[72][73]

The ancient scholar Porphyry refers to female initiates in Mithraic rites.[2] However, the early 20th-century historian A. S. Geden writes that this may be due to a misunderstanding.[2] According to Geden, while the participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, the predominant military influence in Mithraism makes it unlikely in this instance.[2] It has recently been suggested by David Jonathan that "Women were involved with Mithraic groups in at least some locations of the empire."[74]

Soldiers were strongly represented amongst Mithraists, and also merchants, customs officials and minor bureaucrats. Few, if any, initiates came from leading aristocratic or senatorial families until the 'pagan revival' of the mid-4th century; but there were always considerable numbers of freedmen and slaves.[4](p 39)

Ethics

Clauss suggests that a statement by Porphyry, that people initiated into the Lion grade must keep their hands pure from everything that brings pain and harm and is impure, means that moral demands were made upon members of congregations.[75] A passage in the Caesares of Julian the Apostate refers to "commandments of Mithras".[76] Tertullian, in his treatise "On the Military Crown" records that Mithraists in the army were officially excused from wearing celebratory coronets on the basis of the Mithraic initiation ritual that included refusing a proffered crown, because "their only crown was Mithras".[77]

History and development

Mithras before the Roman Mysteries

Mithras-Helios, with solar rays and in Iranian dress,[78] with Antiochus I of Commagene. (Mt. Nemrut, 1st Century bce)

According to the archaeologist Maarten Vermaseren, 1st century bce evidence from Commagene demonstrates the "reverence paid to Mithras" but does not refer to "the mysteries".[q] In the colossal statuary erected by King Antiochus I (69–34 BCE) at Mount Nemrut, Mithras is shown beardless, wearing a Phrygian cap[3][80] (or the similar headdress, Persian tiara), in Iranian (Parthian) clothing,[78] and was originally seated on a throne alongside other deities and the king himself.[81] On the back of the thrones there is an inscription in Greek, which includes the name Apollo Mithras Helios in the genitive case (Ἀπόλλωνος Μίθρου Ἡλίου).[82] Vermaseren also reports about a Mithras cult in 3rd century bce. Fayum.[83] R.D. Barnett has argued that the royal seal of King Saussatar of Mitanni from c. 1450 bce. depicts a tauroctonous Mithras.[84]

Beginnings of Roman Mithraism

The origins and spread of the Mysteries have been intensely debated among scholars and there are radically differing views on these issues.[85] According to Clauss, mysteries of Mithras were not practiced until the 1st century ce.[4] According to Ulansey, the earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the 1st century bce: The historian Plutarch says that in 67 bce the pirates of Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras.[86] However, according to Daniels, whether any of this relates to the origins of the mysteries is unclear.[r] The unique underground temples or mithraea appear suddenly in the archaeology in the last quarter of the 1st century ce.[88]

Earliest archaeology

Inscriptions and monuments related to the Mithraic Mysteries are catalogued in a two volume work by Maarten J. Vermaseren, the Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae (or CIMRM).[89] The earliest monument showing Mithras slaying the bull is thought to be CIMRM 593, found in Rome. There is no date, but the inscription tells us that it was dedicated by a certain Alcimus, steward of T. Claudius Livianus. Vermaseren and Gordon believe that this Livianus is a certain Livianus who was commander of the Praetorian guard in 101 ce, which would give an earliest date of 98–99 ce.[90]

Votive altar from Alba Iulia in present-day Romania, dedicated to Invicto Mythrae in fulfillment of a vow (votum)

Five small terracotta plaques of a figure holding a knife over a bull have been excavated near Kerch in the Crimea, dated by Beskow and Clauss to the second half of the 1st century bce,[91] and by Beck to 50 bce–50 ce. These may be the earliest tauroctonies, if they are accepted to be a depiction of Mithras.[s] The bull-slaying figure wears a Phrygian cap, but is described by Beck and Beskow as otherwise unlike standard depictions of the tauroctony. Another reason for not connecting these artifacts with the Mithraic Mysteries is that the first of these plaques was found in a woman's tomb.[t]

An altar or block from near SS. Pietro e Marcellino on the Esquiline in Rome was inscribed with a bilingual inscription by an Imperial freedman named T. Flavius Hyginus, probably between 80–100 ce. It is dedicated to Sol Invictus Mithras.[u]

CIMRM 2268 is a broken base or altar from Novae/Steklen in Moesia Inferior, dated 100 ce, showing Cautes and Cautopates.

Other early archaeology includes the Greek inscription from Venosia by Sagaris actor probably from 100–150 ce; the Sidon cippus dedicated by Theodotus priest of Mithras to Asclepius, 140–141 ce; and the earliest military inscription, by C. Sacidius Barbarus, centurion of XV Apollinaris, from the bank of the Danube at Carnuntum, probably before 114 ce.[95]

According to C.M.Daniels, the Carnuntum inscription is the earliest Mithraic dedication from the Danube region, which along with Italy is one of the two regions where Mithraism first struck root.[v] The earliest dateable mithraeum outside Rome dates from 148 ce.[w] The Mithraeum at Caesarea Maritima is the only one in Palestine and the date is inferred.[x]

Earliest cult locations

According to Roger Beck, the attested locations of the Roman cult in the earliest phase (c. 80-120 ce) are as follows:[99]

Mithraea datable from pottery

Nida/Heddemheim III (Germania Sup.)

Mogontiacum (Germania Sup.)

Pons Aeni (Noricum)

Caesarea Maritima (Judaea)

Datable dedications

Nida/Heddernheim I (Germania Sup.) (CIMRM 1091/2, 1098)

Carnuntum III (Pannonia Sup.) (CIMRM 1718)

Novae (Moesia Inf.) (CIMRM 2268/9)

Oescus (Moesia Inf.)(CIMRM 2250)

Rome(CIMRM 362, 593/4)

Classical literature about Mithras and the Mysteries

Mithras and the Bull: This fresco from the mithraeum at Marino, Italy (third century) shows the tauroctony and the celestial lining of Mithras' cape.

According to Boyce, the earliest literary references to the mysteries are by the Latin poet Statius, about 80 ce, and Plutarch (c. 100 CE).[100]

Statius

The Thebaid (c. 80 ce[9](p 29) ) an epic poem by Statius, pictures Mithras in a cave, wrestling with something that has horns.[101] The context is a prayer to the god Phoebus.[102] The cave is described as persei, which in this context is usually translated Persian; however, according to the translator J. H. Mozley it literally means Persean, referring to Perses, the son of Perseus and Andromeda,[9](p 29) this Perses being the ancestor of the Persians according to Greek legend.[9](pp 27–29)

Justin Martyr

Writing in approximately 145 ce, the early Christian apologist Justin Martyr charges the cult of Mithras with imitating the Christian communion,

Which the wicked devils have imitated in the mysteries of Mithras, commanding the same things to be done. For, that bread and a cup of water are placed, with certain incantations, in the mystic rites of one who is being initiated, you either know or can learn.[103]

Plutarch

The Greek biographer Plutarch (46–127 ce) says that "secret mysteries ... of Mithras" were practiced by the pirates of Cilicia, the coastal province in the southeast of Anatolia, who were active in the 1st century bce: "They likewise offered strange sacrifices; those of Olympus I mean; and they celebrated certain secret mysteries, among which those of Mithras continue to this day, being originally instituted by them."[104] He mentions that the pirates were especially active during the Mithridatic wars (between the Roman Republic and King Mithridates VI of Pontus) in which they supported the king.[104] The association between Mithridates and the pirates is also mentioned by the ancient historian Appian.[105] The 4th century commentary on Vergil by Servius says that Pompey settled some of these pirates in Calabria in southern Italy.[106]

Dio Cassius

The historian Dio Cassius (2nd to 3rd century ce) tells how the name of Mithras was spoken during the state visit to Rome of Tiridates I of Armenia, during the reign of Nero. (Tiridates was the son of Vonones II of Parthia, and his coronation by Nero in 66 ce confirmed the end of a war between Parthia and Rome.) Dio Cassius writes that Tiridates, as he was about to receive his crown, told the Roman emperor that he revered him "as Mithras".[107] Roger Beck thinks it possible that this episode contributed to the emergence of Mithraism as a popular religion in Rome.[108]

Porphyry

Mosaic (1st century ce) depicting Mithras emerging from his cave and flanked by Cautes and Cautopates (Walters Art Museum)

The philosopher Porphyry (3rd–4th century ce) gives an account of the origins of the Mysteries in his work De antro nympharum (The Cave of the Nymphs).[109] Citing Eubulus as his source, Porphyry writes that the original temple of Mithras was a natural cave, containing fountains, which Zoroaster found in the mountains of Persia. To Zoroaster, this cave was an image of the whole world, so he consecrated it to Mithras, the creator of the world. Later in the same work, Porphyry links Mithras and the bull with planets and star-signs: Mithras himself is associated with the sign of Aries and the planet Mars, while the bull is associated with Venus.[110]

Porphyry is writing close to the demise of the cult, and Robert Turcan has challenged the idea that Porphyry's statements about Mithraism are accurate. His case is that far from representing what Mithraists believed, they are merely representations by the Neoplatonists of what it suited them in the late 4th century to read into the mysteries.[111] However, Merkelbach and Beck believe that Porphyry’s work "is in fact thoroughly coloured with the doctrines of the Mysteries".[112] Beck holds that classical scholars have neglected Porphyry’s evidence and have taken an unnecessarily skeptical view of Porphyry.[113] According to Beck, Porphyry's De antro is the only clear text from antiquity which tells us about the intent of the Mithraic Mysteries and how that intent was realized.[114] David Ulansey finds it important that Porphyry "confirms ... that astral conceptions played an important role in Mithraism."[9](p 18)

Mithras Liturgy

In later antiquity, the Greek name of Mithras (Μίθρας ) occurs in the text known as the "Mithras Liturgy", a part of the Paris Greek Magical Papyrus (Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Suppl. gr. 574); here Mithras is given the epithet "the great god", and is identified with the sun god Helios.[115][116] There have been different views among scholars as to whether this text is an expression of Mithraism as such. Franz Cumont argued that it isn’t;[117] Marvin Meyer thinks it is;[118] while Hans Dieter Betz sees it as a synthesis of Greek, Egyptian, and Mithraic traditions.[119][120]

Modern debate about origins

Cumont's hypothesis: from Persian state religion

Augustan-era intaglio depicting a tauroctony (Walters Art Museum)

4th-century relief of the investiture of the Sasanian king Ardashir II. Mithra stands on a lotus flower on the left holding a barsom.[78]

Scholarship on Mithras begins with Franz Cumont, who published a two volume collection of source texts and images of monuments in French in 1894-1900, Textes et monuments figurés relatifs aux mystères de Mithra [French: Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra].[121] An English translation of part of this work was published in 1903, with the title The Mysteries of Mithra.[122] Cumont’s hypothesis, as the author summarizes it in the first 32 pages of his book, was that the Roman religion was "the Roman form of Mazdaism",[123] the Persian state religion, disseminated from the East. He identified the ancient Aryan deity who appears in Persian literature as Mithras with the Hindu god Mitra of the Vedic hymns.[124] According to Cumont, the god Mithra came to Rome "accompanied by a large representation of the Mazdean Pantheon".[125] Cumont considers that while the tradition "underwent some modification in the Occident ... the alterations that it suffered were largely superficial".[126]

Criticisms and reassessments of Cumont

Cumont's theories came in for severe criticism from John R. Hinnells and R.L. Gordon at the First International Congress of Mithraic Studies held in 1971.[y] John Hinnells was unwilling to reject entirely the idea of Iranian origin,[127] but wrote: "we must now conclude that his reconstruction simply will not stand. It receives no support from the Iranian material and is in fact in conflict with the ideas of that tradition as they are represented in the extant texts. Above all, it is a theoretical reconstruction which does not accord with the actual Roman iconography."[z] He discussed Cumont’s reconstruction of the bull-slaying scene and stated "that the portrayal of Mithras given by Cumont is not merely unsupported by Iranian texts but is actually in serious conflict with known Iranian theology."[aa] Another paper by R.L. Gordon argued that Cumont severely distorted the available evidence by forcing the material to conform to his predetermined model of Zoroastrian origins. Gordon suggested that the theory of Persian origins was completely invalid and that the Mithraic mysteries in the West were an entirely new creation.[129]

A similar view has been expressed by Luther H. Martin: "Apart from the name of the god himself, in other words, Mithraism seems to have developed largely in and is, therefore, best understood from the context of Roman culture."[130](p xiv)

However, according to Hopfe, "All theories of the origin of Mithraism acknowledge a connection, however vague, to the Mithra/Mitra figure of ancient Aryan religion."[19] Reporting on the Second International Congress of Mithraic Studies, 1975, Ugo Bianchi says that although he welcomes "the tendency to question in historical terms the relations between Eastern and Western Mithraism", it "should not mean obliterating what was clear to the Romans themselves, that Mithras was a 'Persian' (in wider perspective: an Indo-Iranian) god."[131]

Boyce states that "no satisfactory evidence has yet been adduced to show that, before Zoroaster, the concept of a supreme god existed among the Iranians, or that among them Mithra – or any other divinity – ever enjoyed a separate cult of his or her own outside either their ancient or their Zoroastrian pantheons."[132] However, she also says that although recent studies have minimized the Iranizing aspects of the self-consciously Persian religion "at least in the form which it attained under the Roman Empire", the name Mithras is enough to show "that this aspect is of some importance". She also says that "the Persian affiliation of the Mysteries is acknowledged in the earliest literary references to them."[24]

Beck tells us that since the 1970s scholars have generally rejected Cumont, but adds that recent theories about how Zoroastrianism was during the period bce now make some new form of Cumont's east-west transfer possible.[133] He says that

... an indubitable residuum of things Persian in the Mysteries and a better knowledge of what constituted actual Mazdaism have allowed modern scholars to postulate for Roman Mithraism a continuing Iranian theology. This indeed is the main line of Mithraic scholarship, the Cumontian model which subsequent scholars accept, modify, or reject. For the transmission of Iranian doctrine from East to West, Cumont postulated a plausible, if hypothetical, intermediary: the Magusaeans of the Iranian diaspora in Anatolia. More problematic – and never properly addressed by Cumont or his successors – is how real-life Roman Mithraists subsequently maintained a quite complex and sophisticated Iranian theology behind an occidental facade. Other than the images at Dura of the two 'magi' with scrolls, there is no direct and explicit evidence for the carriers of such doctrines. ... Up to a point, Cumont’s Iranian paradigm, especially in Turcan’s modified form, is certainly plausible.[134][135][136]

He also says that "the old Cumontian model of formation in, and diffusion from, Anatolia ... is by no means dead – nor should it be."[137]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism

Great day have!_0104 by jaciii (off&on)

22 39

Below are a few of the gems found on “Sunrise” searching at

www.giga-usa.com/quotes/topics/sunrise_t001.htm

When the breaking day is flushing

All the East, and light is gushing

Upward through the horizon's haze,

Sheaf-like, with its thousand rays

Spreading, until all above

Overflows with joy and love,

And below, on earth's green bosom,

All is chang'd to light and blossom;

Then, O Father!--Thou alone,

From the shadow of Thy throne,

To the sighing of my breast,

And its rapture answerest;

All my thoughts, with upward winging,

Bathe where Thy own light is springing!

- John Greenleaf Whittier

When from the opening chambers of the east

The morning springs in thousand liveries drest,

The early larks their morning tribute pay,

And, in shrill notes, salute the blooming day.

- James Thomson (1)

_______________________________________________________________

A reflection on these Sacred Scriptures:

Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9

Psalm 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20

Matthew 5:17-19

He spreads snow like wool; frost He strews like ashes. (Psalm 147:16)

During the recent San Diego wildfires I heard a woman remark, "I don't think people were meant to live in California, it's full of disasters."

On the contrary, everything that happens is meant to happen, according to God's divine Plan. Our Catechism teaches that, "Our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Para. 303) This may sound harsh and often prompts the question, "How can such a loving God allow such suffering?" God allows it because He's loving!

Since God is good all the time, we know His Plan must be as well. His reasons are loving because they give us opportunities to seek Him in the course of our own disasters. He heals us through our pain, so instead of asking "Why?", we must learn to accept what comes our way and lean on Him. This allows His Plan, which is perfect, to dominate our plan, which lacks His Wisdom and Greatness. It succeeded for Jesus, who continued to trust His Father through every suffering. Our Father has the same good Plan for us, but we must be like Jesus and become a part of it!

God speaks to us in many ways and nature is only one of them. As it is with disasters, we repeatedly see God's goodness amid the chaos around us. Again and again, He uses our circumstances to strengthen and bless us, so when our disaster ends, we must never fail to see what's left in the ruins—the good He intended for us all along.

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, Para. 303)

- Elizabeth A. Tichvon | elizabethtichvon@comcast.net

"Just say Jesus..." by Sharon Tate Soberon

28 8

"Praise the Lord, you His servants;

praise the name of the Lord.

Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore.” ~ Psalm 113:1

"From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised." ~ Psalm 113:3

"When eight days were completed for HIS circumcision, HE was named Jesus, the name given HIM by the angel before HE was conceived in the womb." ~ Luke 2:21

MEDITATION

"Lord Jesus Christ, I exalt YOUR name above every other name. For in YOU I have Pardon, Mercy, Grace and Victory over sin and death. YOU humbled YOURSELF for my sake and for the sake of all sinners by sharing in our humanity and by dying on the cross. Help me to always praise YOUR holy name and to live for YOUR greater glory."

Excerpt #meditation from today’s scripture reflection @ www.DailyScripture.Net or APP at Daily Scripture Servants of the Word

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"When you don’t know what to say

Just say JESUS

There’s still power in the name

The name of JESUS

If the words wont come

Cause you’re to afraid to pray

If the words wont come

And you don’t know what to say

Just say JESUS"

~ "Just Say Jesus" by 7eventh Time Down

Music Video - "Just Say Jesus"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8CLgiYZyZE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"He who is mighty has done great things for me, and Holy is His name." Luke 1:49

"Jesus’ Resurrection glorifies the name of the Savior God, for from that time on it is the name of Jesus that fully manifests the supreme power of the ‘name which is above every name.’

The evil spirits fear His name; in His name His disciples perform miracles, for the Father grants all they ask in this name.” ~ Catechism of the Catholic Church - CCC #434

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?” (Luke 12:56)

MEDITATION

“…Jesus wanted His listeners to realize that God was present among them in a new way. In Jesus, God was fulfilling His promises to Israel—but they couldn’t see it…

“…Sometimes this path of silence can be difficult, but The Name Of Jesus is a powerful guide. As you quietly seek the Lord, utter His sacred name in your heart with each breath. With one breath after another, His name can lead you closer to Him. As you release your burdens, you can move toward peace. The Name Of Jesus can help wipe away distractions and open your eyes to better see and follow the Lord. Then you will be able to “interpret the present time” and recognize what the Lord is doing—both in your heart and in the world around you.

PRAYER

“Lord Jesus, open my eyes.”

Excerpt #meditation and #prayer from @wordamongus complete reflection @ www.wau.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Filename - "Just say Jesus..." - DSC_8707 Sunset Hill 2013 - NR ClS Orton & Antonio & Bubble efct tag

Following the Son...

Blessings, Sharon 🌻

God’s Beauty In Nature is calling us into a deeper relationship with Him...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bloggers are welcome to use my artwork, please let me know in the comment section and link back to this image.

PURCHASE THIS IMAGE on quality Giclée prints on; Canvas, Fine Art Paper, Metal, Greeting Cards, Tote Bags, Pillows and more - www.redbubble.com/i/poster/The-holy-name-of-Jesus-by-4The...

Art4TheGlryOfGod Photography and Watercolor Paintings by Sharon

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Faith, Hope & Love in daily Art meditations...

X ~ www.twitter.com/Art4ThGlryOfGod

Flickr (complete portfolio) ~ www.Flickr.com/4ThGlryOfGod

PURCHASE images on various products (Giclée canvas, metal prints, throw pillows, tote bags, cards, and more).

Please inform me if an image hasn’t been uploaded, and I’ll ensure it’s available for you.

