Saturday, and hey, hey it's the weekend.

 

I felt as though the weather had kept me trapped in the house pretty much all week, so I wanted to go out.

 

Jools came back from work evening, saying that her old boss had visited Rochester Cathedral and said there is a fantastic art display of thousands of paper doves, and a huge table made from reclaimed 5,000 tree trunk found in a fen in Norfolk.

 

Yes, we would like some of that action, and as it has been three years since we were last there, seemed like a good idea.

 

In fact, at the beginning of March 2020, it was the first trip we took in the new Audi, and of course, two weeks later there was lockdown and deaths.

 

So, a trip back, at Easter, for a rebirth and to see some art and a huge table.

 

But first, shopping.

 

And being the start of the month, we get much more than usual, including wine to make sloe port and stuff for washing and cleaning.

 

Back home to put it all away and have breakfast and second coffee before heading out. Though because of Brexit-related delays in the port, we did have to leave through Guston and Pineham to get to the A2 as traffic through Whitfield was at a standstill.

 

Up the A2 to Faversham, then along the Motorway until we turned off just after the Medway bridge. It was later than we had hoped, but thought nothing of it, really.

 

But there was a food festival on near the caste, and all parking was full, we drove along the river thinking we would just give up, then following the sat nav back into town we find a tiny car park with spaces, and just a few minutes walk from the cathedral and castle.

 

Perfect.

 

As we drove past the parish church in Strood, I saw thatt he door was open: oh good.

 

On the way to the cathedral, we called into a café for breakfast. Second breakfast. Elevenses. I had a bacon butty and Jools had a panini, which hit the spot, meaning we were ready to go and mingle with people.

 

By the time we emerged, and walked along the High Street to the church, it was closed. So I took some shots of the outside, and then we headed for the bridge over the Medway, and before the Cathedral, there was the Bridge Chapel.

 

I had discovered from a fr

 

iend that the Bridge over the Medway at Rochester was owned, repaired and funded by a charity/trust, and had been this was pretty much from the 14th century.

 

Only the other shell of the Chantry Chapel of the Bridge now remains, but a new roof has been put on, and the chapel now used for meetings, and has a large wooden table filling most of the Chancel. I record the details, say thanks to the two friendly guides, and we finally walk to the Cathedral.

 

The food festival needed tickets to go in, it smelled good, and a band was playing poor Britpop numbers to entertain the thin crowds.

 

We entered the cathedral, and hit by the sight of over 10,000 paper doves, all lit with pink light, having over the Nave.

 

It was impressive.

 

As was the table, pushed to one side but half the length of the Nave, and made of two and three thick planks.

 

I went round taking shots of the stained glass with the big lens, whilst Jools sat and looked after the camera bag.

 

Despite it being a cool day, with my fleece on I was hot, so needed a drink, and along the old High Street was The George, and they showed us to the "garden", which was a huge tent filled with people, one party were loudly celebrating someone's 40th birthday.

 

But our drinks were brought quickly, and being in the corner we could people watch, of course.

 

It was two, and time to go home. The traffic jams of earlier had melted away, so we walked to the car, turned out onto the main road out of town, to the motorway and home.

 

On the radio Citeh put 4 (four) past Liverpool, then all was about preparations for the main group of games.

 

We arrived back home at three, time for a brew and two hot cross buns each, and for me, listen to the footy on the radio, and hopeful that City's late push to the play-offs would start today.

  

It didn't.

 

A 1-0 loss to Sheffield Utd, just one shot on goal, and the season is deader than flares.

 

I watched the evening game, Chelsea losing to Villa, whilst Craig returned on the radio and spun some funk and soul.

 

Perfect.

 

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Rochester Cathedral has been transformed by ‘Peace Doves’ an artwork by Peter Walker Sculptor

 

Bringing a message of peace and hope, the Peace Doves artwork has been created from around fifteen thousand individually hand made paper doves, together they collectively form this beautiful artwork which as a whole reflects joining together in unity, peace and hope moving forward.

 

Peace Doves is an artwork that has been re-curated for different spaces as it tours the UK, adaptations have been seen in Liverpool, Lichfield, Derby, Sheffield and now at Rochester.

 

The Peace Doves project has incorporated educational engagement with many schools and community groups in the local area and each person has written individual messages of peace and hope onto each dove.

 

Throughout history the dove has been viewed as a symbol of peace in many different cultures. For example in Greek mythology the dove is a symbol of the renewal of life, and liturgically within the Bible the dove appears at the Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan and in the teachings of Noah and the Ark as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

 

www.rochestercathedral.org/peacedoves

 

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The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church of England and the seat (cathedra) of the Bishop of Rochester, the second oldest bishopric in England after that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The edifice is a Grade I listed building (number 1086423)

 

The Rochester diocese was founded by Justus, one of the missionaries who accompanied Augustine of Canterbury to convert the pagan southern English to Christianity in the early 7th century. As the first Bishop of Rochester, Justus was granted permission by King Æthelberht of Kent to establish a church dedicated to Andrew the Apostle (like the monastery at Rome where Augustine and Justus had set out for England) on the site of the present cathedral, which was made the seat of a bishopric. The cathedral was to be served by a college of secular priests and was endowed with land near the city called Priestfields.[3][a][b]

 

Under the Roman system, a bishop was required to establish a school for the training of priests.[4] To provide the upper parts for music in the services a choir school was required.[5] Together these formed the genesis of the cathedral school which today is represented by the King's School, Rochester. The quality of chorister training was praised by Bede.

 

The original cathedral was 42 feet (13 m) high and 28 feet (8.5 m) wide. The apse is marked in the current cathedral on the floor and setts outside show the line of the walls. Credit for the construction of the building goes to King Æthelberht rather than St Justus. Bede describes St Paulinus' burial as "in the sanctuary of the Blessed Apostle Andrew which Æthelberht founded likewise he built the city of Rochester."[c][7]

 

Æthelberht died in 617 and his successor, Eadbald of Kent, was not a Christian. Justus fled to Francia and remained there for a year before he was recalled by the king.[8]

 

In 644 Ithamar, the first English-born bishop, was consecrated at the cathedral.[d] Ithamar consecrated Deusdedit as the first Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury on 26 March 655.[9]

 

The cathedral suffered much from the ravaging of Kent by King Æthelred of Mercia in 676. So great was the damage that Putta retired from the diocese and his appointed successor, Cwichelm, gave up the see "because of its poverty".[10]

 

In 762, the local overlord, Sigerd, granted land to the bishop, as did his successor Egbert.[e][11] The charter is notable as it is confirmed by Offa of Mercia as overlord of the local kingdom.

 

Following the invasion of 1066, William the Conqueror granted the cathedral and its estates to his half-brother, Odo of Bayeux. Odo misappropriated the resources and reduced the cathedral to near-destitution. The building itself was ancient and decayed. During the episcopate of Siward (1058–1075) it was served by four or five canons "living in squalor and poverty".[12] One of the canons became vicar of Chatham and raised sufficient money to make a gift to the cathedral for the soul and burial of his

 

Gundulf's church

 

Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, amongst others, brought Odo to account at the trial of Penenden Heath c. 1072. Following Odo's final fall, Gundulf was appointed as the first Norman bishop of Rochester in 1077. The cathedral and its lands were restored to the bishop.

 

Gundulf's first undertaking in the construction of the new cathedral seems to have been the construction of the tower which today bears his name. In about 1080 he began construction of a new cathedral to replace Justus' church. He was a talented architect who probably played a major part in the design or the works he commissioned. The original cathedral had a presbytery of six bays with aisles of the same length. The four easternmost bays stood over an undercroft which forms part of the present crypt. To the east was a small projection, probably for the silver shrine of Paulinus which was translated there from the old cathedral.[f] The transepts were 120 feet long, but only 14 feet wide. With such narrow transepts it is thought that the eastern arches of the nave abuted the quire arch.[14] To the south another tower (of which nothing visible remains) was built. There was no crossing tower.[15] The nave was not completed at first. Apparently designed to be nine bays long, most of the south side but only five bays to the north were completed by Gundulf. The quire was required by the priory and the south wall formed part of its buildings. It has been speculated that Gundulf simply left the citizens to complete the parochial part of the building.[16] Gundulf did not stop with the fabric, he also replaced the secular chaplains with Benedictine monks, obtained several royal grants of land and proved a great benefactor to his cathedral city.

 

In 1078 Gudulf founded St Bartholomew's Hospital just outside the city of Rochester. The Priory of St Andrew contributed daily and weekly provisions to the hospital which also received the offerings from the two altars of St James and of St Giles.[17]

 

During the episcopates of Ernulf (1115–1124) and John (I) (1125–1137) the cathedral was completed. The quire was rearranged, the nave partly rebuilt, Gundulf's nave piers were cased and the west end built. Ernulf is also credited with building the refectory, dormitory and chapter house, only portions of which remain. Finally John translated the body of Ithamar from the old Saxon cathedral to the new Norman one, the whole being dedicated in 1130 (or possibly 1133) by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by 13 bishops in the presence of Henry I, but the occasion was marred by a great fire which nearly destroyed the whole city and damaged the new cathedral. It was badly damaged by fires again in 1137 and 1179. One or other of these fires was sufficiently severe to badly damage or destroy the eastern arm and the transepts. Ernulf's monastic buildings were also damaged.

 

Probably from about 1190, Gilbert de Glanville (bishop 1185–1214) commenced the rebuilding of the east end and the replacement on the monastic buildings. The north quire transept may have been sufficiently advanced to allow the burial of St William of Perth in 1201, alternatively the coffin may have lain in the north quire aisle until the transept was ready. It was then looted in 1215 by the forces of King John during siege of Rochester Castle. Edmund de Hadenham recounts that there was not a pyx left "in which the body of the Lord might rest upon the altar".[14] However, by 1227, the quire was again in use when the monks made their solemn entry into it. The cathedral was rededicated in 1240 by Richard Wendene (also known as Richard de Wendover) who had been translated from Bangor.[14][18]

 

The shrines of Ss Paulinus and William of Perth, along with the relics of St Ithamar, drew pilgrims to the cathedral. Their offerings were so great that both the work mentioned above and the ensuing work could be funded.

 

Unlike the abbeys of the period (which were led by an abbot) the monastic cathedrals were priories ruled over by a prior with further support from the bishop.[19] Rochester and Carlisle (the other impoverished see) were unusual in securing the promotion of a number of monks to be bishop. Seven bishops of Rochester were originally regular monks between 1215 and the Dissolution.[20] A consequence of the monastic attachment was a lack of patronage at the bishop's disposal. By the early 16th century only 4% of the bishop's patronage came from non-parochial sources.[21] The bishop was therefore chronically limited in funds to spend on the non-monastic part of the cathedral.

 

The next phase of the development was begun by Richard de Eastgate, the sacrist. The two eastern bays of the nave were cleared and the four large piers to support the tower were built. The north nave transept was then constructed. The work was nearly completed by Thomas de Mepeham who became sacrist in 1255. Not long after the south transept was completed and the two bays of the nave nearest the crossing rebuilt to their current form. The intention seems to have been to rebuild the whole nave, but probably lack of funds saved the late Norman work.

 

The cathedral was desecrated in 1264 by the troops of Simon de Montfort, during sieges of the city and castle. It is recorded that armed knights rode into the church and dragged away some refugees. Gold and silver were stolen and documents destroyed. Some of the monastic buildings were turned into stables.[22] Just over a year later De Montfort fell at the Battle of Evesham to the forces of Edward I. Later, in 1300, Edward passed through Rochester on his way to Canterbury and is recorded as having given seven shillings (35p) at the shrine of St William, and the same again the following day. During his return he again visited the cathedral and gave a further seven shillings at each of the shrines of Ss Paulinus and Ithamar.

 

The new century saw the completion of the new Decorated work with the original Norman architecture. The rebuilding of the nave being finally abandoned. Around 1320 the south transept was altered to accommodate the altar of the Virgin Mary.

 

There appears to have been a rood screen thrown between the two western piers of the crossing. A rood loft may have surmounted it.[23] Against this screen was placed the altar of St Nicholas, the parochial altar of the city. The citizens demanded the right of entrance by day or night to what was after all their altar. There were also crowds of strangers passing through the city. The friction broke out as a riot in 1327 after which the strong stone screens and doors which wall off the eastern end of the church from the nave were built.[24] The priory itself was walled off from the town at this period. An oratory was established in angulo navis ("in the corner of the nave") for the reserved sacrament; it is not clear which corner was being referred to, but Dr Palmer[25] argues that the buttress against the north-west tower pier is the most likely setting. He notes the arch filled in with rubble on the aisle side; and on nave side there is a scar line with lower quality stonework below. The buttress is about 4 feet (1.2 m) thick, enough for an oratory. Palmer notes that provision for reservation of consecrated hosts was often made to the north of the altar which would be the case here.

 

The central tower was at last raised by Hamo de Hythe in 1343, thus essentially completing the cathedral. Bells were placed in the central tower (see Bells section below). The chapter room doorway was constructed at around this time. The Black Death struck England in 1347–49. From then on there were probably considerably more than twenty monks in the priory.

 

The modern paintwork of the quire walls is modelled on artwork from the Middle Ages. Gilbert Scott found remains of painting behind the wooden stalls during his restoration work in the 1870s. The painting is therefore part original and part authentic. The alternate lions and fleurs-de-lis reflect Edward III's victories, and assumed sovereignty over the French. In 1356 the Black Prince had defeated John II of France at Poitiers and took him prisoner. On 2 July 1360 John passed through Rochester on his way home and made an offering of 60 crowns (£15) at the Church of St Andrew.[27]

 

The Oratory provided for the citizens of Rochester did not settle the differences between the monks and the city. The eventual solution was the construction of St Nicholas' Church by the north side of the cathedral. A doorway was knocked through the western end of the north aisle (since walled up) to allow processions to pass along the north aisle of the cathedral before leaving by the west door.[27][28]

 

In the mid-15th century the clerestory and vaulting of the north quire aisle was completed and new Perpendicular Period windows inserted into the nave aisles. Possible preparatory work for this is indicated in 1410–11 by the Bridge Wardens of Rochester who recorded a gift of lead from the Lord Prior. The lead was sold on for 41 shillings.[g][29] In 1470 the great west window at the cathedral was completed and finally, in around 1490, what is now the Lady Chapel was built.[27] Rochester Cathedral, although one of England's smaller cathedrals, thus demonstrates all styles of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.[30]

 

In 1504 John Fisher was appointed Bishop of Rochester. Although Rochester was by then an impoverished see, Fisher elected to remain as bishop for the remainder of his life. He had been tutor to the young Prince Henry and on the prince's accession as Henry VIII, Fisher remained his staunch supporter and mentor. He figured in the anti-Lutheran policies of Henry right up until the divorce issue and split from Rome in the early 1530s. Fisher remained true to Rome and for his defence of the Pope was elevated as a cardinal in May 1535. Henry was angered by these moves and, on 22 June 1535, Cardinal Fisher was beheaded on Tower Green.

 

Henry VIII visited Rochester on 1 January 1540 when he met Ann of Cleves for the first time and was "greatly disappointed".[31] Whether connected or not, the old Priory of St Andrew was dissolved by royal command later in the year, one of the last monasteries to be dissolved.

 

The west front is dominated by the central perpendicular great west window. Above the window the dripstone terminates in a small carved head at each side. The line of the nave roof is delineated by a string course above which rises the crenelated parapet. Below the window is a blind arcade interrupted by the top of the Great West Door. Some of the niches in the arcade are filled with statuary. Below the arcade the door is flanked with Norman recesses. The door itself is of Norman work with concentric patterned arches. The semicircular tympanum depicts Christ sitting in glory in the centre, with Saints Justus and Ethelbert flanking him on either side of the doorway. Supporting the saints are angels and surrounding them are the symbols of the Four Evangelists: Ss Matthew (a winged man), Mark (a lion), Luke (an ox) and John (an eagle).[52] On the lintel below are the Twelve Apostles and on the shafts supporting it King Soloman and the Queen of Sheba.[53] Within the Great West Door there is a glass porch which allows the doors themselves to be kept open throughout the day.

 

Either side of the nave end rises a tower which forms the junction of the front and the nave walls. The towers are decorated with blind arcading and are carried up a further two stories above the roof and surmounted with pyramidal spires. The aisle ends are Norman. Each has a large round headed arch containing a window and in the northern recess is a small door. Above each arch is plain wall surmounted by a blind arcade, string course at the roof line and plain parapet. The flanking towers are Norman in the lower part with the style being maintained in the later work. Above the plain bases there are four stories of blind arcading topped with an octagonal spire.[54]

 

The outside of the nave and its aisles is undistinguished, apart from the walled up north-west door which allowed access from the cathedral to the adjacent St Nicholas' Church.[28] The north transept is reached from the High Street via Black Boy Alley, a medieval pilgrimage route. The decoration is Early English, but reworked by Gilbert Scott. Scott rebuilt the gable ends to the original high pitch from the lower one adopted at the start of the 19th century. The gable itself is set back from the main wall behind a parapet with walkway. He also restored the pilgrim entrance and opened up the blind arcade in the northern end of the west wall.[55]

 

To the east of the north transept is the Sextry Gate. It dates from Edward III's reign and has wooden domestic premises above. The area beyond was originally enclosed, but is now open to the High Street through the memorial garden and gates. Beyond the Sextry Gate is the entrance to Gundulf's Tower, used as a private back door to the cathedral.

 

The north quire transept and east end are all executed in Early English style, the lower windows light the crypt which is earlier. Adjoining the east end of the cathedral is the east end of the Chapter Room which is in the same style. The exact form of the east end is more modern than it appears, being largely due to the work of Scott in the 19th century. Scott raised the gable ends to the original high pitch, but for lack of funds the roofs have not been raised; writing in 1897 Palmer noted: "they still require roofs of corresponding pitch, a need both great and conspicuous".[56]

 

On the south side of the cathedral the nave reaches the main transept and beyond a modern porch. The aisle between the transepts is itself a buttress to the older wall behind and supported by a flying buttress. The unusual position of this wall is best explained when considering the interior, below. The southern wall of the presbytery is hidden by the chapter room, an 18th-century structure.

 

he western part of the nave is substantially as Gundulf designed it. According to George H. Palmer (who substantially follows St John Hope) "Rochester and Peterborough possess probably the best examples of the Norman nave in the country".[60] The main arcade is topped by a string course below a triforium. The triforium is Norman with a further string course above. The clerestory above is of perpendicular style. From the capitals pilasters rise to the first string course but appear to have been removed from the triforium stage. Originally they might have supported the roof timbers, or even been the springing of a vault.[61]

 

The easternmost bay of the triforium appears to be Norman, but is the work of 14th-century masons. The final bay of the nave is Decorated in style and leads to the tower piers. Of note is the north pier which possibly contains the Oratory Chapel mentioned above.[62]

 

The aisles are plain with flat pilasters. The eastern two bays are Decorated with springing for vaulting. Whether the vault was ever constructed is unknown, the present wooden roof extends the full length of the aisles.

 

The crossing is bounded to the east by the quire screen with the organ above. This is of 19th-century work and shows figures associated with the early cathedral. Above the crossing is the central tower, housing the bells and above that the spire. The ceiling of the crossing is notable for the four Green Men carved on the bosses. Visible from the ground is the outline of the trapdoor through which bells can be raised and lowered when required. The floor is stepped up to the pulpitum and gives access to the quire through the organ screen.

 

The north transept is from 1235 in Early English style. The Victorian insertion of windows has been mentioned above in the external description. Dominating the transept is the baptistery fresco. The fresco by Russian artist Sergei Fyodorov is displayed on the eastern wall. It is located within an arched recess. The recess may have been a former site of the altar of St Nicholas from the time of its construction in 1235 until it was moved to the screen before the pulpitum in 1322. A will suggests that "an altar of Jesu" also stood here at some point, an altar of some sort must have existed as evidenced by the piscina to the right of the recess.[64] The vaulting is unusual in being octpartite, a development of the more common sexpartite. The Pilgrim Door is now the main visitor entrance and is level for disabled access.

 

he original Lady Chapel was formed in the south transept by screening it off from the crossing. The altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary was housed in the eastern arch of the transept. There are traces of painting both on the east wall and under the arch. The painting delineates the location of the mediaeval north screen of the Lady Chapel. Around 1490 this chapel was extended westwards by piercing the western wall with a large arch and building the chapel's nave against the existing south aisle of cathedral. From within the Lady Chapel the upper parts of two smaller clerestory windows may be seen above the chapel's chancel arch. Subsequently, a screen was placed under the arch and the modern Lady Chapel formed in the 1490 extension.

 

The south transept is of early Decorated style. The eastern wall of it is a single wide arch at the arcade level. There are two doorways in the arch, neither of which is used, the northern one being hidden by the memorial to Dr William Franklin. The south wall starts plain but part way up is a notable monument to Richard Watts, a "coloured bust, with long gray beard".[65] According to Palmer there used to be a brass plaque to Charles Dickens below this but only the outline exists, the plaque having been moved to the east wall of the quire transept.[66] The west wall is filled by the large arch mentioned above with the screen below dividing it from the present Lady Chapel.

 

The Lady Chapel as it now exists is of Decorated style with three lights along southern wall and two in the west wall. The style is a light and airy counterpart to the stolid Norman work of the nave. The altar has been placed against the southern wall resulting in a chapel where the congregation wraps around the altar. The window stained glass is modern and tells the gospel story.

 

The first, easternmost, window has the Annunciation in the upper light: Gabriel speaking to Mary (both crowned) with the Holy Spirit as a dove descending. The lower light shows the Nativity with the Holy Family, three angels and shepherds. The next window shows St Elizabeth in the upper light surrounded by stars and the sun in splendour device. The lower light shows the Adoration of the Magi with Mary enthroned with the Infant. The final window of the south wall has St Mary Magdelene with her ointment surrounded by Tudor roses and fleurs-de-lis in the upper light with the lower light showing the Presentation in the Temple. The west wall continues with St. Margaret of Scotland in the upper light surrounded by fouled anchor and thistle roundels. The reference is to the original dedication of the cathedral as the Priory of St Andrew. The lower light shows the Crucifixion with Mary and St Peter. The final window is unusual, the upper light is divided in three and shows King Arthur with the royal arms flanked by St George on the left and St Michael on the right. The lower light shows the Ascension: two disciples to the left, three women with unguents to the right and three bare crosses top right.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Cathedral

 

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The priory and cathedral church

ABOUT THE YEAR 600, Ethelbert, king of Kent, at the instance of St. Augustine, began to build a CHURCH at Rochester, in honour of St. Andrew, and a MONASTERY adjoining to it, of which church St. Augustine in 604, appointed Justus to be bishop, and placed secular priests in the monastery; for the maintenance of whom the king gave a portion of land to the south of the city, called Prestefelde; to be possessed by them for ever, and he added other parcels of land, both within and without the walls of the city. (fn. 1) And notwithstanding in after times the gifts to this church were many and extensive, yet by the troubles which followed in the Danish wars, it was stripped of almost all of them, and at the time of the conquest it was in such a state of poverty, that divine worship was entirely neglected in it, and there remained in it only five secular priests, who had not sufficient for their maintenance.

 

Many of the possessions belonging to the church of Rochester had come into the hands of the conqueror at his accession to the crown, most of which he gave to his half-brother, Odo, bishop of Baieux, from whom archbishop Lanfranc recovered them, amongother lands belonging to his own church, in the solemn assembly of the whole county, held by the king's command at Pinnenden-heath, in the year 1076.

 

Soon after this, Gundulf was elected bishop of Rochester, to whom and to this church, archbishop Lanfranc immediately restored all those lands which he had recovered, formerly belonging to it.

 

Bishop Gundulf displaced the secular canons which he found here, and with the advice and assistance of archbishop Lanfranc, placed Benedictine monks in their room, the number of which, before his death, amounted to sixty. Besides which, the bishop continuing his unwearied zeal in promoting the interest of his church, recovered and purchased back again many other lands and manors, which had been formerly given to it by several kings, and other pious persons, and had been at different times wrested from it. He followed the example of archbishop Lanfranc, and separated his revenues from those of his monks; for before the bishop and his monks lived in common as one family. He rebuilt the church and enlarged the priory; and though he did not live to complete the great improvements he had undertaken, yet he certainly laid the foundation of the future prosperity of both. (fn. 2) The most material occurrences which happened to the church and priory, from the above time to the dissolution of the latter, will be found in the subsequent account of the several priors and bishops of this church.

 

From the conquest to the reign of Henry VIII. almost every king granted some liberties and privileges, as well to the bishop of Rochester as to the prior of the convent; each confirmed likewise those granted by his predecessors. The succeeding bishops and archbishops confirmed the possessions of the priory to the monks of it, as did many of the popes. The Registrum Roffense is full of these grants in almost every page and as the most material of them are mentioned under the respective places they relate to in the course of this history, the reader will, it is hoped, the more readily excuse the omission of them in this place.

 

A list of the Priors of Rochester.

Ordowinus was appointed the first prior, and was witness to the charter of foundation, dated Sept. 20, 1089. He afterwards resigned. (fn. 3)

 

Arnulph, originally a monk of Christ church, was constituted in his room, and continued here till he was elected prior of Canterbury, in 1096, from whence he was preferred to the abbot of Peterborough, and in 1115, to the see of Rochester. He was a good benefactor to this priory, and built the dormitory, chapter house, and refectory.

 

Ralph succeeded him; he had been a monk at Caen, and came over into England with Lanfranc, in 1107. On his being chosen abbot of Battle, in Sussex, he resigned this office. On the death of bishop Gundulf, the monks of Rochester desired him for their bishop, but in vain.

 

Ordowinus was again restored in 1107. He is said to have held this office under bishop Ernulph, therefore he was living in 1115.

 

Letard presided here under the same bishop.

 

Brian presided in 1145; and died on Decemb. 5, 1146.

 

Reginald, who in the year 1154, obtained from pope Adrian IV. a confirmation of the privliges of the church of Rochester. He is said to have died on April 29, in the obituary of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, but the year is not mentioned, nor that of the election of

 

Ernulf II. who was prior in the time of bishop Walter. The next I find is

 

William de Borstalle, who was preferred to the priorship from being cellarer to this monastery.

 

Silvester, who was his successor, from being cellarer was likewise made prior. In his time, anno 1177, the church and the offices, as well within as without the walls were burnt. He rebuilt the refectory and dormitory, and three windows in the chapter house, towards the east. His successor was

 

Richard, who in 1182, resigned this office on being chosen abbot of Burton, in Staffordshire.

 

Alfred succeeded him as prior, and quitted it on being made abbot of Abingdon by king Henry II. between the years 1185 and 1189. (fn. 4)

 

Osbert de Scapella, from being sacrist was chosen prior. He wrote several books, and made the window of St. Peter's altar, and did many other works; he was a great benefactor to the buildings of this church.

 

Ralph de Ros, who presided in 1199, was the next prior, and whilst he was sacrist built the brewhouse, and the prior's great and lesser chamber, the stone houses in the church yard, the hostiary, stable, and the barn in the vineyard, and caused the church to be covered and most of it leaded.

 

Helias seems to have succeeded him. He finished the covering of the church with lead, and built with stone a stable for himself and his successors. He also leaded that part of the cloisters next the dormitory, and made the laundry and door of the refectory.

 

William is said after him to have enjoyed this office in 1222.

 

Richard de Derente was elected prior of Rochester in 1225; he, among others, in the year 1227, signified to the archbishop the election of Henry de Sandford to the see of Rochester, and he is said to have presided in the year 1238, and to have been succeeded by

 

William de Hoo, sacrist of this church, who was chosen prior in 1239. He built the whole choir of this church, from the north and south wings, out of the oblations made at the shrine of St. William; and after having governed here for two years, because he would not consent to the sale of some lands belonging to his convent, he was much persecuted, and resigning this office, became a monk at Wooburn, and there died. In his time, in 1240, the altar in the infirmary chapel was dedicated to St. Mary; and on the nones of November that year the cathedral church itself being finished, was dedicated by the bishop, assisted by the bishops of Bangor and St. Andrew. (fn. 5)

 

Alexander de Glanville succeeded him, who dying suddenly of grief, in 1252, was succeeded by

 

John de Renham or Rensham. In his time the church and monastery were plundered, and many ornaments and charters taken away. He is said by some to have resigned in Dec. 1283; but in reality he was then deposed by John, archbishop of Canterbury, visiting this church as metropolitan.

 

Thomas de Woldham, alias Suthflete, was elected bishop of Rochesler, and refused it; but being elected a second time, was consecrated in the parish of Chartham, in Kent, the 6th of January, 1291. (fn. 6)

 

Simon de Clyve, sacrist of this church, who growing infirm, resigned this office of prior in 1622, and was the same year succeeded by

 

John de Renham or Rensham who, was again chosen prior, in 1292. He died in 1294, and

 

Thomas de Shuldeford succeeded him, who being infirm, resigned in 1301, and was succeeded by

 

John de Greenstreet in February the same year, on whose resignation, in 1314.

 

Hamo de Hethe was elected to this office that year, as he was to the see of Rochester in 1317, though he was not consecrated till two years afterwards; during the time he governed this church as prior and bishop he was a great benefactor to it.

 

John de Westerham succeeded him, in 1320, and died in 1321, and was succeeded by

 

John de Speldhurst, cellarer of this convent, who was chosen by the monks, and confirmed by the bishop; he resigned in 1333. His successor was

 

John de Shepey, S. T. P. In 1336, he built the new refectory, and received towards the expence of it one hundred marcs. In his time also, in 1344, the shrines of St. Michael, St. Paulinus, and St. Ythamar, were now made with marble and alabaster, which cost two hundred marcs; and the year before he caused the tower to be raised higher with wood and stone, and covered it with lead, and placed four new bells there, calling them Dunstan, Paulin, Ythamar, and Lanfranc. On December 27, 1352, he was elected bishop of Rochester by papal bull. (fn. 7)

 

Robert de Suthflete, warden of Filchestowe cell succeeded on his predecessor's preferment to the bishop. ric in 1352, he died in 1361.

 

John de Hertlepe or Hertley, warden of the same cell, was chosen to succeed him that year; he resigned in 1380, and was succeeded by

 

John de Shepey, S. T. P. the subprior, who was elected the same year; he governed the priory thirtynine years, and died in 1419.

 

William de Tunbrigg was the next prior, who having been elected by the monks, was confirmed by the archbishop of Canterbury (the see of Rochester being vacant) the same year; he presided in 1444, and was soon succeeded by John Clyfe, in 1447. After him,

 

John Cardone was prior, in 1448.

 

William Wode was prior in the reign of king Edward IV. and he was succeeded by

 

Thomas Bourne, who was prior in 1480, to whom

 

William Bishop probably succeeded; he occurs prior in 1496, and seems to have been succeeded by

 

William Frysell, who was elected to this office in 1509. His successor in it was probably

 

Laurence. Mereworth, who occurs prior in 1533 and 1534, when he, with eighteen monks, subscribed to the king's supremacy.

 

Walter Boxley was the next, and last prior of this monastery; for king Henry VIII. in the 31st year of his reign, granted a commission to the archbishop of Canterbury, George lord Cobham, and others, to receive the surrendry of this priory; and accordingly, the above mentioned prior and convent, by their instrument, under their common seal, dated April 8, that year (1540) with their unanimous assent and consent, deliberately, and of their own certain knowledge and mere motion, from certain just and reasonable causes, especially moving their minds and consciences, of their own free good will, gave and granted all that their monastery, and the scite thereof, with all their churches, yard, debts, and moveable goods, together with all their manors, demesnes, messuages, &c. to king Henry. VIII. with a general warrantry against all persons whatsoever. This deed was executed in the presence of a master in chancery, and was afterwards inrolled in the court of augmentation.

 

The prior above mentioned, after the dissolution of this monastery, again took on him his original family and lay name of Phillips; for when any person took upon him the monastic habit, he immediately assumed the name of the place of his dwelling or birth, that by having so done, he might be divested and alienated from all former family connections and relationship, and consider himself entirely as the son of the church, and as having no other relations than those who were his brethren in the monastery.

 

The priory of Rochester was valued at 486l. 11s. 5d. yearly income; (fn. 8) the whole of which came into the king's hands, as above mentioned; who, though he was empowered by parliament to erect new sees, and ecclesiastical corporate bodies out of the estates belonging to these suppressed monasteries, yet more than two years passed before there was any new establishment founded by him here.

 

AFTER the dissolution of the priory of Rochester, king Henry VIII. by his charter under his privy seal, dated June 18, in his 33d year, founded within the precincts of the late monastery here, to the glory and honour of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, a CATHEDRAL CHURCH of one dean and six prebendaries, who were to be priests, together with other ministers necessary for the performing of divine service, in future to be called, The Cathedral church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary of Rochester, and to be the episcopal seat of the bishop of Rochestet and his successors; and he granted the same episcopal seat within the precincts of the late monastery, to him and his successors for ever; and he appointed Walter Philippes, late prior there, the first dean of this church, and Hugh Aprice, John Wildbore, Robert Johnson, John Symkins, Robert Salisbury, and Richard Engest, the six prebendaries of it; and he incorporated them by the name of the dean and chapter of it, and granted that they should have perpetual succession, and be the chapter of the bishopric of Rochester, to plead and be impleaded by that name, and have a common seal; and he granted to the dean and chapter and their successors, the scite and precincts of the late monastery, the church there, and all things whatsoever within it, excepting and reserving to the king the particular buildings and parts of it therein mentioned; which premises, or at least the greatest part of them, seem to have been afterwards granted to the dean and chapter; and also excepting always to the bishop of Rochester and his successors, the great messuage, called the Bishop's palace, with all other his lands and tenements, in right of his bishopric, to hold the said scite, precincts, church, and appurtenances, to the dean and chapter and their successors for ever in pure and perpetual alms; and he granted them full power of making and admitting the inferior officers of the church, and afterwards of correcting and displacing them as they thought fit; saving to the king the full power of nominating the dean and six prebendaries, and also six almsmen, by his letters patent, as often as they should become vacant; and lastly, he granted, that they should have these his letters patent made and sealed in the accustomed manner, under his great seal. These letters patent were sealed with the great seal, June 20th following.

 

The dotation charter, under the king's privy seal, is dated the same day; by which he granted to the dean and chapter, and their successors, sundry premises, manors, lands, tenements, rents, advowsons and appropriations, part of the possessions of the late priory of Rochester, of the late priory of Ledys, of the hospital of Stroud and of the priory of Boxley, in the counties of Kent, Buckingham, Surry, and in the city of London, to hold in pure and perpetual alms, and he granted them, and each of them to be exempt and discharged from all payments of first fruits and tenths, reserving to him and his successors, in lieu thereof, the yearly sum of one hundred and fifteen pounds, (which rent has been since increased to 124l 6s. for reasons as has been already mentioned under Southfleet and Shorne in the former volumes of this history) and lastly, that they should have these his letters patent made and sealed with his great seal, &c. On the 4th of July following, the king granted a commission to George, lord Cobham, and others, reciting, that whereas he had lately founded and erected the said cathedral church in the scite and place of the late priory at Rochester, and in the same one dean, six prebendaries, six minor canons, one deacon and subdeacon, six lay clerks, one master of the choristers, eight choristers, one teacher of the boys in grammar, to consist of twenty scholars, two subsacrists, and six poor men, he gave power and authority to them, or any two of them, to repair to the scite of the late priory, and there, according as they thought fit, to allot the whole of it, and to assign to the dean and canons separate and fit stalls in the choir, and separate places in the chapter there, and to allot to the dean the new lodging, containing two parlours, a kitchen, four bedchambers, the gallery, the study over the gate, with all other buildings leading to the house of John Symkins, one of the residentiaries, together with the garden adjoining, on the north side of the king's lodging. The hay, barn in the woodyard of the dean under the vestry, a stable for the dean adjoining the gate of the tower, and the pidgeon-house on the wall adjoining the ponds; and also to the prebendaries and minor canons and other ministers, and persons above-mentioned, and to each of them, according to their degree, convenient houses, and places about the church to be divided and assigned to each of them, as far as the buildings and ground of the scite would allow, so that the said dean and canons might have separate houses for their convenient habitation, and that the rest of the ministers and persons, that is, minor canons, deacon and subdeacon, scholars, choiristers, and upper and under master, should have smaller houses, in which they and their families should inhabit, and further, that they should put the dean, canons and other ministers in possession of the houses and premises so assigned as asoresaid, provided always, that the said minor canons, and other ministers (except the dean and prebendaries) should eat at one common table, according to the statutes to be prescribed to them, and that they should certify under their seals to the chancellor and court of augmentation what they had done in it.

 

About three years afterwards, a body of statutes for the government of this church was delivered to it by three commissioners appointed by the king for that purpose, but like many others, they were neither under the great seal nor indented, so that their validity continued in dispute till the reign of queen Anne, in the sixth year of whose reign, an act passed to make them good and valid in law, so far as they were not inconsistent with the constitution of the church, or the laws of the land.

 

In these statutes, besides the members already mentioned, there is named a porter, who was likewise to be a barber, a butler, a cook and an under-cook; all the members still subsist in this church, except the deacon and subdeacon, the butler, cook and under-cook; the two first have been disused ever since the reformation, or at least very soon afterwards, and the other three are not necessary, as there is not. any common table kept, nor indeed does there appear to have been one kept as directed by the statutes, for the several members of this church, excepting the dean and prebendaries, and the six almsmen. There were also by the statutes yearly exhibitions of five pounds to be paid to four scholars, two at each university. By the statutes they were to be more than fifteen, and under twenty years of age, to be chosen from this school in preference, and if none such were here, then from any other, so that there were neither fellow or scholar in either university; the pension of five pounds to continue till they commenced bachelor, and that within the space of four years; after which they were to enjoy the same for three years; when commencing master of arts they were to be allowed six pounds per annum, and after that 6l. 13s. 4d. The college to be at the option of the dean, or vice-dean, and chapter, who nominate the scholars, and forty pounds was directed to be laid out yearly in charity, and the repairing of highways and bridges.

 

By the charter of foundation, king Henry VIII. reserved to himself and his successors the right of nominating and appointing, by his letters patent, the dean and prebendaries, and by the statutes the dean must be a doctor of divinity, a batchelor, or doctor of law, and each of the prebendaries the same, or master of arts, or batchelor of laws, and to be appointed by the king's letters patent under his great seal, and presented to the bishop. The dean continues to be nominated by the king, four of the prebends are in the gift of the lordkeeper of the great seal, one is annexed by letters patent, and confirmed by act of parliament, anno 12 queen Anne, to the provostship of Oriel college, in Oxford, and confirmed by parliament the same year, and another was by letters patent, anno 13 king Charles I. annexed to the archdeaconry of Rochester. The crown likewise nominates the six poor bedesmen, who are admitted by warrant under the sign manual; these are in general old and maimed sailors, who are pensioners of the chest at Chatham.

 

Walter Phillips, the last prior, on the surrendry of this monastery into the king's hands, was, by the foundation charter of the dean and chapter, dated June 18, anno 33 Henry VIII. appointed the first dean. He died in 1570. (fn. 9)

 

Edmund Freake, S. T. P. was installed in 1570, and was consecrated bishop of Rochester in 1571.

 

Thomas Willoughby, S. T. P. and prebendary of Canterbury, in 1574, he died in 1585.

 

John Coldwell, M. D. of St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1585, and was consecrated bishop of Salisbury in 1591.

 

Thomas Blague, S. T. P. master of Clare-hall, and rector of Bangor, in 1591, and died in 1611.

 

Richard Milbourne, A. M. rector of Cheam, in Surry, and vicar of Sevenoke, in 1611, and was consecrated bishop of St. David's in 1615. (fn. 10)

 

Robert Scott, S. T. P. and master of Clare-hall, in 1615. He died in 1620.

 

Godfrey Goodman, a native of Essex, and fellow of Trinity college, then master of Clare-hall, Cambridge, afterwards prebendary of Westminster, rector of Kemmerton, in Gloucestershire, and West Isley, in Berkshire, and S. T. P. in 1620, and was consecrated bishop of Gloucester in 1624.

 

Walter Balcanquall, a native of Scotland, and S. T. P. in 1624. He was first fellow of Pembroke-hall, Cambridge, then master of the Savoy. (fn. 11) He resigned this deanry for that of Durham in 1638. (fn. 12)

 

Henry King, S. T. P. of Christ-church, Oxford, archdeacon of Colchester, residentiary of St. Paul's, and canon of Christ-church, (fn. 13) in 1638, and was consecrated bishop of Chichester in 1641.

 

Thomas Turner, S. T. P. canon residentiary of St. Paul's, London, rector of St. Olave's, Southwark, and of Fetcham, in Surry, in 1641, and was made dean of Canterbury in 1643.

 

Benjamin Laney, S. T. P. master of Pembroke-hall, vicar of Soham, in Cambridgeshire, rector of Buriton, in Hampshire, and prebendary of Westminster and Winchester, in 1660, and was consecrated bishop of Peterborough, at the latter end of that year. (fn. 14)

 

Nathaniel Hardy S. T. P. rector of St. Dionis Backchurch, archdeacon of Lewes, and rector of Henley upon Thames, in 1660. He died at Croydon in 1670, and was buried in the church of St. Martin's in the Fields, of which church he was vicar, having been by his will a good benefactor to the members of this cathedral, and their successors, as well as to the parishes of this city.

 

Peter Mew, S. T. P. succeeded in 1670. He had been canon of Windsor, archdeacon of Berks, and pre sident of St. John's college, Oxford. He was consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells at the end of the year 1672. (fn. 15)

 

Thomas Lamplugh, S. T. P. in 1672. He was first fellow of queen's college, Oxford, then principal of Alban-hall, and vicar of St. Martin's in the Fields. He was consecrated bishop of Exeter in 1676. (fn. 16)

 

John Castilion, S. T. P. prebendary of Canterbury, and vicar of Minster, in Thanet, in 1676. He died in 1688, and was buried in Canterbury cathedral.

 

On the death of Dr. Castilion, Simon Lowth, A. M. was nominated that year by king James II. to succeed him; but not being qualified as to his degree according to the statutes, his admittance and installation was refused, and the revolution quickly after following, he was set aside, and Dr. Ullock was nominated in his itead.

 

Henry Ullock, S. T. P. succeeded in 1689, at that time prebendary of this church, and rector of Leyborne. He died in 1706, and was buried there.

 

Samuel Pratt, S. T. P. clerk of the closet, succeeded in 1706. (fn. 17) He was canon of Windsor, vicar of Twickenham, and chaplain of the Savoy chapel. He died in 1723.

 

Nicholas Claggett, S. T. P. rector of Brington, in Northamptonshire, and of Overton sinecure, in Hampshire, and archdeacon of Buckingham in 1724. He was promoted to the bishopric of St. David's in 1731.

 

Thomas Herring, S. T. P. was first of Jesus college, Cambridge, and afterwards fellow of Bennet college. After a variety of parochial preferments he was advanced to this deanry in 1731, which he held in commendam from 1737, when he was promoted to the bi shopric of Bangor till his translation to the archbishopric of York in 1743. (fn. 18)

 

William Bernard, S. T. P. prebendary of Westminster, (fn. 19) succeeded in 1743, but next year was promoted to the see of Raphoe, in Ireland. (fn. 20)

 

John Newcome, S. T. P. lady Margaret's lecturer of divinity, and master of St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1744. He had supplied the divinity chair at Cambridge with great reputation, during the latter part of Dr. Bentley's life, then regius professor, who for several years before his death had retired from all public business. He died in 1765.

 

William Markham, LL. D. and prebendary of Durham, in 1765. He was a great benefactor to the deanry-house, the two wings of which were erected by him, but were not finished before his quitting this preferment for the deanry of Christ-church, Oxford, which he did in 1767. (fn. 21)

 

Benjamin Newcombe, S. T. P. and rector of St. Mildred's, in the Poultry, in 1767. He was afterwards vicar of Lamberhurst, and died at Rochester in 1775.

 

Thomas Thurlow, D. D. and master of the Temple, in 1775, was in 1779 made bishop of Lincoln. (fn. 22)

 

Richard Cust, S. T. P. canon of Christ-church, in Oxford, which he resigned on this promotion. He was a younger brother of the late Sir John Cust, bart. of Lincolnshire, speaker of the house of commons, and uncle to lord Brownlow. He resigned this deanry in 1781, on being made dean of Lincoln, and residentiary of that cathedral.

 

Thomas Dampier, son of Thomas Dampier, dean of Durham, was educated at Eton, and was afterwards fellow of King's college, in Cambridge, vicar of Boxley, prebendary of Durham, and master of Sherborne hospital. In 1780 he was created by royal mandate S. T. P. and in March 1782, succeeded to this deanry, with which he holds, excepting the fellowship, the several preferments before-mentioned.

 

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ROCHESTER is situated at a small distance from the south side of the middle of the High-street, within the antient gate of the priory.

 

This church was rebuilt by bishop Gundulph in the year 1080, and some part of this building still remains. The whole bears venerable marks of its antiquity, but time has so far impaired the strength of the materials with which it is built, that in all likelihood the care and attention of the present chapter towards the support of it will not be sufficient to prevent the fall of great part of it at no great distance of time.

 

The cathedral consists of a body and two isles, the length of it from the west door to the steps of the choir is fifty yards; at the entrance of the choir is the lower or great cross isle, the length of which is one hundred and twenty-two feet; from the steps of the choir to the east end of the church is fifty-two yards; at the upper end of the choir is another cross isle of the length of ninety feet. In the middle of the western cross isle, at the entrance of the choir, stands the steeple, which is a spire covered with lead, being one hundred and fifty-six feet in height, in which hang six bells. Between the two cross isles, on the north side without the church, stands an old ruined tower, no higher than the roof of the church. This is generally allowed to have been erected by bishop Gundulph, and there is a tradition of its having been called the bell tower, and of its having had five bells hanging in it; yet the better conjecture is, that it was first intended as a place of strength and security, either as a treasury or a repository for records. The walls of it are six feet thick, and the area on the inside twenty-four feet square. On the opposite side, at the west end of the south isle, is a chapel of a later date than the isle, wherein the bishop's consistory court is held, and where early prayers were used to be read till within these few years. The roof of the nave or body of the church, from the west end to the first cross isle, is flat at the top like a parish church, as it is likewise under the great steeple; but all the other parts, viz. the four cross isles, the choir, and those on each side of it, except the lower south isle, which was never finished, are handsomely vaulted with stone groins.

 

The choir is upwards of five hundred and seventy years old, being first used at the consecration of Henry de Sandford in 1227. It is ornamented, as well as other parts of the church, with small pillars of Petworth marble, which however, as well as many of those in a neighbouring cathedral, have been injudiciously covered with whitewash, and several of them with thick coats of plaister. The choir was repaired, as to new wainscot, stalls, pews, &c. at a large expence, in 1743, and very handsomely new paved; at which time the bishop's throne was rebuilt at the charge of bishop Wilcocks.

 

The organ is over the entrance into the choir. The late one was erected early in the last century, and was but a very indifferent instrument. In the room of which a new one, built by Green, was erected in in 1791, which is esteemed an exceeding good instrument.

 

At the north end of the upper cross isle, near the pulpit, is a chapel, called St. Williams's chapel, a saint whose repute brought such considerable profit to this priory, as to raise it from a state of poverty to affluence and riches. A large stone chest, much defaced, is all that remains of his shrine.

 

At the south-east corner of the opposite cross isle is an arched door-way, richly carved and ornamented with a variety of figures, which formerly led to the chapter-house of the priory, in the room of which there is erected a small mean room, which is made use of as a chapter-house and library; for the increase of this library, the same as was intended at Canterbury; every new dean and prebendary gives a certain sum of money at their admission towards the increase of books in it, instead of making an entertainment, as was formerly the custom. In this library is that well known and curious MSS. called the Textus Roffensis, compiled chiefly by bishop Ernulfus in the 12th century, which was published by Thomas Hearne, from a copy in the Surrenden library. During the troubles in the last century this MSS. was conveyed into private hands, nor could the dean and chapter after the restoration, for two years, discover where it was; and at last they were obliged to solicit the court of chancery for a decree to recover it again. Since which they have been once more in great danger of being deprived of it; for Dr. Harris, having borrowed it for the use of his intended history of this county, sent it up to London by water, and the vessel being by the badness of the weather overset, this MSS. lay for some hours under water before it was discovered, which has somewhat damaged it.

 

There is also another antient MSS. here, entitled Custumale Roffense, thought by some to be more antient than the other. Great part of this MSS. has been published by Mr. Thorpe in a volume under that title.

 

Near the west end, in the same isle, is a square chapel, called St. Edmund's chapel; hence you descend into the undercroft, which is very spacious and vaulted with stone. There seems to have been part of it well ornamented with paintings of figures and history, but the whole is so obliterated, that nothing can be made out what it was intended for.

 

The body of this church, the greatest part of which is the same as was erected by bishop Gundulph, is built with circular arches on large massy pillars, with plain capitals; the smaller arches above them being decorated with zigzag ornaments. The roof of the nave seems to have been raised since, and all the windows made new and enlarged at different times, particularly the large one in the west front; though the roof is now flat, by the feet of the groins still remaining, it appears as if this part of the church had been, or at least was intended to be vaulted. The breadth of it, with the side isles, is twenty-two yards. The west front extends eighty-one feet in breadth; the arch of the great door is certainly the same which bishop Gundulph built, and is a most curious piece of workmanship; every stone has been engraved with some device, and it must have been very magnificent in its original state. It is supported the depth of the wall, on each side the door, by several small columns, two of which are carved into statues representing Gundulph's royal patrons, Henry I. and his queen Matilda. The capitals of these columns, as well as the whole arch, are cut into the figures of various animals and flowers The key-stone of the arch seems to have been designed to represent our Saviour in a niche with an angel on each side, but the head is broken off; under this figure are twelve others, representing the apostles, few of which are entire.

 

In this front were four towers, one on each side the great door, and the others at the two extremes; three of these terminated in a turret, and the other in an octangular tower, above the roof. That tower at the north corner being in danger of falling, was taken down a few years ago, in order to be rebuilt. Dean Newcombe left one hundred pounds towards the finishing of it. Against the lower part of this tower was the figure of bishop Gundulph, with his crozier in his hand; on the rebuilding of which it was replaced, but the tower remains unfinished, at not half the height it was before, to the great disfigurement of the front of this church. Since which the tower at the opposite, or south-west corner, being ruinous, has likewise been taken down even with the roof of the church.

 

The royal grammar school of this foundation, besides the exhibitions before-mentioned, has had a later benefactor in Robert Gunsley, clerk, rector of Titsey, in Surry, who by his will in 1618, gave to the master and fellows of University college, Oxford, sixty pounds per annum, for the maintenance of four scholars to be chosen by them from the free school of Maidstone, and from this grammar school, such as are natives of the county of Kent only, of whom those of his name and kindred to have the preference, who are to be allowed chambers, and fifteen pounds per annum.

 

To conclude the account of this priory and cathedral, it should be observed that the precincts of it, after the dissolution, seem to have been a scene of devastation and confusion: the buildings were huge, irregular and ruinous, and little calculated to be turned into separate dwellings for small private families. Even a century afterwards, in the great rebellion in 1647, they were reported to be in a ruinous and woeful condition; at which time the church itself does not seem to have been much better; for archbishop Laud, in his return of the state of this diocese to Charles I. in 1633, says, that the cathedral suffered much for want of glass in the church windows, that the church-yard lay very indecently, and that the gates were down; about nine years afterwards this church suffered much from the fury of the rebel soldiers under colonel Sandys, who having plundered it, and broken to pieces what they could, made use of it as a tipling house, (fn. 23) and the body of the church was used as a carpenter's shop and yard, several sawpits being dug, and frames for houses made by the city joiners in it.

 

After the restoration dean Hardy took great pains to repair the whole of it, which was effected by means of the benefactions of the gentry of the county, and 7000l. added by the dean and chapter; notwithstanding which, time has so corroded and weakened every part of this building, that its future existence for any length of time has been much feared, but this church has lately had every endeavour used, and great repairs have been made which it is hoped will secure it from the fatal ruin which has threatened it, the inside has been beautified, and being kept exceeding clean, it makes at this time a very pleasing appearance.

 

In this cathedral, among other monuments, inscriptions, &c. are the following:— In the choir, within the altar rails on the south wall, under three small arches, are pictures of three bishops with their mitres and crosiers, now almost defaced, on the outside these arms, first, the see of Rochester; second, the priory of Canterbury; third, a cross quartier pierced azure; within the rails, under the north and south windows, are several stone coffins and other remains of bishops monuments, but no inscriptions or arms; on the north side the choir a large altar monument for bishop Lowe, on the south side of it, these arms on a bend, three wolves

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We must talk about this issue from the Lord Jesus first.

 

We all know that the Lord Jesus has taken the bloody road of all kinds of persecution in order to fulfill God the Father’s commission and save people from their sins. From Jesus’ birth, He was hunted down by Herod the King and forced to flee to Egypt. Herod the Great was consumed with hatred for the arrival of God and laid murderous hands on Jesus. In order to keep his throne he had baby boys killed who were under two years of age in Bethlehem and its vicinity…. The Lord Jesus said: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Mat 5:10-12). From this passage of the words of the Lord Jesus, we can see that suffering abuse or persecution because of our faith in God is a blessing. If other people concoct all kinds of bad words to slander us, we should not be distressed or doubt God’s way and work because we are persecuted. Instead we should rejoice in being slandered and persecuted because we are blessed and God’s reward is great. Our persecution proves even more so that we believe in the true God and that what we uphold is the true way. Almighty God says: “Among you, there is not one man who receives the protection of the law; rather, you are penalized by the law, and the greater difficulty is that no man understands you, be it your relatives, your parents, your friends, or your colleagues. None understand you. When God rejects you, there is no way for you to continue living on earth. However, even so, people cannot bear to leave God; this is the significance of God’s conquest of people, and this is God’s glory.” “This is just as in the stage of Jesus’ work; He could only be glorified among those Pharisees who persecuted Him. If not for such persecution and the betrayal of Judas, Jesus would not have been ridiculed or slandered, much less crucified, and thus could never have gained glory” (“Is the Work of God So Simple as Man Imagines?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh). God’s work and words tells us that God’s wisdom is exercised based on Satan’s plots. In people’s eyes, the Lord Jesus suffered all kinds of persecution and adversity and finally He was crucified on the cross. Seemingly, the work failed. But it is through the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion that God’s work of redeeming mankind was accomplished and we sinners were redeemed. Today, God’s work of conquering the whole of mankind in the last days has similarly been rejected and persecuted, but in the same way, God will gain a group of people who obey His work, will cleanse a group of people who have been deeply corrupted by Satan and will accomplish His final stage of work of separating the sheep from goats, wheat from weeds through the rejection of the religious community and the persecution of the kings of the world.

 

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Terms of se : en.easternlightning.org/disclaimer.html

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Paris, France.The inspiration for Sacré Cœur's design originated on 4 September 1870, the day of the proclamation of the Third Republic, with a speech by Bishop Fournier attributing the defeat of French troops during the Franco-Prussian War to a divine punishment after "a century of moral decline" since the French Revolution, in the wake of the division in French society that arose in the decades following that revolution, between devout Catholics and legitimist royalists on one side, and democrats, secularists, socialists, and radicals on the other. This schism in the French social order became particularly pronounced after the 1870 withdrawal of the French military garrison protecting the Vatican in Rome to the front of the Franco-Prussian War by Napoleon III,the secular uprising of the Paris Commune of 1870-1871, and the subsequent 1871 defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War.