Fine Art America ~ fineartamerica.com/profiles/sharon-soberon

Redbubble ~ www.redbubble.com/people/4theglryofgod/shop

~~~~~~~

Pixoto (awards) ~ www.pixoto.com/4thegloryofgod/awards

Music Videos (from my Art Photography) ~

www.youtube.com/user/4ThGlryOfGod

Prints available upon request.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am Honored to have this Image in use at:

~ www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-slideshow/seekers/god-and-i...

~ miltonadventist.org/jesus-matters/

~ lifeingodsway.com/posts/1253

~ lifeingodsway.com/posts/1768

Younghusband side view of the local Hall built 1889, Mid Murray Council Area South Australia by Contemplari

11 3

*YOUNGHUSBAND February 20

An entertainment was held in the Younghusband hall on Friday evening last, when Mr T Pope presided over a fair attendance. Miss Putland played the overture, and vocal items and recitations were rendered by Misses C Hirte, E Fielke, M Chambers, F Pope, Mr Gryst, O Hack, C Hirte, N Brinkley, W Robinson, and Mr A Robinson, and the school children. [Ref: Chronicle 4-3-1905]

*The first anniversary services in connection with the Younghusband Sunday school took place on Sunday, June 15. The Rev A K I'Anson preached splendid sermons. The children rendered special singing, Miss Chrissie Groth presiding at the organ.

On Monday, June 16, a tea was provided. This was followed by a public meeting. Mr H Putland acted as chairman, and the programme consisted of the Sunday school report, with several hymns by the scholars.

Mr Robinson proposed and Mr Drogemuller seconded a vote of thanks to all who assisted to make the anniversary a success. Supper was handed round, and a pleasant evening was spent. [Ref: Australian Christian Commonwealth 27-6-1913]

*A social and dance was held in the Younghusband school on Wednesday evening as a send off to Tpr Whalland. The residents presented him with tokens of esteem. Sgt Ketteringham spoke.

On Thursday morning the Mannum Recruiting Committee presented Tpr Whalland with a wristlet watch on behalf of the residents. Valedictory remarks were made by Messrs D Shearer, J R Baseby, H P Wishart, and Sgt Ketteringham (the district recruiting officer). [Ref: Observer 1-6-1918]

*On Friday, September 12, the school hall was again crowded to welcome home returned lads. They were Lce-Cpl George H Fulwood, Ptes L J O'Neill, J J Gass. and Dvr Fred Morey. The [chair] was occupied by Mr G H Mann, who on behalf of residents presented each guest with honour certificates and other presents. Welcome home speeches were made by Messrs Groth, Brinkley and Gardner.

The hall was tastefully decorated with peace designs, banners, and flowers, and was a credit to the young ladies who carried it out. Items were rendered by the local glee company, Mr J H Groth, Misses Kelly, Gardner, S Droegemuller, Marjorie Mann, Clara Groth and the school children.

A number of souvenirs were shown by Pte Gass.

Supper and a dance concluded a successful gathering. There is now only one more soldier to return. [Ref: Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser 10-10-1919]

*The school committee at Younghusband has presented a gold brooch to Jean E Groth, of the local school. She first attended school on February 5, 1912 and from that time until November 14, 1919, was present on every occasion that the school was open – 1673 days. [Ref: Advertiser 16-12-1919]

*DANCE AT YOUNGHUSBAND

On October 21 a fancy dress dance was held in the Younghusband Hall, which was decorated by Miss Willott and Mrs Semmler. The proceeds were in aid of the school piano fund.

Novelty dances included the streamer, confetti, lucky spot, and lucky cap, which were won by Mr Baumgurtel and Miss Gowling and Mr and Mrs Jeffries.

The music was provided by Mrs Maidment, Messrs H A Gogol, and A Semmler.

Mr S G Gogol was MC. [Ref: Advertiser 2-11-1927]

*September 29

A euchre party and dance was held in the Younghusband Hall on Monday evening: in aid of the cricket club.

A beautiful supper was served by the ladies. A dance occupied the rest of the evening. Mr G Gogol was MC and music was supplied by Mr A Semmler and Miss B Baumgurtle.

Guessing competitions helped to raise the proceeds to over £7. There was a good attendance. [Murray Pioneer and Australian River Record 12-10-1928]

*Extract from District Council of Mannum meeting:-

Grubbing of trees at Younghusband School – letters objecting to this being done were forwarded by H M Gowling (hon secretary, school committee), Wm Schmidt (hon sec trustees) and a largely signed petition.

After discussion Councillor Lahne moved that permission to Mr Banks to grub these trees be not granted. [Ref: The Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser 17-7-1931]

*Arbor Day at the Hundred of Younghusband school was followed by sports in the afternoon and a concert and dance at night.

Items were rendered by Miss E Putland, D Duthy, M Alsop, Mr H Gowling and the school children.

A lucky spot waltz was won by Miss M Liebich and Mr A Mann. [Ref: Advertiser 4-7-1932]

*The third annual sports and show of the Purnong and Districts Schools’ Association being:-Purnong (teacher Mr Prior), Claypans (Mr O’Niel), Bandon (Mrs Ellis), Bowhill (Mr Jones), Ettrick (Mr Scholz), Younghusband (Miss Mesnil), Fairview (Miss Noske), Walkers Flat (Mr Inglis), Forster (Mr Millican), Nildotties (Miss Peake).

The children marched from the hall to the grounds, each school behind its banner.

The shield presented by the district council to be won and held by the school which gained highest points in the athletic events for one year, was won by the Younghusband school with 44 points.

The president of the association (Mr G A Seidel) presented the shield to Miss Mesnil, head teach of the Younghusband school. [Advertiser 7-9-1937]

*The following is an extract from ‘Work in the Mannum Mission by the Methodist Church.

Getting to Church Service

The drive is continued for a distance of 2 miles down to the river, where a private boat is waiting, sometimes with two or three other passengers to cross the river for service at 11, in the schoolroom at Younghusband.

This is a fortnightly service and is usually attended by 15 to 20 adults: and we have a Sunday School roll of 18. The children attend splendidly and at the close of the service gather round the table where the minister conducts a catechism class.

SS hymns are also taught and the duty stamp album is used to encourage regular attendance.

At 12.20 a return is made and the car is heading in the direction of the afternoon service. [Ref: Australian Christian Commonwealth 14-1-1938]

*A pet show was held at the Hundred of Younghusband school on August 24 in aid of schools’ patriotic fund.

Prizes were awarded to Robert Hannaford, Betty Gowling and May Chambers, who collected the largest sums for their pets.

The children collected £11 1/9, the total proceeds of the day being £25 3/3.

This school has raised £46 3/7 for the schools’ patriotic fund, and the children have subscribed £44 16/ in war savings certificates. [Ref: Advertiser 6-9-1940]

*On Sunday, October 6, Younghusband celebrated 130 years since the opening of its hall as a school for local children in 1889.

The event attracted more than 250 visitors who came from New South Wales, Tasmania, Clare, the Barossa Valley, Mildura, Adelaide, the Fleurieu Peninsula and local areas.

Anthony Schubert, whose grandfather Murray Brinkley was a student at Younghusband School, opened the speeches, then Mid Murray Mayor Dave Burgess gave a short speech and unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion.

Councillor Geoff Hall presented plaques and certificates to Geoff Stephens and David Brinkley for their many years of service as committee members since incorporation in 1988.

Cr Hall praised the committee for their hard work in holding regular events and holding this special day.

Photographs and memorabilia of the hall and a large display of old steam engines and motors by members of the Lower Murray Vintage Engine and Machinery Club gave everyone a chance to look and learn.

Vintage cars were also on show plus stalls, face painting, horseshoe throwing, whip cracking, nail driving and a set of stocks for visitors to enjoy. [Ref: the Murray Valley Standard online 22-1-2019]

Heidelberg - Church of the Holy Spirit and Marketplace by Michael Kemper

Heidelberg - Heiliggeistkirche und Marktplatz

The Church of the Holy Spirit (German: Heiliggeistkirche) is the largest church in Heidelberg, Germany. The church, located in the marketplace in the old town center, was constructed between 1398 and 1515 in the Romanesque and Gothic styles. It annually receives 1–3 million guests a year, making it among the most visited churches in Germany.

The church was planned as the burial place of the Electors of the Palatinate and as a representative church of the Palatinate royal seat. In the Palatine War of Succession, the princely graves of the Electors were destroyed; today only the grave of the founder of the church, Elector Ruprecht III, remains. The church was also the location of the founding of the Heidelberg University and was the original repository of the Bibliotheca Palatina.

The congregation was originally Roman Catholic, but the church has changed denominations more than ten times through its history. Intermittently, over a 300 year period, the nave and the choir of the church were separated by a wall, allowing both Catholics and Protestants to practice in the church at the same time. The wall was ultimately removed in 1936, and the congregation is now solely Protestant. Today, it is a parish church within the Evangelical Church of Heidelberg and is part of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

History

A manuscript from 1239 references a Romanesque chapel in the center of Heidelberg named “Zum Heilien Geist” (English: to the Holy Ghost). A Gothic, asisleless church was constructed on that site around 1300 and subsequently referred to as the Chapel of the Holy Spirit (Heiliggeistkapelle). King Rupert commissioned a new church building in 1398, which replaced the chapel and became the current Church of the Holy Spirit. The current church is the third sacral building on the site.

Congregations

Between the 16th and 20th centuries, the church changed confessions over ten times, between Lutheranism, Calvinism, Catholicism, and Old Catholicism. Sermons had been delivered in German at various points before the Reformation at the Church of the Holy Spirit, but Protestantism was not quickly adopted in Heidelberg. The first Protestant service was conducted at the Church of the Holy Spirit in 1546. Elector Otto Henry converted the region in 1557, and the church was officially designated as a Lutheran parish church. Otto Henry's successor, Friedrich III, converted the church to Calvinism and commissioned the Heidelberg Catechism.

In 1706, a succession crisis resulted in the church being divided in half in order to accommodate both Catholics and Protestants simultaneously, so that both congregations could hold their services without any mutual disturbance. The church was divided by a wall which separated the nave and the chancel, creating a second altar in the center of the church. In 1719, Elector Karl III Philipp ordered soldiers to occupy the church and tear down the wall in order to restore it to a purely Catholic place of worship. Political pressure from other states and the Holy Roman Empire forced him to re-erect the wall shortly thereafter. The wall was again removed in 1886, but was rebuilt once more as a result of the Kulturkampf and pressure from the Vatican. It was ultimately removed on 24 June 1936. The church has been solely Protestant since.

Bibliotheca Palatina

The Bibliotheca Palatina was founded and originally kept in the gallery of the Church of the Holy Spirit, where good light for reading was available. It contained several collections, including the libraries of Heidelberg University, Heidelberg Castle, and several monasteries.

During the Thirty Years War, this collection of manuscripts and early printed books were taken as loot and presented to the Pope by the Count of Tilly, who commanded the Catholic League’s forces at Heidelberg in 1622. Reportedly 54 oxcarts filled with crates of books were taken to Rome from the Church of the Holy Spirit. They now form the Bibliotheca Palatina section of the Vatican Library. As a result of the Congress of Vienna, 847 of the german manuscripts from this collection were returned to the University of Heidelberg in 1816. For the University's 600th anniversary, a further collection of 588 of the Bibliotheca's documents were temporarily exhibited at the Church. Much of the exhibition contained documents detailing the workings of the former library itself: from the former library's binding techniques to records on the library's removal in 1623.

Architecture

Construction

Documents name Arnold Rype, a former mayor of Heidelberg, as the church's "master builder". At the time, the term "master builder" referred not to the architect but the financial initiator. The only known architects are Hans Marx, who worked on the church until 1426, as well as Jorg, who was responsible until 1439. Both men probably supervised work on the nave. Under the reign of Prince-elector Frederick I, a noted specialist in the construction of church towers, Niclaus Eseler, came from Mainz to Heidelberg and was likely responsible for the execution of the primary work on the church's spire, though the steeple was completed by Lorenz Lechler.

Construction began in 1398 when the cornerstone was laid. The choir was completed and consecrated in 1411, and the nave finished in 1441. The construction of the steeple was started in the same year, but works were interrupted until 1508, and the tower was finished in 1544.

Restoration

During the Palatinate War of Succession, the church was raided by French forces in 1693 and significantly damaged by a fire. The fire destroyed the church tower, which was rebuilt in 1709 in a baroque style. A viewing platform inside the main spire is accessible to the public via a narrow staircase with a total of 208 steps. The platform is located 38 meters above ground level.

The 1693 fire damaged the roof, and resulting in decades of water damage in much of the building. Late 18th century restoration efforts greatly altered the original design of the building. Crumbling, octagonal sandstone pillars were sanded-down to round columns. Medieval frescoes were either plastered over, or reinterpreted in baroque style.

One of the vaults of the nave is decorated with a fresco, created around 1440. Each of the vault's eight panels are decorated with an angel playing a unique instrument. The fresco was restored in 1950 by Harry MacLean, who added a bassoon to one angel, which was not original to the piece. A Holy Ghost hole sits between the eight angels.

Stained glass

Heiliggeistkirch's original medieval windows were destroyed by the fire of 1693. None of the original windows were preserved and no record or attestation to what they looked like exists. To replace the damaged windows, emergency glazing was introduced in the 19th century, principally in the choir and along the south aisle of the nave. Matching windows, installed on the north aisle, were subsequently destroyed in 1945 during the Second World War. The poor condition of the 19th century glazing became a pressing issue in the mid 20th century, resulting in a historically significant series of unrealised attempts to commission the design of a unified programme of stained glass windows from contemporary artists.

In the mid 1970s, the regional church board voted to replace the 19th century additions, as part of a broader restoration and repair of the interior. As a result, several significant efforts were made in the 1970s and 1990s to reinstall stained glass into these windows through a programme of artworks by a single artist. Initially, the German artist Johannes Schreiter was commissioned in 1977 to undertake the project and design a total of twenty-two pieces, but negative response to his designs and the resulting “Heidelbergerfensterstreit” (Heidelberg Window Controversy) meant that only one complete work, the Physics Window, was installed in the church. Subsequently, the British artist Brian Clarke was asked to submit a proposal for the remaining windows. His resulting designs drew on the history of the site's location as the repository of the Biblioteca Palatina and its link to the development of Calvinism through the 1563 Heidelberg Catechism. Ultimately, of Clarke's designs were implemented.

During the late 1990s, Hella Santarossa won a subsequent 1997 competition for a series of five windows whose core element is treated, broken coloured glass. Santarossa is a member of the Derix family, one of the major stained glass studios in Germany. Her series of five windows were installed in the north nave.

The "Heidelberger Fensterstreit"

The most famed and controversial stained glass works commissioned for the church are those of Johannes Schreiter, commissioned in 1977 to design twenty-two stained glass windows. At the time, this was to be the largest stained glass commission to have been granted to a single artist. The resulting avant-garde designs, which incorporated references from science, medicine, philosophy, and the analogue technologies of the day, became the subject of a cultural and theological dispute known as the "Heidelberg Controversy" (German: Heidelbergerfensterstreit Fensterstreit). This dispute is cited as "the most intense controversy on record involving twentieth century stained glass".

Schreiter's designs had previously been debated and tested within a focus group including theologians, art critics, and church attendees. They were then presented to the public in 1984 when the first window was installed on the south isle. This window is known as the "Physikfenster" (English: "Physics Window"). It's critical theme immediately became controversial. Critics called the Physics Window overly conceptual, elitist, and secularly dejected. When sketches of Schreiter's following pieces were released, local parishioners were reportedly disenfranchised by their themes. Protests, parish votes, and petitions ultimately prevented their installation. Nine years after Schreiter was commissioned, the project was officially terminated on June 23rd 1986. Schreiter had originally been commissioned to create ten separate pieces for the nave; the ensuing controversy caused the remaining nine to be abandoned. The Physics Window remains the only work of Schreiter's installed in the church, though other windows from the series have since been purchased and displayed by independent organisations, including other churches and hospital clinics.

The Physics Window is 458 cm tall and 125 cm wide. The majority of the piece is red, representing the Holy Spirit; a white arrow at the top represents the Holy Spirit descending to earth. Only two points on the piece are in bright blue: one highlighting the Einstein's theory of relativity, E=mc², and the other states the date the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, 6 August 1945. Written above both of these in black, gothic script, is a passage from the Second Epistle of Peter (2 Peter 3:10) combined with a passage from Isaiah (Isaiah 54:10). The first passage references an apocalyptic end to the earth, in which everything created by man is destroyed by fire. This theme is reflected in Schreiter's work by an effect in the glass that resembles burnt paper near the date of the Hiroshima tragedy. By contrast, the second passage offers hope, implying that God will remain merciful despite man's mistakes.

Notable burials

Originally, the Church of the Holy Spirit contained the tombs of the Palatinate electors, which were later destroyed by fire during the War of the Palatine Succession. The only remaining tomb is that of Prince-Elector Rupert III, the founder of the church, which is still preserved.

Dorothea of Denmark, Electress Palatine (1520–1580)

Eberhard II, Duke of Württemberg (1447–1504)

Elisabeth of Nuremberg (1358–1411)

Louis III, Elector Palatine (1378–1436)

Louis IV, Elector Palatine (1424–1449)

Rupert, King of the Romans (1352–1410)

Wolfgang of the Palatinate (1494–1558)

(Wikipedia)

Die Heiliggeistkirche ist die größte und bedeutendste Kirche in Heidelberg. Mit der Apsis zum Marktplatz steht sie mitten in der Heidelberger Altstadt. Ihr Turm beherrscht und prägt – mit dem achteckigen Glockenturm des Schlosses – das Stadtbild. Die aus rotem Neckartäler Sandstein gebaute gotische Hallenkirche mit barockem Dach und barocker Turmhaube gilt als „völlig singuläres Bauwerk von hohem künstlerischen Rang“.

Die Kirche wurde von 1398 bis 1515 errichtet und war als Grablege der Kurfürsten von der Pfalz und als repräsentatives Gotteshaus der kurpfälzischen Residenzstadt geplant. Bei schweren Zerstörungen im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg wurden die Fürstengräber verwüstet, sodass sich heute nur noch das Grab des Erbauers des Chors der Kirche, Kurfürst Ruprecht III., der als Ruprecht I. deutscher König war, in der Kirche befindet. Bekannt ist die Heiliggeistkirche auch als einstiger Standort der Bibliotheca Palatina sowie wegen ihrer wechselvollen, eng mit der Geschichte Heidelbergs verknüpften, konfessionellen Geschichte. Von 1706 bis 1936 war die Kirche durch eine Scheidemauer in zwei Teile geteilt. Das Langhaus war protestantisch, der Chor katholisch. Seit 1936 gehört die gesamte Kirche zur Evangelischen Landeskirche in Baden.

Kirchenrechtliche Stellung

Die Heiliggeistkirche war ursprünglich eine von der Peterskirche kirchenrechtlich abhängige Kapelle. Kurfürst Ruprecht III. erreichte im Zusammenhang mit der Gründung der Universität Heidelberg bei Papst Bonifatius IX., dass die Heiliggeistkirche aus der Abhängigkeit von der Peterskirche gelöst und zur Stiftskirche erhoben wurde. Verschiedene Pfründen, die ursprünglich an anderen Kirchen bestanden, wurden auf die Heiliggeistkirche übertragen und dienten der Finanzierung der jungen Universität, deren Professoren zugleich Stiftsherren an der Heiliggeistkirche waren. Die Einrichtung des Kollegiatstifts war 1413 abgeschlossen. Gleichzeitig fungierte die Heiliggeistkirche als Pfarrkirche für die Altstadt, während die Peterskirche die Funktion einer Pfarrkirche für die Neustadt (die nach der Stadterweiterung von 1392 hinzugekommenen Teile der heutigen Altstadt) übernahm. Kurfürst Ottheinrich löste nach seinem Amtsantritt das Stift auf und übertrug die Pfründen an die Universität, die Heiliggeistkirche wurde zur evangelischen Pfarrkirche.

Die Heiliggeistkirche blieb der Universität seit ihrer Gründung, die mit einer Messe in der (damaligen) Heiliggeistkirche gefeiert wurde, verbunden. In der Folgezeit blieb die Heiliggeistkirche Universitätskirche, ihre Tür diente als Schwarzes Brett der Universität. Im 19. Jahrhundert übernahm die Peterskirche die Funktion als Universitätskirche.

Baugeschichte

Eine dem Heiligen Geist geweihte Kirche am Heidelberger Marktplatz wurde im Jahr 1239 in einer Urkunde des Klosters Schönau zum ersten Mal erwähnt. Weitere Erwähnungen folgen erst in den Jahren 1353 und 1358.

Bei der im Jahr 1239 erwähnten Kirche handelte es sich um eine spätromanische Basilika, von welcher im Jahr 1936 eine Apsis ausgegraben wurde. Um 1300, vielleicht aber auch schon zwischen 1278 und 1288, wurde sie zu einer dreischiffigen spätromanischen oder bereits gotischen Kirche umgestaltet. Diese Kirche war halb so lang wie die jetzige und ist durch Ausgrabungen in den Jahren 1886 sowie 1936 bis 1942 gut dokumentiert. Als Grund für diesen Umbau wird ein Brand vermutet, dem ein Hochwasser vorausgegangen sein soll.

Kurfürst Ruprecht III. ließ anstelle des bisherigen Chores ab 1398 einen hohen und lichten Hallenchor erbauen. Da Heidelberg unter der Herrschaft Ruprechts I. die alten Zentren Bacharach, Alzey und Neustadt verdrängt hatte und alleinige kurpfälzische Residenzstadt geworden war, sollte es, seinem Rang entsprechend, eine große und repräsentative Kirche erhalten, die auch als künftige Grablege der Pfälzer Kurfürsten bestimmt war. Diese repräsentative Funktion erhielt besonderes Gewicht, als Ruprecht III. zum deutschen König gewählt wurde und der Chor der Heiliggeistkirche dereinst das Grab eines Königs aufnehmen sollte. Der Chor wurde vermutlich schon 1410 zur Beisetzung von Ruprecht III. vollendet.