The devotion to the Sacred Heart (also known as the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sacratissimum Cor Iesu in Latin) is one of the most widely practiced and well-known Roman Catholic devotions, taking Jesus Christ′s physical heart as the representation of his divine love for humanity. This devotion is predominantly used in the Roman Catholic Church and in a modified way among some high-church Anglicans, Lutherans and Eastern Catholics. The devotion is especially concerned with what the Church deems to be the longsuffering love and compassion of the heart of Christ towards humanity. The popularization of this devotion in its modern form is derived from a Roman Catholic nun from France, Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, who said she learned the devotion from Jesus during a series of apparitions to her between 1673 and 1675, and later, in the 19th century, from the mystical revelations of another Roman Catholic nun in Portugal, Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart, a religious of the Good Shepherd, who requested in the name of Christ that Pope Leo XIII consecrate the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Predecessors to the modern devotion arose unmistakably in the Middle Ages in various facets of Catholic mysticism, particularly with Saint Gertrude the Great.The Sacred Heart is often depicted in Christian art as a flaming heart shining with divine light, pierced by the lance-wound, encircled by the crown of thorns, surmounted by a cross, and bleeding. Sometimes the image is shown shining within the bosom of Christ with his wounded hands pointing at the heart. The wounds and crown of thorns allude to the manner of Jesus' death, while the fire represents the transformative power of divine love. Historically the devotion to the Sacred Heart is an outgrowth of devotion to what is believed to be Christ's sacred humanity. During the first ten centuries of Christianity, there is nothing to indicate that any worship was rendered to the wounded Heart of Jesus. The revival of religious life and the zealous activity of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and Saint Francis of Assisi in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, together with the enthusiasm of the Crusaders returning from the Holy Land, gave a rise to devotion to the Passion of Jesus Christ and particularly to practices in honour of the Sacred Wounds. Devotion to the Sacred Heart developed out of the devotion to the Holy Wounds, in particular to the Sacred Wound in the side of Jesus. The first indications of devotion to the Sacred Heart are found in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the fervent atmosphere of the Benedictine or Cistercian monasteries, in the world of Bernardine thought. But it is impossible to say with certainty what were its first texts or who were its first devotees. Saint Bernard (d. 1153) said that the piercing of Christ's side revealed his goodness and the charity of his heart for us. The earliest known hymn to the Sacred Heart, "Summi Regis Cor Aveto", is believed to have been written by the Norbertine Blessed herman Joseph (d.1241) of Cologne, Germany. The hymn begins: "I hail Thee kingly Heart most high." From the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the devotion was propagated but it did not seem to have been embellished. It was everywhere practised by individuals and by different religious congregations, such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Carthusians. Among the Franciscans the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus has its champions in Saint Bonaventure (d. 1274) in his Vitis Mystica ("Mystic Vine"), B. John de la Verna, and the Franciscan Tertiary Saint Jean Eudes (1602–1680).Bonaventure wrote: "Who is there who would not love this wounded heart? Who would not love in return Him, who loves so much?” It was, nevertheless, a private, individual devotion of the mystical order. Nothing of a general movement had been inaugurated, except for similarities found in the devotion to the Five Holy Wounds by the Franciscans, in which the wound in Jesus's heart figured most prominently. In the sixteenth century, the devotion passed from the domain of mysticism into that of Christian asceticism. It was established as a devotion with prayers already formulated and special exercises, found in the writings of Lanspergius (d. 1539) of the Carthusians of Cologne, the Benedictine Louis de Blois (d. 1566) Abbot of Liessies in Hainaut, John of Avila (d. 1569), and Francis de Sales (d. 1622). The historical record from that time shows an early bringing to light of the devotion. Ascetic writers spoke of it, especially those of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was everywhere in evidence, largely due to the Franciscan devotion to the Five Wounds and to the Jesuits placing the image on the title-page of their books and on the walls of their churches. The first to establish the theological basis for the devotion was Polish Jesuit Kasper Drużbicki (1590-1662) in his book Meta cordium - Cor Jesu (The goal of hearts - Heart of Jesus). Not much later Jean Eudes wrote an Office, and promoted a feast for it. Père Eudes was the apostle of the Heart of Rayn, but in his devotion to the Immaculate Heart there was a share for the Heart of Jesus. Little by little, the devotion to the two Hearts became distinct, and on 31 August 1670 the first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated in the Grand Seminary of Rennes. Coutances followed suit on October 20, a day with which the Eudist feast was from then on to be connected. The feast soon spread to other dioceses, and the devotion was likewise adopted in various religious communities. It gradually came into contact with the devotion begun by Margaret Mary Alacoque at Paray-le-Monial, and the two merged. According to Thomas Merton, Saint Lutgarde (d.1246), a Cistercian mystic of Aywieres, Belgium, was one of the great precursors of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A contemporary of St. Francis, she "... entered upon the mystical life with a vision of the pierced Heart of the Saviour, and had concluded her mystical espousals with the Incarnate Word by an exchange of hearts with Him." Sources say that Christ came in a visitation to Lutgarde, offering her whatever gift of grace she should desire; she asked for a better grasp of Latin, that she might better understand the word of God and sing God's praise. Christ granted her request and Lutgarde’s mind was flooded with the riches of psalms, antiphons, readings, and responsories. However, a painful emptiness persisted. She returned to Christ, asking to return his gift, and wondering if she might, just possibly, exchange it for another. “And for what would you exchange it?” Christ asked. “Lord, said Lutgarde, I would exchange it for your Heart.” Christ then reached into Lutgarde and, removing her heart, replaced it with his own, at the same time hiding her heart within his breast. Saint Mechtilde of Helfta (d.1298) became an ardent devotee and promoter of Jesus’ heart after it was the subject of many of her visions. The idea of hearing the heartbeat of God was very important to medieval saints who nurtured devotion to the Sacred Heart.[11] Mechtilde reported that Jesus appeared to her in a vision and commanded her to love Him ardently, and to honor his sacred heart in the Blessed Sacrament as much as possible. He gave her his heart as a pledge of his love, as a place of refuge during her life and as her consolation at the hour of her death. From this time Mechtilde had an extraordinary devotion for the Sacred Heart, and said that if she had to write down all the favors and all the blessings which she had received by means of this devotion, a large book would not contain them. Saint Gertrude the Great was an early devotee of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Book 2 of the herald of Divine Love vividly describes Gertrude's visions, which show a considerable elaboration on the hitherto ill-defined veneration of Christ's heart. St Bernard articulated this in his commentary on the Song of Songs. The women of Helfta—Gertrude foremost, who surely knew Bernard's commentary, and to a somewhat lesser extent the two Mechthildes—experienced this devotion centrally in their mystical visions. Painting representing the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque.

The most significant source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart in the form it is known today was Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690), a nun of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, who claimed to have received apparitions of Jesus Christ in the Burgundian French village of Paray-le-Monial, the first on 27 December 1673, the feast of Saint John the Evangelist, and the final one 18 months later, revealing the form of the devotion, the chief features being reception of Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month, Eucharistic adoration during a "Holy hour" on Thursdays, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. She said that in her vision she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night to meditate on Jesus' Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. In probably June or July 1674, Sister Margaret Mary claimed that Jesus requested to be honored under the figure of his heart, also saying that, when he appeared radiant with love, he asked for a devotion of expiatory love: frequent reception of Communion, especially on the first Friday of the month, and the observance of the Holy hour. During the octave of Corpus Christi in 1675, probably on June 16, the vision known as the "great apparition" reportedly took place, where Jesus said: "Behold the Heart that has so loved men. ...Instead of gratitude I receive from the greater part (of humankind) only ingratitude," and asked Margaret Mary for a feast of reparation of the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, bidding her consult her confessor Father Claude de la Colombière, then superior of the small Jesuit house at Paray le Monial. Father de la Colombière directed Sister Margaret Mary to write an account of the apparition, which he discreetly circulated in France and England. After his death on 15 February 1682, his journal of spiritual retreats was found to contain a copy in his handwriting of the account that he had requested of Margaret Mary, together with a few reflections on the usefulness of the devotion. This journal, including the account – an "offering" to the Sacred Heart in which the devotion was explained – was published at Lyon in 1684. The little book was widely read, especially at Paray le Monial. Margaret Mary reported feeling "dreadful confusion" over the book's contents, but resolved to make the best of it, approving of the book for the spreading of her cherished devotion. Along with the Visitandines, priests, religious, and laymen espoused the devotion, particularly the Capuchins. The reported apparitions served as a catalyst for the promotion of the devotion to the Sacred Heart. Jesuit Father Croiset wrote a book called The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and Fr. Joseph de Gallifet, SJ, promoted the devotion. The mission of propagating the new devotion was especially confided to the religious of the Visitation and to the priests of the Society of Jesus. Window detail, All Saints Catholic Church, St. Peters, Missouri. On the night of 14 February 1876 a domestic servant Estelle Faguette lay in Pellevoisin dying of pulmonary tuberculosis, and reportedly saw the Virgin Mary. Four days later, during the fifth apparition, Estelle seemed to be healed instantaneously. Altogether she said she experienced fifteen apparitions in the course of 1876. On 9 September the apparition drew attention to a small piece of white cloth, a scapular resting over her chest. Faguette had seen it there before, as plain white cloth, but on this day it bore the red image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The following day the lady appeared again, saying she had come to encourage people to pray. The final and culminating vision took place on Friday 8 December 1876, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception: You will go yourself to the prelate and will present to him this copy that you have made. Tell him to do everything within his power to help you, and that nothing would be more pleasing to me than to see this livery on each of my children. They should all strive to make reparation for the outrages my Son is subjected to in the sacrament of his love. See the graces that will be poured forth on those who will wear it with confidence and help you to spread this devotion. Immediately following this last apparition, Estelle sought and was granted an audience with the Archbishop of Bourges, Monsignor de La Tour d'Auvergne. By 12 December 1876 she had received his permission to make and distribute copies of the Scapular of the Sacred Heart. Another source for the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was Sister Mary of the Divine Heart (1863–1899), the former countess of Droste zu Vischering and nun from the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, who reported to have received several interior locutions and visions of Jesus Christ. The first interior locution Maria Droste zu Vischering reported was during her youth spent with the family in the Castle of Darfeld, near Münster, Germany, and the last vision and private revelation was reported during her presence as Mother Superior in the Convent of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Porto, Portugal. Based on the messages she said she received in her revelations of Christ, on 10 June 1898 her confessor at the Good Shepherd monastery wrote to Pope Leo XIII stating that Sister Mary of the Divine Heart had received a message from Christ, requesting the pope to consecrate the entire world to the Sacred Heart. The pope initially attached no credence to it and took no action. However, on 6 January 1899 she sent another letter asking that in addition to the consecration, the first Fridays of the month be observed in honor of the Sacred Heart. Painting representing the vision received by Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart Droste zu Vischering. Jesus had revealed to her: "By the brightness of this light, peoples and nations will be illumined, and they will be warmed by its ardour." her second letter included: One might find it strange that Our Lord should ask for this consecration of the entire world and not content Himself with [that of] the Catholic Church. But his desire to reign, to be loved and glorified, and to set ablaze all hearts with his love and his mercy is so ardent that he wants Your Holiness to offer Him the hearts of all those who belong to Him by Baptism to facilitate their return to the true Church, and the hearts of those who have not yet received spiritual life by Holy Baptism, but for whom he has given his life and his Blood, and who are equally called to be one day children of the Holy Church, to hasten by this means their spiritual birth. In the letter she also referred to the recent illness of the pope and stated that Christ had assured her that Pope Leo XIII would live until he had performed the consecration to the Sacred Heart. Theologian Laurent Volken states that this had an emotional impact on Leo XIII, despite the theological issues concerning the consecration of non-Christians. Sister Mary of the Divine Heart died in her monastery in Portugal when the Church was singing the first vespers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on 8 June 1899. The following day, Pope Leo XIII consecrated the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1353 Pope Innocent VI instituted a Mass honoring the mystery of the Sacred Heart. After the death of Margaret Mary Alacoque on 17 October 1690, a short account of her life was published by Father Croiset in 1691 as an appendix to his book De la Dévotion au Sacré Cœur. In 1693 the Holy See imparted indulgences to the Confraternities of the Sacred Heart, and in 1697 granted the feast to the Visitandines with the Mass of the Five Wounds, but refused a feast common to all, with special Mass and Office. The devotion spread, particularly in religious communities. The Marseille plague in 1720 furnished perhaps the first occasion for a solemn consecration and public worship outside of religious communities. Other cities of southern Europe followed the example of Marseille. In 1726 Rome was again asked for a feast with a Mass and Office of its own; this was refused in 1729, but granted in 1765. In that year, at the request of the queen, the feast was received quasi-officially by the episcopate of France. In 1856, at the urgent entreaties of the French bishops, Pope Pius IX extended the feast to the Roman Catholic Church under the rite of double major. In 1889 it was raised by the Roman Catholic Church to the double rite of first class. After Pope Leo XIII received several letters from Sister Mary of the Divine Heart asking him to consecrate the entire world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he commissioned a group of theologians to examine the petition on the basis of revelation and sacred tradition. The outcome of this investigation was positive, and so in the encyclical letter Annum sacrum (on 25 May 1899) he decreed that the consecration of the entire human race to the Sacred Heart of Jesus should take place on 11 June 1899. The encyclical letter also encouraged the entire Roman Catholic episcopate to promote the First Friday Devotions, established June as the Month of the Sacred Heart, and included the Prayer of Consecration to the Sacred Heart. Pope Pius X decreed that the consecration of the human race performed by Leo XIII be renewed each year. Pius XI in his encyclical letter Miserentissimus Redemptor (on 8 May 1928) affirmed the Church's position with respect to Saint Margaret Mary's visions of Jesus Christ by stating that Jesus had "manifested Himself" to Saint Margaret and had "promised her that all those who rendered this honor to his Heart would be endowed with an abundance of heavenly graces." The encyclical refers several times to the conversation between Jesus and Saint Margaret Mary[21] and reaffirmed the importance of consecration and reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Pius XII, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Pius IX's institution of the Feast, instructed the entire Roman Catholic Church at length on the devotion to the Sacred Heart in his encyclical letter Haurietis aquas (on 15 May 1956). On 15 May 2006, Pope Benedict XVI sent a letter to Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach, the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, on the 50th Anniversary of the encyclical Haurietis aquas. In his letter to Father Kolvenbach, Pope Benedict XVI reaffirmed the importance of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Roman Catholic acts of consecration, reparation, and devotion were introduced when the feast of the Sacred Heart was declared. In his papal bull Auctorem fidei, Pope Pius VI praised devotion to the Sacred Heart. Finally, Leo XIII in his encyclical Annum sacrum (25 May 1899), as well as on June 11, consecrated every human to the Sacred Heart. The idea of this act, which Leo XIII called "the great act" of his pontificate, had been proposed to him by a nun of the Good Shepherd from Oporto (Portugal) who said that she had supernaturally received it from Jesus. Since c. 1850, groups, congregations, and countries have consecrated themselves to the Sacred Heart. In 1873, by petition of president Gabriel García Moreno, Ecuador was the first country in the world to be consecrated to the Sacred Heart.

Peter Coudrin of France founded the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary on 24 December 1800. A religious order of the Roman Catholic Church, the order carried out missionary work in Hawaii. Mother Clelia Merloni from Forlì (Italy) founded the Congregation of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Viareggio, Italy, on 30 May 1894.

Worship of the Sacred Heart mainly consists of several hymns, the Salutation of the Sacred Heart, and the Litany of the Sacred Heart. It is common in Roman Catholic services and occasionally is to be found in Anglican services. The Feast of the Sacred Heart, in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar since 1856, is now a solemnity and is celebrated 19 days after Pentecost, which is always a Friday. The Enthronement of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic ceremony in which a priest or head of a household consecrates the members of the household to the Sacred Heart. An image of the Sacred Heart that has been blessed, either a statue or a picture, is then placed in the home as a reminder. The practice of the Enthronement is based upon Pius XII's declaration that devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is "the foundation on which to build the kingdom of God in the hearts of individuals, families, and nations." In the Roman Catholic tradition, the Sacred Heart has been closely associated with Acts of Reparation to Jesus Christ. In his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor, Pope Pius XI stated: "The spirit of expiation or reparation has always had the first and foremost place in the worship given to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus."[21] The Golden Arrow Prayer directly refers to the Sacred Heart.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart is sometimes seen in the Eastern Catholic Churches, where it remains a point of controversy and is seen as an example of liturgical Latinisation. The Feast of the Sacred Heart is a solemnity in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. It falls 19 days after Pentecost, on a Friday. The earliest possible date is 29 May, as in 1818 and 2285. The latest possible date is 2 July, as in 1943 and 2038. The devotion to the Sacred Heart is one of the most widely practiced and well-known Roman Catholic devotions, taking Jesus Christ's physical heart as the representation of his divine love for humanity. Saint John Eudes defended the mystical unity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary is based on the historical, theological, and spiritual links in Catholic devotions between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The joint devotion to the hearts was first formalized in the seventeenth century by Saint John Eudes who organized the scriptural, theological, and liturgical sources relating to the devotions and obtained the approbation of the Church, prior to the visions of Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the devotions grew, both jointly and individually, through the efforts of figures such as Saint Louis de Montfort who promoted Catholic Mariology and Saint Catherine Labouré's Miraculous Medal depicting the Heart of Jesus thorn-crowned and the Heart of Mary pierced with a sword.[30][31][32] The devotions and associated prayers grew into the twentieth century, e.g. in the Immaculata prayer of Saint Maximillian Kolbe and in the reported messages of Our Lady of Fatima saying that the Heart of Jesus wishes to be honored together with the Heart of Mary. Popes supported the individual and joint devotions to the hearts through the centuries. In the 1956 encyclical Haurietis aquas, Pope Pius XII encouraged the joint devotion to the hearts. In the 1979 encyclical Redemptor hominis, Pope John Paul II explained the theme of unity of Mary's Immaculate Heart with the Sacred Heart.[35] In his Angelus address on 15 September 1985, John Paul II coined the term The Alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and in 1986 addressed the international conference on that topic held at Fátima, Portugal. The Sacred Heart has also been involved in and depicted in apparitions such as those to Saint Catherine Labouré in 1830, and appears on the Miraculous Medal,[40] where the Sacred Heart is crowned with thorns. The Immaculate Heart of Mary also appears on the medal, next to the Sacred Heart, but is pierced by a sword rather than being crowned with thorns. The M on the medal signifies the Blessed Virgin at the foot of the Cross when Jesus was being crucified. Religious imagery depicting the Sacred Heart is frequently featured in Roman Catholic, and sometimes in Anglican and Lutheran, homes. Sometimes images display beneath them a list of family members, indicating that the entire family is entrusted to the protection of Jesus in the Sacred Heart, from whom blessings on the home and the family members are sought. The prayer "O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in Thee" is often used. One particular image has been used as part of a set, along with an image of the Virgin Mary. In that image, Mary too was shown pointing to her Immaculate Heart. The dual images reflect an eternal binding of the two hearts. The Scapular of the Sacred Heart and the Scapular of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are worn by Roman Catholics. Devotion to the Sacred Heart may be found in some Eastern Catholic Churches, but is a contentious issue. Those who favour purity of rite are opposed to the devotion, while those who are in favour of the devotion cite it as a point of commonality with their Latin Catholic brethren. Margaret Mary Alacoque said that in her apparitions Jesus promised these blessings to those who practice devotion to his Sacred Heart. The list was tabulated in 1863. In 1882 an American businessman spread the tabular form of the twelve promises throughout the world, in 238 languages. In 1890 Cardinal Adolph Perraud deplored this circulation of the promises in tabular form, which he said were different from the words and the meaning of the expressions used by Saint Margaret Mary, and wanted the promises to be published in their original words. I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life. I will give peace in their families. I will console them in all their troubles. I will be their refuge in life and especially in death. I will abundantly bless all their undertakings. Sinners shall find in my Heart the source and infinite ocean of mercy. Tepid souls shall become fervent.

Fervent souls shall rise speedily to great perfection.

I will bless those places wherein the image of My Sacred Heart shall be exposed and venerated. I will give to priests the power to touch the most hardened hearts.

Persons who propagate this devotion shall have their names eternally written in my Heart. In the excess of the mercy of my Heart, I promise you that my all powerful love will grant to all those who will receive Communion on the First Fridays, for nine consecutive months, the grace of final repentance: they will not die in my displeasure, nor without receiving the sacraments; and my Heart will be their secure refuge in that last hour. Promises made to Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart

Blessed Sister Mary of the Divine Heart Droste zu Vischering said that in her mystical experiences Jesus Christ inspired her to build a shrine dedicated to his Sacred Heart. The imposing Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (also referred as Church of the Good Shepherd or Sanctuary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus) was built between 14 July 1957 and 21 April 1966, in the civil parish of Ermesinde in north Portugal, and consecrated to the Heart of Christ in fulfillment of the vow made by the nun. According to the writings of Sister Mary of the Divine Heart, Jesus had made this promise: "I will make it a place of graces. I will distribute copiously graces to all who live in this house [the Convent], those who live here now, those who will live here after, and even to their relatives." Jesus also promised her: "Know this, My daughter, that by the charity of My Heart I desire to pour out floods of graces through your heart over the hearts of others. This is why people will come to you with confidence; it will not be your personal qualities which will attract them, but Me. No one, even the most hardened sinner, will leave your presence without having received, in one way or another, consolation, relief, or a special grace." The body of Blessed Sister Mary of the Divine Heart, entombed for public veneration in the Church-Shrine of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Ermesinde, was found incorrupt at its first exhumation.

The devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus also involve the Scapular of the Sacred Heart. Prior to the existence of a formal Roman Catholic devotional scapular, Margaret Mary Alacoque made and distributed badges bearing an image of the Heart of Jesus.In 1872 Pope Pius IX granted an indulgence for the badge. Following the claims by Estelle Faguette that the Virgin Mary had appeared to her in 1876 and requested a scapular of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a scapular of the proposed design was approved by the Congregation of Rites in 1900. It bears the representation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on one side and that of the Virgin Mary under the title of Mother of Mercy on the other side.

Eastern Orthodox Christians disapprove of the actual worship of the physical heart of Jesus as being a form of naturalism and Nestorianism; the Feast of the Sacred Heart has however been inserted in certain Calendars of Western Rite Orthodoxy.[47] Pope Pius XII's encyclical Haurietis aquas, in response to these criticisms, said that the Sacred Heart is venerated as belonging to the Divine Person of the Eternal Word and as "a symbolic image of his love and a witness of our redemption."

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Heart

In the biblical story of Jacob, from Genesis 28, Jacob witnesses angels ascending and descending a ladder from heaven. But in the painting the ladder doesn't come from heaven, but from a dark, round object emitting multi-colored lights. Though Jacob's Ladder is a popular symbol in freemasonry, is this rendering pointing to something more of an extraterrestrial nature? According to ancient astronaut theorists, Jacob's Ladder was nothing more than a ramp or a device with which to reach the realm of the gods, and the 'gods' were extraterrestrials.Traditional Christianity (most notably, CS Lewis) believes that extraterrestrial beings are simply angels, whether fallen or holy. The relatively new Indiana Jones movie, The Kingdom of the Skulls, say that aliens are not really extraterrestrial, but extradimensional. That describes what the Bible says about spiritual powers. According to the Air Force Project Blue Book, the unexplained percentage of encounters fit a spiritual, occult phenomenon. Some go on to say that alien beings are ultraterrestrial, meaning to say that these beings live among us and are what humans are to bears; both live on Earth, but don't interact; it'd be a stretch to say that a bear would comprehend being abducted in a human airplane. In a way, He is not a human (except through the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ). to us that He is a different Being altogether. But He is not a Grey or a Reptilian or Annunaki or biological or even matter; He is Spirit. Angels obviously ride on disc vehicles according to the Bible, and mainstream Christianity classifies aliens as spiritual beings of angels, not a science fiction astrobiological derivative. The medieval Dante notions of angels and demons of harping cherubs and horned devils must be overthrown.Assume there are beings besides humans, hailing from other worlds (universes?). This does not say anything about G-d, just the way some people stumbled upon backward tribes who thought the white men were gods, has nothing to do with the reality of G-d. It's agree that Ezekiel (and Jacob's ladder) speak of some form of aliens, from space. But their meaning does not change the reality of G-d. It does throw into question what people back then thought about angels. Still, their understanding of "UFO's" do not need to influence ours. In conclusion, it doesn't interfere with my beliefs. The ancient alien theory fails in that it classifies the aliens and UFOs as biological and materialistic, not spiritual. One of the more convoluted priest-written myths that make up the Old Testament book of Genesis is that of Jacob, the younger of twin boys who, nonetheless, received through fraud and deceit the blessings of first-born. This is the much revered ancestor of the “chosen” ones. There is hidden meaning in all of this, of course, but the focus for this blog is why this character’s name was changed to Israel. It is all inexplicably mixed in with an alleged wrestling match with an angel and a “dream” about a ladder upon which angels were seen to move up and down between heaven and Earth. The story of Jacob and his name change to Israel is found in the opening of biblical lore, Genesis–the book of beginnings. The focus here on this devious character is spurred by a recent television series called Ancient Aliens, which speculated that various unknowns in Earth’s ancient past hinge upon the aspect that extraterrestrials were responsible for those unknowns. This evaluation of the program’s biblical interpretations does not necessarily rule out that such visitations may have occurred. Like hard-line religionists, however, this theory overlooks or deliberately ignores many of the various clues that the priest-authors used to season the tale—clues that were drawn from prehistory lessons that once used groups of stars (constellations) to illustrate Creation principles of energy progression into visible forms. For example, Jacob’s grandfather also had his name changed from Abram to Abraham–and for the same reason, which is also not effectively explained. Jacob’s ladder is regarded as a religious “mystery,” which is referred to as the scala coeli (stairway). This “mystery” is no genuine mystery at all when one follows all the clues that are dropped throughout the story. In the book The Celestial Scripures (by this author), it is pointed out that symbols are employed which are easily recognized by initiates. Jacob is said to have gone out from Beer-sheba (Genesis 28:10), his course being toward Haran. The Beer part of the name means “well,” and the word sheba means “seven”, which indicates that the Life Principle advances through seven stages (symbolized as wells) of primordial development toward visible amassment, and the earliest phenomenon of this activity is seen as light. Thus we read that Jacob “…lighted upon a certain place and he tarried there all night (through that primordial energy plane) because the Sun was set…” (Genesis 28:11). In other words, energy is in the process of manifesting toward denser form–or definable matter form is “set“. At this point Jacob then had to take “…of the stones of that place…” and use them for his pillow. Now this is strange: Jacob is characterized as being a forward planning individual, so wouldn’t such a person have taken with him something to sleep upon during an overnight journey?The prophesy of Ezekiel was explained in the Talmud by Jewish sages that received the explanation from Ezekiel’s own students. The Jews in the times of the Mishna and Talmud where only a few generations after Ezekiel lived. There are many many books of Jewish thought and mysticism based on the visions of Ezekiel and none of them have any mention of Aliens. That prophecy is described as “The workings of the chariot” in Jewish literature. The Workings of the chariot are teachings that were originally only taught in parables, and only to the highest ranking scholars. The vision of the chariot is an elusion to very lofty esoteric concepts. Nobody in his time period believed he was speaking of aliens, or even actual physical beings of any sort. To clarify, this was a prophesy (one of 26 in the book of Ezekiel), which by definition is not a record of an event. No explanation is forthcoming for this lack of preparedness. Instead, he must lay his head upon a pile of stones, and then he has his famous mystifying dream of angel activity on a ladder that linked Heaven with Earth. (Genesis 28:12-17). To repeat, the Genesis story relates that the ladder was seen by Jacob in a dream, not as some actual physical encounter. The ladder that Jacob allegedly beheld, upon which angels or divine messengers were moving up and down, is coded reference to elementary particles that are becoming actively involved in the coalescing phase into biological life; thus it is the ladder-like DNA sequence that is referred to as the ladder which connects all life with the Source. It is at this point in the story that Jacob was then allegedly promised by God (the Life Principle personified) that he and his multitudes of descendants would be given possession of Canaan: but this “land” is not in regard to any Near East area on planet Earth, but symbolizes the advanced energy involvement as matter. This holy account is therefore not history of a specific “chosen” people, but is about how all life forms move through elemental energy phases into temporary matter form where self-aware consciousness is achieved. Nonetheless, this is all implied by the priest-authors to have occurred around the timeframe of 1760 BCE.

When Jacob awakened from this “dream,” he is quoted as saying, “How dreadful is this place!–this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (28:17). Huh? “This place” therefore refers to the pre-physical energy conditions or prototype circumstances which initiate matter manifestation. This is “dreadful” only because elementary consciousness is amassing to descend and pass over into visible dense matter identity. It is in this in-between development stage where Jacob “tarried” (it is not until chapter 32 that Jacob is actually transformed into self-aware matter-life as Israel). The stone that Jacob had used for his pillow he then set up as a pillar. Strangely, Jacob had not carried any sleeping gear for the overnight journey, but he had carried along a supply of oil which he poured upon the pillar. And he called that place of intensifying energy Beth-el (House of God).

 

Jacob is said to “tarry” in this prototype situation for fourteen years, and it is here that Rachel and her elder sister Leah enter the story, and both became his wives. Female figures represent energy substance. (So when other scriptural women, some called sisters, marries the lead character they are, being an interacting part of the energy spectrum, not committing incest.) Jacob also frolicked with the female servants of his wives–all with God’s blessing. From these unions Jacob allegedly fathered twelve sons, each to become the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel. When at last Jacob and his evolving family stole away from his father-in-law’s locale, they also left with stolen rudiments from the father-in-law before they passed over the river toward the mount Gilead (Genesis 31:21).

 

Later on (Genesis 32:28 and 35:10) Jacob is described as having to indulge in a wrestling match with an angel (some interpret it as a struggle with God). This peculiar wrestling match is said to have lasted “…until the breaking of day,” meaning until energy-form was becoming defined. In the brief description of the wrestling match it is impossible to follow which one of the combatants is Jacob and which one is the “man” during the combat. The reason for this seemingly garbled account is that both participants represent the same energy involvement which is in the process of transforming–or passing over–from primal energy conditions into defined form–or “until the breaking of the day.” When Jacob later asks the name of his opponent, Jacob is rebuffed. The question is never answered, but nonetheless “…he blessed him there.” Who blessed whom? The wrestling match is a parable for energy transformation, so the Life Principle blesses itself by the exertion of transformation! Thus the creative principle has advanced into defined matter form and so we read, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and has prevailed.” Jacob then named the place of combat as Peniel, which is said to mean, “I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” Then in 32:31 it relates, “And as he (Jacob) passed over Peniel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh”–upon his organ of generation.