Ursprünglich war der Bau eines neuen Langhauses nicht vorgesehen. Die Kombination eines hohen, stattlichen Chores mit einem älteren und kleineren Langhaus findet man heute noch bei der Sebaldus-Kirche in Nürnberg. Unter Kurfürst Ludwig III. wurde dann doch mit dem Bau eines neuen Langhauses begonnen, das 1441 fertiggestellt und genauso hoch wie der Chor war. Chor und Langhaus bilden äußerlich eine Einheit. Wahrscheinlich schon im Jahr 1441 wurde auch mit dem Bau des Westturms begonnen. Die Arbeiten mussten jedoch bis 1508 unterbrochen werden. Wahrscheinlich 1515 wurde der Turm – damals mit einem spitzen gotischen Helm – vollendet.

Als Baumeister nennen Urkunden einen Heidelberger Bürger namens Arnold Rype, der zeitweilig auch Bürgermeister der Stadt war. Im damaligen Sprachgebrauch meinte man mit Baumeister jedoch nicht den Architekten, sondern den – oft ehren- oder nebenamtlich tätigen – Finanzkoordinator. Von den Architekten der Heiliggeistkirche kennt man lediglich Hans Marx, welcher 1423 in einer Urkunde erwähnt wird und bis 1426 an der Kirche arbeitete, sowie Jorg, der bis 1439 zuständig war. Beide beaufsichtigten wahrscheinlich die Arbeiten am Langhaus. Unter Friedrich dem Siegreichen kam der berühmte Turmbauspezialist Niclaus Eseler aus Mainz nach Heidelberg, der vermutlich den Großteil der Arbeiten am Turm der Heiliggeistkirche durchführte, der jedoch erst in der letzten Bauphase von Lorenz Lechler vollendet wurde.

Am 22. Mai 1693 wurde die Kirche während des Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieges schwer beschädigt. Französische Truppen sperrten eine große Menschenmenge in der Heiliggeistkirche ein und steckten die Kirche in Brand. Erst als bereits Glocken, Balken und Gewölbeteile herabstürzten, wurde auf Bitten des jungen reformierten Pfarrers Johann Daniel Schmidtmann eine Tür geöffnet. Bei der Flucht aus der Kirche wurden viele Menschen erdrückt, andere von französischen Soldaten, die die Kirche plünderten, misshandelt.

In den Jahren 1698 bis 1700 wurde das Dach in damals moderner gebrochener Form wiederhergestellt. Bei dem Dach handelt es sich um eines der frühesten noch komplett erhaltenen Mansarddächer in Deutschland. 1709 erhielt der Turm seine barocke welsche Haube. Zwischenzeitlich angebrachte Seitenkapellen wurden bei dem Wiederaufbau entfernt.

Von 1978 bis 1985 wurde die Kirche umfassend restauriert; dabei wurde die ursprüngliche, auf Rottönen basierende Farbgebung wiederhergestellt.

Architektur

Die Heiliggeistkirche ist aus sorgfältig behauenen Sandsteinquadern aus dem Neckartal erbaut. Der Hallenumgangschor ist mit einer dreischiffigen Emporenhalle unter einem durchlaufenden Dach verbunden. Eine derartige Emporenhalle findet man in Süddeutschland äußerst selten. Den Durchgang vom Mittelschiff zu den Seitenschiffen bilden sechs Arkaden mit schlanken, kapitelllosen Rundpfeilern. Der gesamte Kirchenraum ist von einem einfachen Kreuzrippengewölbe überdeckt.

Das Niveau der nördlichen Empore liegt über dem der Südempore. Ungewöhnlich ist, dass die Seitenschiffe breiter als das Mittelschiff sind. Dies beruht darauf, dass die Emporen der Seitenschiffe von Anfang an dazu bestimmt waren, die Büchersammlung des Kurfürsten Ludwig III. aufzunehmen. Eine weitere Besonderheit liegt darin, dass die Hauptblickachse nicht wie üblich auf ein Fenster im Chor, sondern auf einen Strebepfeiler gerichtet ist. Dieses kühne Motiv der Achsenverschränkung ist bei Kirchenbauten der Parler-Schule oft zu finden. Eine baugeschichtliche Besonderheit stellt die Einziehung des Chormittelschiffs zum Triumphbogen dar.

An den Längsseiten der Kirche befinden sich gestufte, bis auf einige Wasserspeier schmucklose Strebevorlagen, dazwischen jeweils zwei übereinander angeordnete Maßwerkfenster, die großen am Chor mit drei oder vier Pässen. Der schlanke Westturm ist in den Baukörper eingezogen und besitzt ein achteckiges Glockengeschoss mit einer markanten Barockhaube.

Äußeres

Kennzeichnend für das Äußere der Heiliggeistkirche ist eine gewisse Monumentalität unter Verzicht auf Architekturdetails. An der Nordseite des Chors ist eine Sakristei angebaut mit einer gemalten Strahlenkranzmadonna an der Nordostecke als einzigem Schmuck. Das Gemälde stammt aus dem späten Mittelalter und wurde im 19. Jahrhundert sowie im Jahre 1987 restauriert.

Aus der Barockzeit stammen jeweils drei nachträglich eingebaute Portale an der Nord- und der Südseite. Über den mittleren Portalen auf Nord- und Südseite ist das Wappen des Kurfürsten Johann Wilhelm und seiner Gemahlin Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici angebracht. Unter diesem Herrscher wurde die Kirche instand gesetzt. Das barocke Hauptportal wurde 1967 an die Nordseite versetzt und durch ein neugestaltetes Portal ersetzt. An der Nordseite am Fischmarkt ist in der Außenwand ein kleiner mit Fischen geschmückter Brunnen eingelassen. Eine Markierung zeigt den Stand des Hochwassers im Jahr 1784 an.

Typisch für die Heiliggeistkirche sind die kleinen Ladenanbauten, die zwischen den Strebepfeilern eingefügt sind. Während früher Blumenhändler, Schuhmacher und Bäcker zu finden waren, sind heute neben kleinen Buchläden vor allem Andenkenbuden dort untergebracht. Der Schriftsteller Michael Buselmeier schrieb, dass sich „der Andenkenschund immer dreister breitmacht“. Auf der Südseite sind im Mauerwerk mehrere Brezeln dargestellt. Diese Darstellungen stammen aus dem 15. Jahrhundert und zeigen das richtige Größenmaß an, damit die Kunden überprüfen konnten, ob die von den Bäckern verkauften Brezeln die richtige Größe hatten.

Königsgrab

Entsprechend der Funktion als kurfürstliche Grablege befanden sich im Chor der Heiliggeistkirche insgesamt 54 Grabmale und Särge von zwischen 1410 und 1685 bestatteten Kurfürsten der Pfalz und von Angehörigen der kurfürstlichen Familien. Als besonders prächtig galt das Renaissance-Grabmal von Ottheinrich, das – schon zu seinen Lebzeiten aufgestellt – wegen der freizügigen Frauenfiguren Anstoß erregte, sodass Ottheinrich es mit Tüchern verhüllen ließ. Auch die Grabmale von Ludwig VI. und von Friedrich IV. waren aufwändig und repräsentativ gestaltet. Karl Ludwig und Karl II. verzichteten demgegenüber auf Grabmäler und ließen sich in schlichten Särgen bestatten.

Im Pfälzischen Erbfolgekrieg wurden nahezu alle Grabmäler durch Brand und Plünderungen zerstört. Nur noch die Grabplatte des Kurfürsten Ruprecht III., als Ruprecht I. deutscher König, und seiner Gemahlin Elisabeth von Hohenzollern ist erhalten. Dabei handelt es sich um die Deckplatte der zerstörten Tumba. Das Grab war ursprünglich als Hochgrab in der Mitte des Chores aufgestellt, inzwischen hat die Grabplatte einen Platz im nördlichen Seitenschiff gefunden. Sie stellt eine bedeutende Bildhauerarbeit im hochgotischen „weichen Stil“ dar. Die Gesichter sind idealisiert, der König ist mit Zepter, Krone und Reichsapfel als Zeichen seiner Würde dargestellt. Die schlanken Körper sind in schwere und reiche Gewänder gehüllt, die kunstvolle Falten werfen. Die Gesichter wurden 1693 beschädigt und danach ergänzt. Zu Füßen des Königs liegt ein Löwe als Symbol der Stärke, zu Füßen der Königin ein Hund als Zeichen der Treue. Zwischenzeitlich befand sich die Grabplatte an der Scheidemauer, seit 1936 ist sie an ihrem jetzigen Platz, allerdings verkehrt herum, aufgestellt: Statt wie ursprünglich nach Osten, der aufgehenden Sonne und dem Jüngsten Tag entgegen, blickt der König nun nach Westen.

Als der Kurfürst im Jahr 1720 die Residenz nach Mannheim verlegte, wurde die Kirche im heute nicht mehr vorhandenen Heidelberger Karmeliterkloster neue kurfürstliche Grablage. Nach dem Ende der Kurpfalz im Jahr 1803 ließ Kurfürst Maximilian IV. Joseph die Särge nach München überführen, wo sie sich in St. Michael befinden.

Im südlichen Seitenschiff befinden sich einige Grabplatten von kurfürstlichen Hofmeistern und Professoren der Universität aus dem 15. Jahrhundert mit deutlichen Spuren des Brandes aus dem Jahr 1693.[28] Sie waren bei den Restaurierungsarbeiten ab 1936 im Kirchenraum gesichert worden und wurden anschließend dort eingemauert.

Glasfenster

Die mittelalterlichen Glasfenster wurden bei dem Brand im Jahre 1693 zerstört. Die später eingebauten Fenster barsten durch die Druckwelle, die bei der Sprengung der Alten Brücke im März 1945 entstanden war. Alle jetzigen Glasfenster stammen daher aus der Zeit nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg.

Das westlichste Bleiglasfenster im südlichen Seitenschiff stammt von Johannes Schreiter und wurde 1984 eingebaut. Ursprünglich hatte Johannes Schreiter eine ganze Serie von Fenstern für die Heiliggeistkirche entworfen. Nach einem heftigen Streit wegen der von einigen als zu progressiv empfundenen Fenster wurde jedoch im Jahr 1986 beschlossen, keine weiteren Fenster von Johannes Schreiter einzubauen. Von den Fenstern, die die Beziehung der modernen Welt und der Wissenschaften zum Glauben reflektieren sollten, wurde nur das Physik-Fenster verwirklicht. Darin erkennt man unter anderem die berühmte einsteinsche Gleichung e = m c2 und das Datum des Atombombenabwurfs auf Hiroshima. Die fünf Fenster im Nordseitenschiff wurden in den Jahren 1999 bis 2001 eingebaut. Sie stammen von Hella Santarossa und behandeln das Wirken des für die Kirche namensgebenden Heiligen Geistes in der Welt. Das Glasfenster über der Westempore ist von Gottfried von Stockhausen aus dem Jahr 1967 und zeigt das Lamm auf dem Buch mit dem sieben Siegeln aus der Offenbarung des Johannes. Seine volle Pracht entfaltet es nur in der Abendsonne.

Bibliotheca Palatina

Von Beginn an war auf den Emporen die später um die Büchersammlung des Kurfürsten Ludwig III. erweiterte Stiftsbibliothek aufgestellt. Auf den Emporen gab es relativ gute Lichtverhältnisse zum Lesen. Durch wesentliche Ergänzung insbesondere durch Ottheinrich, aber auch unter Johann Casimir, wurde die Bibliothek zu der weltberühmten Bibliotheca Palatina. Während des Dreißigjährigen Krieges wurde die Sammlung im Jahr 1622 von Kurfürst Maximilian I. von Bayern als Kriegsbeute geraubt und dem Papst geschenkt. Von den rund 5000 Büchern und 3524 Handschriften gelangten 1816 nur 885 zurück und befinden sich heute in der Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg. Der Rest wird auch heute noch im Vatikan aufbewahrt. Zur 600-Jahr-Feier der Universität im Jahr 1986 kam eine repräsentative Auswahl der Bücher für eine einmalige Ausstellung vorübergehend an ihren alten Standort zurück. Das berühmteste Stück der Bibliotheca Palatina, die Manessische Liederhandschrift, hatte Kurfürst Friedrich V. mitgenommen, als er 1619 Heidelberg verließ, sodass sie dem Raub entging. Über Umwege gelangte sie nach Paris, 1888 konnte die Heidelberger Universitätsbibliothek sie zurückkaufen.

(Wikipedia)

Der Marktplatz ist ein zentraler Platz in der Altstadt von Heidelberg.

Topographie und Geschichte

Der Marktplatz ist einer der ältesten Plätze der Stadt und erfüllt seine namensgebende Funktion seit es den Platz als solchen gibt. Im Norden und Süden wird er von Häuserzeilen begrenzt, im Osten des Marktplatzes steht das Rathaus, im Westen wird der Platz von der Heiliggeistkirche dominiert.

In der Mitte des Platzes steht der Herkulesbrunnen, der zwischen 1706 und 1709 errichtet wurde und an die enormen Anstrengungen des Wiederaufbaus der Stadt nach den Verwüstungen des Pfälzischen Erbfolgekriegs erinnern soll.

Neben seiner Funktion als Ort für den Wochenmarkt diente der Platz in früheren Jahrhunderten auch als Platz für öffentliche Prozesse, wie z. B. gegen Johannes Sylvanus, die Räuberbande des Hölzerlips oder Mannefriedrich im Jahre 1812.

Nachdem der Marktplatz zwischenzeitlich auch als Parkplatz neben der damals noch für den Kraftfahrzeugverkehr freigegebenen Hauptstraße diente, ist er seit dem Ende der 1970er Jahre nunmehr nur noch für Fußgänger zugänglich. Im Winter dient der Marktplatz auch regelmäßig als ein Veranstaltungsort des Heidelberger Weihnachtsmarktes der am queeren "Pink Monday" nach dem 1. Advent pink-rosa beleuchtet ist (der andere Platz ist der Universitätsplatz).

(Wikipedia)

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Saint Kateri Tekakwitha by Robert

I wanted to capture this picture of all three saints and then find out information of them. Please see below some information of them from left to right.

The Life of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton

“Elizabeth Ann Seton is a saint. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is an American. All of us say this with special joy, and with the intention of honoring the land and the nation from which she sprang forth as the first flower in the calendar of the saints. Elizabeth Ann Seton was wholly American! Rejoice for your glorious daughter. Be proud of her. And know how to preserve her fruitful heritage.” –Pope Paul VI

Elizabeth Ann Bayley was born in New York City on August 28, 1774 to a prominent Episcopal family, and lost her mother at the age of three. In 1794, at the age of 19, Elizabeth married William Magee Seton, a wealthy businessman with whom she had five children. William died of tuberculosis in 1803, leaving Elizabeth a young widow. After discovering Catholicism in Italy, where her husband had died, Elizabeth returned to the United States and entered the Catholic Church in 1805 in New York.

After a number of difficult years, Elizabeth moved in 1809 to Emmitsburg, Maryland, where she founded the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph’s, the first community for religious women established in the United States. She also began St. Joseph’s Academy and Free School, planting the seeds of Catholic education in the United States. Her legacy now includes religious congregations in the United States and Canada, whose members work on the unmet needs of people living in poverty in North America and beyond.

Mother Seton, as she is often called, was canonized on Sunday, September 14, 1975 in St. Peter’s Square by Pope Paul VI. She was the first citizen born in the United States to be given the title of “Saint.” Her remains are entombed in Emmitsburg in the Basilica at the National Shrine that bears her name.

Frances Cabrini, our University’s namesake, was born on July 15, 1850 in the small village of Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy. Enthralled by the stories of missionaries, she made up her mind to join a religious order.

Her dream was not easily acquired, as her frail health held her back from joining the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, the order who had been her teachers and mentors.

Undeterred, in 1880, Frances founded her own order with seven other young women—the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

She and her Sisters wanted to be missionaries in China and despite all obstacles; she visited Rome to obtain an audience with Pope Leo XIII. The Pope told Frances to go “not to the East, but to the West” to New York rather than to China as she had expected. She was to help the thousands of Italian immigrants already in the United States.

In 1889, New York seemed to be filled with chaos and poverty, and into this new world stepped Mother Frances Cabrini and her Sister companions. Cabrini organized catechism and education classes for the Italian immigrants and provided for the needs of the many orphans. She established schools and orphanages despite tremendous odds.

Soon, requests for her to open schools came to Frances Cabrini from all over the world. She traveled to Europe, Central and South America, and throughout the United States. She made 24 trans-Atlantic crossings and established 67 institutions: schools, hospitals, and orphanages.

Mother Cabrini

On December 22, 1917, in Chicago, she died. In 1946, she was canonized a saint by PopePius XII in recognition of her holiness and service to mankind.

Today, the Missionary Sisters and their lay collaborator can be found on six continents and 17 countries throughout the world; wherever there is a need.

Discover more about Saint Frances’s life and indomitable spirit at mothercabrini.org.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the first Native American to be recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. She was born in 1656, in the Mohawk village of Ossernenon. Her mother was an Algonquin, who was captured by the Mohawks and who took a Mohawk chief for her husband.

She contracted smallpox as a four-year-old child which scarred her skin. The scars were a source of humiliation in her youth. She was commonly seen wearing a blanket to hide her face. Worse, her entire family died during the outbreak. Kateri Tekakwitha was subsequently raised by her uncle, who was the chief of a Mohawk clan.

Kateri was known as a skilled worker, who was diligent and patient. However, she refused to marry. When her adoptive parents proposed a suitor to her, she refused to entertain the proposal. They punished her by giving her more work to do, but she did not give in. Instead, she remained quiet and diligent. Eventually they were forced to relent and accept that she had no interest in marriage.

At age 19, Kateri Tekakwitha converted to Catholicism, taking a vow of chastity and pledging to marry only Jesus Christ. Her decision was very unpopular with her adoptive parents and their neighbors. Some of her neighbors started rumors of sorcery. To avoid persecution, she traveled to a Christian native community south of Montreal.

Bartholomew of Braga _7277 by Howard Koons

4 2

From Wikipedia:

Blessed Bartholomew of Braga (3 May 1514 - 16 July 1590) - born Bartolomeu Fernandes and in religious Bartolomeu dos Mártires - was a Portuguese Roman Catholic and a professed member from the Order of Preachers as well as the Archbishop Emeritus of Braga. Fernandes participated in the Council of Trent and also collaborated with Saint Charles Borromeo at the council while also establishing a series of hospitals and hospices in Braga while publishing a range of works from catechism to other topics.

The sainthood process commenced under Pope Benedict XIV on 11 September 1754 and he was titled as a Servant of God while Pope Gregory XVI later named him as Venerable on 23 May 1845. Pope John Paul II beatified Fernandes in Saint Peter's Square on 4 November 2001.

Grave of Marietje Kessels, raped and murdered in a Church in 1900 at the age of 11 (her story in description) by Corry Kruijzen

nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moord_op_Marietje_Kessels

Murder of Marietje Kessels

The murder of Marietje Kessels in the Heilig Hartkerk of the Noordhoek in Tilburg is a crime that took place on 22 August 1900 and caused a national commotion. The case was never resolved, and 'Marietje Kessels' has remained a familiar name in Tilburg ever since.

The murder and the acquittal

Maria Catharina Wilhelmina (Marietje) Kessels, born on March 2, 1889, was the third child of Maria Philomena Crijns and Mathieu Kessels, owner of the Royal Dutch Factory of Musical Instruments in the later disappeared Industriestraat in Tilburg.

She was on her way to post a letter on Wednesday, August 22, 1900, and went to her piano teacher, Gerard Schellekens, to cancel a lesson. From the cafe De Zwarte Ruiter opposite the Heilig Hartkerk, Maria Panhuijsen saw that Marietje's attention was drawn by a man in the church portal. [1]

When she did not come home, the family started a search. She had not visited her piano teacher, and when it also appeared that the letter had not arrived at the destination, the police instituted a major investigation. This was led by Commissioner Caarls. The police searched the trailers of fairgrounds who visited Tilburg at the time of the disappearance. The environment was searched with the help of the staff of the Kessels factory. Two days after the disappearance, Marietje's body was found in the vault of the church. The body showed signs of rape.

On 27 August 1900 the death certificate of Maria Catharina Wilhelmina Kessels was signed. The next day she was buried.

During the investigation, the police concentrated on two suspects: the painter Gasparus Mutsaers, who worked in the church, and the suitor Johan van Isterdaal. After the discovery of the body, the sexton was taken to the town hall with fascination. Mutsaers was imprisoned because he had some clothes and a church book from Marietje. Mutsaers claimed that he had accepted it from the sexton. Mutsaers was seen as the main suspect. He frequently changed his statements and often spoke against it. Some witness statements spoke against the sexton. He was also the one who had a key from all rooms in the church.

Former postman Jongbloets had heard howling at the church around 11 o'clock. He then saw the minister coming from the choir, who looked at him with intimidation. Influenced by third parties, Jongbloets withdrew in the appeal the validity of his identification. [2] According to other witnesses, the seeker would have locked the door of the church around noon, which was very unusual. Moreover, he did not hear the Angelus at 12 o'clock.

Pastor George van Zinnicq Bergmann led the early mass at 6 o'clock in the morning according to the official report. At half past eight the pastor did the catechism for 70 communicants, including Marietje. Two chaplains did the other miss in the morning. Thereafter, the chaplains and he, according to his statement, stayed in their rooms. [3] Whether he could be regarded as a suspect has not been investigated.

A complaint was only filed against Mutsaers, but he was acquitted in court and on appeal.

Speculations about the perpetrator

No investigation was conducted against other potential suspects, Father George of Zinnicq Bergmann and the chaplain. It was unacceptable at that time to regard clergy as suspects. [4] Especially in socialist and anti-clerical circles, rumors and mocking songs soon circulated in which the priest was appointed guilty.

The view that the pastor was the perpetrator is also adhered to by the publicist Ed Schilders, who in 1988 dedicated a book to the murder case entitled Moordhoek - The murder of Marietje Kessels in a catholic church (published by Boekhandel Gianotten, Tilburg).

Three Tilburg lawyers, who studied a file from the archive of a law firm in Breda, on the other hand, came to the conclusion that the pastor "certainly did not do it". [5]

In the Kessels family it is assumed, according to tradition, that the pastor was the perpetrator. In October 2011 the niece of Marietje, Godelieve Kessels, published a book called The murder of Marietje Kessels. She points to the pastor on the basis of conversations with her father Mathieu, the younger brother of Marietje Kessels, who was taken by his father as the eldest son in confidence. He was four years old when his sister was killed and later spoke frequently with his parents about who the perpetrator could be. Father Kessels was a wealthy Tilburger and the owner of the Royal Dutch Musical Instruments Factory. Under pressure from papal representatives - who would have visited Marietje's parents in 1908 - he would be forced not to accuse the pastor. They would have confirmed that Van Zinnicq Bergmann was the murderer, but if Father Kessels would bring this out, then the whole priest would have the whole Catholic church.

Requiem æternam by Lawrence OP

From the Catechism: "From the beginning, the Church has honoured the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.”

November is the month of prayer for the faithful departed, especially today on All Souls day, and my sermon for today can be read here.

In this photo, Dominican nuns are seen praying at the cemetery of their monastery.

Purgatorio by Lawrence OP

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The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire: 'As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.'

This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin." From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: 'Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.'"

This altar frontal in the crypt of St Sepulchres at the Franciscan Monastery in Washington DC shows the Holy Souls in Purgatory who are being purified by flames of divine love. The angels bring 'suffrages', that is, consolations which come from our prayers and acts of charity for the holy souls, which is especially recommended in November.