So the teasing suggestion in the television series Ancient Aliens that perhaps the ladder in the Jacob fable represents extraterrestrials coming to Earth is another misinterpretation of prehistory lessons concerning the energies of Creation. But in various illustrations which show a ladder descending from a darkish oval area,* that does not signify a UFO; it represents the tunnel mouth out of primordial energy conditions from which energy as visible matter-forms descend. On the other hand the relationship with space and heavenly activity is not exactly alien to scriptures: each of the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel represents one of the signs from the Zodiac. In this dream, Jacob saw a ladder (or in some translations, a stairway) that connected heaven to earth. Additionally, Jacob is said to have seen God at the top of the ladder, and also angels, who were ascending and descending this structure. The story of Jacob’s Ladder may be found in the Book of Genesis.Jacob's Ladder (Hebrew: Sulam Yaakov סולם יעקב) is the colloquial name for a connection between the earth and heaven that the biblical Patriarch Jacob dreams about during his flight from his brother Esau, as described in the Book of Genesis. The significance of the dream has been somewhat debated, but most interpretations agree that it identified Jacob with the obligations and inheritance of the ethnic people chosen by God, as understood in Abrahamic religions. It has since been used as a symbolic reference in various other contexts.Jacob (Arabic: يَعْقُوب‎, translit. Yaʿqūb) is revered in Islam as a prophet and patriarch. Muslim scholars, especially of the perennialist tradition,drew a parallel with Jacob's vision of the ladder[11] and Muhammad's event of the Mi'raj.The ladder of Jacob was interpreted by Muslims to be one of the many symbols of God, and many saw Jacob's ladder as representing in its form the essence of Islam, which emphasizes following the "straight path". The twentieth-century scholar Martin Lings described the significance of the ladder in the Islamic mystic perspective: The ladder of the created Universe is the ladder which appeared in a dream to Jacob, who saw it stretching from Heaven to earth, with Angels going up and down upon it; and it is also the "straight path", for indeed the way of religion is none other than the way of creation itself retraced from its end back to its Beginning.esus said in John 1:51 "And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." This statement has been interpreted as associating or implicating Jesus with the mythical ladder, in that Christ bridges the gap between Heaven and Earth. Jesus presents himself as the reality to which the ladder points; as Jacob saw in a dream the reunion of Heaven and Earth, Jesus brought this reunion, metaphorically the ladder, into reality. Adam Clarke, an early 19th-century Methodist theologian and Bible scholar, elaborates: That by the angels of God ascending and descending, is to be understood, that a perpetual intercourse should now be opened between heaven and earth, through the medium of Christ, who was God manifested in the flesh. Our blessed Lord is represented in his mediatorial capacity as the ambassador of God to men; and the angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man, is a metaphor taken from the custom of dispatching couriers or messengers from the prince to his ambassador in a foreign court, and from the ambassador back to the prince. The theme of a ladder to heaven is often used by the Church Fathers. Irenaeus in the second century describes the Christian Church as the "ladder of ascent to God".In the third century, Origen explains that there are two ladders in the life of a Christian, the ascetic ladder that the soul climbs on the earth, by way of—and resulting in—an increase in virtue, and the soul's travel after death, climbing up the heavens towards the light of God. In the fourth century, Gregory of Nazianzus[8] speaks of ascending Jacob's Ladder by successive steps towards excellence, interpreting the ladder as an ascetic path, while Saint Gregory of Nyssa narrates, that Moses climbed on Jacob's Ladder to reach the heavens where he entered the tabernacle not made with hands, thus giving the Ladder a clear mystical meaning. The ascetic interpretation is found also in Saint John Chrysostom, who writes: "And so mounting as it were by steps, let us get to heaven by a Jacob’s ladder. For the ladder seems to me to signify in a riddle by that vision the gradual ascent by means of virtue, by which it is possible for us to ascend from earth to heaven, not using material steps, but improvement and correction of manners." Jacob's Ladder as an analogy for the spiritual ascetic of life enjoyed wide influence thanks to the classical work The Ladder of Divine Ascent by John Climacus.he classic Torah commentaries offer several interpretations of Jacob's ladder. According to the Midrash Genesis Rabbah, the ladder signified the exiles which the Jewish people would suffer before the coming of the Messiah. First the angel representing the 70-year exile of Babylonia climbed "up" 70 rungs, and then fell "down". Then the angel representing the exile of Persia went up a number of steps, and fell, as did the angel representing the exile of Greece. Only the fourth angel, which represented the final exile of Rome/Edom (whose guardian angel was Esau himself), kept climbing higher and higher into the clouds. Jacob feared that his children would never be free of Esau's domination, but God assured him that at the End of Days, Edom too would come falling down. Another interpretation of the ladder keys into the fact that the angels first "ascended" and then "descended". The Midrash explains that Jacob, as a holy man, was always accompanied by angels. When he reached the border of the land of Canaan (the future land of Israel), the angels who were assigned to the Holy Land went back up to Heaven and the angels assigned to other lands came down to meet Jacob. When Jacob returned to Canaan he was greeted by the angels who were assigned to the Holy Land. Yet another interpretation is this: The place at which Jacob stopped for the night was in reality Mount Moriah, the future home of the Temple in Jerusalem. The ladder therefore signifies the "bridge" between Heaven and earth, as prayers and sacrifices offered in the Holy Temple soldered a connection between God and the Jewish people. Moreover, the ladder alludes to the giving of the Torah as another connection between heaven and earth. In this interpretation, it is also significant that the Hebrew word for ladder, sulam (סלם) and the name for the mountain on which the Torah was given, Sinai (סיני) have the same gematria (numerical value of the letters). The Hellenistic Jewish philosopher Philo, born in Alexandria, (d. ca. 50 CE) presents his allegorical interpretation of the ladder in the first book of his De somniis. There he gives four interpretations, which are not mutually exclusive: The angels represent souls descending to and ascending from bodies (some consider this to be Philo's clearest reference to the doctrine of reincarnation). In the second interpretation the ladder is the human soul and the angels are God's logoi, pulling the soul up in distress and descending in compassion. In the third view the dream depicts the ups and downs of the life of the "practiser" (of virtue vs. sin). Finally the angels represent the continually changing affairs of men. A hilltop overlooking the Israeli settlement of Beit El north of Jerusalem that is believed by some to be the site of Jacob's dream is a tourist destination during the holiday of Sukkot.Is it the case that Ezekiel saw an alien-operated flying machine from outer space? No, Ezekiel did not see an alien spaceship. How, then, are his visions to be explained? When one looks into Ezekiel’s prophetic book, it becomes clear that Ezekiel did see some strange things. From a quick reading of chapter one, it becomes apparent that Ezekiel saw a “great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself ” (vs. 4), four living creatures from within the cloud (vs. 5), a wheel beside each living creature (vs. 15), and the rims of the wheels full of eyes (vs. 18), among many other things. Indeed, the things seen by Ezekiel were amazing and unusual to say the least.

But with a little research into the biblical message, it becomes clear that Ezekiel’s writing and visions were apocalyptic in nature—very similar to the writings found in both Daniel and Revelation. The visions Ezekiel described are of heavenly, spiritual beings, not “alien life forms.” By comparing the description of the living creatures in Ezekiel to that of the living creatures that surround the throne of God in Revelation 4, one quickly realizes that the scenes witnessed by Ezekiel, John, Daniel, and other inspired writers were visions of God and His spiritual host of heaven. As further evidence of this fact, at the end of Ezekiel 1, after describing “a likeness with the appearance of a man” on a throne, Ezekiel wrote: “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (1:28). Then, a few verses later in chapter 2, this same person said to Ezekiel, “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me” (2:3). Ezekiel fully understood this to be the Lord talking to Him, that the vision was of spiritual beings, and that he had not had an encounter

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_Ladder

  

Heilige Familie, Heilige Sippe, Holy Family Altar, extended family of Mary

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Churches generally have a single altar, although in the West, as a result of the former abandonment of concelebration of Mass, so that priests always celebrated Mass individually, larger churches have had one or more side chapels, each with its own altar. The main altar was also referred to as the "high altar".

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In der Mitte sitzen Maria mit dem Jesuskind und ihre Mutter Anna einander gegenüber. An den Fingerspitzen berühren sich die Generationen, die hier zugleich für den Alten und den Neuen Bund Gottes stehen.

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Darunter: Sockelbild

Christus, der mit den Jüngern das letzte Abendmahl feiert. In dem zweiten Apostel links mit dem mittelalterlichen Noppenbecher in der Hand hat sich der Künstler Martin Schaffner selbst verewigt.

 

Der neue "Hochaltar" aka Hutzaltar, der stand ehemals in der Turmvorhalle, und damit ein Altar von sechzig.

 

Location: ULM

Places / Germany / Baden-Wurttemberg / Ulm

www.flickr.com/search/?q=Ulmer%20M%C3%BCnster

Muenster unserer Lieben Frau

Minster of Our Lady

Cathédrale de Notre-Dame

La iglesia de monasterio de Nuestra Señora

母大教堂

 

Mit einer Höhe von 161,53 Meter ist der Hauptturm vom Ulmer Münster nicht nur einer der höchsten Kirchtürme der Christenheit, sondern das im gotischen Stil errichtete Bauwerk ist auch die größte protestantische Kirche weltweit.

 

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Panasonic LUMIX DMC-TZ 41, TZ 41, TZ 40,

Minitsativ

Settings: 15 sec ƒ/3.4 ISO 100

 

Focal Length (35mm format) 27 mm

Scene Capture Type Night

Self Timer 2 s

 

-->> Click , click

© View LARGE on BLACK

or white, or grey

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The Choir Altar.

 

The story concerning the altar is eventful: in the choir, which had long been in use, there must surely have stood a high altar before 1473, when Jörg Syrlin the Elder received the commission for a new and better one, for which Michel Erhart was to carve the figures.

 

Ulmer Schule - Künstler und Werkstätten - Artists and craftsman around the "Ulm Style"

 

We do not know what became of it. In the iconoclasm everything perished. At any rate, an emergency altar was set up in 1548 for the visit of Charles V. This remained until the present altar replaced it in 1808.

This stood originally in the tower hall where the Hutz family had its altar. Laux Hutz, the "Suire Lukas", was the donor.

 

While other families, heeding the warning of the council in the face of the iconoclasm, took their donations to safety, the Hutz altar came into the hands of the mason's lodge (Dombauhütte ?) . In 1587 it was brought into the "little church", the Church of the Barefooted. Upon the church's demolition the altar went back to the cathedral and received its present place of honour.

 

Martin Schaffner is the artist. It was carved in his workshop and the master himself painted the pictures. He placed the date 1521 and his mark MS on it several times. The altar ranks as the most important work of Schnaffner of whom we know neither date of birth nor death, only that he was in Ulm around 1500-30 as city painter, one of the last of the Ulm School. The Hutz altar is also called the Schnaffner altar.

He produced a Holy Family altar, which shows the extended family of Mary as sketched by legends.

Guidebook

 

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The original main altar was destroyed by the iconoclasts of the reformation. The current altar from the early 16th century is a triptych, showing figures of the Holy Family and the Last Supper in the preadella.

In the shrine - too heavily gilded during the renovation of 1879-80 -: Mary with the child and her mother Anna who extends her hand to the child. The men in back: at the left, Joseph leaning over the chair, then Anna: Joachim, Mary's father, looking at his grandson; at right, Cleophas (green hat) and Salomas (red hat), Anna's further husbands, as if about to discuss the miracle. And in the centre, the Holy Spirit through whom the miracle happened. "Gothic lyrical style" is the scholar's classification.

 

It is continued on the wings: Anna is supposed to have had a daughter by each of her 2nd and 3rd husbands, half-sisters of Mary. The daughter of Cleophas, Mary Cleophas, is to be seen in the right wing with her husband Alpheus and their sons. Three of the four were supposed to have become apostles. Salomas' daughter, Mary Salome,at left, holds her son John on her lap, to whom the father Zeberdee - a picture of the donor Laux Hutz - gives a pear. Brother James also wishes to be present.

What pious legend exuberantly embellishes belongs to the secret of Catholic faith: the mother of Jesus, herself immaculately conceived by Anna, gave birth to the Saviour. She is the mother of Christ and thus became God-bearer, and therefore also mother of the body of Christ, of the church. In her the church became incarnate.

 

Renaissance: the group in the shrine is still Gothic, but the wings are new in style. There Schaffner painted an earthly idyl: family portraits of old German style, warm, filled with affectionate parents and children, charming in detail: at left for instance, James practicing the letter A on a tablet: Adam, Abel, Abraham! ...to the right, Simon is also an ABC pupil who shows his father the tablet: below him, Justus, supposed to be Barnabas, holds high a tied-up bird. The arrangement of persons is important and new, their movement and relation to one another, then the space, which is grasped in terms of perspective and gives a view of landscape through the windows. That is Renaissance, Schaffner brings Italian influence. Fifty years have passed since the last judgement was painted in the choir arch, since Syrlin created the choir stalls. Now a break-through has been reached. Luther is making church history, in Rome St. Peter's cathedral is being built. Raphael and Michelangelo are already disagreeing. Man occupies the central position, thanks to Humanism and the Renaissance. And in the Reformation he enquires anew about a gracious God.

 

The Praedella - the pictue at the base - depicts the Last Supper. Here Leonardo's great painting stood godfather to Schnaffner. Strong in colour and rich in detail: the bread, the wine and the meat. The apostles are animatedly discussing who the betrayer yet John leans toward the master, as in the Gothic tradition.

 

Guidebook

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commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blaubeuren_Chor_Chorgest

In Part 2, I discussed how the Serpent was used as a symbol for not only initiation into the mysteries and immortality but also a symbol for sexuality, generation, death and rebirth due to the creature’s ability to shed its skin of the old to reveal a shiny new skin underneath. The mythologized Serpent, of course, does appear in almost every culture around the world over. Genesis 3 relays how the Serpent offers knowledge in the form of a fruit grown from the Tree of Knowledge (the “Good ” and “Evil” part may have have been added later as a gloss.) Like the Serpent, the Tree of Knowledge is sometimes considered to be a phallic symbol. This Fruit along with the Tree also were used to signify the result or effect of some cause, having both a positive and a negative effect and origin.

 

The Two Trees.

 

The Tree of Knowledge and digesting the forbidden fruit in Genesis according to Jewish tradition represented the primeval mixture or intermingling of good and evil, light and darkness in an almost Manichean fashion. Eating the fruit forbidden set off a chain reaction where humanity developed a “yeitzer hara” or “evil inclination.” Unlike the earlier Hebrews, who blamed themselves for their woes, the Jewish Rabbis believed God had implanted in the ‘heart’, the Hebrew place of the unconscious of each individual, at his birth or conception. The yezer was not hereditary. It was intrinsically good and the source of creative energy, but had a strong potential for evil through appetite or greed. Only strict observance of the Law could keep the strong, irrational passions it engendered under control. To the commentators in the five centuries before Christ, Adam’s death was due to his own “sinful actions”, and not to the Augustine-authored “original sin nature” or “ancestral sin” inherent in the DNA in the race of man because of the disobedience of the primal parents. The Zohar claims that Adam and Eve lost their immortality by ingesting the fruit which is ironically enough compared to the occult:

 

Hear what saith scripture when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree by which death entered into their souls or lower nature, ‘And when they heard the voice of the Lord of the Alhim walking in the garden’ (Gen. iii-8), or, as it ought to be rendered, had walked (mithhalech). Note further that whilst Adam had not fallen, he was a recipient of divine wisdom (hochma) and heavenly light and derived his continuous existence from the Tree of Life to which he had free access, but as soon as he allowed himself to be seduced and deluded with the desire of occult knowledge, he lost everything, heavenly light and life through the disjunction of his higher and lower self, and, the loss of that harmony that should always exist between them, in short, he then first knew what evil was and what it entailed, and, therefore, it is written, ‘Thou art not a God that approveth wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee’ (Is. v-5); or, in other words, he who implicitly and blindly follows the dictates of his lower nature or self shall not come near the Tree of Life.

 

According to the Babylonian Talmud, Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden for just twelve hours before being unceremoniously thrown out. This is half a day in Paradise. That snake sure was a fast worker! Yahweh gave Adam and Eve the tour round Eden, told them what they could or couldn’t do and had no sooner turned his back than they were disobeying him and he had to expel them and sentence them, and the whole human race to come, to hell-fire for all eternity. Is that not the biggest (pardon this author’s french) fuck up of all time? It takes a spectacular degree of incompetence to screw things up that badly, so quickly. And yet the source who engineered this monumental disaster is supposed to be the Creator of the Universe, all-knowing and all-powerful, incapable of error! It is any wonder why the Gnostics called the creator god of Genesis as a dark and brutal god who was also given names such as: Samael (Blind One) and Saklas (idiot-retard)?

 

The Catholic Church Father Irenaeus mentions in Adv. Hear. 1, 29, 3, that the Barbelognostics revered the classic Qabalistic symbol of the “Tree, which itself they call Knowledge (gnosis).” This Tree is generated by two more primordial entities or “Aeons” called “Man” and “Knowledge.” It is hard to know just what his source for this passage may have been, for the kabbalistic symbol of the Tree does not figure in any of the surviving versions of the Apocryphon of John. There is, however, a passage in the Church Father Origen’s description in Contra Celsum of the diagrams of the cosmos envisaged by the Ophites:

 

And everywhere there, the Tree of Life, and the resurrection of flesh from the Tree …

 

This passage suggests that the form of the Tree had been imposed on the whole diagram. The Church Father Origen also gives a number of “ten circles”, the traditional number of the emanations or “sefiroth” associated with the cosmic spheres in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life – though roughly only seven of them can have planetary names. This image of the spiritual powers circling in the heavenly spheres, which the Jewish scholar, Gershom Scholem has suggested entered Jewish esoteric teaching from Hellenistic-Egyptian traditions in the centuries before Christianity (or at least Christian gnosticism) arose bears also upon the enigma of the seven-headed form of Iao in the fourth sphere (as discussed in the Apocryphon of John), that of the Sun.

 

This idea of the Archons situated upon the astral “aerial toll houses” of Eastern Orthodoxy (and of course Gnosticism, especially in the First Apocalypse of James) does indeed seem to originate in ancient Egypt where the the Book of the Dead lists protective spells learned by initiates to guard against the dangerous “judges” during the post-mortem journey of the soul. Speculation in Christian and in Gnostic circles concerning the order of the celestial hierarchy hinged upon a few passages in the Pauline literature, which seem to imply, however, different sequences as Colassians 1:16 states:

 

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

 

The names of the authorities are as follows, featured and listed in the Ophite doctrine, refuted by Celsus in Contra Celsum:

 

Michael – lion, Souriel – bull, Raphael – serpent, Gabriel – eagle, Thauthabaoth – bear, Erathaoth – dog, Taphabaoth/Onoel – ass.

 

The sequence was composed using the figures of four biblical Cherubim, to whom three new personages were added. The animal forms are derived from the biblical story of the famous vision of Ezekiel as is the iconography of the four evangelists. Ezekiel had seen four monstrous beings in the shape of winged men with four faces: of a man, a lion, a bull and an eagle, on each of the four sides. Jerome connects this tetramorph with the Four Evangelists, being Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

 

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In the Trimorphic Protennoia, the Archons claim that they also were derived from a tree:

 

For as for our tree from which we grew, a fruit of ignorance is what it has; and also its leaves, it is death that dwells in them, and darkness dwells under the shadow of its boughs. And it was in deceit and lust that we harvested it, this (tree) through which ignorant Chaos became for us a dwelling place.

 

As mentioned in Part 1, the Gospel of John 15, 1-2 equates Christ with the vines and fruit of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, which also sounds vaguely Dionysian. Dionysus was also called the surname Dendritês, the god of the tree, which has the same import as Dasyllius, the giver of foliage.

 

The Gospel of Truth also equates the cross to the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden:

 

He was nailed to a tree (and) he became fruit of the knowledge of the Father. It did not, however, cause destruction because it was eaten, but to those who ate it, it (cause) to become glad in the discovery, and he discovered them in himself, and they discovered him in themselves.

 

The Gospel of Philip also makes the connection between the Tree of Life, the resurrection via the chrism (anointing) and Jesus Christ, explicit:

 

Philip the apostle said, “Joseph the carpenter planted a garden because he needed wood for his trade. It was he who made the cross from the trees which he planted. His own offspring hung on that which he planted. His offspring was Jesus, and the planting was the cross.” But the Tree of Life is in the middle of the Garden. However, it is from the olive tree that we got the chrism, and from the chrism, the resurrection.

 

Elsewhere in the Gospel of Philip, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is identified with the flesh and the Law (the lower natures as opposed to the pnuematic one). Using a riff from the Epistle to the Romans 7:7-11, the author says:

 

“It has the power to give knowledge of good and evil. It neither removed him from evil, nor did it set him in the good. Instead it created death for those who ate of it. For when it said, ‘Eat this. Do not eat that.’ it became the beginning of death.”

 

The pseudepigraphic Jewish-apocalypse Book of Enoch 31:4, describes this tree of knowledge in the midst of the “Garden of Righteousness”:

 

It was like a species of the Tamarind tree, bearing fruit which resembled grapes extremely fine; and its fragrance extended to a considerable distance. I exclaimed, How beautiful is this tree, and how delightful is its appearance!

 

Irenaeus’ pupil, Hippolytus would write in Against All Heresies (VI, 27) on how the Valentinians compared the Logos to the fruit of the Tree of Life:

 

This (one) is styled among them Joint Fruit of the Pleroma. These (matters), then, took place within the Pleroma in this way. And the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma was projected, (that is,) Jesus,— for this is his name—the great High Priest. Sophia, however, who was outside the Pleroma in search of Christ, who had given her form, and of the Holy Spirit, became involved in great terror that she would perish, if he should separate from her, who had given her form and consistency.

 

He also writes that the Father projected a warrior Aeon as a defense mechanism to protect the Aeonic realm of the Pleroma from the shapeless void created by the fallen Sophia, who is often shaped in a Cross:

 

Now this (Aeon) is styled Horos, because he separates from the Pleroma the Hysterema that is outside. And (he is called) Metocheus, because he shares also in the Hysterema. And (he is denominated) Staurus, because he is fixed inflexibly and inexorably, so that nothing of the Hysterema can come near the Aeons who are within the Pleroma.

 

This description also matches with Irenaeus’ account (Against Heresies 1.3.5) on how the Valentinian Christians viewed the hidden, metaphysical meaning and nature of the Cross:

 

“They show, further, that that Horos of theirs, whom they call by a variety of names, has two faculties,-the one of supporting, and the other of separating; and in so far as he supports and sustains, he is Stauros, while in so far as he divides and separates, he is Horos. They then represent the Saviour as having indicated this twofold faculty: first, the sustaining power, when He said, “Whosoever doth not bear his cross (Stauros), and follow after me, cannot be my disciple; ” and again, “Taking up the cross follow me; ” but the separating power when He said, “I came not to send peace, but a word.” They also maintain that John indicated the same thing when he said, “The fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge the floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner; but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable.” By this declaration He set forth the faculty of Horos. For that fan they explain to be the cross (Stauros), which consumes, no doubt, all material objects, as fire does chaff, but it purifies all them that are saved, as a fan does wheat. Moreover, they affirm that the Apostle Paul himself made mention of this cross in the following words: “The doctrine of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but to us who are saved it is the power of God.” And again: “God forbid that I should glory in anything save in the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.”

 

In the above paragraph, Horos or Stauros (the cross of John) is the limit (X) of Plato’s Timaeus. Simon Magus taught this same exact thing as we will see below. The cross symbolizes the separation of powers and realms. It represents the apokatastasis, the Stoic conflagration, the baptism by fire. Paul the Apostle speaks of this fire that purifies and tries men’s works in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. To be crucified to the world is to bear the symbol of the cross which is a flat-out denial of YHWH and the Elohim archons’ creation. It is to spit in the face of the Greek gods of fate like Socrates. It is hemlock to the flesh and to the spirit it is immortality.

 

It is the Cross of Christ, which in the Gnostic interpretation separates God from the manifest world, the uncreated, transcendent World of Forms from the Creator and the created realm, constituting a Separate and Hidden God. This limit in essence separates the “wheat from the tares”. At the same time, it also serves as a bridge between the saved sparks of light into the realm above. The extremely esoteric Sethian text, Allogenes, mentions a power or aeon by the name of “Kalyptos”, which can mean either “hidden” or “that which covers,” which may derive from the conception of the veil parting the higher from the lower realm. This power derives from the Aeon of Barbelo, which is also a state of being in which a spiritual power descends into matter. The position of Kalyptos comes very close to that of the Valentinian Horos, Stauros or Limit that separates the highest deity Bythos (Depth or Abyss) from the other Aeons that derive from him. This limit also functions though a second barrier between the “hysterema” of the material cosmos and the realm of the Aeons. Sophia also functions as a veil in On the Origin of the World.

 

lightning-flash-on-tree

 

All of these concepts are also reflected in Origen’s Contra Celsum (6, 33) in which he states that that on the diameter of one of the circles a sword of fire was depicted, the same one that had driven Adam and Eve from the earthly Paradise. This flaming sword guarded the Tree of knowledge (gnosis) and of life (zoe). If the sword was above the black line of Tartarus, then the tree of knowledge and of life has to be the series of circles starting from Gnosis and Sophia and leading through the circle of Life to the Father. This could be similar to the Kabbalistic number of 777 being the sum the paths that the Lightening Path of Creation travels down through the Tree of Life. It is through this channel that the Luciferian motif of bringing the light of heaven to the World of Action becomes apparent.

 

In Contra Celsum, Origen reports Celsus’ comments on the Christians (the Ophite-Sethian Gnostics in reality), who called their baptismal rite “seal” (recalling the Five Seals of the Sethians); the person who placed the seal was called “father”; the one who received it was called “son” and “young man”, answering: “I am anointed with the white chrism of the tree of life”. Celsus further down describes the Christian belief of “tree of life” being both synonymous with Christ and the resurrection in 6:34:

 

And in all their writings (is mention made) of the ‘tree of life’ (τό της ζωης ξύλον), and a resurrection of the flesh by means of the ‘tree’ (από ξύλου), because, I imagine, their teacher was nailed to a cross (σταυρω ένηλώθη), and was a carpenter by craft (τέκτων τήν τεχνην)…

 

Celsus connects a so-called “tree of life,” and a resurrection by means of the “tree,” to Jesus’ execution: that he was nailed to an execution pole and his trade being carpenter, joiner. The relevant point Celsus is making here is that Jesus was suspended on some kind of pole, and secured to it with nails. Clearly, the parallels between the Ophite diagram and the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, with the circles shown to have numerical values, are there.

 

The Trimorphic Protennoia and the hermetic Discourse on Eighth and Ninth in the Nag Hammadi library pre-suppose numerical values for the manifestations of God, as does the system of Valentinus as described by his enemy, Irenaeus, which envisioned the theoretical attainment of 10 divine Aeons. He also develops a system consisting of about thirty Aeons, which would suggest that he had taken the simpler Ophite system and expanded it until it was almost uncontrollable. Even more interesting is in the Sethian text, Melchizedek, it portrays Adam and Eve defeating the guardians of the Tree of Life with their own weapon!

 

For when they ate of the tree of knowledge, they trampled the Cherubim and the Seraphim with the flaming sword.

 

Fludd Sephirothic Tree web

 

The Sephirothic Tree by Robert Fludd

 

The Qabalah or Kabbalah itself has many similarities with Gnosticism in their closely related teachings of the hidden God and hypostatization of God’s attributes. The Sephirot (or Enumerations, which also means “book” in Hebrew) are the ten emanations of God (or infinite light: Ein Sof Aur) into the universe. These emanations manifest not only in the physical part of the universe, but also in the metaphysical one. Kabbalah distinguish four different worlds or planes: Atziluth, or World of Emanations, where the Divine Archetypes live; Beri’ah or World of Creations, where Highest Ranking Angels are; Yetzirah or World of Formations is the astral world; and Asiyah or World of Actions, is the physical plane and “low astral” plane. Each of these worlds are progressively grosser and denser (one can see the strong Kabbalistic influence on Neo-Platonic thought here as well), but the ten Sephiroth manifest in all of them.

 

The Kabbalah is rooted in the Merkavah and Assyrian traditions, and the Kabbalah defines Sefirot is also based on the great visions described by Ezekiel. The Sephiroth constitutes the “Tree of Life”, and is aligned in three columns, each headed by a Supernal. The names of the Sephirot are: Kether (Crown), Chochman (Wisdom), Binah (Understanding), Chesed (Mercy), Gevurah (Severity), Tiphareth (Redeemer), Netzach (Victory), Hod (Majesty), Yesod (Foundation), Malkhuth (Kingdom). Some clear Christian and Gnostic associations on the Tree of Life is down the middle path, with Keter relating to the Father, which emanates into Tipharet relating to the Holy Ghost, and Christ as the Solar Logos and Savior, which emanates to Yesod, relating to the Son. This being the path by which God emanates into Malkut, the physical world

 

The Manichean Psalm CCXX illustrates the theme of matter receiving the spiritual Light rather well by using Tree imagery:

 

They rose, that they belong to Matter, the children of Error, desiring to uproot thy unshakable tree and plant it in their land. Matter and her sons divided me up amongst them, they burnt me in their fire, they gave me a bitter likeness.” … “I am the sweet water that is beneath the sons of Matter.