My sermon for All Souls day can be read here.

The Spirit with Sevenfold Gifts by Lawrence OP

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The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are enumerated in Isaiah 11:2-3. They are present in their fullness in Jesus Christ but are found in all Christians who are in a state of grace. We receive them when we are infused with sanctifying grace, the life of God within us—as, for example, when we receive a sacrament worthily. As the current Catechism of the Catholic Church notes, "They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them." Infused with His gifts, we respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as if by instinct, the way Christ Himself would.

This stained glass window is in Iffley parish church.

Not us, but these might have become our neighbors had we remained in Tallahassee, FL by Green Valley Boys

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Miccosukee Land Co-op near Tallahassee, FL was a comfortable commune for old hippies like Billy and more conventional folks, too, when Andy and I met one of its founding members, Dr. Jerry Brudenell, at choir practice at the same Lutheran church where Andy and I completed adult catechism classes together in the early 1980s.

Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905, f. 03v by e-codices

Manuscript title: Codex Testeriano Bodmer

Origin: Mexico

Period: 16th century

Image source: Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905: Codex Testeriano Bodmer (www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/fmb/cb-0905).

"Male and Female He Created Them..." - Genesis 1 by Sharon Tate Soberon

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"God created man in HIS own image, in the image of God HE created him; MALE and FEMALE HE created them." ~ Genesis 1:27

“Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, God made them MALE and FEMALE. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh…” Mark 10:6-8

These verses often go together during the Sunday readings…

———-

Art image for today’s 1st reading from Genesis.

“…The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.

“So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, He took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that He had taken from the man. When He brought her to the man, the man said:

‘This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.’

“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh…”

From Genesis 2:18-25

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Love and Sexuality...

"Since God created men and women in HIS image, we are made for Love!"

"God's plan for human Love and sexuality is good news! "The joy of Love experienced by families is also the joy of the Church" (Amoris Laetitia, no. 1). All that the Catholic Church teaches about human Love and sexuality comes from this truth: that God, who is Love, created all people in HIS image—male and female HE created them—to share HIS Love and therefore to reflect HIS Love in the world and in their lives. Jesus Christ fully reveals who God is as a Triune communion of Love—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. HE shows us the face of God, and shows us who we are, and who we are called to be. Love and sexuality are bound up in this noble Truth!

"Catholic teachings on Love and Sexuality are founded on God's revelation of HIMSELF in Christ Jesus—as handed on through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition (see CCC, nos. 74-100), accessible to the light of Faith; and, on the nature of the human person and the natural moral law, accessible to right reason and illuminated by Faith.

"Here we will consider what it means to be made in God's image, why male and female are foundational to God's design, the gift of Love, the nature of marriage, and why chastity is essential to Love rightly.

"To learn more about God's plan for Love and Sexuality, please explore the sections below on this page. Also, see The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), nos. 355-421, 1601-1666, 2331-2400, and 2514-2533." - www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/what-we-believe/love-...

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I am Honored to have this Image in use at:

~ hdmusicvideos.info/2016/06/21/why-design-your-own-tee-shi...

~ formonline.org

~ www.hermesoutletcompany.com/say-someone-lost-father

~ hit 50,000 Views in 7/16

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Search source - beach sex & sex beach - interesting... hopefully they are reading my post & getting better information than that in their search!

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Filename - Male and Female He created them - DSC_0318 S and G walking on the Beach Jennifer effect NR 2013

Following the Son...

Blessings,

Sharon 🌻

God's Beauty In Nature is calling us into a deeper relationship with Him...

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Bloggers are welcome to use my artwork with, “Image from Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon under Creative Commons license”, and a link back to the images you use, and please let me know in the comment section below, thank you...

Art4TheGlryOfGod Photography by Sharon

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Faith, Hope & Love in daily Art meditations...

X ~ www.twitter.com/Art4ThGlryOfGod

Flickr (complete portfolio) ~ www.Flickr.com/4ThGlryOfGod

Fine Art America (canvas, prints & cards) ~ fineartamerica.com/profiles/sharon-soberon

Pixoto (awards) ~ www.pixoto.com/4thegloryofgod/awards

Music Videos (from my Art Photography) ~

www.youtube.com/user/4ThGlryOfGod

Blaisdon Gloucestershire by jmc4 - Church Explorer

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Church of St Michael & All Angels, Blaisdon, Gloucestershire www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/z71E32 - There was a church here in the 13c, in 1262 the Crown granted 3 oaks for its repair and the first rector is recorded in 1294.

The original church consisted of an aisleless nave and chancel, to which was added in 15c a three stage tower with a tiled pyramid roof . It had a large east window, possibly 14c , a south door to the chancel, and a western gallery.

Pre 1280 the rectory was sequestrated for a time because of the rector's non-residence and failure to appear for ordination. William Berkeley, a monk of Flaxley Abbey, was instituted in 1476, having had a papal dispensation; he was presumably the monk of that name who became abbot. William Marten, the rector in 1518, was given penance for immorality. Henry a Fowle was found barely satisfactory in doctrine in 1551 and was deprived, presumably for being married, in 1554. His successor Henry Hooper was a former chantry priest of Mitcheldean. Roger Parsons, who was also Vicar of Brockworth, was non-resident in 1563 but had provided a curate who was said to serve diligently. Thomas Cooke, rector from 1570, was censured in 1576 for failing to preach quarterly sermons and to teach the catechism and for playing cards in low company; in 1584 he was described as neither a graduate nor a preacher

During the 19c the church being a poor state of repair was taken down, leaving only the tower standing.

On the 21st of May 1866 the rebuilding began to designs by architect F R Kempson of Hereford consisting of chancel, nave of four bays, north aisle and south porch . The cost of £2000 was borne by Henry Crawshay of Oaklands Park who 2 years earlier had taken over the Blaisdon estate from Mrs Anna Gordon of Kemble. It was built by Messrs Colly & Cullis of Tewkesbury.

In 1680 there were 4 bells recast by Abraham Rudhall in 1732, when probably another was added. One of the five was recast by John Rudhall in 1829 and all 5 bells were again recast and a sixth added in 1912 paid for by Mary Helen MacIver (who had the right to the advowson) in memory of her parents Peter and Isabella Stubs of Blaisdon Hall. At the same time her husband Colin donated the clock made by Joyce of Whitchurch

The organ was installed in 1906 by J W Walker & Sons Ltd .

Veni, Dator Munerum by Lawrence OP

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"The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations" - Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 1831.

Mosaic detail from one of the side chapels in the Rosary Basilica of Lourdes.

Magdelaine LaFramboise Illustration, Lowell Area Trailway ~ Lowell, Michigan by 1coffeelady

No images exist of Magdelaine. The painting to the left is a depiction of her by an artist using descriptions. The building in the background was her house (above) on Mackinac Island which is Harbor View Inn today.

Magdelaine LaFramboise

1780-1846

Magdelaine (Magdelene< Madelene) was born in 1780 to Jean Baptiste Marcot (te) & Marie Neskesh, daughter of Odawa Chief Returning Cloud (Kewinaquot).

Marcotte was a Northwest Company Factor or Chief Agent. He helped to move the mainland Fort Michilimackinac buildings to Mackinac Island (1780). Jean Baptiste Marcotte had seven children. Before his death he sent his older children to Montreal to be educated. Madelaine was not sent because her father died when she was just three years old. She moved with her mother & sisters from Fort St. Joseph to Mackinac when the British abandoned that Fort to the United States. Later, they returned to live in the Odawa village at the mouth of the Grand River.

Magdelaine married French fur trader Joseph LaFramboise in 1794. The couple had two children, daughter Josette (1795) & son Joseph Jr. (1805). Madame LaFramboise was Michigan's first recorded businesswoman. After Joseph was killed in 1806, Madame obtained a trader's license & took over as the fur trader. She visited her posts & supported her clerks & engages. It was said "there was at that time no better fur trader than she."

After the War of 1812, she began doing business with John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. The American Fur Company records in 1818 show that she earned between $5,000 & $10,000 per year. A good trader of the time was happy to earn $1,000 per year.

Madame was deeply religious & energetic. She taught catechism to local children, ran a boarding house for Odawa children so they could go to school, helped the poor, paid the salaries of the Mackinac priests, & finally gave a tract of land for St. Anne's Church. Her only request was that she & her daughter be buried under the high altar of that church. Madame Laframboise died in 1846 , at the age of sixty-six.

Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905, f. 04r by e-codices

Manuscript title: Codex Testeriano Bodmer

Origin: Mexico

Period: 16th century

Image source: Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905: Codex Testeriano Bodmer (www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/fmb/cb-0905).

Moutier d'Ahun Boiseries MG_3347 by THIERRY TAVARES

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Au delà de l'histoire, tout compte fait assez ordinaire, de ce modeste monastère, les superbes boiseries sculptées conservées dans l'église en sont aujourd'hui le principal intérêt. Elles sont classées parmi les monuments historiques depuis 1889.

Commandées par les moines et leurs prieurs (Jean Le Moyne, puis Etienne Le Moyne, prieurs de 1640 1694) ces boiseries ont été réalisées à l'occasion de deux campagnes (1673-1674 et 1678-1681) par l'atelier d'un sculpteur auvergnat, Simon Bouer [1], originaire du bourg de Menat (actuel Puy-de-Dôme). De la première période date le grand retable à colonnes torses ; de la seconde période les entourages et les décorations des portes des chapelles latérales du chœur, les 26 stalles richement décorées de visages, de motifs floraux et d'animaux fantastiques (1678-1680), le jubé (1681), ainsi que l'imposant lutrin et le Christ biface. Ce magnifique ensemble de l'art baroque provincial, unique en Limousin, mérite incontestablement une visite. [Alain Corneau y a tourné quelques scènes de son film "Tous les matins du monde", qui retrace avec talent la vie du musicien et compositeur Marin Marais (1656-1728), avec, dans les premiers rôles, Jean-Pierre Marielle et Gérard Depardieu ].

A une époque indéterminée, que la tradition orale du village situe pendant la période révolutionnaire, les boiseries du moutier ont été recouvertes d'une couche d'enduit blanc. L'administration des Beaux-Arts tenta sans succès de les décaper en 1896. Le mérite du nettoyage reviendra à l'abbé Victor-Julien Malapert, curé de Moutier-d'Ahun de 1904 à 1963, qui consacra sa vie à rendre ces boiseries à leur état d'origine (il fut souvent aidé, dit-on, volens nolens, par les enfants du catéchisme...) Un nouveau nettoyage superficiel, assorti d'un traitement des bois, a été effectué il y a une quinzaine d'années en vue de protéger ce témoignage inestimable de l'art de Simon Bouer et de son atelier, ainsi que de la volonté des moines d'embellir le lieu de leurs cinq offices quotidiens. (Les monogrammes des religieux ayant commandé ces travaux sont gravés sur la partie inférieure des boiseries, des deux côtés en avant des stalles.)

Beyond the history, in the final analysis rather ordinary, of this modest monastery, the superb carved woodworks preserved in the church are the principal interest today. They are classified among the historic buildings since 1889.

Ordered by the monks and their priors (Jean Moyne, then Etienne Moyne, priors of 1640 1694) these woodworks were carried out at the time of two campaigns (1673-1674 and 1678-1681) by the workshop of a sculptor auvergnat, Simon Bouer [1], originating in the borough of Menat (current Puy-de-Dome). First period dates the large retable with twisted columns; second period entourages and the decorations of the doors of the side chapels of the chorus, 26 stalls richly decorated with faces, floral reasons and fantastic animals (1678-1680), jubé (1681), as well as the imposing lectern and double-side Christ. This splendid whole of the provincial, single Baroque art in the Limousin, deserves a visit incontestably. [Alain Corneau turned some scenes of its film there “Every morning of the world”, which recalls with talent the life of the musician and type-setter Marin Marais (1656-1728), with, in the first roles, Jean-Pierre Marielle and Gerard Depardieu].

At one unspecified time, that the oral tradition of the village locates for the revolutionary period, the woodworks of the moutier were covered with a coat of white plaster. The administration of the Art schools tried without success to pickle them in 1896. The merit of cleaning will be allocated to the abbot Victor-Julien Malapert, priest of Moutier-in Ahun of 1904 to 1963, which devoted its life to return these woodworks to their country of origin (it was often helped, tells one, volens nolens, by the children of catechism…) A new surface cleaning, together with a treatment of wood, was carried out there are about fifteen years with a view protect this priceless testimony from art from Simon Bouer and his workshop, as well as will of the monks to embellish the place of their five daily offices. (The monogrammes of the monk having ordered this work are engraved on the lower part of the woodworks, on the two sides in front of the stalls.)

View On Black

10. Will God suffer such disobedience and apostasy to go unpunished? by ON BORROWED TIME

By no means (Rom 5:12; Heb 9:27); but he is terribly displeased with our inborn as well as actual sins, and will punish them in just judgment in time and eternity (Heb 10:31†; Gen 2:17†; Ps 5:4–6†; 7:11†; 50:21†; 90:11†; Nah 1:2†; Exod 20:5†; 34:7†; Deut 28:15†; Rom 1:18†; 2:5, 9†; Eph 5:6†), as he has declared: Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them (Deut 27:26; Gal 3:10).

Red Angel by Lawrence OP

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From the chapel of the Trinity Hospital in Leicester. 2 October is the feast of the guardian angels.

The idea that each soul has assigned to it a personal guardian angel has been long accepted by the Church and is a truth of our faith. From the Gospel of the day's Liturgy we read: "See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven" (Matthew 18:10). The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that "the existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls 'angels' is a truth of faith (328)." From our birth until our death, man is surrounded by the protection and intercession of angels, particularly our guardian angel: "Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life (336)."

Church of the Holy Spirit by A.Davey

The Church of the Holy Ghost or Church of the Holy Spirit (Estonian: Püha Vaimu kirik) is a medieval Lutheran church in the old town district of Tallinn, Estonia. It is located behind Raekoja plats, and lies opposite the Great Guild and Maiasmokk, Tallinn's oldest café.

Building of the church probably started sometime during the first half of the 13th century, and the church is mentioned in written sources for the first time in 1319.

The fact that the church does not face due east may suggest that it was erected in an already built-up area and had to adapt to the street layout.

Originally the church was part of a greater almshouse complex, and dedicated to the Holy Ghost, and apart from the main entrance on the north side of the church, there was also an entrance from the almshouse yard, on the south side of the church.

The oldest part of the church is the choir, to which the aisle was added sometime in the late 13th century or early 14th century.

The original wooden ceiling was replaced in 1360, when the present vaulting, tower and large gothic windows were added.

In 1630, the tower received its current appearance, which however is a reconstruction as the tower was ravaged by fire in both 1684 and 2002.

The church was the first church in Estonia to hold services in Estonian, and the first extracts of the catechism to be published in Estonian were printed here in 1535.

Chronicler Balthasar Russow (1536-1600) was a pastor of the church.[3]

The church has a plain, white-washed exterior with crow-stepped gables, an octagonal tower with the above-mentioned reconstructed renaissance spire and few but rather large Gothic windows with fine stone dressing. The stained glass windows are late 20th century. Most noteworthy in the exterior is the finely carved clock, a work by Christian Ackermann (late 17th century).

The layout of the interior is somewhat unusual, with the choir located asymmetrically to the north and a two-aisled nave. Of the interior decoration, especially the remarkable main altar, a work by Bernt Notke, is noteworthy. It dates from 1483 and depicts, on the central panel, the descent of the Holy Ghost on the twelve apostles at Pentecost. The galleries in the church are richly decorated with scenes from the Bible, painted in the mid-17th century and probably by different artists. Of more recent origin is the organ, dating from 1929, and a commemorative plaque next to the altar, put up in memory of British sailors who lost their lives during the British campaign in the Baltic (1918–1919).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Spirit,_Tallinn

Heidelberg 2021 – Church of the Holy Spirit by Michiel2005

The church was built between 1398–1515. It changed denomination ten times and from 1706 to 1936 a wall was constructed in the church, so that one part was catholic and the other part lutheran. It is also the birthplace of the 1563 Heidelberg Catechism, a leading document of reformed churches worldwide.

St John Vianney by Lawrence OP

"You who are not great saints, you still have many moments when you taste the sweetness of prayer and of the presence of God: these are visits of the Holy Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit, the heart expands – bathes itself in divine love. A fish never complains of having too much water, neither does a good Christian ever complain of being too long with the good God. There are some people who find religion wearisome, and it is because they have not the Holy Spirit."

– from St John Vianney's 'Catechism on the Holy Spirit'.

Statue from the Basilica of Ars where St John Vianney's shrine is.

Mithraism..rituals, and a basin...banquet scene...rising from the rock..Mithras weapons and animals such as dogs, serpents, dolphins, crocodiles, lobsters and snails around. by Hughes Songe

Mithraism, also known as the Mithraic mysteries, was a mystery religion centred around the god Mithras that was practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to the 4th century CE. The religion was inspired by Persian worship of the god Mithra (proto-Indo-Iranian Mitra), though the Greek Mithras was linked to a new and distinctive imagery, and the level of continuity between Persian and Greco-Roman practice is debated.The mysteries were popular in the Roman military.

Worshippers of Mithras had a complex system of seven grades of initiation and communal ritual meals. Initiates called themselves syndexioi, those “united by the handshake”. They met in underground temples, called mithraea, which survive in large numbers. The cult appears to have had its centre in Rome. Numerous archaeological finds, including meeting places, monuments and artifacts, have contributed to modern knowledge about Mithraism throughout the Roman Empire. The iconic scenes of Mithras show him being born from a rock, slaughtering a bull, and sharing a banquet with the god Sol (the Sun). About 420 sites have yielded materials related to the cult. Among the items found are about 1000 inscriptions, 700 examples of the bull-killing scene (tauroctony), and about 400 other monuments.[6] It has been estimated that there would have been at least 680 mithraea in Rome. No written narratives or theology from the religion survive; limited information can be derived from the inscriptions and brief or passing references in Greek and Latin literature. Interpretation of the physical evidence remains problematic and contested. The Romans regarded the mysteries as having Persian or Zoroastrian sources. Since the early 1970s the dominant scholarship has noted dissimilarities between Persian Mithra-worship and the Roman Mithraic mysteries. In this context, Mithraism has sometimes been viewed as a rival of early Christianity with similarities such as liberator-saviour, hierarchy of adepts (bishops, presbyters, deacons), communal meal and a hard struggle of Good and Evil (bull-killing/crucifixion). The term "Mithraism" is a modern convention. Writers of the Roman era referred to it by phrases such as "Mithraic mysteries", "mysteries of Mithras" or "mysteries of the Persians". Modern sources sometimes refer to the Greco-Roman religion as "Roman Mithraism" or "Western Mithraism" to distinguish it from Persian worship of Mithra. The exact form of a Latin or classical Greek word varies due to the grammatical process of declension. There is archaeological evidence that in Latin worshippers wrote the nominative form of the god's name as "Mithras". However, in Porphyry's Greek text De Abstinentia (Περὶ ἀποχῆς ἐμψύχων), there is a reference to the now-lost histories of the Mithraic mysteries by Euboulus and Pallas, the wording of which suggests that these authors treated the name "Mithra" as an indeclinable foreign word. Sanskrit Mitra (मित्रः), the name of a god praised in the Rig Veda. In Sanskrit, "mitra" means "friend" or "friendship". the form mi-it-ra-, found in an inscribed peace treaty between the Hittites and the kingdom of Mitanni, from about 1400 BCE. Iranian "Mithra" and Sanskrit "Mitra" are believed to come from an Indo-Iranian word mitra meaning contract / agreement / covenant. Modern historians have different conceptions about whether these names refer to the same god or not. John R. Hinnells has written of Mitra / Mithra / Mithras as a single deity worshipped in several different religions.On the other hand, David Ulansey considers the bull-slaying Mithras to be a new god who began to be worshipped in the 1st century BCE, and to whom an old name was applied. Mary Boyce, a researcher of ancient Iranian religions, writes that even though Roman Empire Mithraism seems to have had less Iranian content than historians used to think, none the less "as the name Mithras alone shows, this content was of some importance". Mithras-worship in the Roman Empire was characterized by images of the god slaughtering a bull. Other images of Mithras are found in the Roman temples, for instance Mithras banqueting with Sol, and depictions of the birth of Mithras from a rock. The practice of depicting the god slaying a bull seems to be specific to Roman Mithraism. According to David Ulansey, this is "perhaps the most important example" of evident difference between Iranian and Roman traditions: "...The image may be a relief, or free-standing, and side details may be present or omitted. The centre-piece is Mithras clothed in Anatolian costume and wearing a Phrygian cap; who is kneeling on the exhausted bull, holding it by the nostrils with his left hand, and stabbing it with his right. As he does so, he looks over his shoulder towards the figure of Sol.