 

SophiaInTree

 

Alchemical image of the Divine Sophia as a Tree of Learning and source of the Elixir of Life.

 

In Jewish Wisdom literature, it was Khokhmah who personified the female Divine. She is understood as an emanation of God, yet she resonates with the Hebrew Goddess who is otherwise assailed in the Old Testament, by Jehovah especially Asherah, the Queen of Heaven. Proverbs 3:18 calls up an image of Khokhmah that originates in the oldest core of Jewish culture: “She is a Tree of Life to all who lay hold of her.” In the same book, Khokhmah sings, “The one who finds me, finds life.” A similar aretalogy can be found in the Sethian text, Thunder-Perfect Mind. The creation story of the 2nd, Century Gnostic, Valentinus of Alexandria, the greatest of Sophia’s devotees, describes the origin and essence of the matter composing this world as emotionally and psychically consubstantial with Sophia as indicated by Irenaeus in Against Heresies, 5, 4:

 

This mother they also call Ogdoad, Sophia, Terra (Gaia), Jerusalem (cf. Gal. 4:26), Holy Spirit, and, with a masculine reference, Lord. Their mother dwells in that place which is above the heavens, that is, in the intermediate abode; the Demiurge in the heavenly place, that is, in the hebdomad; but the Cosmocrator in this our world. The corporeal elements of the world, again, sprang, as we before remarked, from bewilderment and perplexity, as from a more ignoble source. Thus the earth arose from her state of stupor; water from the agitation caused by her fear; air from the consolidation of her grief; while fire, producing death and corruption, was inherent in all these elements, even as they teach that ignorance also lay concealed in these three passions.

 

Furthermore, she knows:

 

the beginning and end and middle of times, the alternations of the solstices and the changes of the seasons, the cycles of the year and the constellations of the stars, the nature of animals and the tempers of wild animals, the powers of spirits and the thoughts of human beings, the varieties of plants and the virtues of roots… (Wisdom 7:15-22)

 

The imagery of the tree is also included in Simon Magus’s cosmology, as reported by Hippolytus of Rome, is a powerful model that describing some rare concepts that Simononians in the early third century work described in the Philosophumena, as the “Great Declaration” or “Great Announcement”. Simon very much describes a tree of fire that consumes itself. This is a third century Simonian document, positing that the root of all existence is infinite, and abides in man, who serves as its dwelling-house. The Logos or the Word is projected down by the luciferian Lightening Flash through the Aeons and into the manifest world and man. From the original root, the hidden principle, spring three pairs of manifestations of: Mind and Thought, Voice and Name, Reasoning and Reflection.

 

The Father is, moreover, “He that hath stood” in relation to premundane existence; “He that standeth” in relation to present being; and “He that shall stand” in relation to the final consummation. Man is simply the realization of “boundless power,” the ultimate end of the cosmic process in which the godhead attains self-consciousness. This infinite power works in all of the aeons as a compound name: He who stands, has stood, and will stand; a term alluded to in the Clementine Homilies and Recognition’s which say, that Simon Magus considered himself as the “Standing One” along with the “that power of God which is called Great”.

 

The Simonian author employs very Stoic language in describing what is hidden and revealed in the divine Fire, the original Boundless Power that is the stuff that the original Ineffable God is made of—the equivalent of the Qabalistic Ein Sof or Kether—the Crown. In this above entry (linked above) by Hippolytus, he refers to Simon’s theology of the “fruit from the Tree” as being the quintessential product of the human incarnation. The tripartite division of spirit, psyche and matter are simply manifest expressions of the original Stoic-like Divine Fire. This concealed fruit or “Hidden Power” which is another term that he used, requires a key in the conscious process of imagining or beholding a power to form mental images.

 

The Simonian author interestingly uses the term “imagining” as a reference of becoming divinized or be initiated into the mysteries. But this can only be manifested “if its imagining has been perfected and it takes the shape of itself.” Later, the text mentions a “storehouse” which is a room, located adjacent to a royal chamber within a palace where the gold, jewels and other wealth are stored. Here, the Simonian author is referring to the treasure-house and the storehouse, both concepts that are found within the Pistis Sophia that refer to a location within the “House of Many Mansions” of John 14:2.

 

Simon Magus also appealed to Matthew 12:33, as Hippolytus writes in Refutations of All Heresies VI, 11:

 

If, however, a tree continues alone, not producing fruit fully formed, it is utterly destroyed. For somewhere near, he says, is the axe (which is laid) at the roots of the tree. Every tree, he says, which does not produce good fruit, is hewn down and cast into fire.

 

This, of course, was also Marcion’s (and much later in Mani’s theological two principle system) main scriptural justification for his radical dualism in Christ’s maxim that a good tree does not bear evil fruit, nor does an evil tree bear bad fruit. So if we also interpret that in terms of origins, then the evil god could not possibly have originated from the good god, because good things do not produce evil things, and vice versa. The Gospel of Thomas says something very similar:

 

(45) Jesus said, “Grapes are not harvested from thorns, nor are figs gathered from thistles, for they do not produce fruit. A good man brings forth good from his storehouse; an evil man brings forth evil things from his evil storehouse, which is in his heart, and says evil things. For out of the abundance of the heart he brings forth evil things.”

 

The fact is Simon had a similar doctrine that condemned false religion and predicted a final dissolution of the cosmos, presumably dissolved in fire, so that Simon’s elect can be redeemed, viz. the Great Announcement; Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies, 6:14; Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 1.23.3.

 

These words from Simon and John resonate with a key saying of Jesus in Matthew 7:17-20,

 

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

 

This was a key saying used by the Gnostics and Marcionites. Could it be that this metaphor originated from John the Baptist, from whom Simon also learned this same metaphor?

 

Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, that you have Abraham for your father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” (Cf. John 8:39, 44; 1:17-18)

 

4D6E857E98

 

In the text On the Origin of the World, it states that the tree of life and the tree of gnosis are situated “to the north of Paradise” and is identified as Epinoia. The Greek name Epinoia carries the meaning of “understanding” or “thought” or “purpose”. She is sent to dwell within Adam, her role being to give him consciousness of his divine origins and the way to return to the Pleroma. The author of On the Origin of the World makes a positive evaluation of the Garden of Eden:

 

And the tree of eternal life is as it appeared by God’s will, to the north of Paradise, so that it might make eternal the souls of the pure, who shall come forth from the modelled forms of poverty at the consummation of the age. Now the color of the tree of life is like the sun. And its branches are beautiful. Its leaves are like those of the cypress. Its fruit is like a bunch of grapes when it is white. Its height goes as far as heaven. And next to it (is) the tree of knowledge (gnosis), having the strength of God. Its glory is like the moon when fully radiant. And its branches are beautiful. Its leaves are like fig leaves. Its fruit is like a good appetizing date. And this tree is to the north of Paradise, so that it might arouse the souls from the torpor of the demons, in order that they might approach the tree of life and eat of its fruit, and so condemn the authorities and their angels.

 

This depiction is in stark contrast with how the the Apocryphon of John depicts Eden as more of a zoo-like prison of the authorities:

 

And the archons took him and placed him in paradise. And they said to him, ‘Eat, that is at leisure,’ for their luxury is bitter and their beauty is depraved. And their luxury is deception and their trees are godlessness and their fruit is deadly poison and their promise is death. And the tree of their life they had placed in the midst of paradise.

 

The Apocalypse of Moses is primarily an account about Adam’s death, its cause and cure. Seth is procured along with Adam’s many other children which leads Adam to recount briefly the story of the temptation, the fall, and the the first parents’ punishment in chapters 7-8. Adam’s narrative explains the reason for his present plight. Adam then subsequently sends his wife Eve and son Seth to paradise in search of the oil of mercy that will bring him relief. (9:3) On the way to the garden, Seth is attacked by a beast (in chapters 10-12) which seems to be evidence that God’s curse in Genesis 3:15 is in effect. Adam’s request to be saved is subsequently denied.

 

(The oil of Mercy) will not be yours now, but at the ends of the times. Then will arise all flesh from Adam to the great day …. , and then all the joy of paradise will be given to them. … (13:2-4)

 

Adam knows he is going to die and later on in Chapters 22-29, God appears in paradise on his chariot while accompanied by his angels. His throne is fixed, and he indicts and sentences his creatures from the consequences of the fall being spelled out in detail in chapters 24-26. Adam seeks the oil of mercy but God commands the angels to get on with the expulsion (27:4-28:1). Again Adam pleads, this time for access to the Tree of Life (28:2). God’s response to Adam’s plea is met with a reproof:

 

You shall not take from it now … if you keep yourself from all evil, as one about to die, when again the resurrection comes to pass, I shall raise you up. And then there shall be given to you from the tree of life. (28:3-4)

 

Another time, Adam pleads with God for herbs from Eden to offer incense and seeds to grow food. God is kind enough to grant this request before Adam and Eve are kicked out from the garden in Chapter 29. The text concludes on a solemn yet promising note which expands on Genesis 3:19:

 

I told you that you are dust, and to dust you will return. Again I promise you the resurrection. I shall raise you up to the last day, in the resurrection, with every man who is of your seed. (41:2-3)

 

In the concluding portion of the book, it describes Eve’s death and her burial by Seth, who is commanded to bury in this fashion everyone who dies until the day of the resurrection. These ideas are also reflected in the apocryphal the Book of the Cave of Treasures, where the dying Adam assembles his sons, including Seth for a request to embalm him with myrrh, cassia and balsam and to leave his body in the Cave of Treasures, situated at a side of a high mountain but below paradise.

 

Seth himself was also considered to be the archetypal father and savior of the Gnostics, resulting from the Jewish exegesis and combination of various biblical themes: (1) that of “the sons of God” in Gen 6:4 (LXX), (2) that of Seth as “another seed” appointed by God in place of the slain Abel in Gen 4:25, who (3) was fathered by Adam as a son in his own likeness and image according to Gen 5:3.

 

These themes, in combination with Gen 1:26, concerning the god “Man” created in the image and likeness of God, implied the divine nature of Seth, the “planter” of the heavenly seed (Gen 4:25). Seth would recover from “the great aeons” the glory that had left Adam and Eve at their Fall, caused by the Ialdabaoth. Seth would preserve his seed against the repeated attempts of Ialdabaoth to steal it by keeping it separate from the lustful seed of Cain which came from the Archons. At the end of time, Seth (or Sophia in On the Origin of the World) would destroy Ialdabaoth and his followers in a Revelations-styled apocalypse and reinstate his seed, the part of mankind untainted by lust, into its original glory. The strongest instant that we see Seth as a Gnostic Savior is in the Apocalypse of Adam, where Adam tells his son Seth:

 

And the glory in our hearts left us, me and your mother Eve, along with the first knowledge that breathed within us.

 

Later, Adam called his son “by the name of that man who is the seed of the great generation as a planter of the righteous seed”, recalling 1 Corinthians 15: 35-49 by Paul the Apostle, who compared the resurrection to a seed. Paul states that when a plant sprouts forth from the seed, and the remnants of the seed whither away. The plant came from the seed, but the plant isn’t the seed, and the seed isn’t the plant. They’re two distinct things, and the plant doesn’t come to life until the seed dies. So what Paul is saying is that spirit is deposited as a seed in the body, and it remains a seed until the body dies and decomposes. Then the spirit sprouts forth from the body, and the body is transmuted into a spiritual body, which also recalls the Parable of the Sower in Matthew, Mark and Thomas. It isn’t reanimation of a corpse at all as Catholic Church Fathers such as Irenaeus and especially Tertullian, have maintained (Against Heresies, 5.12.1, De Resurrectione Carnis). Paul’s theology concerning the spiritual resurrection isn’t so far removed from the ideas expressed in the Great Announcement:

 

…the manifested side corresponds to the trunk, limbs, leaves, and encasing bark. All these members of the tree are set ablaze from the all-consuming flame of the fire and destroyed. But as for the fruit of the tree, if it’s for is perfect and it assumes the true shape, it is gathered into the storehouse, not thrown into the fire.

 

Here, the vegetation and tree motifs are evident. Returning to the Gnostics—is it from Seth’s descendants who would possess the Gnosis. The Apocryphon of John suggests that Sophia prepared a place for the souls in heaven, where Jesus, the incarnation of the aeon Christ would disclose the true knowledge of how to return to their true home in with the Spirit (in Pleroma), where they would ascend past the rulers (archons) and their astral spheres and be healed of all deficiency and become holy and faultless. To gain these higher realms, one must ascend above the Seven Heavens of Chaos into the Aeons as stated in the Gospel of the Egyptians:

 

Then there came forth from the great aeons four hundred ethereal angels, accompanied by the great Aerosiel and the great Selmechel, to guard the great, incorruptible race, its fruit, and the great men of the great Seth, from the time and the moment of Truth and Justice, until the consummation of the aeon and its archons, those whom the great judges have condemned to death.

 

The Apocryphon of John spells it out in a more concise manner:

 

And he placed seven kings – each corresponding to the firmaments of heaven – over the seven heavens, and five over the depth of the abyss, that they may reign. And he shared his fire with them, but he did not send forth from the power of the light which he had taken from his mother, for he is ignorant darkness.

 

Origen, despite being one of the Church Fathers (and theological enemies of the Gnostics), he actually had a doctrine very much influenced by Platonism (but stood firmly against groups like the Valentinians and Marcionites). Origen also did not accept the historicity of the Bible nor did he interpret it literally. One example of this can be taken from De Prinicipiis, 4.1.16, where he discusses the Genesis creation myth more as an allegory:

 

No one, I think, can doubt that the statement that God walked in the afternoon in paradise, and that Adam lay hid under a tree is related figuratively in Scripture, that some mystical meaning may be indicated by it.” And “those who are not altogether blind can collect countless instances of a similar kind recorded as having occurred, but which did not literally take place? Nay, the Gospels themselves are filled with the same kind of narratives; for example, the devil leading Jesus up into a high mountain, in order to show him from thence the kingdoms of the whole world, and the glory of them.

 

Likewise, the Valentinians viewed scripture as allegorical on three different levels that corresponded to the three natures. The earlier Gnostics viewed the Old Testament as a symbolic record of the struggle between Yaldabaoth-Jehovah and Sophia as testified in Irenaeus’ account in Against Heresies, VII, 3:

 

They maintain, moreover, that those souls which possess the seed of Achamoth are superior to the rest, and are more dearly loved by the Demiurge than others, while he knows not the true cause thereof, but imagines that they are what they are through his favour towards them. Wherefore, also, they say he distributed them to prophets, priests, and kings; and they declare that many things were spoken (7) by this seed through the prophets, inasmuch as it was endowed with a transcendently lofty nature. Themother also, they say, spake much about things above, and that both through him and through the souls which were formed by him. Then, again, they divide the prophecies [into different classes], maintaining that one portion was uttered by the mother, a second by her seed, and a third by the Demiurge. In like manner, they hold that Jesus uttered some things under the influence of the Saviour, others under that of the mother, and others still under that of the Demiurge, as we shall show further on in our work.

 

As we can see, the Tree was an important universal symbol for not only the Gnostics, Simonians, Valentinians, etc, but to groups like the Jewish-Kabbalists, alchemists and many occult groups throughout the ages. The Tree is highly associative with the idea of the descent and crucifixion (and eventual ascent and resurrection) of spirit into and from matter as seen in Sophia-Achamoth’s fall from the celestial world and into the prima materia which parallels the Genesis account of the fall of Eve, the “mother of the living”. In Plato’s Timaeus, do we find the account of the Fall of Atlantis, (as strange as it might sound) which could be read as symbolic of the Divine tragedy and catastrophe so predominant in Gnostic cosmology and theology.

 

In Part 4, we will investigate a possible Gnostic exegesis of the Atlantis myth and other Greek tales, the Gnostic science of human physiology and the mind relating to Genesis, where and how exactly Orthodox theology developed from and ultimately became victorious as a common religious Christian doctrine, along with some concluding final thoughts on this series.

 

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Throughout our lives, certain archetypes shape our sense of self, the world, the road we’re on, and the goals we seek. Our idea of good and evil, male and female, leaders, parents, mentors, friends, and more are framed in the stories of the Bible. The picture’s not always pleasant, but it never fails to be instructive and is sometimes downright revelatory. Mirror, mirror on the wall: what’s the purpose of us all?

Topics of the Day:

Sunday, Day 1: “Introduction” and “Your Life as Revelatory Source. How did you get to be who you are? Your life is a sacred text read by all.

Monday, Day 2: “The Character of God” and “The Male/Female Thing” You and I meet God in sacramental and sacred encounters. But in Scripture, we meet the God who is one character among many in the remarkable story of faith. And our second topic — Gender is complicated. Adam and Eve were just the beginning of the conflict. Gender issues remain with us in secular and sacred realms.

Tuesday, Day 3: “Follow the Leader” and “The Parent Trap”

Leadership styles come and go. From biblical patriarchs and kings to modern-day presidents and celebrities, we follow the leaders we invent and choose. And our 2nd topic – The Ten Commandments bid us to honor our father and our mother. Jesus says we should hate our parents. Please explain!

Wednesday, Day 4:“The Guiding Light” & “You’ve Got a Friend” Elisha had Elijah. Timothy and Titus had Paul. Thank God for mentors: those significant folks along the way who show us how life works. Our second topic — It’s not good for us to be alone, as Genesis attests. Famous friendships help us explore the role of holy companioning.

Thursday, Day 5: “Who’s Your Devil?” and “What a Wonderful World” Everyone fears the Dark Side. Who’s the enemy, and where does it reside? And our second topic — The universe is beautiful. Earth is our home. The Bible and science agree it will come to an end one day. What’s our relationship to a fragile planet?

Friday, Day 6: “And the Purpose of It All Is” We’re born, we live, and we die. For most of us, that’s a pretty full plate of responsibilities. What should we do with this “one wild and precious life?”What qualities are we looking for in the aspirants at Saint-Sulpice? Parish Experience - Before an aspirant joins the Society, Sulpicians want to ensure that an aspirant has completed at least two years of parish work, which will have allowed him/her to develop a strong sense of belonging to the diocese and an attachment to the parish ministry. Indeed, they need priests who live and love their priesthood and who wish to assist the bishops in the service of seminarians and diocesan priests. Ability to work in a team - Sulpicians are looking for candidates who are able to work in a community environment and are able to work collegially on a mission in consultation with fellow priests as well as with lay people or religious. To know how to share one's faith through a life of prayer that nourishes a true enthusiasm for Christ and his Gospel, for the Church and the priesthood. The Apostolic Spirit who animated their founder, Jean-Jacques Olier, is the source of this sharing. Special gifts that open the way to a quality intellectual and professional preparation in several fields: spiritual accompaniment, teaching of philosophy or theology, pastoral animation. This presupposes the openness to learning of a constantly renewed Sulpician pedagogy. How can a priest become a Sulpician? Prerequisites - To be a diocesan priest incardinated in a diocese, to have completed at least two years of parish ministry in the diocese of origin and to be available for service in the Canadian Priests of St. Sulpice Province. Initial recognition - If a priest meets these prerequisites, he or she can contact the Sulpician Vocations Officer for his or her region (see list below). He will inform him about the regular meetings organized for the aspirants to the Society and he will be in charge of this first experience with Saint-Sulpice until the Provincial Council accepts him as a candidate. His participation in these meetings will give him sufficient information about the Company and the demands of Sulpician life. This priest will also be accompanied spiritually in discerning his possible Sulpician vocation. Candidature - After this time of discernment, with the support of the Sulpician Vocations Officer in his region, he asked his bishop for written authorization to make an experience in Saint-Sulpice. The aspirant then applies by contacting the provincial superior or the provincial delegate in writing. First experience in Saint-Sulpice - If formally accepted and admitted as a candidate, the Provincial Council becomes directly responsible for his experience with the Priests of Saint-Sulpice. He then took over his duties and gave him a first appointment to a team in the Canadian Province from the moment his bishop relieved him of his duties. Usually, this first experience in the Company lasts at least two years.The expression "art Saint-Sulpice" is misleading, because it encompasses very different periods and artists in the same name and in the same discredit, because it confuses art of reproduction and wide circulation with the search for an authentic sacred art which has been continuous for nearly two centuries.

 

In the proper sense, Sulpician art refers to the objects that are sold in the specialized shops that surround the church of the same name in Paris: industrial and economic art, of poor quality, where the mimicry and the fading of style reassure and somehow carry the seal of an official art, orthodox and without excess. Thus understood, Sulpician art is of all times and every effort to renew religious art naturally secretes its counterfeiting. The virgins and saints, with their white eyes and pale air, coming from Ary Scheffer and his raphaelism, the statues of the Virgin of Lourdes, poor translation of the mediocre model of the pious sculptor Cabuchet, the overly sensitive effigies of Thérèse de Lisieux or Saint Anthony of Padua, even the neo-byzantine works, pale reflection. In fact, the interest of Sulpician art is not only sociological; it is also, as in countertype, the revealing of the interest that religious art has never ceased to arouse, against all appearances. Holy Mirror! The creatures on the reverse will be merged in the reflected image but probably not in a laplacian way - just as concentric circles. If anyone has a magic mirrorWe first address the problem of simultaneous image segmentation and smoothing by approaching the paradigm from a curve evolution perspective. In particular, we let a set of deformable contours define the boundaries between regions in an image where we model the data via piecewise smooth functions

 

www.vallombrosa.org/the-holy-mirror-discovering-ourselves...

 

Origin of the Holy Mirrors!

Mirrors have been regarded as sacred at least since the Han Dynasty in China. Many of these mirrors and from the subsequent Wei dynasty have been found in Japan. They bore images of gods and sacred animals particularly the Chinese dragon (1,2) . They were very popular, and possibly later manufactured, in Japan. The bronze mirrors are found in great number in ancient (kofun period) burial mounds in Japan. In the biggest archeological find of 33 mirrors, the mirrors were placed surrounding the coffin such that their reflective surface faced the deceased. The Han mirrors were "magic" in that while they reflected they were also able to project an image usually of the deities and animals on the back and refered to as "light passing mirrors" (透明鑑） (Needham, 1965, p.xlic; Needham & Wang, 1977, pp. 96-97).This magic property is due to the their method of construction. When polishing the reflective face of the mirror, the patter on the back influences the pressure brought to bear on the reflective surface and change the extent to which it is concave. Muraoka also claims that Differences in the (slight) "inequality of curvature" (Ayrton & Perry, 1878, p 139; see also Thompson, 1897, and Needham & Wang, 1977, p96 for a diagram) of the mirror result in the mirror reflecting light bearing the pattern shown on the reverse. More recent research has elucidated the precise mathematical model describing the optics of these mirrors as a laplacian image (Berry, 2006), a type of spatial filter today used for edge detection and to blend two images together. It is not known whether the mirrors popular in ancient Japan were also able to project, but later during the Nara period mirrors were found to concel magic Buddhist images, and during the Edo period, concealed Christians (Kurishitan) concealed images of the cross or of the Holy Mary within their bronze "magic" mirrors. Mirrors in Japan contined to be made of brass, until the arrival of Western glass mirrors, and were "magic" in that they displayed the patter on their reverse when reflecting sunlight or other powerful light source (Thompson, 1897). Ayrton (Ayrton & Perry, 1878; Ayrton & Pollock, 1879) claims that in Japan mirror vendors were unaware of the "light passing" quality, and that there is no mention of this 'magical' quality known to Han Chinese in Japanese texts. Even a Japanese mirror maker was unaware of how to make magic mirrors though had inadvertently made one himself by extensive polishing a mirror with a design on its back (Ayrton & Perry, 1878, p135). Unlike the ancient Korean mirror top right (3), the ancient Han and Japanese mirrors were made to be rotated, displaying images in the four directions of the compas. The reason for the holes in the central "breast" (or nipple) is unclear but it is found to be pierced with a hole (of varying shape depending upon the manufacturer) from which the mirror was suspended by a rope. Bearing in mind that the images on the mirrors required that the mirrors be rotated, the central nodule might also have enabled the mirrors to be spun like a top. I am not sure why someone would want to spin a mirror but my son does (see the toy explained later). I would very much like to see what the reflected "magic" image becomes when spun. The creatures on the reverse will be merged in the reflected image but probably not in a laplacian way - just as concentric circles. If anyone has a magic mirror I would like them to try spinning it to see. Skipping the holy mirrors in shrines, mirror rice cakes, and the mirror held by the Japanese version of Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates, King Enma, which holds a record of ones life, and, jumping to the present day... Mirrors are popular in the transformational items used by Japanese superheros. The early 1970's Mirror Man transformed using a Shinto amulet infront of any mirror or reflecting surface. Shinkenja, a group of Super Sentai or Power Rangers, that transforms thanks to their ability to write and then spin Chinese characters in the air, also transforms with the aid of an Inro Maru (4) upon which is affixed a inscribed disk. When the disk is attactched to the mirror the super hero inside the mirror is displayed. Transformation (henshin) by means of a mirror is popular too among Japanese femail super heros notably Himitsu no Akko Chan (Secret Akko), who could change into many things that were displayed in her mirror, sailor moon, and OshareMajo (6). The female super heroes mirrors usually make noises rather than contain inscriptions. The latest greatest Kamen Rider OOO sometimes transforms by means of his Taja-Spina which spins three of his totem-badge "coins" inside a mirror (video). In this ancient tradition we see recurrence of the following themes 1) Mirrors being of great benefit to the bearer enabling him to transform. 2) Mirrors containing hidden deities 3) Mirrors being associated with symbols: iconic marks, and incantations. 4) Mirrors being made to be rotated or spun. Thanks to James Ewing for the Mirror Man (Mira-man) reference and to Tomomi Noguchi for the Ojamajo Doremi reference, and to Taku Shimonuri and my son Ray for getting me interested in Japanese superheros. Addendum One of My students (A Ms. Tanaka, and a book about the cute in Japan) pointed out that the Japanese are into round things, and it seems to me that this Japanese preference for the round may originate in the mirror. Anpanman and Doraemon and many "characters" have round faces The Japanese Flag features a circle representing the sun and the mirror Japanese coats of arms (kamon) Japanese holy mirrors are round "Mirror rice cakes", and many other kinds of rice cake, are round The Sumo ring is round Pictures of the floating world (Ukiyoe) often portray the sitter in a round background Japanese groups always have to end up by standing in a round The Japanese are fond of domes and have many of the biggest The Japanese are fond of seals (inkan), which are round Japanese groups just can't help standing in a round The taiko drum is round The mitsudomoe is round Mount Fuji is round But then there are probably round things in every culture?