Banquet

The second most important scene after the tauroctony in Mithraic art is the so-called banquet scene. The banquet scene features Mithras and the Sol Invictus banqueting on the hide of the slaughtered bull. On the specific banquet scene on the Fiano Romano relief, one of the torchbearers points a caduceus towards the base of an altar, where flames appear to spring up. Robert Turcan has argued that since the caduceus is an attribute of Mercury, and in mythology Mercury is depicted as a psychopomp, the eliciting of flames in this scene is referring to the dispatch of human souls and expressing the Mithraic doctrine on this matter. Turcan also connects this event to the tauroctony: the blood of the slain bull has soaked the ground at the base of the altar, and from the blood the souls are elicited in flames by the caduceus.

Birth from a rock..Mithras is depicted as being born from a rock. He is shown as emerging from a rock, already in his youth, with a dagger in one hand and a torch in the other. He is nude, standing with his legs together, and is wearing a Phrygian cap. However, there are variations. Sometimes he is shown as coming out of the rock as a child, and in one instance he has a globe in one hand; sometimes a thunderbolt is seen. There are also depictions in which flames are shooting from the rock and also from Mithras' cap. One statue had its base perforated so that it could serve as a fountain, and the base of another has the mask of the water god. Sometimes Mithras also has other weapons such as bows and arrows, and there are also animals such as dogs, serpents, dolphins, eagles, other birds, lion, crocodiles, lobsters and snails around. On some reliefs, there is a bearded figure identified as Oceanus, the water god, and on some there are the gods of the four winds. In these reliefs, the four elements could be invoked together. Sometimes Victoria, Luna, Sol and Saturn also seem to play a role. Saturn in particular is often seen handing over the dagger to Mithras so that he can perform his mighty deeds. In some depictions, Cautes and Cautopates are also present; sometimes they are depicted as shepherds. On some occasions, an amphora is seen, and a few instances show variations like an egg birth or a tree birth. Some interpretations show that the birth of Mithras was celebrated by lighting torches or candles.

Rituals and worship

"the Mithraic Mysteries had no public ceremonies of its own. The festival of Natalis Invicti, held on 25 December, was a general festival of the Sun, and by no means specific to the Mysteries of Mithras."Mithraic initiates were required to swear an oath of secrecy and dedication, and some grade rituals involved the recital of a catechism, wherein the initiate was asked a series of questions pertaining to the initiation symbolism and had to reply with specific answers.

... He will say: 'Where ... ?

... he is/(you are?) there (then/thereupon?) at a loss?' Say: ... Say: 'Night'. He will say: 'Where ... ?' ... Say: 'All things ...' (He will say): '... you are called ... ?' Say: 'Because of the summery ...' ... having become ... he/it has the fiery ... (He will say): '... did you receive/inherit?' Say: 'In a pit'. He will say: 'Where is your ...?... (Say): '...(in the...) Leonteion.' He will say: 'Will you gird?' The (heavenly?) ...(Say): '... death'. He will say: 'Why, having girded yourself, ...?' '... this (has?) four tassels. Very sharp and ... '... much'. He will say: ...? (Say: '... because of/through?) hot and cold'. He will say: ...? (Say): '... red ... linen'. He will say: 'Why?' Say: '... red border; the linen, however, ...' (He will say): '... has been wrapped?' Say: 'The savior's ...' He will say: 'Who is the father?' Say: 'The one who (begets?) everything ...' (He will say): '('How ?)... did you become a Leo?' Say: 'By the ... of the father'. ... Say: 'Drink and food'. He will say '...?'

'... in the seven-...

Almost no Mithraic scripture or first-hand account of its highly secret rituals survives; with the exception of the aforementioned oath and catechism, and the document known as the Mithras Liturgy, from 4th century Egypt, whose status as a Mithraist text has been questioned by scholars including Franz Cumont. The walls of Mithraea were commonly whitewashed, and where this survives it tends to carry extensive repositories of graffiti; and these, together with inscriptions on Mithraic monuments, form the main source for Mithraic texts. Nevertheless, it is clear from the archeology of numerous Mithraea that most rituals were associated with feasting – as eating utensils and food residues are almost invariably found. These tend to include both animal bones and also very large quantities of fruit residues. The presence of large amounts of cherry-stones in particular would tend to confirm mid-summer (late June, early July) as a season especially associated with Mithraic festivities. The Virunum album, in the form of an inscribed bronze plaque, records a Mithraic festival of commemoration as taking place on 26 June 184. Beck argues that religious celebrations on this date are indicative of special significance being given to the Summer solstice; but this time of the year coincides with ancient recognition of the solar maximum at midsummer, whilst iconographically identical holidays such as Litha, St John's Eve, and Jāņi are observed also. For their feasts, Mithraic initiates reclined on stone benches arranged along the longer sides of the Mithraeum – typically there might be room for 15 to 30 diners, but very rarely many more than 40 men. Counterpart dining rooms, or triclinia, were to be found above ground in the precincts of almost any temple or religious sanctuary in the Roman empire, and such rooms were commonly used for their regular feasts by Roman 'clubs', or collegia. Mithraic feasts probably performed a very similar function for Mithraists as the collegia did for those entitled to join them; indeed, since qualification for Roman collegia tended to be restricted to particular families, localities or traditional trades, Mithraism may have functioned in part as providing clubs for the unclubbed. However, the size of the Mithraeum is not necessarily an indication of the size of the congregation.Each Mithraeum had several altars at the further end, underneath the representation of the tauroctony, and also commonly contained considerable numbers of subsidiary altars, both in the main Mithraeum chamber and in the ante-chamber or narthex. These altars, which are of the standard Roman pattern, each carry a named dedicatory inscription from a particular initiate, who dedicated the altar to Mithras "in fulfillment of his vow", in gratitude for favours received. Burned residues of animal entrails are commonly found on the main altars indicating regular sacrificial use. However, Mithraea do not commonly appear to have been provided with facilities for ritual slaughter of sacrificial animals (a highly specialised function in Roman religion), and it may be presumed that a Mithraeum would have made arrangements for this service to be provided for them in co-operation with the professional victimarius of the civic cult. Prayers were addressed to the Sun three times a day, and Sunday was especially sacred. It is doubtful whether Mithraism had a monolithic and internally consistent doctrine. It may have varied from location to location.However, the iconography is relatively coherent. It had no predominant sanctuary or cultic centre; and, although each Mithraeum had its own officers and functionaries, there was no central supervisory authority. In some Mithraea, such as that at Dura Europos, wall paintings depict prophets carrying scrolls, but no named Mithraic sages are known, nor does any reference give the title of any Mithraic scripture or teaching. It is known that intitates could transfer with their grades from one Mithraeum to another. Mithraeum..A mithraeum found in the ruins of Ostia Antica, Italy. Temples of Mithras are sunk below ground, windowless, and very distinctive. In cities, the basement of an apartment block might be converted; elsewhere they might be excavated and vaulted over, or converted from a natural cave. Mithraic temples are common in the empire; although unevenly distributed, with considerable numbers found in Rome, Ostia, Numidia, Dalmatia, Britain and along the Rhine/Danube frontier; while being somewhat less common in Greece, Egypt, and Syria. According to Walter Burkert, the secret character of Mithriac rituals meant that Mithraism could only be practiced within a Mithraeum. Some new finds at Tienen show evidence of large-scale feasting and suggest that the mystery religion may not have been as secretive as was generally believed.

For the most part, Mithraea tend to be small, externally undistinguished, and cheaply constructed; the cult generally preferring to create a new centre rather than expand an existing one. The Mithraeum represented the cave to which Mithras carried and then killed the bull; and where stone vaulting could not be afforded, the effect would be imitated with lath and plaster. They are commonly located close to springs or streams; fresh water appears to have been required for some Mithraic rituals, and a basin is often incorporated into the structure. There is usually a narthex or ante-chamber at the entrance, and often other ancillary rooms for storage and the preparation of food. The extant mithraea present us with actual physical remains of the architectural structures of the sacred spaces of the Mithraic cult. Mithraeum is a modern coinage and mithraists referred to their sacred structures as speleum or antrum (cave), crypta (underground hallway or corridor), fanum (sacred or holy place), or even templum (a temple or a sacred space). In their basic form, mithraea were entirely different from the temples and shrines of other cults. In the standard pattern of Roman religious precincts, the temple building functioned as a house for the god, who was intended to be able to view through the opened doors and columnar portico, sacrificial worship being offered on an altar set in an open courtyard; potentially accessible not only to initiates of the cult, but also to colitores or non-initiated worshippers. Mithraea were the antithesis of this.

Degrees of initiation. In the Suda under the entry "Mithras", it states that "No one was permitted to be initiated into them (the mysteries of Mithras), until he should show himself holy and steadfast by undergoing several graduated tests."Gregory Nazianzen refers to the "tests in the mysteries of Mithras". There were seven grades of initiation into Mithraism, which are listed by St. Jerome.Manfred Clauss states that the number of grades, seven, must be connected to the planets. A mosaic in the Ostia Mithraeum of Felicissimus depicts these grades, with symbolic emblems that are connected either to the grades or are just symbols of the planets. The grades also have an inscription beside them commending each grade into the protection of the different planetary gods. In ascending order of importance, the initiatory grades were: GradeSymbolsPlanet/tutelary deity Corax, Corux or Corvex (raven or crow)beaker, caduceus Mercury... Nymphus, Nymphobus (Bridegroom)lamp, hand bell, veil, circlet or diadem Venus...Miles (soldier)pouch, helmet, lance, drum, belt, breastplateMars Leo (lion)batillum, sistrum, laurel wreath, thunderbolts Jupiter..Perses (Persian) akinakes, Phrygian cap, sickle, sickle moon and stars, sling pouchLuna

Heliodromus (sun-runner)torch, images of the sun god, Helios whip, robes Sol...Pater (father)patera, Mitre, shepherd's staff, garnet or ruby ring, chasuble or cape, elaborate robes jewel encrusted with metallic threads Saturn 'Note: In the table above, the article or picture links to the religious titles or impedimenta are merely illustrative approximations because, being an orally transmitted mystery cult, few reliable historical references have survived. However, similar contemporary artefacts have been identified, and at the Mithraeum of Constantine, a 2nd-century mosaic does depict several Mithraic implements and symbols. Spade, sistrum, lightning bolt Sword, crescent moon, star, sickle Torch, crown, whip Patera, rod, Phrygian cap, sickle Elsewhere, as at Dura-Europos, Mithraic graffiti survive giving membership lists, in which initiates of a Mithraeum are named with their Mithraic grades. At Virunum, the membership list or album sacratorum was maintained as an inscribed plaque, updated year by year as new members were initiated. By cross-referencing these lists it is possible to track some initiates from one Mithraeum to another; and also speculatively to identify Mithraic initiates with persons on other contemporary lists such as military service rolls, of lists of devotees of non-Mithraic religious sanctuaries. Names of initiates are also found in the dedication inscriptions of altars and other cult objects. Clauss noted in 1990 that overall, only about 14% of Mithriac names inscribed before 250 CE identify the initiate's grade – and hence questioned the traditional view that all initiates belonged to one of the seven grades. Clauss argues that the grades represented a distinct class of priests, sacerdotes. Gordon maintains the former theory of Merkelbach and others, especially noting such examples as Dura where all names are associated with a Mithraic grade. Some scholars maintain that practice may have differed over time, or from one Mithraeum to another. The highest grade, pater, is far the most common found on dedications and inscriptions – and it would appear not to have been unusual for a Mithraeum to have several men with this grade. The form pater patrum (father of fathers) is often found, which appears to indicate the pater with primary status. There are several examples of persons, commonly those of higher social status, joining a Mithraeum with the status pater – especially in Rome during the 'pagan revival' of the 4th century. It has been suggested that some Mithraea may have awarded honorary pater status to sympathetic dignitaries. The initiate into each grade appears to have been required to undertake a specific ordeal or test, involving exposure to heat, cold or threatened peril. An 'ordeal pit', dating to the early 3rd century, has been identified in the Mithraeum at Carrawburgh. Accounts of the cruelty of the emperor Commodus describes his amusing himself by enacting Mithriac initiation ordeals in homicidal form. By the later 3rd century, the enacted trials appear to have been abated in rigor, as 'ordeal pits' were floored over. Admission into the community was completed with a handshake with the pater, just as Mithras and Sol shook hands. The initiates were thus referred to as syndexioi (those united by the handshake). The term is used in an inscription by Proficentius and derided by Firmicus Maternus in De errore profanarum religionum,a 4th Century Christian work attacking paganism. In ancient Iran, taking the right hand was the traditional way of concluding a treaty or signifying some solemn understanding between two parties.

Ritual re-enactments Reconstruction of a mithraeum with a mosaic depicting the grades of initiation..Activities of the most prominent deities in Mithraic scenes, Sol and Mithras, were imitated in rituals by the two most senior officers in the cult's hierarchy, the Pater and the Heliodromus. The initiates held a sacramental banquet, replicating the feast of Mithras and Sol.Reliefs on a cup found in Mainz, appear to depict a Mithraic initiation. On the cup, the initiate is depicted as being led into a location where a Pater would be seated in the guise of Mithras with a drawn bow. Accompanying the initiate is a mystagogue, who explains the symbolism and theology to the initiate. The Rite is thought to re-enact what has come to be called the 'Water Miracle', in which Mithras fires a bolt into a rock, and from the rock now spouts water. Roger Beck has hypothesized a third processional Mithraic ritual, based on the Mainz cup and Porphyrys. This so-called Procession of the Sun-Runner features the Heliodromus, escorted by two figures representing Cautes and Cautopates (see below) and preceded by an initiate of the grade Miles leading a ritual enactment of the solar journey around the mithraeum, which was intended to represent the cosmos.Consequently, it has been argued that most Mithraic rituals involved a re-enactment by the initiates of episodes in the Mithras narrative,a narrative whose main elements were: birth from the rock, striking water from stone with an arrow shot, the killing of the bull, Sol's submission to Mithras, Mithras and Sol feasting on the bull, the ascent of Mithras to heaven in a chariot. A noticeable feature of this narrative (and of its regular depiction in surviving sets of relief carvings) is the complete absence of female personages.Membership Only male names appear in surviving inscribed membership lists. Historians including Cumont and Richard Gordon have concluded that the cult was for men only.The ancient scholar Porphyry refers to female initiates in Mithraic rites. However, the early 20th-century historian A. S. Geden writes that this may be due to a misunderstanding.According to Geden, while the participation of women in the ritual was not unknown in the Eastern cults, the predominant military influence in Mithraism makes it unlikely in this instance.[2] It has recently been suggested by David Jonathan that "Women were involved with Mithraic groups in at least some locations of the empire." Soldiers were strongly represented amongst Mithraists, and also merchants, customs officials and minor bureaucrats. Few, if any, initiates came from leading aristocratic or senatorial families until the 'pagan revival' of the mid-4th century; but there were always considerable numbers of freedmen and slaves.

Ethics

Clauss suggests that a statement by Porphyry, that people initiated into the Lion grade must keep their hands pure from everything that brings pain and harm and is impure, means that moral demands were made upon members of congregations. A passage in the Caesares of Julian the Apostate refers to "commandments of Mithras".Tertullian, in his treatise 'On the Military Crown' records that Mithraists in the army were officially excused from wearing celebratory coronets on the basis of the Mithraic initiation ritual that included refusing a proffered crown, because "their only crown was Mithras".

Beginnings of Roman Mithraism

The origins and spread of the Mysteries have been intensely debated among scholars and there are radically differing views on these issues.[111] According to Clauss mysteries of Mithras were not practiced until the 1st century CE. According to Ulansey, the earliest evidence for the Mithraic mysteries places their appearance in the middle of the 1st Century BCE: the historian Plutarch says that in 67 BCE the pirates of Cilicia (a province on the southeastern coast of Asia Minor) were practicing "secret rites" of Mithras. However, according to Daniels, whether any of this relates to the origins of the mysteries is unclear. The unique underground temples or Mithraea appear suddenly in the archaeology in the last quarter of the 1st century CE. the emergence of Mithraism as a popular religion in Rome.

Mosaic (1st century AD) depicting Mithras emerging from his cave and flanked by Cautes and Cautopates (Constantine Museum) The philosopher Porphyry (3rd–4th century AD) gives an account of the origins of the Mysteries in his work De antro nympharum (The Cave of the Nymphs). Citing Eubulus as his source, Porphyry writes that the original temple of Mithras was a natural cave, containing fountains, which Zoroaster found in the mountains of Persia. To Zoroaster, this cave was an image of the whole world, so he consecrated it to Mithras, the creator of the world. Later in the same work, Porphyry links Mithras and the bull with planets and star-signs: Mithras himself is associated with the sign of Aries and the planet Mars, while the bull is associated with Venus. Porphyry is writing close to the demise of the cult, and Robert Turcan has challenged the idea that Porphyry's statements about Mithraism are accurate. His case is that far from representing what Mithraists believed, they are merely representations by the Neoplatonists of what it suited them in the late 4th century to read into the mysteries. However, Merkelbach and Beck believe that Porphyry’s work "is in fact thoroughly coloured with the doctrines of the Mysteries". Beck holds that classical scholars have neglected Porphyry’s evidence and have taken an unnecessarily skeptical view of Porphyry. According to Beck, Porphyry's De antro is the only clear text from antiquity which tells us about the intent of the Mithriac Mysteries and how that intent was realized. David Ulansey finds it important that Porphyry "confirms ... that astral conceptions played an important role in Mithraism." "Mithras – moreover, a Mithras who was identified with the Greek Sun god Helios" was among the gods of the syncretic Greco-Armenian-Iranian royal cult at Nemrut, founded by Antiochus I of Commagene in the mid 1st century BCE. While proposing the theory, Beck says that his scenario may be regarded as Cumontian in two ways. Firstly, because it looks again at Anatolia and Anatolians, and more importantly, because it hews back to the methodology first used by Cumont. Merkelbach suggests that its mysteries were essentially created by a particular person or persons and created in a specific place, the city of Rome, by someone from an eastern province or border state who knew the Iranian myths in detail, which he wove into his new grades of initiation; but that he must have been Greek and Greek-speaking because he incorporated elements of Greek Platonism into it. The myths, he suggests, were probably created in the milieu of the imperial bureaucracy, and for its members. Clauss tends to agree. Beck calls this "the most likely scenario" and states "Until now, Mithraism has generally been treated as if it somehow evolved Topsy-like from its Iranian precursor – a most implausible scenario once it is stated explicitly." Archaeologist Lewis M. Hopfe notes that there are only three Mithraea in Roman Syria, in contrast to further west. He writes: "Archaeology indicates that Roman Mithraism had its epicenter in Rome ... the fully developed religion known as Mithraism seems to have begun in Rome and been carried to Syria by soldiers and merchants." Taking a different view from other modern scholars, Ulansey argues that the Mithraic mysteries began in the Greco-Roman world as a religious response to the discovery by the Greek astronomer Hipparchus of the astronomical phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes – a discovery that amounted to discovering that the entire cosmos was moving in a hitherto unknown way. This new cosmic motion, he suggests, was seen by the founders of Mithraism as indicating the existence of a powerful new god capable of shifting the cosmic spheres and thereby controlling the universe. However, A. D. H. Bivar, L. A. Campbell and G. Widengren have variously argued that Roman Mithraism represents a continuation of some form of Iranian Mithra worship. According to Antonia Tripolitis, Roman Mithraism originated in Vedic India and picked up many features of the cultures which it encountered in its westward journey.