Cast and polished bronze mirrors, made in China and Japan for several thousand years, exhibit a curious property [1–4], long regarded as magical. A pattern embossed on the back

is visible in the patch of light projected onto a screen from the reflecting face when this is illuminated by a small source, even though no trace of the pattern can be discerned

by direct visual inspection of the reflecting face. The pattern on the screen is not the result of the focusing responsible for conventional image formation, because its sharpness is independent of distance, and also because the magic mirrors are slightly convex. It was established long ago that the effect results from the deviation of rays by weak undulations on the reflecting surface, introduced during the manufacturing process and too weak to see directly, that reproduce the much stronger relief embossed on the back. Such ‘Makyoh imaging’ (from the Japanese for ‘wonder mirror’) has been applied to detect small asperities on nominally flat semiconductor surfaces [5–8]. My aim here is to draw attention (section 2) to a simple and beautiful fact, central to

the optics of magic mirrors, that has not been emphasized—either in the qualitative accounts or in an extensive geometrical-optics analysis : in the optical regime relevant to

magic mirrors, the image intensity is given, in terms of the height function h(r) of the relief.on the reflecting surface, by the Laplacian ∇2 h(r) (here r denotes position in the mirror plane: r = {x, y}). The Laplacian image predicts striking effects for patterns, such as those on magic mirrors, that consist of steps ; these predictions are supported by experiment

The detailed study of reflection from steps throws up an unresolved problem concerning the relation between the pattern embossed on the back and the relief on the reflecting surface. The Laplacian image is an approximation to geometrical optics, which is itself an approximation to physical optics. The appendix contains a discussion of the Laplacian image starting from the wave integral representing Fresnel diffraction from the mirror surface. Geometrical optics and the Laplacian image If we measure the height h(r) from the convex surface of the mirror (figure 3), assumed to

have radius of curvature R0, then the deviation of the surface undulations from a reference plane (figure 3) is η(r) = − r22R0+ h(r. The specularly reflected rays of geometrical optics are determined by the stationary value(s) of

the optical path length L from the source (distance H from the reference plane) to the position

R on the screen (distance D from the reference plane) via the point r on the mirror. This is L = (H − η(r))2 + r2 +(D − η(r

))2 + (R − r)2≈ H + D + (r, R), (2)where in the second line we have employed the paraxial approximation (all ray angles small), with (r, R) = r2 2H+(R − r)2 2D+ r2 R0− 2h(r). In applying the stationarity condition ∇r(r, R) = 0, it is convenient to define the magnification M, the reduced distance Z, and the ;demagnified observation position r referred to the mirror surface: M ≡ 1 +D H+2D R0, Z ≡ 2D M , r ≡ R M . We note an effect of the convexity that will be important later: as the source and screen distance increase, Z approaches the finite asymptotic value R0. With these variables, the position r

(r,Z), on the mirror, of rays reaching the screen position r, is the solution of r = r − Z∇h(r). The focusing and defocusing responsible for the varying light intensity at r involves the

Jacobian determinant of the transformation from r to r, giving,after a short calculation,Igeom(r,Z) = constant × ∂x ∂x

∂y ∂y − ∂x ∂y ∂y ∂x−1 r→r (r,Z)= 1 − Z∇2 h(r) + Z2

∂h(r) ∂x2 ∂h(r) ∂y2 − ∂h(r) ∂x ∂y2−1r→r(r,Z), ().where the result has been normalized to Igeom = 1 for the convex mirror without surface relief (i.e. h(r) = 0). So far, this is standard geometrical optics. In general, more than one ray can reach r—that is, can have several solutions r—and the boundaries of regions reached by different numbers of rays are caustics. In magic mirrors, however, we are concerned with a

limiting regime satisfying Z Rmin 1, where Rmin is the smallest radius of curvature of the surface irregularities. Then there is only one ray, simplifies to r ≈ r, (9) and the intensity simplifies to ILaplacian(r,Z) = 1 + Z∇2 h(r). This is the Laplacian image. Changing Z affects only the contrast of the image and not its form, so explains why the sharpness of the image is independent of screen position, provided holds. The intensity is a linear function of the surface irregularities h, which

is not the case in general geometrical optics (i.e. when is violated), where, as has been emphasized the relation is nonlinear. And, as already noted, for a distant source and

screen Z approaches the value R0, implying that (8) holds for any distance of the screen if R0 Rmin, that is, provided the irregularities are sufficiently gentle or the mirror is sufficiently

convex. Alternatively stated, the convexity of the mirror can compensate any concavity of the irregularity h, in which case there are no caustics for any screen position.The theory based on the Laplacian image accords well with observation, at least for the mirror studied here. The key insight is that the image of a step is neither a dark line nor a bright line,

as sometimes reported , but is bright on one side and dark on the other. It is possible that there are different types of magic mirror, where for example the relief is etched directly onto

the reflecting surface and protected by a transparent film , but these do not seem to be common. Sometimes, the pattern reflected onto a screen is different from that on the back, but

this is probably a trick, achieved by attaching a second layer of bronze, differently embossed, to the back of the mirror.

Pre-focal ray concentrations leading to Laplacian images are familiar in other contexts, though they are not always recognized as such. An example based on refraction occurs in old windows, where a combination of age and poor manufacture has distorted the glass. The distortion is not evident in views seen through the window when standing close to it. However,when woken by the low morning sun shining through a gap in the curtains onto an opposite

wall, one often sees the distortions magnified as a pattern of irregular bright and dark lines. If the equivalent of is satisfied, that is if the distortions and propagation distance are not too

large, the intensity is the Laplacian image of the window surface. (When the condition is not satisfied, the distortions can generate caustics.) Only the optics of the mirror has been studied here. The manner in which the pattern embossed on the back gets reproduced on the front has not been considered. Referring to ,this involves the sign of the coefficient a in the relation between hback and h. There have been several speculations about the formation of the relief. One is that the relief is generated while the mirror is cooling, by unequal contraction of the thick and thin parts of the pattern ; it is not clear what sign of a this leads to. Another is that cooling generates stresses, and that during vigorous grinding and polishing the thin parts yield more than the thick parts, leading to the thick parts being worn down more; this leads to a 0: bright (dark) lines on the image, indicating low (high) sides of the steps on the reflecting face, are associated with the low (high) sides of the

steps on the back , not the reverse (figure 7(b)). This suggests two avenues for further research. First, the sign of a should be determined by direct measurement of the profile of the reflecting surface; I predict a > 0. Second, whatever the result, the mechanism should be investigated by which the process of manufacture reproduces onto the reflecting surface the

pattern on the back. The fact that h0 = 378 nm is smaller than the wavelengths in visible light does not imply that the Laplacian image is the small-κ limit of (A.3), namely the perturbation limit corresponding to infinitely weak relief. Indeed it is not: the perturbation limit, obtained by

expanding the exponential in (A.3) and evaluating the integral over τ , with a renormalized denominator to incorporate the known limit I = 1 for ξ = ±∞, isψpert(ξ , ζ, κ) = 1 − iκ erf(ξ/√1+iζ /κ)

√ 1 + κ2 . For the gentlest steps, this predicts low-contrast oscillatory images, very different from the Laplacian images of geometrical optics; this is illustrated in figure 8(b), calculated for k =0.05, corresponding to h0 = 5.2 nm.

  

European journal of physics, 27, 109. Retrieved from www.phy.bris.ac.uk/people/Berry_mv/the_papers/berry383.pdf Spatial Filters - Laplacian/Laplacian of Gaussian. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2012, from homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/log.htm Thompson, S. P. (1897). Light Visible and Invisible: A Series of Lectures at Royal Institution of Great Britain. Macmillan. Retrieved from www.archive.org/stream/lightvisibleinvi00thomuoft#page/50...

 

In the industrial and materialist period that began in the 19th century, Catholicism, even though it had to give in to its official positions, underwent glorious revival. In the years 1830-1880, an attempt was made to revive an authentic religious art, in the image of restored faith, through examples of medieval art. The Gothic cathedral, in its 13th century purity, Fra Angelico, the painter who paints on his knees, will be the models unceasingly questioned and translated through the teaching of Ingres.

 

"Lord Jesus, you came to save us from sin and the power of death. May I always rejoice in your salvation and trust in your plan for my life".

 

Alternate View On Black For Bigger and Larger Dates ;-)

 

Follow You Live by Leeland

 

Scripture: Matthew 1:18-24

 

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel" (which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife

 

You lived among the least of these

The weary and the weak

And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away.

 

All my needs you have supplied.

When i was dead you gave me life.

How could i not give it away so freely?

 

And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken.

Follow you into the world.

Meet the needs for the poor and the needy god.

Follow you into the world.

 

Use my hands use my feet

To make your kingdom come

Through the corners of the earth

Until your work is done

`cause faith without works is dead

And on the cross your blood was shed

So how could i not give it away so freely?

 

And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken.

Follow you into the world.

Meet the needs for the poor and the needy god.

Follow you into the world.

(x2)

 

I give all myself.

I give all myself

I give all myself.to you.

 

And i give all myself.

Yes i give all myself.

And i give all myself.to you.

 

And i`ll follow you into the homes that are broken

Follow you into the world.

Meet the needs for the poor and the needy god.

Follow you into the world.

(x2)

 

Copyright© 2009 Kamoteus/RonMiguel RN

This image is protected under the United States and International Copyright laws and may not be downloaded, reproduced, copied, transmitted or manipulated without written permission.

To go along with the issue, here is the track for issue 11. If you care to, listen to it before, during or after the issue, I feel it elevates the experience :)

  

Track Link: End of Everything

  

-^-

  

"They…. Are…. Here…." Hand mumbles, staring at his ring, twitching to the beat of his heart. "It doesn't matter though. They're too late. Nekron has all but risen… and all light will soon die."

  

Spectre watches the acolyte as he talks to himself, kneeling before the black battery of death. The protective seal on the metal begins to fade into darkness, black light pouring from the cracks. His gaze then moves to Starr, rocking back and forth cradling his hourglass. Spectre attempts to move, but his body has become too weak. He is losing his grasp on the world.

  

"You are running out of time, Commander," Corrigan says, his voice lower than whisper. "You can still stop this madness, you don't have to be a bystander."

  

Starr's head turns slowly. A sense of dread washes over Spectre's ghostly form as he feels the manic grin that spreads across Starr's helmeted face.

  

"Bargaining? Really, spirit?" the man asks, a hysterical chuckle spilling from his throat. "You… you're fading away, aren't you?"

  

"You have a choice, John," Spectre mumbles as he loses control of his arms.

  

"I wonder if this is how your victims felt…" Starr ponders, ignoring Spectre's words as he lifts himself to a stand. "Knowing their life was being ripped away… slowly losing their grip on reality itself… I almost pity you, spirit."

  

"Even gods can not escape the Spectre's judgement…" Corrigan mumbles out once more before his body loses its form entirely, falling onto the asteroid's surface as a green mist. "Be warned, Commander…"

  

"No one is afraid of the boogie man," Starr says, looking down at the green mist, "not anymore."

  

Starr walks through the green mist, dispersing the particles in every direction. Spectre silently groans as his body tears apart. He watches the man leave, his hold on the mortal plane fleeting by the second.

  

"Names Jim. Me and my wife just moved into the building a few days ago. I saw you climbing the fire escape and wanted to make sure you weren't… well, you know."

  

"Oh, nothing like that. I just… I enjoy the view up here."

  

"It is a nice view, isn't it? So, friend, got a name?"

  

"John. John Starr."

  

"Goodbye, Jim," Starr says, looking over his shoulder, his helmet covering his frown.

  

As his spirit fades, Corrigan catches a small glimpse of light in the array of the stars. Just as he vanishes, as the green smoke is forever lost to space… he sees it. He sees that shining light.

  

"The universe relies on you… my successor."

  

-^-

  

Hal's feet are planted firmly against the rocky terrain of the asteroid. His violet ring glows brightly as the bubble construct holding Kyle lands beside him. An object crashes into the ground next to him, causing Hal to raise his ring. Stepping out of the small crater is John, orange energy seeping off him, as if it were overflowing.

  

"John…" Hal calls, earning no response from the man.

  

"He'll be fine," another voice, Alan, says, landing beside John. "The ring… it didn't come easy."

  

"Power always comes at a cost," Thaal adds, not touching the asteroid's surface. "Only those willing to pay that cost deserve it."

  

Hal nods at his former partner, who gives a small nod of approval in return. His gaze then shifts to Simon, closely followed by Jessica.

  

"Of course Guy is the last to arrive," Simon mumbles as the red haired lantern joins the group, Aya hovering just behind him. "Took you long enough."

  

"Took you long enough," Guy mocks with a roll of his eyes.

  

"Hal Jordan," Aya begins, placing a hand onto his bubble holding Kyle, "allow me to shield Kyle Rayner until the time comes."

  

Hal nods, not missing Thaal's eyes stare at the android as she forms a green field around Kyle. Hal then turns, eyeing each of the paragons. Will, Fear, Rage, Hope, Compassion, Avarice, and himself, Love. They accomplished their goal, every entity was on their side. Now, all they need to do is…

  

"Hey, so what's our plan?" Guy asks, tapping his foot against the ground. "I see the giant black ball of darkness, but what do we do? I thought we needed the kid."

  

"Before the boy can summon The One," Thaal says, pointing out to two figures drawing near, "Death's Hand must be severed."

  

The first figure takes slow, but unorthodox steps, his black cloak folding over his shoulders. His armor is silver, matching the helmet atop his head. The patterns along his suit are similar to that of a New Genesian, as is the shaping of the hourglass in his hand.

  

The second is Death's Hand himself, Black Hand. He wears a deep navy uniform, silver and black highlighting the suit. A long black cape flows down his back, dragging along the asteroid as he walks. His right arm, the hand that bears the black ring, is in a constant state of fluctuation. His veins bubble and pop, blisters inflating and deflating along his forearm as black blood flows through his body… like the monster of a horror movie.

  

"Great, more zombies," Simon sighs, a burst of blue energy seeping from his ring.

  

"Alright, the lantern is Death's Hand," Alan says before pointing to the man with the hourglass, "but who's father time?"

  

"That would be the Time Commander" Thaal answers, his face paling slightly as he forms an axe construct. "We'll need to split their forces apart, even with all the entities we won't stand a chance against both of them at once."

  

"Jess and I will take the time keeper then," Simon suggests, earning a nod from Jessica.

  

"Alan goes with you," John finally says, his eyes locked onto Black Hand, unmoving. "Your ring'll boost his, it's best you two stay together."

  

"Heard," Alan agrees with a nod. "So all you guys need to do is sever his hand?"

  

Hal watches as John's eyes shift to him, only for just a moment. Hal nods to Alan. "This is our one and only shot… let's make it count."

  

-^-

  

Hand stops his march, watching as Ion swings his arm upwards. A trail of green light follows his motion, splitting the asteroid they stand on in two. His head turns to see Starr on the other half, the rocks drifting apart from the attack. As he tries to bridge the two, an enormous yellow barrier rises between them.

  

"Parallax…" he snarls, staring at the entity's host hovering above the asteroid.

  

Hand leaps forward toward the host, his arm reeling back and forming a spiked gauntlet around his fist. Before he can make contact, an orange snake pierces his abdomen. The construct exits through his back and latches its teeth into his shoulder, black blood gushing from the wound. Hand reaches for its head with the gauntlet, but its tail wraps around his wrist. His head turns to see Ophidian's host scowling, an orange aura surrounding him.

  

In an instant his body hurls through the void of space, crashing hard into a neighboring asteroid. He's only given seconds to move before The Butcher's fist slams down where his head had formerly been. He dodges a second strike aimed for his head, but is caught off guard by the violet blade that pierces his spine, leaving him open. The Butcher's host sends a rocket powered right hook directly at his jaw, shattering it and the violet blade. Falling to the ground once more, Hand finds himself at the feet of The Predator, who holds an axe construct.

  

"The Blackest Night ends here," he says, swinging the weapon down.

  

Hand's eyes grow wide as his ring begins to glow bright. The construct held by The Predator's host shatters and the man is sent flying across the asteroid. Light around Hand fades, his smile widening.

  

"Nekron's Curse," he cackles as his body is lifted into the air, jaw snapping back into place. "The Black Hand!"

  

-^-

  

"I didn't think he'd have one of those," Hal mumbles, rubbing his shoulder. His eyes are fixated on hand, now smiling gleefully. "We need to be careful, attack t-"

  

"He's mine," John whispers, orange energy amping up around him as he shoots off towards Hand.

  

"John, no!"

  

Weaved Purgatory!" Hand shouts out.

  

Suddenly, an abundance of thin, wire-like beams of energy shoot out from Hand's ring. Hand laughs maniacally, sending the webs towards John. The orange lantern raises his ring and forms a shield in front of him.

  

Hal feels a chill run down his spine as he watches the attack strike John's shield, shattering it instantly. The webs skewer John all across his body, blood spraying from his back like a sprinkler. Hand smirks, yanking the webs back towards him, John still attached.

  

"John!" Guy shouts out, slinging a rocket construct at Hand then flying towards him.

  

Hal watches as John is dragged through the air, his body lifeless and unmoving. His eyes fixate on the blood leaking from his torso, as well as his arms and legs. His eyes widen as he sees John's hand, as he sees the bright orange glow that only grows brighter with each inch travelled.

  

"Jordan!" Thaal shouts, charging forward after Guy.

  

Hal raises his fist and sends out two rope constructs, the first grabbing Thaal by the waist while the other catches Guy's foot. Hal pulls back, dragging both lanterns towards him.

  

"What are you doing!?" Guy screams, attempting to break the construct. "He'll die!"

  

Hal ignores Guy's shouting. He closes his eyes and grits his teeth. In front of the trio forms a large, dome-like shield.

  

-^-

  

John felt numb, cold. The web-like strands had shattered his shield as if it were glass and pierced every part of his body. They felt disgusting inside him, the strands constantly fluctuating in shape and they were so damn cold. He should be dead, but he isn't. It's a miracle, really, that the strand that shot towards his head missed, only clipping him. He couldn't see out of his left eye, he assumed it was gone, taken out by the grazing.

  

It doesn't matter though. He's being pulled directly towards Hand. He was going to end this, here and now.

  

The energy that had been around him like an aura shifts, the power redirecting to his ring. He can hear Guy shouting out for him, Thaal shouting to Hal to attack. John smirks through the pain at the sound of Guy and Thaal being pulled back.

  

As John comes in contact with Hand, the villain grabs hold of John's throat, the webs still holding him in place. John grits his teeth, face to face with Hand. The zombie smiles, red eyes staring back at John.

  

"You are a fool for choosing this man, Ophidian," Hand chuckles, pulsing more black energy into the webs.

  

John's eyes bulge as the webs inside him begin to expand, branching through his body. He barely registers the way the black blood begins leaking from the corners of his mouth along with his own red. His body begins to tremble, his eyes staring into Hand's own. A flash of Katma pulses in his mind. An orange dagger forms and slashes through the webs holding John's right arm in place. He lifts his arm through the throbbing pain, placing his ring against Hand's forehead.

  

"You took her from me," he whispers, the light of his ring blinding himself, "all over again…"

  

The star system glows an orange rivaling earth's sun. The power of the blast tears John free from the webs, sending him soaring into space. John doesn't relent, adding more fire power to his strike with each second that passes. A crater begins to form where Hand previously stood, cracks forming along the asteroid's base.

  

"John… I'm already dead, you can't save me. I love you… so, so much."

  

A single tear falls down John's face. The blast from John's quadruples in size, the orange aura from before returning tenth fold. The cracks in the asteroid grow larger with John's blast, running from the top all the way through. His left hand grips his right wrist, holding his arm in place as he screams out.

  

The blast bursts through the asteroid's underside, orange light piercing straight through before exploding the rock entirely.

  

As the blast fades, John's right arm falls limp, his shoulder dislocated. His ring sizzles like butter on a hot pan and his body radiates and orange smoke. John stares at the debris from the asteroid, watching the destruction he wrought.

  

"John!"

  

His head turns slightly, spotting his companions flying towards him. Guy wears a large smirk, Thaal's own smaller, but still noticeable. Hal, however, frowns at him.

  

"I didn't know you were packing that kind of power!" Guy exclaims, slapping John on the back, causing him to wince. "You just… holy shit, your eye!"

  

"I too was not expecting you of all people to fester so much greed," Thaal adds with a nod.

  

John doesn't answer. His eye locks onto a black energy swirling among the debris field. His fist clenches, orange flaring in his eye. He attempts to fly forward, but groans at the way his body resists.

  

"John, relax," Hal orders, causing John to grunt. "Guy, Sinestro…"

  

The other two turn, looking out at what John was staring at. John grimaces as the black energy begins creating a body from a floating arm. Both Guy and Sinestro quickly form constructs that float behind them.

  

"I thought John just vaporized him!" Guy called out.

  

"He said something as I fired," John mumbles as he snaps his dislocated shoulder back into place. "I think it was one of the curses."

  

"Spectrum Split," Hal says, looking over to John. "He split his arm off before you could attack."

  

Hand's body lands on one of the larger debris chunks, dropping to its knees. "YoU… tHinK yoUr SPecIaL?" Hand screeches, his voice like nails on a chalkboard, distorted and mangled from his still forming vocal cords. "ThaT YoU'rE dIffErENt frOm ThE reST? yOu ThInK yOuR pOwEr MeAnS sOmEtHiNg tO mE? yOu ThInK yOuR eMoTiOnS wIlL sAvE yOu? a PoWeR fRoM dYiNg BeInGs? It DoEsN'T mAtTeR! yOu'Re sTiLl FLeSh. YoU sTilL blEEd. YoU sTiLl RoT! I hAve kIlled mILlionS of LifE fOrMs. ThErE is No DiFfERenCe beTweeN SpecIEs… beTweEN ColOr… BEtWeEn sEx… YoU ARe aLl the sAme! You all… still… die!"

  

"Everyone, hit him now!" Hal yells out.

  

John watches as Guy and Thaal charge forward on opposite sides, Hal flying straight down the middle. His teeth grit together once again as he tries to push forward, but his body is frozen. The ring is healing his wounds, but it can only work so fast. The veins on his forehead bulge out as he lifts his arm into the air.

  

"I can't move yet, but I…" he groans, before yelling out, "I won't standby and fill another coffin!"

  

-^-

  

Guy's fist slams hard into a black barrier. He floats backwards, creating a large minigun construct, and begins laying into the barrier. On the opposite side, Thaal's velociraptor claws at the shield. Hand smiles, placing his fist against the barrier. He cackles as he lets out a burst of energy, shattering the barrier as well as the red and yellow constructs. The blast sends Guy and Thaal careening through space in opposite directions.

  

Hal rockets forward, propulsed by a jet construct on his back. As he gets in close to Hand, the black lantern raises his ring. Hal mimics the motion, ready to fire back, but pales as Hand opens his mouth.

  

"Cursed Constellation!" he shouts out, causing bright white stars to form around Hal.

  

Hal feels time slow as the white stars turn black, dark energy pulsing from each. He tries to put up a barrier around himself, but Hand charges forward, grabbing onto his left wrist.

  

Hal cries out as Hand crushes the bone, smirking at him devilishly. "Die!" he cackles, before firing the stars.

  

Hal closes his eyes, attempting to force all his energy to the ring. He thinks of his life. He thinks of the constant mistakes. He thinks of the people he's hurt. Those he's let down. The people. He thinks of Carol, how he hurt her. He thinks of Thaal, how he couldn't save him. He thinks of Tommy, how he disgraced him.

  

He won't live, but he can still stop Hand. He can do one thing right.

  

As he opens his eyes, they go wide. Hand's eyes are the same, like red stop lights. Giant, orange hands wrap around him, cradling him like he was a child and blocking the white star blasts. His eyes trail up the wrists, following them to the orange body. It's her, a construct of Katma. Looking past the construct, he sees John, tears streaming down his face as he screams out.

  

Hal smirks, staring at the orange lantern. His smirk falls as he turns back to hand, eyes lighting up a brighter violet than before. "You made my friend cry," he says, catching Hand's previously occupied attention.

  

Hal blasts Hand point blank. The blast doesn't match John's in power, but Hand is still sent careening through space. Guy, zooming back from the left, catches Hand with a two-handed downwards slam. Hand stops his momentum by blasting energy behind himself. Before he can attack, yellow chains wrap around his waist and legs. Thaal pulls hard, dragging Hand into the nearest debris chunk. The rock shatters further as Thaal continues to pull, slamming Hand into another.

  

"Blackhole!" he shouts out, aiming his ring at the chains. A beast-like construct spawns, devouring the restraints before leaping at Thaal.

  

The construct of Katma moves her hand, grabbing onto the beast and crushing it like an egg. Hand shifts his scowling gaze to John, bursting forwards at insane speed. Katma moves to block the attack, but Hand flies straight through her chest, shattering the construct.

  

"Agh!" John cries out, the explosion sending him backwards.

  

Before Hand can reach John, Guy digs a sickle construct into Hand's ankle. He pulls hard, tearing the construct and Hand's foot from his body. Hand attempts to flee, but Guy grabs hold of his cape, flinging him back towards Thaal. The yellow lantern juts out his hand, a yellow mist spewing from his ring. Yellow light begins radiating from Hand's body.

  

"What is…" Hand starts, but is cut off by his own scream as a demonic face forms and lightning begins to strike within the mist.

  

Hal watches sorrowfully as Thaal smiles, eyes burning of amber.

  

"The others are paragons, lightbearers…" Thaal says as the yellow energy coming from Hand drains into his ring, the mist burning his skin. "I am different however. I don't use the power of fear… I am fear! I am not the host of Parallax, I am its master!"

  

As the lightning strikes quicker, Hand's cries of agony become louder. Hal's eyes grow wide as Hand raises his arm, his ring glowing bright once more.

  

"Sinestro!"

  

"Sky of the Damned!" Hand screams.

  

Thaal gasps as the cloud is absorbed into Hand's ring. Hal pulls him out of Hand's reach, stopping the follow-up attack from slashing through Thaal.

  

"All of that effort…" Hand boasts with his arms stretched out in front of him, his body fully healed, "for nothing!"

  

"That was… my ace," Thaal pants, looking at Hal. "Any bright I-"

  

"Aghhhhh!"

  

Hal's head whips back towards Hand. He's on his knees, hands squeezing his own head with all his might. The bubbling in Hand's right arm became more wild than before, now spreading throughout his whole body. His breathing is rapid and unorthodox, black blood leaking from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. His body contracts, arms and legs snapping as the bubbles travel from his digits up to his throat. He screams out as a mass of darkness exits his mouth, flying into the air and towards the black battery. His body twitches, red eyes turning a milky white.

  

Hal's gaze follows the black mass as it flies towards the battery. Hal reaches out, as if he could grab it, as if he could stop all of this. He can't though, it's inevitable. The mass plunges into the battery, causing it to roar to life. Black light bursts from the center, a long, skeletal hand reaching out from inside.

  

"No…" Hal mumbles.

  

Guy charges forward, slashing a red axe through Hand's fingers. A force akin to a sonic boom sounds out in the void as the severed fingers float away from the hand.

  

Hal lands onto the asteroid, watching the ring intently. He can feel his heart beat faster than normal. His body is cold, even with the life support field around him. His face falls and a tear runs down his cheek as the fingers turn to dust, but the ring stays.

  

Guy snags the black ring from the air, looking back at Kyle, still in Aya's protective bubble. "It's go-time kid," he shouts, giving the boy a thumbs up.

  

Hal couldn't look up from the ground, teeth gritting tight.

  

"N-nothing is happening… I still feel the same!" Kyle shouts back, patting his chest and stomach frantically. "Wh… what's wrong?"

  

Thaal lands next to Hal, eyeing the man.

  

"I thought the prophecy said we needed to get the black ring!" Guy says, looking over to Hal "What gives? Did we fuck up?"

  

"Sinestro…" Hal calls, his voice barely above a whisper. "I need you to hold Nekron in place… for as long as you can…"

  

Thaal's eyes bore into Hal. "Jordan…" he replies, the tone disapproving. "If you're-"

  

"Thaal… please…"

  

Thaal stands silent for a moment, his eyes shutting briefly. Hal stares at the pink man with a frown. He opens his mouth, but stops as the black gloved hand extends out in front of him. Hal stares at the hand, before looking Thaal in the eye. His eyes widen slightly as a single tear rolls down Thaal's cheek.

  

"This is goodbye, Jo-" he starts before cutting himself off, inhaling through his nose, "Hal. Goodbye, Hal."

  

Hal nods slightly, a tear of his own leaving his eye as he reaches forward, taking the man's hand in his own and pulling him into a hug. "Thank you…" he mumbles, smiling softly, "for everything."

  

Thaal is frozen for a moment before reciprocating the gesture. "And I am sorry… for everything," Thaal says, pulling away from Hal. He gives a final nod before flying off toward the battery.

  

"What the hell was that about?" Guy asks, staring at Hal. "What's with the farewell!? What are you sending him to his death for!?"

  

"Guy," Hal booms, his voice commanding and strong, "give me the ring."

  

"Why!?" Guy demands. "What the hell is going on with the prophecy! Why isn't he turning into the White Lantern!? We got the rings and beat Death's Hand!"

  

Hal clenches his fist, gritting his teeth as he sharply inhales. "Guy…"

  

"Tell me!"

  

Crack!!!

  

Hal's fist connects with Guy's face, the blow knocking the redhead out cold. Guy's body collapses onto the asteroid, the ring flying out of his hand mid fall. Hal exhales as he stares at Guy's unconscious form, clenching his fist. He wishes it was as simple as that. He wishes all it took were the entities. His head then turns widening at the sight. He watches the object roll along the rock until it stops… just in front of John. The man, wounds healed, stares down at the ring.

  

"John," Hal starts, "give me the ring… it's time I end this."

  

John doesn't move. He keeps his gaze locked onto the ring laying on the ground in front of him. "The ring… it doesn't just reanimate, does it?" he asks, kneeling down and plucking the metal off the rock. "The one who wears it… when they remove it…"

  

John turns his head, now staring at the body of Hand, its decay beginning slowly.

  

"John…"

  

John looks up, his eyes meeting Hal's. His mouth quirks up into a smile as fake as a happy ending. "I guess it makes sense for me," he chuckles, holding the black ring up to his finger. "The ring of death fits perfectly for someone who lets everyone around them die."

  

A blast of violet energy sends John soaring, the ring floating off into the distance. John is able to steady himself midair, his eyes locking onto Hal's once more.

  

"John… please… please don't do this," Hal pleads, raising his arm up, aiming his ring at John. "I won't let you do this."

  

John follows suit, his ring burning a bright orange. "And I won't let another person die because of me…"

  

The Lanterns float across from each other, both orange and violet light illuminating the galaxy.

  

"Then I guess…" Hal mumbles, his eyes narrowing at the man across from him. "I guess I have one last fight left in me."

INCREDIBLE INDIA

Dicono che passeggiare la sera lungo il molo dei defunti sia pericoloso. Non tanto per via degli spiriti, quanto per la presenza molto più terrena di vagabondi e ladruncoli comuni. Ma il buio della notte qui non è mai davvero buio. L’oscurità è punteggiata di fuochi. Alcune fiammelle se le porta via il Gange: sono luci di buon augurio, accese dentro piccole ceste di fiori di loto, e affidate alla corrente. Ormai trasportano perlopiù desideri e speranze di turisti di passaggio. Le fiamme della tradizione vera bruciano più verso le sponde, alitando in cielo fumi d’incenso, sandalo e carne bruciata: sono le pire che ardono incessantemente lungo i ghat, i moli in riva al Gange dove gli indù cremano i loro morti.

Per questo alcuni indiani conoscono Varanasi solo con il soprannome di Maha Shmashan Puri, che vuol dire "fuoco che non si ferma mai". Questa è la città santa dell’induismo: un luogo propizio per morire perché, secondo antiche credenze, esalando qui l’ultimo respiro ci si sottrae al ciclo delle reincarnazioni, e si accede direttamente al paradiso himalayano di Shiva, che si ritiene sia sul Monte Kailasa.

"Varanasi", scrisse una volta Mark Twain, "è più antica della storia, più antica della tradizione, più antica della leggenda, e appare vecchia il doppio di tutte queste cose messe insieme". Un luogo denso di misticismo, dove tutto sembra possibile. Ad esempio, che una famiglia collocata al gradino più basso della gerarchia sociale indiana, i cosiddetti "intoccabili", acquisisca tanto denaro e prestigio da divenire la famiglia più ricca e influente della città. Il loro nome è Dom, ma loro si fanno chiamare Dom Raja, poiché si considerano "i re del regno dei morti" (in indù "raja" significa "re"). La loro casa è la più bella e imponente del lungofiume.

I Dom custodiscono il cosiddetto "fuoco sacro", una fiamma che arde giorno e notte da tempo immemorabile all’interno di un tempio dedicato a Shiva. Nel complesso cerimoniale della cremazione, il fuoco sacro, con cui la pira funebre viene accesa al termine del rito, è considerato un elemento fondamentale. E per avervi accesso, le famiglie dei defunti fanno offerte anche cospicue.

Matru Dom è uno dei capifamiglia. In città lo conoscono tutti, ma non è facile arrivare a lui. Accetta di parlarmi solo grazie all’aiuto di un intermediario. E’ sera fatta, ormai, quando arrivo all’Harishchandra Ghat, un molo delle cremazioni tra i più antichi in città, e forse il più sacro in assoluto. Tutto intorno un fitto tramestio di fedeli e sacerdoti già impegnati nelle cerimonie funebri. Ci sono petali di rosa e fiori di loto sparsi un po’ ovunque, braci quasi consumate, roghi che bruciano con fiamme alte tre metri, legna accatastata in attesa dell’arrivo di una salma. "Aspetta qui", dice Sadhu, l’intermediario. Mi fa un cenno d’intesa, poi si arrampica leggero sulla scalinata che sale verso la città. Il Gange nero si appropria della visuale. Sembra accogliere con identica accondiscendenza i vivi e i morti che continuamente si riversano, o vengono riversati, nelle sue acque. Un vecchio, seduto su uno scalino in riva al fiume, tossisce e sputa in terra più volte. Poi torna a guardare l’acqua senza espressione. Alcuni anziani, all’approssimarsi della morte, vengono qui ad aspettare il destino. Un tempo anche i malati incurabili venivano abbandonati lungo le rive del fiume, all’interno di capanne fatte di rami. Non ci si attendeva che il Gange facesse il miracolo, come l’acqua di Lourdes, ma che accettasse lo spirito del defunto al momento della sua morte. Se il malato invece sopravviveva, si pensava che fosse stato rifiutato dagli dei, e pertanto veniva respinto dalla società e isolato tra i paria, gli intoccabili.

"Matru Dom, signore". Mi giro. Davanti a me c’è un uomo piccolo, avvolto in una sciarpa bianca che mette ancor più in risalto la sua carnagione scura (caratteristica di molti intoccabili). Ci sediamo sotto un piccolo portico di cemento. Parla un inglese stentato, ma sorprendentemente spolvera qualche parola di italiano. "Ciao amico", abbozza sorridendo, "bella Italia". Ricorda di aver imparato quelle parole da un missionario, qualche anno addietro. Poi torna serio, fa qualche cenno a dei ragazzi impegnati su un rogo ormai agli sgoccioli. Finalmente mi racconta dei Dom: "Non saprei dire da quanto tempo la mia famiglia faccia questo lavoro, nessuno può dirlo. Custodiamo il fuoco sacro da generazioni. Facciamo un lavoro onesto, e non chiediamo in cambio nulla, solo donazioni spontanee". Si mette in bocca una foglia di betel, avvolta in una miscela di spezie dal colore rosso: per gli indiani aiuta a digerire e profuma l’alito, ma non tutti gli amanti del betel sanno che è causa frequente di cancro alla bocca.

"La donazione più importante", prosegue, “venne dalla famiglia di un maraja: 5 milioni di rupie (quasi 90 mila euro, ndr). Ma noi accettiamo qualunque offerta. Anche 50 rupie". Secondo l’induismo, fare offerte di questo tipo consente a ciascuno di migliorare il proprio karma, una sorta di somma delle azioni passate dal quale dipende la reincarnazione dell’anima. Per questo quando c’è da fare offerte per cerimonie importanti come un funerale, le famiglie benestanti non badano a spese. E l’offerta per il fuoco sacro non è che una parte. "Ci vogliono 360 chili di legna e 3 ore di tempo affinché le fiamme consumino un corpo", racconta. "I più ricchi comprano legna di sandalo, che arde meglio ed è profumata, ma costa più di 100 rupie al chilo (circa 2 euro)".

Spesso, però, le famiglie più povere non possono permettersi abbastanza legna, e allora il corpo non brucia a sufficienza, rimangono dei pezzi intatti. I Dom sanno come gestire queste situazioni: rivoltano i corpi tra le fiamme, li colpiscono con un bastone, e riescono così a ridurre il tempo necessario alla cremazione. "Noi siamo esperti", sorride Matru. "Per questo tutti ci rispettano e nessuno si sognerebbe di affidare ad altri il proprio defunto". Si guarda attorno, osserva il lavoro dei Dom, con l’aria del re che scruta i suoi possedimenti. Poi mi confida: "Una volta noi Dom abbiamo bruciato anche la salma di un italiano". Soppesa per un attimo il mio sguardo meravigliato. "Proprio lì, vicino a quel mucchio di braci", aggiunge stringendo gli occhi e indicando con un gesto circolare una pira ormai estinta. Sputa il betel. Dopodiché continua: "Era un vecchio venuto a Varanasi ormai da qualche settimana. Lo vedevamo spesso, qui al ghat. Conoscevo anche il suo nome, ma ora non lo ricordo più. Veniva sempre da solo, un signore curioso con un berretto in testa. Aveva occhi strani, sembrava sereno di spirito, ma forse il suo corpo era malato". Riprende a masticare del betel. "Poi improvvisamente smise di venire, non lo vidi per un po’. Lo trovarono morto nella sua stanza d’albergo. E accanto al cadavere c’era un foglietto, nel quale chiedeva di essere cremato qui. Così la polizia telefonò alla sua famiglia, in Italia, e chiese il permesso per la cremazione. Dopo lo affidarono a noi Dom. Le ceneri, però, non le abbiamo buttate nel Gange. La famiglia le ha volute indietro, così, alla fine della cerimonia, le abbiamo raccolte in un’urna e sono partite per l’Italia con il primo aereo". Dalle sue parole traspare l’orgoglio per il rispetto che i Dom si sono guadagnati anche presso le forze dell’ordine, con il loro centenario lavoro di custodi delle cremazioni.

Un rispetto che sembra oltrepassare ogni barriera sociale. Matru ne è convinto e nega con forza l’esistenza di disparità tra i vari livelli della società indiana. "Non ci sentiamo affatto discriminati per la questione delle caste. Possiamo avere la pelle più scura, essere più o meno poveri, ma alla fine siamo fatti di carne e ossa, siamo tutti come fratello e sorella", dice, cercando con insistenza il contatto con le mie mani. Ma poi ci pensa un po’ su e ammette: "Certo, a volte succede che qualcuno delle caste più alte eviti di toccarci. Ma accade raramente. Non è più come un tempo. Oggi i bambini vanno a scuola, sono più acculturati. E capiscono che tra esseri umani non ci può essere differenza". Le pupille scure lampeggiano a tratti, illuminate dai bagliori delle pire che bruciano tutto intorno.

Si interrompe, indica un corteo di persone che scende al molo, portando un feretro. Cantano "Ram Nam Satya hei" (Rama, l’unica verità). "Quelli sono bengalesi", spiega. "Hanno canti diversi, tradizioni particolari: noi indù bruciamo il defunto con la testa rivolta verso Calcutta, dove il Gange sfocia nell’oceano. Loro invece preferiscono sistemare le spoglie con la testa verso la sorgente, e i piedi verso la foce". I bengalesi trasportano il defunto avvolto in un sudario su una barella di bambù. Si sistemano in riva al fiume e il bramino inizia il rituale illuminato dagli schermi di un paio di telefoni cellulari. Tradizione e tecnologia. Per tre volte l’acqua del fiume viene versata in bocca al cadavere, prima di adagiarlo sulla pira e accendere il rogo. Nessuno fa una piega quando dal feretro ormai avvolto dalle fiamme, un braccio del defunto esce dalle bende, ondeggiando inerte per qualche secondo prima di essere aggredito dal fuoco.

"Molti indù non hanno abbastanza denaro per finanziare un corteo funebre sino a Varanasi" riprende Matru. "Così bruciano il defunto a casa loro, e qui portano solo le ceneri, per disperderle sul Gange". Solo alcuni morti sono considerati puri, e non è quindi necessario bruciarne i corpi: si tratta dei neonati, dei morti per vaiolo o per morsi di serpente, e delle vacche. I loro corpi vengono sepolti, oppure gettati direttamente nel fiume. Non vedo donne, al ghat delle cremazioni. Chiedo spiegazione a Matru. "Non c’è un divieto codificato secondo cui le donne non possano assistere alle cremazioni", spiega. "Però le famiglie preferiscono così. Le donne spesso sopportano meno il dolore per la perdita di un parente, e potrebbero turbare la cerimonia funebre con pianti e lamenti". In effetti, non ci sono segni di disperazione, né scene di isteria di alcun tipo tra i parenti che assistono alla cremazione dei loro defunti. La cerimonia segue di solito un rituale preciso: dopo le parole pronunciate dal sacerdote è il primogenito del morto ad accendere il rogo, girandogli attorno cinque volte. La salma è avvolta in un sudario rosso se si tratta di una donna, bianco se si tratta di un uomo, giallo dorato se è una persona anziana, indipendentemente dal sesso.

"Vieni, in cima a questa scalinata c’è il fuoco sacro. Te lo mostro". Matru sale lentamente i gradini, rispondendo con cenni di benevolenza ai molti sguardi che incrociano il suo.

Il tempio che custodisce il fuoco sacro ha un aspetto molto meno scenografico di quanto il suo valore rituale lascerebbe presagire. Una brace debole espira il suo fumo all’interno di una nicchia di cemento dipinta di rosso. Nella parte alta, cinque icone immacolate riconducono il fornetto alla sua dimensione spirituale: Shiva il distruttore danza in mezzo alle fiamme che rappresentano il ritmo perpetuo della distruzione e della creazione; accanto alla sua icona, c’è quella del paffuto Ganesh, il dio dalla testa di elefante, solitamente legato al concetto di fortuna; poi c’è Kali "la nera", con la lunga lingua rossa e una ghirlanda di teschi umani appesa al collo, segni caratteristici della dea della morte; le ultime due mattonelle sono per Durga, moglie di Shiva che si batte per la difesa dell’ordine cosmico, e Vishnu il preservatore, associato al concetto di giustizia.

"Il fuoco per le cremazioni deve partire da qui", assicura Matru, soffiando piano sulla brace per mostrarmi che è ancora viva. "Vedi questi steli di paglia? La gente li accende qui al tempio, e poi li usa per attizzare le fiamme sulla pira. Ognuno dona quello che può", ripete. Invitandomi in maniera più o meno esplicita a contribuire con un’offerta. Gli metto in mano le poche rupie che ho in tasca. "Torna domattina all’alba", riprende lui, "voglio mostrarti la casa dei Dom Raja". Lascio Matru alle sue mansioni di custode del fuoco e mi incammino lungo il ghat, illuminato a squarci dai falò. Luci accese da vite spente. L’occhio mi cade su un oggetto conficcato in una brace ormai quasi esausta. Sembra un femore. Affretto il passo. Al Kedar Ghat è già in corso la puja della sera. E’ una cerimonia rituale che si svolge all’alba e al tramonto, e rappresenta l’offerta di luce al fiume. La cerimonia più importante si svolge al Dasaswamedh Ghat, qualche chilometro più avanti, con cinque sacerdoti che officiano il rito accompagnati da un chiassoso gruppo di musicisti armati di tamburo. Chi preferisce una spiritualità più raccolta si ferma al Dekar. Un solo sacerdote, in piedi su una piattaforma di legno collocata di fronte al Gange, spande un crescendo di luce con movimenti precisi e armoniosi, servendosi dapprima di candele, per passare poi a incensiere, candelabri e lampade infuocate. Un ragazzo accompagna i gesti del sacerdote con un tamburello. Al termine della puja, nel ghat tornano oscurità e silenzio. Ancora pochi metri incerti sui gradini di pietra, nella testa gli ammonimenti sui rischi della Varanasi notturna. Poi è un sollievo riconoscere nel buio l’insegna lampeggiante della guesthouse.

 

Sul Gange l’alba arriva prima. I ghat non dormono mai, e i canti religiosi si diffondono pian piano ben prima che la luce del sole nascente arrivi a lambire le acque del fiume.

Lungo le sponde i primi pellegrini hanno già iniziato il loro complesso rituale: uomini e donne di ogni età sono assorti nelle abluzioni che prevedono bagni e gesti simbolici, da eseguire secondo un ordine preciso. Ogni errore commesso nella sequenza può portare sventura. Un uomo, immerso fino alla vita, riempie d’acqua una brocca d’ottone, ne beve parte del contenuto, poi la ripone sotto il braccio: al termine del rituale la porterà su al tempio. Una signora anziana è nel fiume con tutti i vestiti. Raccoglie l’acqua nelle mani a coppa, poi, rivolta verso il sole, la lascia gocciolare attraverso le dita. Un’offerta ai propri antenati e alle divinità. Più al largo, due pescatori trafficano con le loro reti su una vecchia barca. Nessuno si cura dei turisti più mattinieri che, scarrozzati in barca dal personale degli hotel, scattano freneticamente con le loro macchinette fotografiche digitali, spesso a un palmo di distanza dai pellegrini.

Matru è gia al ghat. Ha appena comprato una nuova foglia di betel e sembra di buonumore. Saliamo su una piccola imbarcazione che ci traghetta verso la casa dei Dom. Sulla sponda del fiume, dove ieri ardeva una grande pira, sono rimasti solo cenere e frammenti di bambù e del sudario. Due bambini scalzi rovistano tra i resti del rogo. "Sono i nostri ragazzi", sorride Matru, scorgendo il mio sguardo interrogativo. "Prima di buttare le ceneri nel fiume setacciano per bene, in cerca dei gioielli che il defunto aveva addosso. Sono tutte cose che rimangono a noi".

La casa dei Dom Raja non è distante. Si staglia sul Gange come un piccolo castello, dalle mura intonacate, un bel po’ di tempo fa, di rosso e celeste. All’interno le stanze sono grandi e colorate, anche se arredate in maniera approssimativa, e con una patina di fumo scuro sulle pareti. Sulla grande terrazza c’è un tempio per le preghiere che si sporge direttamente sul Gange. Ai due angoli, affacciate sul fiume, due imponenti tigri di ceramica colorata rivendicano alla casa dei Dom il primato tra gli edifici bagnati dal fiume sacro. Molti di questi sono palazzi di Maharaja provenienti anche da città lontane, come Jaipur. Una selva curiosa di figlioletti e nipotini ci segue in ogni stanza. Alcuni hanno un tratto di carboncino sulla fronte. "Serve a proteggerli dagli sguardi dei malintenzionati", spiega Matru. "Il carboncino intorno agli occhi, invece, protegge dalla polvere nelle giornate di vento". Matru mostra con orgoglio il ritratto di un suo antenato, l’uomo che fece affari con un Maharaja, ottenendo in cambio forse la cospicua donazione che diede avvio alla vera fortuna dei Dom. Tre donne lavano i panni sulla grande terrazza assolata. I bambini le aiutano a stenderli su un fitto reticolo di pali e fili che occupa parte del terrazzo. C’è un cucciolo di cane, una sedia da giardino di plastica, un lettino in legno e vimini. Nulla lascia trasparire la grande ricchezza dei Dom, se non l’imponenza dell’edificio arroccato in posizione strategica sul fiume.

Torniamo alla barca, seguiamo a ritroso il percorso dell’andata. Il sole è alto, sulle sponde del fiume il flusso di pellegrini sembra cresciuto. Adesso ci sono anche i professionisti del lava-e-stendi, spediti dagli HOTEL A sciacquare le lenzuola sul fiume. Dagli stretti vicoli della città vecchia arriva anche un pastore con un’intera mandria di bufali, che si accomoda in acqua senza creare grande scompiglio.

Nei ghat delle cremazioni, i roghi sono ripresi a pieno ritmo. Enormi mucchi di legna da ardere sono impilati in cima alle scalinate, dove vengono pesati accuratamente su grosse bilance che stabiliscono il prezzo della cremazione. Fuoco sacro a parte. Mi affretto a nascondere la macchina fotografica. Scattare foto nella zona delle cremazioni è considerato sacrilegio. Anche se Matru mi fa capire che, pagando 50 euro al funzionario giusto, è possibile ottenere un’autorizzazione scritta che consente di scattare foto liberamente anche nei ghat sacri. Resta da scoprire come la moltitudine di indu impegnata nei riti funebri riesca a distinguere chi ha il permesso di fare foto da chi non lo ha.

Dietro le pire dei defunti che ardono, incombe una struttura che sembra morta anche lei. E’ il crematorio elettrico di Varanasi, voluto dal Governo per tentare di porre argine all’inquinamento del Gange, dove spesso, nonostante il lavoro dei Dom, vengono gettati cadaveri non del tutto bruciati. Si calcola siano almeno quarantacinque mila ogni anno. Ma l’elettricità, nella città santa, va e viene in continuazione. E il crematorio è diventato presto un monumento alle buone intenzioni. Così come il sistema di depuratori installato in diversi punti del fiume, e mai veramente funzionante. Doveva depurare una striscia di fiume dove 30 cloache scaricano contemporaneamente i propri liquami. Gli investimenti per 25 milioni di dollari, riversati tra il 1986 e il 1993 dopo forti pressioni sul governo, si sono rivelati inutili.

Il livello d’inquinamento del Gange a Varanasi raggiunge livelli talmente alti che l’acqua è praticamente priva di ossigeno disciolto. Studi recenti hanno mostrato che in 100 ml di acqua del fiume sono presenti un milione e mezzo di colibatteri fecali…un valore che in acque balneabili non dovrebbe essere superiore a 500.

Anni fa si era tentato anche di affidarsi a spazzini naturali: tartarughe carnivore, introdotte nel fiume con la speranza di eliminare ciò che restava di rifiuti organici e cremazioni imperfette. Ma le tartarughe sono scomparse in pochissimo tempo. E la gente, sul Gange, continua a fare quello che ha sempre fatto: i pescatori pescano, i pellegrini eseguono le abluzioni rituali, i bambini si fanno il bagno e tutti lavano qui i propri panni.

Eppure il Gange ha una velocità di "autodepurazione" che continua a sfidare la scienza. Il vibrione del colera, che in acqua distillata sopravvive 24 ore, nell’acqua del Gange resiste appena 3 ore. Per gli scienziati è un rompicapo, al quale Mark Twain, sempre lui, diede una spiegazione dissacrante: "Nessun microbo che si rispetti saprebbe vivere in un’acqua simile". Una considerazione che i "figli del Gange" non esiterebbero a definire profana.

Matru allarga le braccia e spiega: "Il Gange è nostra madre. E una madre non farebbe mai del male ai propri figli. Vedi la gente che si bagna nel fiume? Non è mai accaduto nulla di male. Nessun incidente, nessuna malattia. Se fosse successo, tutti sarebbero stati molto più cauti. Ma non è mai accaduto. E mai accadrà". Poi si guarda attorno e, prudentemente, aggiunge: "Se Shiva vorrà", con un ampio sorriso che scopre i denti macchiati dal rosso del betel.

(Tratto da I Re Intoccabili di Varanasi)

They say that an evening stroll along the pier of the deceased is dangerous. Not so much because of the spirits, but for the much more earthly presence of vagrants and common thieves. But the darkness of the night here is never really dark. The darkness is punctuated by fireworks. Some flames if the port via the Ganges lights are a good omen, turned into small baskets of lotus flowers, and assigned to the current. Now carrying mostly desires and hopes of passing tourists. The flames burn more true of the tradition to the shores, breathed in the sky fumes of incense, sandalwood and burned flesh: are the pyres that burn incessantly along the ghats, jetties along the Ganges where Hindus cremate their dead.

For this reason, some Indians know Varanasi only by the nickname Shmashan Puri Maha, which means "fire that never stops." This is the holy city of Hinduism: a place conducive to die because, according to ancient beliefs, exhaling the last breath here one escapes the cycle of reincarnation, and leads directly to the Himalayan paradise of Shiva, who is believed to be on the Mount Kailasa.

"Varanasi" Mark Twain once wrote, "is older than history, older than tradition, older than legend and looks twice as old all these things put together." A place full of mysticism, where everything seems possible. For example, a family that placed at the lowest rung of the social hierarchy of India, the so-called "untouchables", acquires much money and prestige to become the richest and most influential families of the city. Their name is Dom, but they call themselves Dom Raja, because they consider it "the king of the kingdom of the dead" (in Hindu "raja" means "king"). Their home is the most beautiful and impressive of the riverfront.

The Sun guard the "sacred fire", a flame that burns day and night since time immemorial inside a temple dedicated to Shiva. Overall the cremation ceremony, the sacred fire, which is lit the funeral pyre at the end of the rite, is considered a key element. And to access them, the families of the deceased are also offered substantial.

Matru Dom is one of the householders. In the city everyone knows, but it is not easy to get to him. Agree to talk only with the help of an intermediary. And 'evening made ​​now, when I get all'Harishchandra Ghat, a dock of cremations among the oldest in the city, and perhaps the most sacred of all. All around a busy bustle of faithful and priests who were already engaged in funeral ceremonies. There are rose petals and lotus flowers scattered 'everywhere, almost consumed embers, fires that burn with flames three meters high, firewood stacked awaiting the arrival of a corpse. "Wait here," says Sadhu, the intermediary. He gives me a nod, then climbs slightly on the stairway leading to the city. The Ganges black appropriates the visual. There appears to be identical with appeasing the living and the dead who continually pour, or be reversed, in its waters. An old man, sitting on a step in the river, coughs and spits on the ground several times. Then come back and watch the water without expression. Some seniors, at the approach of death, come here to wait for destiny. At one time even the incurably ill were abandoned along the banks of the river, in huts made of branches. Not expected that the Ganges did the miracle, like the water of Lourdes, but he accepted the spirit of the deceased at the time of his death. If the patient survived the other hand, it was thought that it had been rejected by the gods, and was therefore rejected by society and isolated among the pariahs, the untouchables.

"Matru Dom, sir." I turn around. In front of me there is a small man, wrapped in a white scarf that puts even more emphasis on his dark complexion (a characteristic of many untouchables). We sit under a small concrete porch. He speaks broken English, but surprisingly sprinkle a few words of Italian. "Hello friend," outlines a smile, "Beautiful Italy". Remember to have learned those words from a missionary, a few years ago. Then come back seriously, does nod to some of the guys working on a pyre now running out. I finally told the Sun: "I do not know how long my family to do this work, no one can tell. We guard the sacred fire for generations. Do an honest job, and do not ask anything in return, only spontaneous donations." You put in your mouth a betel leaf, wrapped in a blend of spices from the red: for the Indians helps to digest and smells the breath, but not all lovers of betel know that it is a frequent cause of mouth cancer.

"The most important gift," he says, "came from the family of a maharajah: 5 million rupees (almost 90 thousand euro, ed.) But we accept any offer. Even 50 rupees. "According to Hinduism, making offerings of this type allows everyone to improve their karma, a sort of summation of past actions upon which the reincarnation of the soul.'s Why when it comes to bidding for important ceremonies such as a funeral, wealthy families spare no expense. and the offer for the sacred fire is but a part. "It takes 360 pounds of wood and 3 hours of time so that the flames consume a body," he says. "the richest buy sandal wood, which burns better and is fragrant, but it costs more than 100 rupees per kilo (about 2 euro)."

Often, however, the poorest families can not afford enough wood, and then the body does not burn enough, the pieces remain intact. Dom I know how to handle these situations: turn over the bodies in the flames, hit them with a stick, and can thus reduce the time required for cremation. "We are the experts," he smiles Matru. "That's why we all respect and nobody would entrust to others their own dead." He looks around, observing the work of the Sun, with the air of a king who searches his possessions. Then he tells me: "Once we have Dom also burned the body of an Italian." Weigh for a moment my gaze in wonder. "Right there, next to that pile of embers," adds squinting and gesturing circulated a pyre now extinct. He spits the betel. Then he continues: "It was an old man came to Varanasi for a few weeks now. We saw him often here at the ghat. Knew even his name, but now I no longer remember. Always came alone, a curious gentleman with a beret on his head. his eyes were strange, he seemed serene in spirit, but perhaps her body was sick. "Starts to chew betel. "Then suddenly he stopped coming, did not see him for a while. 'They found him dead in his HOTEL ROOM. And beside the corpse there was a piece of paper, in which he asked to be cremated here. So the police phoned his family in Italy, and asked permission for the cremation. entrusted to us after the Sun's Ashes, however, we have not thrown in the Ganges.'s family wanted them back, so at the end of the ceremony, we have collected in a 'urn and left for Italy with the first plane. "From his words reflected the pride in the respect that they have earned Dom also at the police, with their centenary work as custodians of cremations.

A respect that seems to go beyond any social barrier. Matru is convinced and strongly denies the existence of disparities between the various levels of Indian society. "We do not feel discriminated at all to the issue of caste., We have darker skin, be more or less poor, but in the end we are made of flesh and bones, we all like brother and sister," he says, looking earnestly contact with my hands. But then we think a bit 'up and admits: "Sure, sometimes it happens that some of the higher castes avoid touching., But rarely happens.'s Not like the past. Nowadays children go to school, they are more educated. E understand that among human beings there can be no difference. "The dark eyes flashing at times, illuminated by the glow of the pyres burning all around.

It stops, shows a procession of people coming down to the dock, carrying a coffin. They sing "Ram Nam Satya hei" (Rama, the only truth). "Those are Bengalis," he explains. "They have different songs, particular traditions: we Hindus burn the dead with her ​​head turned towards Calcutta, where the Ganges meets the ocean. They prefer to fix the spoils with his head towards the source, and the feet towards the mouth." The Bengalis carrying the deceased wrapped in a shroud on a bamboo stretcher. They settle in the river and the Brahmin ritual begins lit by a couple of screens of mobile phones. Tradition and technology. Three times the river water is poured into the mouth of the corpse, before you lay it on the pyre and light the pyre. No one bat an eyelid when the coffin is now engulfed in flames, an arm of the deceased comes from the bandages, swaying inert for a few seconds before being attacked by fire.

"Many Hindus do not have enough money to finance a funeral procession up to Varanasi" Matru resumes. "So burn the deceased at their home, and here only carry the ashes to scatter them on the Ganges." Only a few deaths are considered pure, and it is therefore necessary to burn the bodies: they are infants, deaths from smallpox or snake bites, and the cows. Their bodies are buried, or dumped directly into the river. I do not see women at the cremation ghat. I ask for explanation Matru. "There is a ban encoded according to which women can not attend the cremation," he explains. "But the families prefer it that way. Women often bear less pain for the loss of a relative, and might upset the funeral with weeping, and with mourning." In fact, there are signs of desperation, or scenes of hysteria of any kind between the relatives attending the cremation of their dead. The ceremony usually follows a precise ritual: after the words spoken by the priest is the firstborn of the dead to light the pyre, girandogli around five times. The body is wrapped in a shroud red if it is a woman, whether it is a white man, golden yellow if it is an older person, regardless of gender.

"Come, on top of this staircase is the sacred fire. I'll show you." Matru slowly climbs the stairs, responding with nods of kindness to many looks that cross her.