The first important expansion of the mysteries in the Empire seems to have happened quite quickly, late in the reign of Antoninus Pius (b. 121 CE, d. 180 CE) and under Marcus Aurelius. By this time all the key elements of the mysteries were in place. Mithraism reached the apogee of its popularity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries, spreading at an "astonishing" rate at the same period when the worship of Sol Invictus was incorporated into the state-sponsored cults.At this period a certain Pallas devoted a monograph to Mithras, and a little later Euboulus wrote a History of Mithras, although both works are now lost. According to the 4th century Historia Augusta, the emperor Commodus participated in its mysteries but it never became one of the state cults. It is difficult to trace when the cult of Mithras came to an end. Beck states that "Quite early in the [fourth] century the religion was as good as dead throughout the empire."Inscriptions from the 4th century are few. Clauss states that inscriptions show Mithras as one of the cults listed on inscriptions by Roman senators who had not converted to Christianity, as part of the "pagan revival" among the elite. Ulansey holds that "Mithraism declined with the rise to power of Christianity, until the beginning of the fifth century, when Christianity became strong enough to exterminate by force rival religions such as Mithraism."According to Speidel, Christians fought fiercely with this feared enemy and suppressed it during the 4th century. Some Mithraic sanctuaries were destroyed and religion was no longer a matter of personal choice. According to Luther H. Martin, Roman Mithraism came to an end with the anti-pagan decrees of the Christian emperor Theodosius during the last decade of the 4th century. At some of the mithraeums which have been found below churches, for example the Santa Prisca mithraeum and the San Clemente mithraeum, the ground plan of the church above was made in a way to symbolize Christianity's domination of Mithraism. According to Mark Humphries, the deliberate concealment of Mithraic cult objects in some areas suggests that precautions were being taken against Christian attacks. However, in areas like the Rhine frontier, purely religious considerations cannot explain the end of Mithraism and barbarian invasions may also have played a role. There is virtually no evidence for the continuance of the cult of Mithras into the 5th century. In particular large numbers of votive coins deposited by worshippers have been recovered at the Mithraeum at Pons Sarravi (Sarrebourg) in Gallia Belgica, in a series that runs from Gallienus (253–268) to Theodosius I (379–395). These were scattered over the floor when the Mithraeum was destroyed, as Christians apparently regarded the coins as polluted; and they therefore provide reliable dates for the functioning of the Mithraeum.It cannot be shown that any Mithraeum continued in use in the 5th century. The coin series in all Mithraea end at the end of the 4th century at the latest. The cult disappeared earlier than that of Isis. Isis was still remembered in the middle ages as a pagan deity, but Mithras was already forgotten in late antiquity. Cumont stated in his book that Mithraism may have survived in certain remote cantons of the Alps and Vosges into the 5th century. The John, the Lord Chamberlain series of historical mystery novels depicts a secret Mithraist community still active in Justinian's court, but there is no historical evidence for such a late survival of the religion.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism

Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905, f. 03r by e-codices

Manuscript title: Codex Testeriano Bodmer

Origin: Mexico

Period: 16th century

Image source: Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905: Codex Testeriano Bodmer (www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/fmb/cb-0905).

The Road to Cataclysm by Yggdråsil

Not to be confused with the road to Catechism

Inside Baltimore Basilica by Lawrence OP

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"President Jefferson’s insistence on skylights for the U.S. Capitol inspired Latrobe and his design for the Cathedral’s grand dome. The Basilica, which culminated years of architectural refinement by Latrobe, is now considered one of the world’s finest examples of 19th century architecture. “When the Cathedral was first constructed, the only building that could compete with it in size, scale, and architectural sophistication was the United States Capitol,” said Jack Waite, Principal Architect with John G. Waite Associates, Architects. “Architecturally, it was the most advanced building in the country.”"

Three Plenary Councils were held here: "The First Plenary Council in 1852 extended the legislation of the Seven Provincial Councils to the entire country. Following the American Civil War, the Second Plenary Council in 1866, whose guests included President Andrew Johnson, achieved peace for the Church and called for the evangelization of Native and African-Americans. The Third Plenary Council, the largest meeting of Catholic Bishops held outside of Rome since the Council of Trent (December 13, 1545-December 4, 1563), commissioned the famous Baltimore Catechism, which taught generations of Catholics the basics of their faith. Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus, was ordained at the Basilica in 1877."

Communion of Saints by Anthony Jalandoni

In one of the devotional rooms in the Shrine of St. Rita in Phila.,PA.

"None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself."489 "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."490 "Charity does not insist on its own way."491 In this solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of saints, the least of our acts done in charity redounds to the profit of all. Every sin harms this communion.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

Classroom by katrin glaesmann

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"Über einen langen Zeitraum entwickelte sich das Mecklenburgische Landschulwesen sehr gemächlich. Zunächst unterwiesen Pastoren, Küster oder Handwerker die Kinder des Dorfes in Katechismus und monotonem Lesen, Singen und Abfragen von Bibeltexten. Erst ab Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts gab es ausgebildete Dorfschullehrer. Durch sie verbesserte sich allmählich der Bildungsstand der Dorfbevölkerung. Mehr Augenmerk bekamen nun das Rechnen und die Vermittlung von Grundlagen in Natur, Geografie und Geschichte. Anschauungsobjekte, Wandkarten und Tierpräparate hielten Einzug in die Schulen. Häufig waren die Klassenzimmer überfüllt, weil mehrere Jahrgänge gleichzeitig unterrichtet wurden.

Bis in die DDR-Zeiten wurden in der Mueßer Schule die Kinder des Dorfes unterrichtet. Mit dem Schuljahrgang 1975/76 schloss die Schule aus ökonomischen Gründen. Zwei Jahre später entstand in der ehemaligen Schule das Schulmuseum.

Die alte Mueßer Dorfschule zeigt sich mit ihren original erhaltenen Innen- und Außenanlagen auf dem Stand der Kaiserzeit."

"Mecklenburg rural schools developed very slowly over a long period of time. First, pastors, sextons or craftsmen instructed the children of the village in catechism and monotonous reading, singing and querying Bible texts. Only from the middle of the 19th century there were trained village school teachers. They gradually improved the level of education of the villagers. Arithmetic and teaching the basics of nature, geography and history received more attention. Visual objects, wall maps and stuffed animals found their way into schools. The classrooms were often overcrowded because several years were being taught at the same time.

The children of the village were taught in the Mueßer school until the GDR era. The school closed for economic reasons in the 1975/76 school year. Two years later, the school museum was established in the former school.

The old Mueßer village school, with its original interior and exterior facilities, is as it was in the imperial era."

2. How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou in this comfort mayest live and die happily? by ON BORROWED TIME

Three things (Luke 24:46–47; 1 Cor 6:11; Tit 3:3–7; Matt 11:28–30†): First, the greatness of my sin and misery (John 9:41; 15:22†; Rom 3:10†; 7:24†; Matt 9:12†; 1 John 1:9–10†; Rom 1:18–3:21†). Second, how I am redeemed from all my sins and misery (John 17:3; Acts 4:12†; 10:43†; Rom 7:25†; Col 1:13–14†; 1 Pet 1:18–19†; 1 John 1:7†; Rev 1:5†; Rom 3:21–11:36†; Phil 2:5–11†). Third, how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption (Eph 5:8–11; Rom 6:1–2†; 6:11–14; 2 Tim 2:15–16; 1 Pet 2:9–12; Matt 5:16; Ps 50:14–15; 116:12–13; Rom 12:1–16:27†).

Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905, f. 02v by e-codices

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Manuscript title: Codex Testeriano Bodmer

Origin: Mexico

Period: 16th century

Image source: Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 905: Codex Testeriano Bodmer (www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/fmb/cb-0905).

1. What is thy only comfort in life and death? by ON BORROWED TIME

That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death (Rom 14:7–9; 1 Thess 5:9–10), am not my own (1 Cor 6:19–20), but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:22–23; Tit 2:14†), who with his precious blood (1 Pet 1:18–19) has fully satisfied for all my sins (1 John 1:7; 2:1–2), and redeemed me from all the power of the devil (John 8:34–36†; 1 John 3:8; Heb 2:14–15); and so preserves me (John 6:38–40; 10:27–30; 2 Thess 3:3†; 1 Pet 1:5†) that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head (Matt 10:29–31; Luke 21:18–19); yea, that all things must work together for my salvation (Rom 8:28). Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life (Rom 8:15–16; 2 Cor 1:21–22; 5:5; Eph 1:13–14), and makes me heartily willing and ready, henceforth to live unto him (Rom 7:22; 8:14; Phil 2:13†; Heb 13:20–21†; 1 John 3:3†; 4:13†; Ezek 36:27†).

The Assumption of the BVM by Ted Abbott

Get your free Rosary Book at

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The purpose of the Rosary is to help keep in memory certain principal events

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How the Rosary can change your life?

It will bring more than peace and comfort, it will bring change to our world and to our sinful selves.

Whenever you might pray a Rosary, remember how powerful it is in our spiritual lives.

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SS Peter & Paul, Athenry by Irish Dominican Photographers

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THE FRIARS OF ATHENRY

In County Galway, there is an abbey at Athenry, the oldest town in all Connaught established by the English, who at the present day style it a city in the state and legal documents. It was built by the English in the reign of King John of England. Tuam, on the other hand, the archiepiscopal see and the metropolis of the whole province of Connaught, though a great city in olden times, is not at present of much importance. Athenry is now almost desolate though it still retains the name of a city; it is situated in a pleasant locality, where the air is most salubrious. I do not care to argue about the time the abbey was founded nor about the founder's name, that I may avoid jealous criticism, although I could produce many authentic documents on this point. Accordingly the abbey, made illustrious by its history and its friars, was erected in 1241 by Lord Bermingham, more correctly Brimigiam, and called in Irish, Mac Fheorais, from a certain Horatius Lord Brimigiam who was made baron of Athenry by the king of England, and was the premier of all the Irish barons created by the English. This abbey was in possession of fifteen hundred acres of land and abundant tithes. The said lord completed a fairly large church; but the cloister, chapterhouse, the beautiful guest-house, with two great and most commodious cellars, the novitiate, and the dormitory over the refectory and kitchens were built from the foundations by a wealthy man of that time called O'Heyne; and the southern part of the dormitory over the refectory and kitchen were built by a certain soldier, called Sir Thomas Delphin, an Englishman by birth.

Here follows a list of the possessions of this abbey: —

Within the town a piece of ground walled-in near the abbey, a large and excellent mill almost at the very gate of the abbey, and several houses; outside the town, the district of Glaimhe an Bháin, which had formerly belonged to the Benedictines; another very commodious piece of land near the town to the south, called the Friars’ Wood, in Irish Coill na mBráthar; at the north side a district called David's Village, in Irish Baile Dháibhidh, where there is a chapel belonging to the abbey; a mile from the town, to the north-east, there is another farm called Beann-dheara; another farm near Suidfhinn, is called Coill Craobhanta, where there is also a chapel belonging to this abbey. The chapel of Kilcorban, with a good farm attached, belonged also to this abbey, according to Ware, Thomas Burke, bishop of Clonfert, with the consent of his chapter, granted to the friars of the Order of St. Dominic the chapel of St. Mary's, Kilcorban, on the petition of John Fitz Reyry and his brethren of the same Order, and Eugene IV., confirmed the grant, 12th March, 1444, as Ware says, speaking of the monastic foundations of the county Galway. In the parish of Grainseagh, between Binmor and Rathglas, it had a large and fertile district called Rathchalaíg Tuadh Lubaín an Teampuill, with a farm and chapel. This is, as far as my memory goes, what I often read in an old parchment document during the year of my novitiate, 1665. I take notice of these matters here, that some knowledge of them may be preserved among the younger members of this community, and that thus they may more easily explore them, if Jesus Christ take mercy on our country when our sins have been expiated. For we are visited with an iron rod by Him whose judgments are faithful and true, more desirable than gold and precious stones and sweeter than honey and honeycomb." May the God of mercies grant, through the most Sacred Blood of His Son, that we may keep them and repair our transgressions by worthy penance.

FATHER DOMINIC BURKE, from 1638 to 1649, was twice prior of this community, to the great spiritual benefit of the house. After finishing his studies in. our most important and religious convent of Bologna, in Italy, he returned home, and on being made prior after some time, repaired the whole abbey and sumptuously decorated the church. During his period of office, the illustrious Edmund Burke of Kilcornan, built the chapel of the most Holy Rosary. The studies flourished under this prior with great success and splendour. This father was vicar-provincial of the entire province for a year. He was confessor to Lord Ulick Burke, Marques of Clanricard, then vice-gerent of the lord-lieutenant of the kingdom, to whose devoted liberality it was principally owing that he was able to repair and decorate the abbey. He was a grave pious, and prudent man, beloved by all; he was faulty, however, in one respect, viz., in opposing Rinuccini, the apostolic nuncio, carried away by his zealous adherence to the aforesaid marquis and being also induced to follow some prelates of his own name. These were Dr. John Burke, archbishop of Tuam; Dr. Hugh Burke, bishop of Kilmacduagh; Dr. Andrew Lynch, bishop of Kilfenora, and many others, even regulars, such as Father Valentine Browne and Father Peter Walsh the Franciscan. This was very unwise conduct. Kind reader, spare me; I say nothing out of malice, but simply state historic facts. This very Father Dominic Burke was an uncle of my father and the two bishops Burke were uncles of my mother, all of whom I venerate and truly love, but I love truth itself more. Father Dominic repented afterwards of the opposition given by him to the apostolic legate; as likewise did the bishops. In 1649 he was attacked by a disease from which he died the same year a pious and resigned death, fortified by the last sacraments of the church. Of all the Dominicans of Ireland, this father alone opposed the nuncio. The latter testified that it seemed to be inborn in the Dominicans to defend the Holy See.

FATHER JOHN O'FAHEY, of the same community, studied very hard and with very great success in Italy. After returning home, he was made lector of philosophy in his own native convent, and afterwards master of students and lector of theology: offices which he filled with great applause, and yet preached with learning and eloquence on all festival days. He was a model of great mortification and piety at home and abroad; he always went on foot wherever he had occasion to go; from his profession he never wore linen, being ordinarily clothed in torn garments; and he strongly opposed those who did not submit to the legate of the Holy See. The Catholics had a great veneration for him. On the subjugation of the kingdom and the consequent prostration of religion, he was compelled to leave his country; and he went a second time to Italy and lived at Viterbo where he died a pious death.

The good Father William Burke, called the elder, master of sacred theology, made a brilliant course of studies in Spain and taught in our convent of Burgundy. He was an excellent speaker in his native tongue, as well as in English, Spanish and Latin. He was Provincial of Ireland from 1648 inclusive to 1654, and in 1650 was a delegate of the Catholics of Ireland to his most serene highness, the Duke of Lorraine. During his provincialship, he went from home as an exile to Louvain and finished his term of office while living there. Returning to his convent on the restoration of the king, he was made prior; afterwards also at Rathbran in the county Mayo, where he had been born of the illustrious family of the Bourkes of Turlagh. Having attained to a great age, full of years and fortified by the sacraments of the church, he died a pious and penitent death in Rathbran convent, about 1685.

FATHER WILLIAM BURKE, otherwise Fitz Redmond, a scion of the distinguished house of the Burkes of Iserkealla, studied in Spain, and after his return lived a most exemplary life in his convent until he was exiled in the course of the year 1650. On the subjugation of the kingdom by the usurper Cromwell, he came to France and remained there until his death in the convent of Vannes, belonging to the religious and learned Congregation of Brittany.

FATHER EDMOND BURKE of Gortnameaccan, also of noble birth, studied at Burgos in Spain, and on his way home was captured by Algerian Moors with two other fathers. They were kept in most severe slavery for three years when the Catholic King, Philip IV., sent a ransom for them. This father died a pious death in Andalusia

FATHER BRIAN O'HEYNE, after almost finishing his studies in Andalusia, fell sick on the day he said his first mass and died on the eighth day of his sickness, fortified by the last sacraments, with the reputation of virtue: as Father Tully and Father Conor O'Mahony have related in our convent.

FATHER JOHN O'DEA, after finishing his studies with success, died a religious and pious death while staying in a convent where no studies are carried on, called in Spanish a pensocha.

FATHER DOMINIC BURKE, a most amiable and religious youth, began his studies and almost finished them at Avila, and having been sent to the convent of the Blessed Virgin of Atocha, gave his soul to his Creator after singing his first mass in the convent of the Passion at Madrid, piously refreshed with the adorable Eucharist and extreme unction, 18th August, 1675. He was a cousin of the most illustrious prelate, Dominic Burke, to whom we shall soon refer again.

BROTHER WILLIAM BURKE, just after being professed for the same convent, was sent to Spain; and being received into the noble convent of Burgos, began his studies there. He was much beloved, being of the distinguished family of the Burkes of Iserclerain, but was much more loveable by his life, for he had mortified himself so much by a hair-shirt and an iron chain bound around his tender body (as was written to me from that place) that in the year 1679, after a short illness, comforted by the sacraments of the church, he finished his life with a great reputation of virtue. The Acts of the provincial chapter of the province of Castile testify to all this, and they do not commonly give similar testimony without a strong and unshaken foundation.

FATHER OWEN O'HEYNE, a pious and upright religious, died towards the end of his studies at Plasencia in Spain, about 1685.

BROTHER EDMOND VALE died a pious death in the convent of Holy Cross Segovia.

BROTHER PIERCE O’DALY died at Zeres de la Frontera: he was very humble and pious.

FATHER TIEGE FITZPATRICK, a youth of great intelligence and very pious, died in the same place before he had finished his studies, refreshed with the last sacraments.

BROTHER JOHN LYNCH, about to return home owing to a disease contracted in Spain, died at Bayonne: he was very upright.

FATHER HUBERT DELPHIN studied in Spain with singular success. He was an upright and pious man and of a most lively intelligence, and was very distinguished as a preacher. He was so well versed in Sacred Scripture that he seemed to know it entirely by heart. He was preacher-general, prior of Urlar and afterwards of Athenry, and while ruling the latter convent with great piety and prudence, died a pious death in 1653.

FATHER THOMAS TULLY, bachelor of sacred theology, while returning home with two others after finishing his studies with distinction at Vittoria in Spain, viz.. Father Edmund Burke, already mentioned, and Father Conor MacMahon, to whom we shall refer immediately, was captured by the Moors, and spent three years in cruel slavery with perfect resignation. On the restoration of our king, he came home and arriving safely at his own convent, opened a school with Father MacMahon, by command of the provincial. Father O'Hart, in a very solitary locality, which they carried on for ten years with great renown and success. In 1665, when I received the habit, there were about three hundred scholars of all ages in that school. Worn out by his constant labours in teaching, preaching, hearing confessions and catechizing, this most charming and truly religious man, after piously receiving the last sacraments, died to the great grief of all the Catholics in 1672.

FATHER CONOR MACMAHON, his companion, was sent to Kilkenny convent to teach, and died there in the beginning of 1654. This father was for three years master of novices in the observant convent of Segovia, and Father John Martinez de Prado had such an admiration for his ability and memory, that he was heard to say he believe that this father had by heart the second section of the second part of St. Thomas’s Summa, so that the great man frequently consulted him on moral questions. He was a true Israelite, in whom there was no guile, and was given above everything to mental prayer, at which he accustomed us twelve novices placed under his care to remain so long, that often several fell to the ground from weakness and the knees of all were ulcerated.

FATHER GERALD DAVOCK, master of sacred theology, 6n his return home after his studies in Spain, was made lector of philosophy, and then master of studies. He filled these posts satisfactorily and also preached with eloquence. On the dispersion of the religious, being captured by the Protestants, he was relegated with many other regular and secular priests to an island in the sea called Boffin, where with great patience he bore seven years of want. However, on the restoration of the king they were all liberated, except Father Bryan Cooney, who died a happy death there for the glory of God. Around the waist of this heroic man, there was found after death, a leathern cincture, studded with sharp and piercing iron nails. He was still at that time the worthy provincial of the Order of the great patriarch, St. Francis. Our Father Davock lived a very pious and religious life for a long time after his liberation from this island and laboriously cultivated the vineyard of the Lord by word and example. He came from Ireland to Louvain, to make a visitation of this college of ours of Holy Cross, in 1664, and made many wise ordinations. Broken down by old age and wearied by the severity of the persecution then newly risen again, he slept piously in the Lord, in 1675, fortified by the last sacraments.

FATHER JOHN DAVOCK, a distinguished man, most acceptable not only to the Catholics, but also to the English Protestants, owing to his charming manners, died at Athenry, under the weight of years in 1686, after receiving the last sacraments, amid the prayers of his brethren standing around. He was once prior of his convent, and lived for a long time in England with the marquis of Clanricard, as his confessor and intimate companion.

FATHER THOMAS BURKE, the elder, pursued his studies in the convent of St. Paul, at Palencia in Spain, and much later on lived at Rivadavia in Galicia, until in fact the return of the restored king to England. A year aft his return home in 1665, he was elected prior of his convent. He received many excellent young men to the habit; a second and a third time he was prior of his convent and once of Roscommon, and although he did not preach owing to a stutter, he understood many matters very well; was a distinguished moral theologian and a man of a good and very exemplary life. He was so old and feeble that the Protestants could not banish him from his country. However they turned him out of his convent and soon after, comforted by the last sacraments, he departed from this miserable life, at the age of ninety, in 1692.

FATHER JOHN BURKE, professed at Zamora, in 1666, finished his studies there, and on his return was made questor and was indeed serviceable to his convent as he was also in teaching catechism and preaching to the people. He was made preacher-general and prior of Youghal convent. Exiled with the others, he came to Nantes in Britanny, where he died after two years, fortified by the last sacraments.

Another FATHER JOHN BURKE likewise died an exile in the convent of Petrahita. He was a hard-working curate to his uncle, the parish priest of Athenry, for many years, and yet did not cease to beg for his convent.

FATHER MARK BROWN also died in exile at the convent of Quimper in Brittany, in 1704. He was an upright and religious man.

FATHER TIEGE UA DÁLAIDH, in English Daly, preacher general, should not be forgotten, who in his fourteenth year received the habit at Athenry and having made his profession, went to Spain and devoted himself commendably to his studies there. He was an adept in the Gregorian chant; his voice was strong and very sweet; he preached the Word of God with energy and eloquence, and he was dear to all, being very exemplary and of mild disposition. For several years he lived in the house of Sir William Burke, earl of Clanricard, as his confessor. He was once prior in the convent of St. Peter Martyr, at Portumna, and twice in his own native convent for which he was preacher general, and he received several most respectable young men into the Order in both houses. Being at length made provincial, just before the intermediate chapter was held at Athenry, he was brought to death's door by a three days' sickness, and after receiving the sacraments of the Church with devotion and contrition, passed from this to a better life, in 1682.

FATHER IGNATIUS LYNCH studied in Salamanca and thence returned home, and on being made prior of his convent after a little time, showed himself to be a zealous and good syndic, by the way he procured and administered the goods of the community. He was twice prior there and once at Galway; he ruled prudently and peacefully in all humility, following the counsel of the wise, which is a great virtue and part of the science of the saints. Fortified by the last sacraments and showing marks of great piety, he placed his soul in the hands of his Creator, in 1695.

FATHER HUBERT DELPHIN the younger, a cousin of the important man of the same name already mentioned, after finishing his classical and philosophical studies at Rome and on being ordained as a secular priest, administered a parish with prudence and vigilance for twelve ears. That he might escape, however, the constant dangers of a life in the world, he chose the better part, viz., the habit and profession of the Dominican Order at Athenry; sent thence to Spain, he went through the three years' course of theology at Salamanca. On being afterwards made procurator general at Madrid for the Irish province, he looked after this business with true fatherly care for one year, but owing to sickness he was not able to attend to it any further. On getting leave from his superiors, he came back to Ireland, where he began to devote himself to preaching, and was soon made preacher-general. Then being exiled with the rest of the religious of all the orders, he came to Nantes accompanied by four simple novices. Whilst searching for a place of novitiate for these young men, who were till three months off the full year of probation, he suffered many hardships, tramping up and down Paris on foot until he had placed them in the general novitiate in the suburb of Saint Germain. He stayed with them instructing them in the way of virtue until their profession, and then came to Louvain to the college of the Holy Cross, welcomed by all. He was treated with singular favour by Count Berló, bishop of Namur, so that on obtaining fatuities for the purpose from that prelate, he was fortunate in receiving many heretics into the bosom of our holy Mother the Church. At length on the twentieth of November, after making his confession and devoutly offering up the holy sacrifice of the mass, worn out with a violent cough and comforted by extreme unction on the same day, he delivered his soul into the hands of our Redeemer, in the year 1700 and the sixty-sixth of his age.’ He was an extremely good man and was zealous for the glory of God, the honour of the Church and the dignity of his Order.

Members of the same community slain in testimony of the Catholic Faith from the year 1651: —

First of all, FATHER VINCENT GERALD DILLON, thrown into prison at York in England wasted away by the hardships, and the filth and stench of the prison, received, the crown of victory, after showing a great example of patience and constancy.

FATHER STEPHEN PETIT, of the same community, whilst bearing the confession, of a Catholic soldier, was killed by a distant shot from a Protestant soldier, and is piously believed to be a martyr.

BROTHER JAMES O'MORAN, a laybrother; BROTHER DOMINIC or DONAGH BLACK; BROTHER RICHARD HOVEDON; happy victims for Christ, were slain at the sacrilegious hands of the Protestants.

FATHER JOHN O’QUILLAN, a living model of religious observance most devoted to prayer and fasting although in infirm health, always contented with poor garments, was so talented that he learnt almost all the sciences without a master. In several conferences he refuted the Protestants with great learning; he animated the Catholics; for the authority of the Holy Apostolic See suffered every risk. Captured at length by the Protestants and pierced with many wounds, he cheerfully gave his life for Christ, claiming the crown of virginity fortitude. His head, cut off from the body and set on a spike, was exposed as a trophy.

The end crowns the work: so like a beautiful ear the same religious stalk, we place before our readers illustrious DR. DOMINIC BURKE, bishop of Elphin was born in Ireland about 1639, of parents distinguished for their constant profession of the orthodox faith and belonging to good old families. About 1648, the whole kingdom was shaken with furious and raging war, drawn by a desire of spiritual perfection, he met a soldier of the gospel and was professed in the Order of Friars Preachers. After this he set out Spain, but being captured by the English at sea, brought to Kinsale and thrown into prison. He escaped, with the special aid of Jesus Christ, by jumping the top of the prison wall into the mud left by the outgoing tide. For two days he lay hid in a neighbouring wood, covered with mud up to his neck because he not dare to seek the river to wash himself, luring these two days he neither ate nor drank. At length he timidly approached the house of a certain Catholic gentleman of the Roche family, who received him most kindly and gave him hospitality until he had recovered his strength. Then his host sent him on his way well-clothed from head to foot and with money enough for his journey (for he had been robbed by his Protestant captors of his own clothes and money) and this assistance be arrived safe at his mother’s house.

Astounded at his adventures, she begged him earnestly not to expose himself again to the dangers of the sea; he prevailed on her, however, to let him go, and getting money from her for his journey, took ship at Galway and arrived safely in Spain; where being received into our religious convent of Holy Cross at Segovia, he spent six years at his studies. On the completion of his course, as the persecution was still raging in Ireland, he went to Italy and remained there for about sixteen years. Owing to his upright and spotless life and his fervent zeal in promoting religion, he was greatly esteemed by all, and especially by the excellent and wise Father Gentili, twice provincial of the great and observant province of Lombardy and afterwards archbishop of Genoa. So being appointed master of novices at Venice, again at Milan, in the magnificent ducal convent of Our Lady of Graces, and lastly in the general novitiate of Bosco, he filled these positions laudably and piously for ten continuous years. In the general chapter of our Order, held at Rome in 1670, he was definitor, and was an honour to his province and of great service to the college of Holy Cross, Louvain. Without solicitation on his part but called like Aaron, he was suddenly promoted by Pope Clement X., in 1671, to the see of Elphin, and was consecrated at Ghent. Returning home immediately, he exercised the ministry of a good and vigilant pastor by word, example, and the administration of the sacraments.

It can hardly be related how severely he suffered in the horrid persecution, raised in 1680 against all Catholics in England and Ireland without distinction. Two hundred pounds sterling were offered by the lord-lieutenant and the Privy Council of the kingdom as a premium for whoever would capture him; so that he ordinarily journed by night during this persecution. For four months he lay so closely hidden a solitary house that he did not even once take a step outside the door; bat on the approach of Maundy Thursday, on which he had to consecrate the holy oils, he forthwith started on a journey of forty miles, travelling always by night. I was his sole companion all that year, until the arrest of Dr. Oliver Plunkett, the archbishop of Armagh, who from the prison in Dublin used often to send warnings to the bishop of Elphin regarding the means proposed from time to time in the Cabinet and the Privy Council for his capture. The bishop was thus greatly aided in eluding their ambuscades and bloody hands, into which if he had fallen, he would have met the same fate as befell the primate the following year; as I mention when speaking of the death of Father Thomas O'Hart of the Sligo convent. Our bishop, though poor and without any revenue (for the Protestant pseudo-bishops possess all the ecclesiastical revenues in those unfortunate kingdoms), had an immense dislike to receive gifts from anyone, and especially ecclesiastics; and that he might live respectably and yet not be a burthen to his clergy who had nothing whatever to live on except the free alms of the faithful, he rented a good large farm from his near relative, William Burke, earl of Clanricard. He greatly improved this farm with buildings, fences and the judicious plantation of trees; and by means of it was aide to live observing the laws of kind and liberal hospitality, according to the primitive custom of the Church, as long as there was any cessation from the storm of persecution.

During the war of the Protestant rebels against our truly Catholic King James, this venerable bishop was obliged to transfer his domicile outside his on diocese to Galway, where the citizens treated him with all marks of affection and honour, freely shared their means with him, so that he kept open table there, no other prelate of the kingdom doing the same. He was always an energetic defender of the Mendicant Orders whom he called the right eye of the Church; and this very clearly appeared in King James's Parliament at Dublin, where he closed the mouths of the adversaries of the regulars. He was most devout to the Holy Virgin Mother of God; so that in addition to the Canonical Office, he daily recited with fervour the entire rosary, and very often twice a day. King James as well as the Queen loved him exceedingly. On being exiled, he declined to remain in the abbey offered to him by the most Christian King, Louis the Great, but preferring the poverty of mendicants, he came over to Louvain and elected to pass his life amongst his brethren in the college of Holy Cross. Our house, however, threatened at the time to fall into ruins through old age, and the danger was so imminent to those living in it, that it was necessary to put it into repair; and so when our house was broken up he betook himself to the Irish Franciscan Fathers living in this same town, and being treated most kindly by them, lived in great content. At length after going through many labours for God and the Church, and weighed down with the burthen of about seventy-six years, he was comforted by the Blessed Eucharist and extreme unction after confessing his sins, and with full use of his faculties to the very last, he calmly gave up his soul to our Saviour, on New Year's Day, 1704, between nine and ten o'clock at night. He lies buried in their chapel near the high altar.

Belonging to this community there are still living:

FATHER REDMOND O'KENNY, at least ninety years of age, left by the Protestants in Ireland, owing to his Weakness and senility, though evicted from his convent. He studied in Spain and has ministered with zeal and access in his convent and also among the people now for about sixty years. This father is at present the senior of all the members of his community and of the whole province, and is truly a good man.

FATHER JOHN O'HEYNE [the present writer] , a bachelor of sacred theology, is the next in seniority of profession. He studied at Salamanca and taught philosophy in France; as master of students, second and first regent, he taught at intervals in the college of Holy Cross at Louvain, where he was vicar for a year. On his first return to Ireland, by command of Father William Burke, the provincial, he taught a large school, until he was obliged by the violence of the persecution to hide and be the companion for a year of the bishop of Elphin. Thereupon he was specially sought after by the Protestants, he was compelled to fly from the kingdom. On finishing his term of regency at Louvain, he returned home a second time, and remained there for eight years evangelizing the people, and was prior of Urlar. Finally exiled with the rest of all the religious orders, after the various mishaps of distressful exile, he is living in Louvain at Holy Cross, in the sixtieth year of his age and the fortieth of his profession.

FATHER DOMINIC DELPHIN, of the same community, studied at Pamplona, and after returning home was very useful to his convent. He is a thoroughly religious and devoted man. Since the beginning of the exile he has been residing in the convent of Ypres.

FATHER BARTHOLOMEW O’HEYNE studied at Palencia in Spain, and after his return became a good preacher. He vas prior at Naas, Athy, Portumna and Athenry and is an upright and religious man, He lived at Nantes for several years after the exile and is now staying, as I hear, in the convent of Saint John of the Angels, in the province of France.

FATHER ANTHONY MACHUGH, of the same community, studied brilliantly at Salamanca, and was esteemed by all there as an eminent religious. When he had returned home he was made lector of philosophy at Athenry, and taught with success, together with Father John O'Heyne, until the persecution. This Father Anthony devoted himself most ardently to preaching in the district in which he quested for eighteen continuous years, and indeed his preaching produced great fruit in the large barony of Dunmore. He was also assiduous in hearing confessions, serviceable in catechizing, and active and successful in promoting the holy rosary. He remained at home after the exile of the religious, suffering for the name of Christ, and at present is prior of his convent. He is a man gifted with great piety and always most modest.

FATHER THOMAS BURKE, bachelor of sacred theology, began his studies at Louvain, continued them in the convent of Saint Jacques, Paris, and finished them in Rome, at Saint Sixtus's, where he taught philosophy, and for some months, theology. He was also prior there, and on his return home after some years, was prior of his convent. On being exiled, he set out for Rome where for a second term he was made prior of Saint Sixtus's. He is now living in the convent of Saint Mary's of the Minerva: he is an upright and good religious.

FATHER JOHN MAC GILLA-CELLAIGH, in English Killkelly, studied at Avila in Spain and after his return was a constant and agreeable preacher. For six years he was the socius of the provincial and also prior of his convent. He repaired the dormitory and mill of the convent; he made a fine enlargement of the church porch. As far back as eighteen years ago he was proposed as preacher-general for his convent by the provincial chapter, and indeed with reason, He is good and pious, active and expert in affairs, and a ready and a clever writer. He is staying at present m the refuge of the Dominicans in the town of Bilbao in Spain.

FATHER PIERCE KENNA studied with success in the magnificent convent of Valladolid. After returning home he perseveringly pursued the distinguished calling of a preacher for twenty-four years, so that his preaching became celebrated. He was prior of Tralee and twice prior of Kilmallock. He clothed at least eighteen novices in the habit, who made their profession at his hands. The gentry and the common people held him in great esteem. On being exiled he lived for a long time in the convent of Blois, but he is now residing in the hospital of Chateau-Thierry in France.

FATHER REDMOND BURKE, of the same community, studied in Andalusia and on his return preached satisfactory, as I have heard from many; was prior of Ballindune and of Sligo and governed with prudence. He is an upright man and a great observer of silence. Since the time of the exile he has been living somewhere in Brittany.

FATHER AUGUSTINE BURKE studied with success at Pamplona and after his return preached well and with unction. This mature and modest religious was prior of Roscommon and is living in exile in Bayonne in France.

FATHER THOMAS BODKIN studied in France and after his return lived piously in his convent. He is living in exile in the convent of Saint John of the Angels.

FATHER MATTHEW TULLY studied in Spain. Being exiled he is living in the convent of Quimper in Britanny: he is a model religious.

FATHER THOMAS TULLY, after finishing his studies in Spain, was assigned to San Sebastian in Vizcaya, where he is spending his time piously, as I am informed.

FATHER TEIGE O'DALY, having now finished his studies, is residing in the convent of the Incarnation, Bilbao: he is an upright and prudent man, as I am informed

FATHER FRANCIS DAVOCK, also an exile, is living in the convent of Corunna in Galicia.

FATHER JAMES DAVOCK studied in Spain, and was a very provident procurator for our refuge at Bilbao. He left that place to return home and is still remaining in France.

FATHER EDMOND BURKE, bachelor of sacred theology, studied at Pamplona, Salamanca, and in the convent of Atocha near Madrid, with success. He was made lector for the college at Louvain and taught philosophy there. He was master of students, second regent, and now is first regent as well as prior of the college of Holy Cross.

FATHER MARTIN DELPHIN studied in Rome and is lector of philosophy here at present.

FATHER THOMAS MACNEVIN studied in Spain and at Louvain, and is now chaplain of a regiment of the Spanish army in Belgium.

FATHER ANTHONY MACHUGH, the younger, is a student at Grenoble.

FATHER COLMAN O'SHAUGHNESSY is studying at Louvain.

FATHER ANTHONY BURKE studied in Italy; and after the late exile, went there a second time and is ministering in the hospital at Modena.

FATHER AUGUSTINE BERMINGHAM, as I hear, is a lector at Ferrara in Italy

FATHER CLEMENT BODKIN is living in the convent of Saint John of the Angels in France.

FATHER JOHN BURKE of Clocheroke is in Spain.

FATHER HUBERT BURKE gave two courses of philosophy; at Saint Sixtus's, after spending four years at his studies I at Avila, Pamplona and Granada. He is now second rent at Saint Sixtus's.

FATHER OLIVER O'DAVORAN made good studies in Spain, and is confessor to the nuns of our Order at Dijon in France.

FATHER JAMES MACEGAN is in Spain.

FATHER RICKARD BURKE is in Italy.

FATHER PIERCE FURLONG has been in prison for the last three years in England.

FATHER JOHN O'MORAN is staying at Estella in Navarre.

There are therefore thirty-two alive belonging to this community of Athenry.

Christ is mocked and beaten by Simon Knott

St Ethelbert, Hessett, Suffolk

Consider for one moment, if you will, the extent to which the beliefs and practices of a religious community affect the architecture of its buildings. Think of a Mosque, for instance. Often square, expressing the democracy of Islam, but without any imagery of the human figure, for such things are proscribed. Think of a Synagogue, focused towards the Holy Scriptures in the Ark, but designed to enable the proclaiming of the Word, and the way that early non-conformist chapels echo this architecture of Judaism - indeed, those who built the first free churches, like Ipswich's Unitarian Chapel, actually called them synagogues.

The shape of a church, then, is no accident. A typical Suffolk perpendicular church of the 15th century has wide aisles, to enable liturgical processions, a chancel for the celebration of Mass, places for other altars, niches for devotional statues, a focus towards the Blessed Sacrament in the east, a roof of angels to proclaim a hymn of praise, a large nave for devotional and social activities, and wall paintings of the Gospels and hagiographies of Saints, of the catechism and teachings of the Catholic Church.

As Le Corbusier might have said if he'd been around at the time, a medieval church is a machine for making Catholicism happen.

No longer, of course. The radical and violent fracture in popular religion in the middle years of the 16th century gave birth to the Church of England, and the new church inherited buildings that were quite unsuitable for the new congregational protestant theology - a problem that, to some extent, the Church of England has never entirely solved.

Over the centuries, the problem has been addressed in different ways; celebrating Communion at a table in the nave, for example, and blocking off the chancel for other uses. Although this was challenged by the Laudian party in the early part of the 17th century, it was the way that many parishes reinvented their buildings, and most were to stay like that until the middle years of the 19th century. Some went further: a pulpit placed halfway down the nave, or even at the back of the church, meant that the seating could be arranged so that it no longer focused towards the east, thus breaking the link with Catholic (and Laudian) sacramentalism. For several centuries, Anglican churches focused on the pulpit rather than the altar.

With the coming to influence of the 19th century Oxford Movement, all this underwent another dramatic change, with the great majority of our medieval parish churches having their interiors restored to their medieval integrity, reinventing themselves as sacramental spaces. This is the condition in which we find most of them today, and some Anglican theologians are asking the question that the Catholic Church asked itself at Vatican II in the 1960s - is a 19th century liturgical space really appropriate for the Church of the 21st century?

This may seem like a digression, but I hope it will become apparent why I've raised it. For similar questions have been asked throughout the history of Christianity.

So, let us hasten at once to Hessett. Here we are, roughly halfway between Bury and Stowmarket - like nearby Woolpit, this must once have been a more important place than it is today, and perhaps St Ethelbert gives us evidence of that.

The church sits like a glowing jewel in its wide churchyard, right on the main road through the village. It is pretty well perfect if you are looking for a fine Suffolk exterior. An extensive 15th century rebuilding enwraps the earlier tower, which was crowned by the donor of the rebuilding, John Bacon.The nave and aisles are deliciously decorated, reminding me rather of neighbouring Rougham, although this is a small church, and the aisles make it almost square. A dedicatory inscription on the two storey vestry in the north east corner bids us pray for the souls of John and Katherine Hoo, who donated the chancel and paid for the trimmings to the aisles. Their inscription has been damaged by protestant reformers, who obviously did not believe in the efficacy of prayers for the dead.

Although not comparable with Woolpit, the porch is a grand affair, and a bold statement. You may find the south door locked, but if this is the case then the priest's door into the chancel is usually open. If both are locked, then there is a keyholder, because the people of this parish really want you to see inside this church. And it is as well that they do, for, if you didn't know already, this is one of the most fascinating interiors in the county.

In a way, it is rather good to enter it from the chancel, because in this way St Ethelbert unfolds its treasures slowly.You step into relative darkness - or, at least, it seems so in comparison with the nave beyond the rood screen. This is partly a result of the abundance of dark wood, and in truth the chancel appears rather overcrowded. The most striking objects in view are the return stalls, which fill the two westerly corners of the chancel. These are in the style of a college or school of priests, with their backs to the rood screen, but then 'returning' around the walls to the east. They are fine, and are certainly 15th or 16th century. But one of the stalls, that to the north, is different to the others, and seems slightly out of place. It is elaborately carved with faces, birds and foliage.

Mortlock thought that it might have been intended for a private house. The stall in front of it has heads on it that appear to be wearing 18th century wigs, although I don't know enough about furniture to be sure if this is the case (or about wigs, for that matter). The sanctuary is largely Victorianised, with a great east window depicting Saints. The south windows of the chancel depict a lovely Adoration scene by the O'Connors.

The chancel is separated from the nave by the 15th century rood screen, which is elegantly painted and gilt on the west side, the beautifully tracery intricately carved above. The rood screen has been fitted with attractive iron gates, presumably evidence of Anglo-catholic enthusiasm here in the early 20th century, and you step down through them into the light. A first impression is that you are entering a much older space than the one you have left. There is an 18th century mustiness, enhanced by the box pews that line the aisles. And, beyond, on walls and in windows, are wonderful things.

The number of surviving wall paintings in England is a tiny fraction of what existed before the 15th and 16th centuries. All churches had them, and in profusion. It isn't enough to say that they were a 'teaching aid' of a church of illiterate peasants. In the main, they were devotional, and that is why they were destroyed. However, it is more complicated than that. Reseach in recent years has indicated that many wall paintings were destroyed before the Reformation, perhaps a century before. In some churches, they have been punched through with Perpendicular windows, which are clearly pre-Reformation. In the decades after the Black Death, there seems to have been a sea change in the liturgical use of these buildings, a move away from an individualistic, devotional usage to a corporate liturgical one. THere is a change of emphasis towards more education and exegesis. This is the time that pulpits and benches appear, long before protestantism was on the agenda. What seems to happen is that many buildings were intended now to be full of light, and devotional wall paintings were either whitewashed, or replaced with catechetical ones.

The decoration of the nave was the responsibility of the people of the parish, not of the Priest. The wall paintings of England can be divided into roughly three groups. Roughly speaking, the development of wall paintings over the later medieval period is in terms of these three overlapping emphases.

Firstly, the hagiographies - stories of the Saints. These might have had a local devotion, although some saints were popular over a wide area, and most churches seem to have included a devotion to St Christopher right up until the Reformation.

Secondy came those which illustrate incidents in the life of Christ and his mother, the Blessed Virgin. Although partly pedagogical, they were also enabling tools, since private devotions often involved a contemplation upon them, and at Mass the larger part of those present would have been involved in private devotions.

Lastly, there are catechetical wall paintings, illustrating the teachings of the Catholic church. It should not be assumed that these are dogmatic - many are simply artistic representations of stories, and others are simplifications of theological ideas - the seven deadly sins and the seven cardinal virtues, for example. Some warn against occasions of sin (gossiping, for example) and generally wall paintings provide a local site for discussion and exemplification.

To an extent, all the above is largely true of stained glass, as well, with the caveat that stained glass was more expensive, relied on local patronage, and often has this patronage as a subtext, hence the large number of heraldic devices and images of local worthies. But it was also devotional, and so it was also destroyed.

So - what survives at Hessett? The wall paintings first.

Starting in the south east corner of the nave, we have Suffolk's finest representation of St Barbara, presenting a tower. St Barbara is a mythical saint, relegated to non-league status in recent years by the Catholic Church, who nevertheless was very popular in early medieval times, because she was invoked against strikes by lightning and sudden fires. This resulted from her legend; her father, on finding her to be a Christian, walled her up in a tower until she repented. As a result, he was struck by lightning, and reduced to ashes. She was also the patron saint of the powerful building trade, and as such her image graced their guild altars - perhaps that was the case here.

Above the south door is another figure, often identified as St Christopher, but I do not think that this can be the case. St Christopher is found nowhere else in Suffolk above a south door. The traditional iconography of this mythical saint is not in place here, and it is hard to see how this figure could ever have been interpreted as such. I suspect it is a result of an early account confusing the two images over the north and south doors, and the mistake being repeated in later accounts.

In fact, digital enhancement seems to suggest that there are two figures above the south door, overlapping each other slightly. The figure on the left appears to be winged, while the figure on the right is barefoot, and may be carrying a beam or scales. The Archangel St Michael is often shown weighing souls in doom paintings, but I do not think this is part of a doom (again, it would be exceptional for this to appear over a south door) and I do not think it is St Michael.

I think that the figure on the left is probably Gabriel, and this is part of a later Annunciation painting overlapping an earlier image, the barefoot man. So who is he? Another suggestion is that it is St John the Baptist, as he is often shown barefoot. But what if the beam of the 'weighing scales' is actually part of a yoke? The supporting beam appears to continue over the figure's right shoulder, but the left side of his body is lost to us.

Could it be that it is not a Saint at all, but some representation of an agricultural worker? Perhaps it is part of a larger image (and we should not forget that the surviving paintings are a small part of what must have been there before). Perhaps it is even part of a hagiography - think of the wheel of the bullock cart in the St Edmund sequence at Thornham Parva, interpreted for many years as St Catherine's wheel. However, I wonder if it might even be a lost image of that most circumscribed of East Anglian saints, Walstan. He is carrying a scythe on the wall a few miles off at Cavenham - could this be him here? Whatever, it is likely to be part of a hagiographical sequence which was later replaced by a Life of Christ sequence, which usually ran from west to east along the south wall. This would also explain the location of what might be part of an Annunciation scene.

The wall painting opposite, above the north door, is St Christopher. Although it isn't as clear as himself at, say, nearby Bradfield Combust, he bestrides the river in the customary manner, staff in hand. The Christ child is difficult to discern, but you can see the fish in the water. Also in the water, and rather unusual, are two figures. They are rendered rather crudely, almost like gingerbread men. Could they be the donors of the north aisle, John and Katherine Hoo in person?

Moving along the north aisle, we come to the set of paintings for which Hessett is justifiably famous. They are set one above the other between two windows, at the point where might expect the now-vanished screen to a chapel to have been. The upper section was here first. It shows the seven deadly sins (described wrongly in some text books as a tree of Jesse, or ancestory of Christ). Two devils look on as, from the mouth of hell, a great tree sprouts, ending in seven images. Pride is at the top, and in pairs beneath are Gluttony and Anger, Vanity and Envy, Avarice and Lust.

Mortlock suggests that some attempt has been made to erase the image for Lust, which may simply be mid-16th century Calvinistic prurience on the part of some reformer here. This would suggest that this cathecetical tool was here right up until the Reformation.

The idea of 'Seven Deadly Sins' was anathema to the reformers, because it is entirely unscriptural. Rather, as a catechetic tool, it is a way of drawing together a multitude of sins into a simplistic aide memoire. This could then be used in confession, taking each of them one at a time and examining ones conscience accordingly. It should not be seen simply as a 'warning' to ignorant peasants; the evidence is that the ordinary rural people of late medieval England were theologically very articulate. Rather, it was a tool for use, in contemplation and preparation for the sacrament of reconciliation, which may well have ordinarily taken place in the chapel here.

The wall painting beneath the Sins is even more interesting. This is a very rare 'Christ of the Trades', and dates from the early 15th century, about a hundred years after the painting above. It is rather faded, and takes a while to discern, and not all of it is decodable. However, enough is there to be fascinating. The image of the 'Christ of the Trades' is known throughout Christendom, and contemporary versions with this can be found in other parts of Europe. It shows the risen Christ in the centre, and around him a vast array of the tools and symbols of various trades. It rises from the medieval perception that Christ was a working man, a carpenter, and it symbolises the dignity of labour and of craftsmanship.

I think it is extremely unlikely that it shows symbols of things which shouldn't be done on a Sunday, although Anne Marshall's Painted Churches site contains an interesting argument to the contrary.

Perhaps the most fascinating symbol, and the one that everyone notices, is the playing card. It shows the six of diamonds. Does it represent the makers of playing cards? If so, it might suggest a Flemish influence. Or could it be intended to represent something else? Whatever, it is one of the earliest representations of a playing card in England. Why is this here? It may very well be that there was a trades gild chantry chapel at the east end of the north aisle, and this painting was at its entrance.

At the east end of the north aisle now is the church's set of royal arms. Cautley saw it in the vestry in the 1930s, and identified it as a Queen Anne set. Now, with additions stripped away, it is revealed as a Charles II set from the 1660s, and a very fine one. It is fascinating to see it at such close range. Usually, they are set above the south door now, although they would originally have been placed above the chancel arch, in full view of the congregation, a gentle reminder of who was in charge.

The glass alone is worth coming to Hessett to see. Few Suffolk churches have such an expanse, none have such a variety, or glass of such quality and interest. It consists essentially of three ranges: the life and Passion of Christ in the north aisle (although some glass has been reset across the church), images and hagiographies of Saints in the south aisle, and a heavily restored but nonetheless fascinating sequence of the life of Christ in the west window. This bears close attention, for the fragments set into the restored work include several fascinating details, including the punctured feet of Christ ascending to heaven in a cloud of glory, and a Harrowing of Hell including the crushing of a fallen angel.

In the north aisle, the scourging of Christ stands out, the wicked grins of the persecutors contrasting with the pained nobility of the Christ figure. In the next window, Christ rises from the dead, coming out of his tomb like the corpses in the doom paintings at Stanningfield, North Cove and Wenhaston. The Roman centurion sleeps soundly in the foreground.

The most famous image is in the east window of the south aisle. Apparently, it shows a bishop holding the chain to a bag, with four children playing at his feet. I say apparently, because there is rather more going on here than meets the eye. The reason that this image is so famous is that the small child in the foreground is holding what appears to be a golf club or hockey stick, and this would be the earliest representation of such an object in all Europe. A rather more sober school of thought argues that it is a fuller's club, used for dying clothes, and the symbol of St James the Less. The whole image has been said to represent St Nicholas, who was a Bishop, and whose legends include a bag of gold and a group of children.

Unfortunately, this is not convincing. St Nicholas is never symbolised by a bag of gold, and there are three children in the St Nicholas legend, not four. In any case, the hand in the picture is not holding the chain to a bag at all, but a rosary.

What has happened here is that the head of a Bishop has been grafted on to the body of a figure which is probably still in its original location. The three lights of this window contained a set of the Holy Kinship. The light to the north of the 'Bishop' contains two children playing with what ae apparently toys, but when you look closely you can see that one is holding a golden shell, and the other a poisoned chalice. They are the infant St James and St John, and the lost figure above them was their mother, Mary Salome.

This means that the figure with the Bishop's head is actually Mary Cleophas, mother of four children including St James the Less, and it really is a fuller's club. The third light to the south, of course, would have depicted the Blessed Virgin and child, but she is lost to us.

If the windows and wallpaintings were all there was, then Hessett would be remarkable enough. But there is something else, two things, actually, that elevate it above all other Suffolk churches, and all the churches of England. For St Ethelbert is the proud owner of two unique survivals. At the back of the church is a chest, no different from those you'll find in many a parish church. In common with those, it has three separate locks, the idea being that the Rector and two Churchwardens would have a key each, and it would be necessary for all three of them to be present for the chest to be opened. It was used for storing parish records and valuables.

At some point, one of the keys was lost. There is a great story about the iconoclast William Dowsing turning up here and demanding the chest be opened; on account of the missing key, it couldn't be. Unfortunately, this story isn't true: Dowsing never visited Hessett. The chest was eventually opened in the 19th century. Inside were found two extraordinary pre-Reformation survivals. These are a pyx cloth and a burse. The pyx cloth was draped over the wooden canopy that enclosed the blessed sacrament (one of England's four surviving medieval pyxes is also in Suffolk, at Dennington) before it was raised above the high altar. The burse was used to contain the host before consecration at the Mass. They are England's only surviving examples, and they're both here.

Or, more precisely they aren't - both have been purloined by the British Museum, the kind of theft that no locked church can prevent.

But there are lifesize photos of both either side of the tower arch. The burse is basically an envelope, and features the Veronica face of Christ on one side with the four evangelistic symbols in each corner. On the other is an Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God. The survival of both is extraordinary. It is one thing to explore the furnishings of lost Catholic England, quite another to come face to face with articles that were actually used in the liturgy.

In front of the pictures stands the font, a relatively good one of the early 15th century, though rather less exciting than everything going on around it. The dedicatory inscription survives, to a pair of Hoos of an earlier generation than the ones on the vestry.Turning east again, the ranks of simple 15th century benches are all of a piece with their church. They have survived the violent transitions of the centuries, and have seated generation after generation of Hessett people. They were new here when this church was alive with coloured light, with the hundreds of candles flickering on the rood beam, the processions, the festivals, and the people's lives totally integrated with the liturgy of the seasons. For the people of Catholic England, their religion was as much a part of them as the air they breathed. They little knew how soon it would all come to an end.

And so, there it is - one of the most fascinating and satisfactory of all East Anglia's churches. And yet, not many people know about it; we are only three miles from the brown-signed honeypot of Woolpit, where a constant stream of visitors come and go. I've visited Hessett many times, and never once encountered another visitor. Still, there you are, I suppose. Perhaps some places are better kept secret. But come here if you can, for here is a medieval worship space with much surviving evidence of what it was actually meant to be, and meant to do.

Postscript: I wrote the above in 2000, adapting it in 2003 and 2006. I have left the structure of the narrative as it was when I made those early visits. I have corrected some confusion in the description of the glass, a consequence of my general inability to tell my left from my right. I have also taken the opportunity to go through the text and make myself sound slightly less pompous.

One of the delights of Hessett is that there really are genuine mysteries about some of the wall paintings and glass. Digital enhancement has added to these mysteries rather than solving them. In addition, one thing I have learned as I get older, and perhaps a little bit wiser, is that there really are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our early 21st century philosophy. If this has led to an unravelling of the certainties previously offered, then I can only plead that this is another excuse to go back soon.

18. But who, now, is that mediator, who is at the same time true God (1 John 5:20†; Rom 8:3†; Gal 4:4†; Isa 9:6†; Jer 23:5–6†; Mal 3:1†) and a true, sinless man (Rom 9:5†; Luke 1:42†; 2:6–7†; Rom 1:3†; Phil 2:7†; Heb 2:14, 16–17†; 4:15†; Isa 53:9, 11†; Lu by ON BORROWED TIME

Our Lord Jesus Christ (Matt 1:21, 23; Isa 7:14; 1 Tim 3:16; Luke 2:11; John 14:6; 1 Tim 2:5; Heb 2:9†), who is freely given unto us for complete redemption and righteousness (1 Cor 1:30).

Blue Angel by Lawrence OP

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From the chapel of the Trinity Hospital in Leicester. 2 October is the feast of the guardian angels.

"According to the teaching of the Roman catechism, we must remember how admirable was the intention of divine Providence in entrusting to the angels the mission of watching over all mankind, and over individual human beings, lest they should fall victims to the grave dangers which they encounter. In this earthly life, when children have to make their way along a path beset with obstacles and snares, their fathers take care to call upon the help of those who can look after them and come to their aid in adversity. In the same way our Father in heaven has charged his angels to come to our assistance during our earthly journey which leads us to our blessed fatherland, so that, protected by the angels' help and care, we may avoid the snares upon our path, subdue our passions and, under this angelic guidance, follow always the straight and sure road which leads to Paradise...

Everyone of us is entrusted to the care of an angel. "

- Blessed Pope John XXIII

Children and parishes by Indian_Forever

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E' l'8 Dicembre 1970. Ci troviamo a Ceri, piccolissimo borgo laziale che si trova in una suggestiva posizione sopra un altopiano di roccia rossastra circondato da catene montuose. Borgo nato nel Xlll secolo che nel 1970 aveva circa 300 abitanti. E' ricordato per la presenza del Palazzo Torlonia,già rocca degli Anguillara e per la Parrocchiale con lo stemma degli stessi Anguillara. La scalinata che vediamo nella foto è quella che porta all'ingresso della Parrocchiale.I bambini di questo borgo stanno vendendo i biglietti della lotteria (per la Festa dell'Immacolata) ,che si terrà nel pomeriggio insieme ad altri festeggiamenti e riti religiosi. In quel periodo i bambini di quell'età avevano due tipi di svago. La strada era il luogo dove si cresceva giocando ed imparando a conoscere la vita,oppure andare in parrocchia. Le madri usavano espressioni del tipo "Vai a catechismo!" "Vai all'oratorio" "vai in parrocchia" tutti con il medesimo significato.

Questo succedeva principalmente nei paesi,ma anche nelle grandi città(principalmente nei quartieri più poveri).Dovranno passare ancora molti anni prima di sentir parlare ,in maniera più diffusa,di nuoto in piscina,danza,ginnastica e scuole calcio.

And 'the December 8, 1970. We are Ceri, a tiny village in Lazio, which is located in a picturesque position on a plateau surrounded by red rock mountains. Born in the thirteenth century village in 1970 had about 300 inhabitants. And 'remembered for the presence of the Palazzo Torlonia, former stronghold of the Anguillara and the parish with the arms of the same Anguillara. The steps that we see in the picture is the one that leads to the entrance of the parish. The children of this town are selling lottery tickets (for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception), which will be held in the afternoon along with other celebrations and religious rites. At that time the children of that age had two types of entertainment. The road was the place where you grew up playing and learning about life, or go to church. Mothers used phrases like "Jump to the catechism!" "Go to the oratory," "Go to church" all with the same meaning.

This occurred mainly in the countries, but also in big cities (mainly in the poorest neighborhoods). It will take many years before you hear, more widely, swimming pool, dance, gymnastics and soccer schools.

Canon FT QL

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