The temple which houses the sacred fire looks a lot less dramatic than its ritual value would leave portend. A brace weak exhale the smoke within a niche of concrete painted red. In the upper part, five icons immaculate bring back the oven to its spiritual dimension: the destroyer Shiva dance in the flames that represent the perpetual rhythm of destruction and creation; next to its icon, there is that of chubby Ganesh, the elephant-headed god, usually linked to the concept of luck; Then there is Kali "the black," with the long red tongue and a garland of human skulls hung around his neck, characteristic marks of the goddess of death; the last two tiles are for Durga, wife of Shiva who is fighting for the defense of the cosmic order, and Vishnu the preserver, associated with the concept of justice.

"The focus for the cremations must start from here," assures Matru, blowing on the embers plan to show that it is still alive. "See these stalks of straw? Them people on here at the temple, and then use them to stoke the flames on the pyre. Everyone gives what he can," he repeats. Inviting more or less explicitly to contribute with an offer. I put my hand in the few rupees in my pocket. "Come back tomorrow morning at dawn," he resumed, "I want to show the house of the Dom Raja". I leave Matru to his duties as guardian of the fire and walked along the ghats, illuminated by bonfires gashes. Lights to screw off. My eye falls on an object stuck in a brace now almost exhausted. It looks like a femur. Hasten the pace. At the Kedar Ghat is already underway puja in the evening. It 'a ritual ceremony that takes place at dawn and dusk, and represents the range of light to the river. The most important ceremony takes place at Dasaswamedh Ghat, a few kilometers further on, with five priests who officiate the ceremony accompanied by a boisterous group of musicians armed with drum. Those who prefer a more intimate spirituality stops at Dekar. One priest, standing on a wooden platform placed in front of the Ganges, spreading a crescendo of light with precise movements and harmonious, using first candle, then move on to incense, candlesticks and lamps burning. A boy accompanies the gestures of the priest with a tambourine. At the end of the puja, in return ghat darkness and silence. Just a few meters uncertain on the stone steps, in the head the warnings on the risks of Varanasi night. Then it is a relief to recognize the sign flashing in the darkness of the guesthouse.

 

On the Ganges before dawn arrives. The ghats never sleep, and religious songs spread gradually well before the light of the rising sun arrives to lap the waters of the river.

Along the banks of the first pilgrims have already started the whole ritual: men and women of all ages are absorbed in the ablutions that provide bathrooms and symbolic gestures, to be performed in a specific order. Any error in the sequence can lead misfortune. A man immersed to the waist, fills a water jug brass, do you drink the contents, then shoves it under his arm at the end of the ritual will bring about the temple. An elderly lady is in the river with all the dresses. Collects water in cupped hands, then, facing the sun, the leaves drip through your fingers. An offer to their ancestors and the gods. Further offshore, two fishermen traffic in their networks on an old boat. Nobody cares tourists risers that scarrozzati by boat from the staff of the hotel, click frantically with their cameras digital, often a few inches away from the pilgrims.

Matru is already at the ghat. He just bought a new betel leaf and seems in good spirits. We go on a small boat that ferries us to the house of the Sun On the bank of the river, where a great fire was burning yesterday, there are only ashes and fragments of bamboo and cloth. Two barefoot children rummaging through the remains of the fire. "They are our kids," Matru smiles, seeing my quizzical look. "Before you throw the ashes into the river scour for good, in search of the jewels that the deceased was wearing. Things are all that remain to us."

The home of Dom Raja is not far away. It stands on the Ganges as a small castle, the walls plastered, a nice little 'time ago, red and blue. Inside, the rooms are big and colorful, although furnished approximate, and with a patina of dark smoke on the walls. On the large terrace there is a temple for prayers that leans directly on the Ganges. The two corners, overlooking the river, two huge tigers colorful ceramic claiming the house of Dom primacy among the buildings bathed in the sacred river. Many of these buildings are of Maharaja also from distant cities, such as Jaipur. A mass of curious little children and grandchildren following us in every room. Some have a stretch of charcoal on the forehead. "We need to protect them from the eyes of the bad guys," says Matru. "The charcoal around the eyes, on the other hand, protects against dust on windy days." Matru proudly displays the portrait of his ancestor, the man who did business with a Maharaja, perhaps in exchange for the generous donation that started the fortune of the Sun Three Women wash clothes on the large sun terrace. The children help to lay them out on a dense network of poles and wires which occupies part of the terrace. There is a puppy dog, a plastic garden chair, a cot in wood and wicker. Nothing reveals the great wealth of the Sun, if not the grandeur of the building perched in a strategic position on the river.

Let's get back to the boat, we follow back the route. The sun is up, on the banks of the stream of pilgrims seem grown up. Now there are also professionals in the lava-and-stretch, consigned by A HOTEL wash the sheets on the river. From the narrow streets of the old town comes a shepherd with a herd of buffalo, which sits on the water without creating a commotion.

In the cremation ghat, the fires were resumed in full swing. Huge piles of firewood are stacked on top of the stairs, where they are weighed accurately on large scales that determine the price of cremation. Sacred Fire apart. I hasten to hide the camera. Take pictures of cremations in the area is considered sacrilege. Although Matru makes me realize that paying 50 euro to the official right, you can get a written authorization allowing you to take pictures freely even in the sacred ghat. It remains to find out how the multitude of Hindu funeral rites committed to be able to differentiate who is allowed to take pictures from those who did not.

Behind the blazing pyres of the dead, a looming structure that seems dead too. E 'the electric crematorium in Varanasi, wanted by the government for groped to put an embankment to the pollution of the Ganges, where often, despite the work of Dom, corpses are thrown completely burned. It is estimated to be at least forty-five thousand each year. But electricity, in the holy city comes and goes constantly. And the crematorium soon became a monument to good intentions. As well as the system of scrubbers installed at different points of the river, and never really working. He had to clean up a stretch of river where 30 sewers discharge their sewage at the same time. Investments for $ 25 million, paid between 1986 and 1993, after strong pressure on the government, proved futile.

The level of pollution of the Ganges in Varanasi reaches levels so high that the water is virtually free of dissolved oxygen. Recent studies have shown that in 100 ml of water of the river there are a million and a half of fecal coliform ... a value in bathing waters should not be more than 500.

Years ago it was also attempted to rely on natural scavengers: carnivorous turtles, which were introduced into the river with the hope of eliminating the remnants of organic waste and cremations imperfect. But the turtles are gone in no time. And the people, on the Ganges, continues to do what it has always done: most fishermen, the pilgrims perform the ritual ablutions, children bathe and wash all their clothes here.

Yet the Ganges has a speed of "self-purification" that continues to defy science. The vibrio cholerae, which survives 24 hours in distilled water, the water of the Ganges resists just 3 hours. For scientists it is a puzzle game, in which Mark Twain, he always gave a debunking explanation: "No self-respecting microbe know how to live in water like that." One consideration that the "sons of the Ganges" would not hesitate to define profane.

Matru opens his arms and says: "The Ganga is our mother. And a mother would never do harm to their children. See people who bathes in the river? There is nothing bad ever happened. Were no incidents, no disease. If had happened, all would have been much more cautious., but it never happened. it never happens. "Then you look around and prudently adds: "If you want to Shiva", with a broad smile that turns your teeth stained red from betel.

(Taken from The Untouchables King of Varanasi)

History tells us there have been past golden ages. Greece briefly entered one and many believe Lemuria and Atlantis actually existed and were great golden age empires before they collapsed and fell. The men and women of these civilizations were very intuitive and spiritually evolved. The family was held in high esteem because the people embraced the values that are uplifting to society. Art, music, science, invention, architecture, technology, philosophy, mathematics, commerce, education, all the things that come to mind in association with a golden age, reflected the highest ideals of the people because the Divine Mother was revered. The Mother is the "nurturing force" that produces great cultures.

When the Mother principle is absent, governments and the economy are affected, society suffers, morals and values erode, educational standards decline, and the environment is systematically destroyed or polluted. With the dawning of the age of Aquarius everyone is "undergoing the initiations of the Feminine Ray" 12 whether they know it or not. The healing we receive from following the path and passing our tests and initiations results in the raising of the sacred fire of the Divine Mother. As our reverence and devotion to the Divine Mother grows something magical happens. A feeling of wholeness and balance flows through us and we begin to feel the presence of our Father-Mother God. We start to merge with our Higher Self. This in turn causes a sense of holiness for everything and everyone around us. We begin to honor the flame in the heart of all we meet. And before we know it, the creative fires flowing through us inspire the desire to make the world a better place. The age of Aquarius is a "state of consciousness" and it is only through the raising of the powerful energy of the Mother flame (Kundalini) that this transformation of consciousness can occur. As we come to understand the feminine aspect of God, great things can happen both on a personal and planetary level. If we are successful, we have the opportunity to anchor in a golden age of "freedom, peace and enlightenment" unlike any the earth has ever known. This is the age of the Divine Mother and the Holy Spirit. 75,000 YA: This time on Earth was the age of the highest peak of civilization so far experienced on our planet. A time of technologies far more advanced than we see today, advanced spiritual development (which was part of the technology — these were higher Density technologies based on consciousness, rather than 3D mechanics), and cities made up of many races, both terrestrial and non, living at different levels of Density, spread across the globe. Underground, the great inner-Earth civilization of Agartha was also well established and still expanding. The beings who lived there were mostly benevolent or neutral, though there was still a pocket of Ciakar, the Draco royalty, living in their stronghold under Africa.. In the preceding millennia the Nacaals had made themselves known to the Annunaki and had educated them on the vast interstellar community they were part of. This, combined with the flourishing of mankind and advances in consciousness opened the gates for many other ET races to visit the Earth, and our world became a true Utopia, for a time. Genetic experiments also continued, both through the intermarrying of various races as well as through deliberate manipulation of DNA. By the time Homo Sapiens emerged from this period, we would have 22 different “races” or genome types, thanks to the influence of 22 different ET races. This furthered the pace of evolution in all areas of life. Enki, in addition to getting all “hippy” on Enlil by embracing the traditions of the Nacaal, also had mated with quite a few different human women at this point, and then elevated some of those children to govern in various locations, which enraged the prudish Enlil, to whom this increasingly complex and intermixed globe seemed more and more tarnished and “impure”. He longed for the good ‘ol days of Annunaki dominion and he began to return to Niribu more frequently. He also started to mull over possible ways to end the human experiment on Earth. Atlantis, being the center of all things scientific and technological, tended to have a bit of an inclination towards a manifest destiny kind of attitude. They were more concerned with what could be achieved and discovered, than they were with maintaining harmony with nature and spiritual equanimity; more concerned with what they could do, and not so much with what they should do. They did work to develop their consciousness as well, but also with interfacing those advancements with more mechanical creations.

 

medium.com/a-history-of-the-multiverse/chapter-5-part-1-t...

I feel utterly inadequate and unworthy to share any Biblical truth with anyone, because how can a law breaker like me promote the same law he breaks? I am no less of a hypocrite than anyone else ever lived. But if every Christian stops sharing Biblical truths because he or she is not perfect then the gospel will not be preached anymore.

 

Joseph Reassures His Brothers - Genesis 50

 

15 When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?" 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said.

19 But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

 

I doubt any human will condemn Joseph if he had held a grudge against his brothers or even if had taken revenge against them. This story reminds me of once as I was reading the Bible at break time at work a lady who was new in Canada asked to read what I was reading. She was shocked by our Lord’s words in Matthew 5:44:

 

But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

 

She said in her broken English, “No, I think he wrong. Love family friends ok, good. No love enemies, bad!” How else could she feel about those words? Her reaction was completely natural—human-like. But not Joseph. Joseph didn’t have a Bible, he didn’t have the gift of the Holy Spirit, he didn’t have godly parents to guide and protect him or, he didn’t have access to Christian counsellors, he didn’t even have accountability partners. But he had a heart of flesh and not of stone, a heart bent toward God—Joseph was a man who truly knew how to love God and esteem Him. He dared to be different for His God. Even though all he knew about this God was probably what he heard from his father Jacob.

 

David Spares Saul's Life - 1 Samuel 24

 

1 After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, "David is in the Desert of En Gedi." 2 So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.

3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, "This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, 'I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.' "Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD." 7 With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

 

Most natural people reading this will think that David was either a coward or simple minded. No law on earth can condemn David for killing Saul—this was the best scenario for self-defence in an era where murder could go unnoticed. But David did not live by the laws of an era, a culture, or a certain kingdom; David lived by the laws of his God and held himself accountable to God and God alone. Even when, many years later, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, after he was convicted of his sins he said, “Against you[God], you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,” (Psalm 51:4) David realized he sinned against God before anyone else, after all it was God who said, “You shall not murder”, and “You shall not commit adultery.” To David God was as real as a human judge.

 

What laws did David follow in sparing—twice--king Saul’s life? He didn’t have the Sermon of the Mount. What he had was “an eye for an eye”, yet David showed a deep knowledge of God that can only be gained through a personal relationship with God strengthened by daily walk with Him.

 

This morning I was talking to a lady who attends church at least twice a week (and not just any church: this is a pretty committed church to following our Lord) and she opened the topic about how Christian women should dress and told me that she can’t understand what is so sinful about wearing tight jeans and that she can’t stop wearing them. I knew exactly what her problem was, so I asked her, “Where in the New Testament does the Bible mention how Christian women should dress?” She replied, “It doesn’t! It is not mentioned anywere!” I told her, “You see, there are at least two places that talk directly about this issue. Not to mention dressing in church, and the numerous verses that deal with causing someone to sin.” Her problem is that she has no faith. She doesn’t believe that God’s Word is worth reading nor that God’s laws are extremely important to follow. Otherwise, she would never say that she can’t obey them. How is she going to dare be different for Her God when she doesn’t believe that He knows best?

 

We have the illusion that going to church, giving to the poor, and singing Christian song build our faith—they don’t. Our Lord did not build His faith when He healed or preached. He build His faith when He woke up early in the morning and spend time talking and listening to His heavenly Father and obeying Him. When He healed and preached He was simply expressing His faith.

 

David did not build his faith when he became a king; rather he became a king because he had faith. He built his faith when as a young shepherd he spent countless hours by himself knowing His God and attending sheep. When he wrote the Psalms he was simply expressing his faith. Yet, when we read the Psalms we think that our faith is going to be built just by reading them.

 

Do you dare to be different for your God? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God who loved you so much that He sent His beloved, perfect, and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die a gruesome, painful, and humiliating death on the cross just so that you would love Him and spend eternity in heaven with Him. Start being different in the little things because God will not trusted you with greater things without you showing trustworthiness in the little things.

 

Let me tell you a little story: about a week ago I saw my mid-term grade and it was substantially above the class average. I knew something was wrong because I had not done so well on the mid-term. I told my close classmates that there must be something wrong with the way my paper was marked. Sure enough when I received it I was given 14% extra by mistake. So I submitted my test paper back to the TA for my mark to be fixed, namely lowered 14%. My classmates thought I was either the craziest man ever lived, or the most simple minded, or the most idealistic. But I am none of those things. I simply asked myself this question: does God know about it, and what would He want me to do?

 

One classmate had a long discussion with me because of this and he made the remark, “Fadi, you are living your life backward!” I told him, “Exactly! That’s exactly how I know I am heading in the right way! Because most people—naturally living by their human nature—do not follow God. So when I do something that’s different then I know that I am walking in the right way. Human thinking says, ‘Good! Free marks!’ But God says, ‘That’s cheating. That’s being dishonest. That’s stealing.’” Another classmate said, “Have you ever thought that may be God wants to help you by giving you those free marks?” I answered him, “God doesn’t sin—He doesn’t cheat. He doesn’t cause people to sin, but He does test our faith.” Why do we feel that we have to know every trivial thing, except when it comes to God we start guessing who He is and how He operates?

 

My mom sometimes comes from church and tells me, “Fadi, I saw this beautiful and wonderful single lady at church and I thought…” And that’s when I stop her. Sometimes she keeps going, and I have to insist she stops. She says, “How will you ever get married if you don’t even build relationships with girls?” I cannon justify my position except that God is working, at least in me that I know for sure, and He hasn’t done His work yet. And I won’t do anything before I hear from Him and know His will. Actually, He has given me specific promises about the topic of marriage, and I cannot go out and do my things and ruin everything He is doing. Can you imagine how rude it is when, let’s say, a close friend of yours asked you to photograph their wedding, and you spend all this time preparing your photography equipments and cleaning them, and charging the batteries, and backing everything, and making sure you haven’t forgotten anything, and bought extra accessories such as a flash diffuser, and even went as far as taking photography lessons or reading about wedding photography…only to find out that your friends has already arranged someone else to photograph the wedding? Yet, we do this all the time with God.

 

My question for you is this: Do you dare to be different for your God and Saviour? By “…for your God and Saviour”, I don’t mean to impress the world by your obedience and try to change people. What I mean is: do things because they please His heart, regardless of what the outcomes will be.

 

PS: I want to give special thanks to my co-worker Chungsoon, for teaching me how to tip the Pepsi can like this without it falling. All you have to do is leave just the right amount of Pepsi for the can to balance on its edge.

 

(Toronto, ON; fall 2008.)

 

He favored the notion that people have the power to shape their own lives.

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Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (Mirandola, 24 februari 1463 - Florence, 17 november 1494) was een Italiaans humanist. Hij was leerling en collega van onder anderen Marsilio Ficino en Angelo Poliziano. Zijn belangrijkste werk was Oratie over de waardigheid van de mens.

 

Het meest bekend is Giovanni Pico della Mirandola geworden met zijn geschrift over de eenheid van de waarheid en van het menselijke weten, dat vanwege het prachtige eerste gedeelte gewoonlijk de enigszins misleidende titel 'Over de waardigheid van de mens draagt'.

 

Pico interesseert zich al als jongen voor theologie en filosofie. Hij studeert een tijd wijsbegeerte aan de Universiteit te Ferrara. Later gaat Pico naar Padua om bij de Joodse geleerde Elia del Medigo zijn studie filosofie voort te zetten. In deze tijd wijdt Pico zich aan poëzie en maakt hij kennis met de humanistische kringen van Padua.

 

Hij leert onder anderen Marsilio Ficino, Girolamo Savonarola en Ermalao Barbaro kennen. Met deze laatste voert Pico een beroemd geworden briefwisseling over wat er in de literatuur voorrang heeft: de waarheid der dingen zonder elegante en retorische verwoording of eerder juist de esthetische verzorgde zegging. Barbaro kiest voor dit laatste, Pico voor het eerste. Pico is bovenal geïnteresseerd in de wijsgerige, wetenschappelijke inhoud (Wikipedia).

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Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

First published Tue Jun 3, 2008; substantive revision Fri May 15, 2020.

plato.stanford.edu/entries/pico-della-mirandola/

 

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94) is, after Marsilio Ficino, the best known philosopher of the Renaissance: his Oration on the Dignity of Man is better known than any other philosophical text of the fifteenth century. Pico was also remarkably original—indeed, idiosyncratic. The deliberately esoteric and aggressively recondite character of his thought may help explain why Renaissance philosophy has had so small a place, until recently, in the canonical history of the discipline as accepted by Anglophone philosophers.

 

Pico was born on February 24, 1463, to a noble Italian family, the counts of Mirandola and Concordia near Modena in the Emilia-Romagna north of Tuscany. Around the age of fourteen he left for Bologna, intending briefly to study canon law, but within two years he moved to Ferrara and shortly afterward to Padua, where he met one of his most important teachers, Elia del Medigo, a Jew and an Averroist Aristotelian. By the time he left Padua in 1482, he had also felt the attraction of the Platonism being revived by Marsilio Ficino, and by 1484 he was corresponding with Angelo Poliziano and Lorenzo de’Medici about poetry.

 

In 1485 he traveled from Florence to Paris, the citadel of Aristotelian scholasticism. Before he left, at the age of twenty-two, he had made his first important contribution to philosophy—a defense of the technical terminology which since Petrarch’s time had incited humanist critics of philosophy to attack scholastic Latin as a barbaric violation of classical norms. Having refined his literary talent while developing his philosophical skills, Pico issued his manifesto in the form of a letter to the renowned Ermolao Barbaro, using the occasion and the genre to show, like Plato in the Phaedrus, how rhetoric could equip a philosopher to defend his calling against rhetorical assault.

 

After a short stay in Paris, Pico returned to Florence, and then Arezzo, where he caused a scandal by abducting a young woman named Margherita, already married to Giuliano Mariotto de’ Medici. Despite the support that came from Lorenzo de’ Medici, the commotion that followed and then a plague kept Pico on the move, just at the time he was writing a Commento on a love poem by Girolamo Benivieni and planning his larger scheme of philosophical concord. At its core this project aimed to secure human happiness by way of a philosophical harmony between Platonists and Aristotelians. But in keeping with Pico’s immense ambition, the scope of the effort became global, striving to join all schools of thought in a single symphony of philosophies. Pico planned to underwrite a magnificent conference on this theme in Rome early in 1487, and in preparation he assembled 900 theses from numerous authorities—ancient and medieval, pagan and Christian, Moslem and Jewish. He had these Conclusions printed in Rome at the end of 1486, and to introduce them he composed a work of eventually immense fame, the Oration on the Dignity of Man—as it came to be called.

 

Intervention by the Holy See derailed Pico’s plans and blocked the conference. Innocent VIII appointed a commission that first declared six of the theses suspect and condemned seven others, then rejected Pico’s clarifications and repudiated all thirteen. When the Apology that Pico hastily published provoked Innocent to denounce all nine hundred Conclusions, the audacious young Count left for Paris, but at the pope’s request he was detained by French authorities and briefly jailed. By the summer of 1488 he was back in Fiesole as the guest of Lorenzo, to whom in 1489 he dedicated a short work called Heptaplus, on the Sevenfold Account of the Six Days of Genesis.

 

Since 1483 Pico had a third of the income produced by his family’s estates, which along with his Mirandola property he transferred in 1491 to his nephew Gianfrancesco, who was to become an important philosopher in his own right and an early voice for the revival of scepticism as an instrument of Christian faith. At this time, however, even after the dust had settled on the provocative Conclusions, contemporaries were unsure of the elder Pico’s orthodoxy, and the Kabbalist exegesis of Genesis in the Heptaplus—tame though it is by Pico’s earlier standards—could scarcely restore their confidence. Meanwhile, Pico pursued safer philological inquiries with Poliziano, who received the dedication of a fragment On Being and the One in 1492. Even though De ente et uno was meant as the first installment of the great work that would prove Plato’s thought in concord with Aristotle’s, not everyone accepted Pico’s position harmoniously—least of all Antonio Cittadini, a Pisan professor who was still fighting about it with Gianfrancesco Pico two years after his uncle’s death.

 

In 1493 Pico achieved reconciliation with a higher authority when Alexander VI pardoned him for his earlier misadventures. By this time he had already grown close to Girolamo Savonarola, the fearsome millenarian preacher who had recently become Prior of the Dominican Convent of San Marco in Florence. Pico had known the prophetic friar for some time, but now Savonarola was on his way to establishing a theocratic tyranny in Florence. Growing ever more saintly, Pico disposed of more of his property, giving some to the Church and some to his family, as his habits became less and less worldly. He was working hard on another huge project, the unfinished Disputations Against Divinatory Astrology, when death (hastened by poison, some said) came to him on November 17, 1494. Florence fell to the French armies of Charles VIII on the same day, ending the dazzling age of Florentine culture that Pico’s blazing genius made all the brighter, though only briefly. Ficino, a steadier spirit, survived him by five years.

 

2. Works and Reputation

 

Pico’s modern fame comes mainly from a speech that he never gave, the Oration on the Dignity of Man that got its title only after he died. He wrote the Oration in 1486 to introduce his 900 Conclusions, having chosen the capital of Christendom as just the place to dispute the outrageous theological novelties advertised by them—including the claim that magic and Kabbalah are the best proofs of Christ’s divinity. The Pope quashed Pico’s rash project, but not before the Conclusions were already in print. To make matters worse, Pico then defended them in an unsubmissive Apology that printed half of the original, and not yet published, Oration—though not the half that later became famous. As a whole, and mainly because its language is enigmatic, the Oration was less inflammatory than the Conclusions; it first appeared in the collection of his uncle’s works (Commentationes) published by Gianfrancesco Pico in 1496. Gianfrancesco, the main source of biographical information about the elder Pico, says that his uncle thought little of the speech, regarding it as a piece of juvenilia. For the next three centuries, few of Pico’s readers were moved to challenge this verdict, despite the author’s continuing fame. Until post-Kantian historians of philosophy were charmed by it, the Oration was largely (though not entirely) ignored, in part because of its publishing history.

 

Shortly after 1450, Giannozzo Manetti had completed a book On Human Worth and Excellence, which—unlike Pico’s speech—really is about dignitas as that word had been used by ancient Romans and medieval Christians: what they meant by it was ‘rank,’ ‘status,’ ‘value’ or ‘worth,’ not what Kant would mean later by Würde. Manetti’s dignitas was still essentially a Christian notion made less otherworldly by the example of ancient sages like Cicero and by the changed conditions of Italian life in the fifteenth century. The last part of Manetti’s book is an attack on a twelfth-century treatise On Human Misery by Cardinal Lotario dei Segni, before he became Pope Innocent III. Manetti took his lead from two contemporaries—Antonio da Barga and Bartolomeo Facio—who had already written about his topic but in much more conventional ways. Pico’s speech pays no attention at all to these three earlier texts on dignitas because dignitas is not his subject. Instead, he wanted to convince people to use magic and Kabbalah in order to change themselves into angels.

 

Except as part of Pico’s collected works, the Latin text of the Oration was printed only once before the 1940s, when the first translation into English also appeared, just after the first Italian version in 1936. What readers saw on the title-page of the 1496 Commentationes was simply A Very Elegant Oration, which in 1530—in the only separately published Latin text of the pre-modern era—expanded into On Man by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, explaining the loftier mysteries of sacred and human philosophy. Meanwhile, the front-matter of the five collected editions or reprints between 1498 and 1521 stayed with the 1496 formulation, Oratio quaedam elegantissima, which in 1557 finally became On the Dignity of Man in a Basel collection and, in a Venice edition of the same year, A Very Elegant Oration on the High Nobility and Dignity of Man. The two other early modern collections of 1572 and 1601 used a new format that no longer listed contents by title at the front of the book.

 

The British Library Catalog, which has about 1300 entries for books by Erasmus published by 1700, has about 100 for Pico. During the same period, when Marsilio Ficino’s De vita libri tres went through more than thirty editions, Pico’s Latin Oration—far better known to modern readers than Ficino’s Three Books on Life—got almost no attention from publishers. Of the five dozen or so Pico titles that found a publisher by 1700, about half were collections of letters. The first two, called Golden Letters, were incunabular editions, and the letters also figured prominently in early collections of Pico’s works, whose front-matter listed Ficino, Poliziano and other cultural celebrities with whom Pico corresponded

 

Two things made Pico’s Latin letters a durable commercial hit: celebrity and education. Since Latin was still the main medium of learned communication in the late seventeenth century, when Isaac Newton published his Principia in that undead language, educated people kept writing letters in Latin and used writers like Pico as models. And Pico was attractive not only because of his elegant style but also because he had been a celebrity in his own lifetime and remained so in Newton’s day. He stayed famous in three ways: as a critic of astrology; as an expert on Kabbalah; and as the amazing Pico—as the Phoenix who blazed through a brief life in the triple glare of an old aristocratic society, a new mandarin culture of classical scholarship and, in his last years, the millenarian fantasies of Savonarola’s Florence. Noble origins, fashionable friends, physical beauty, prodigious learning, capacious memory, scholarly journeys, youthful sins, trouble with the Church, eventual repentance and a pious death: these are the motifs of the family hagiography by his nephew that have kept Giovanni Pico famous for being famous over the centuries.

 

Because he died so young, Pico finished very little and published less: the vernacular Commento was neither completed nor published in his lifetime; the Conclusions are just bare statements of theses; half of the preface to the rushed Apology was lifted from the unpublished Oration; On Being and the One is a small piece of a larger effort to harmonize Plato and Aristotle; and Gianfrancesco found the unfinished Disputations Against Astrology bundled with his dead uncle’s papers. Pico had only three works printed in his lifetime: the Conclusions, the Apology and the Heptaplus.

 

The Apology, which defends the Conclusions against charges of heresy, is Pico’s longest piece of philosophical writing, and eleven of its thirteen parts are conventional scholastic philosophy in the manner of Aquinas, Scotus and Ockham. But his sources for the Apology were also Durand de Saint-Pourçain, Henry of Ghent, Jean Quidort, Robert Holcot and a dozen other lesser-known scholastics. Since most of the content of the Conclusions and all its presentation is also thoroughly scholastic, Pico did not present himself as a humanist in his first two printed works, which were the basis of his reputation during his lifetime, except on his home turf in Tuscany and the Emilia-Romagna. He wrote the two epistolary essays on poetry and philosophical language in the humanist style, but few saw them during his lifetime. Besides the Conclusions and the Apology, the only work that Pico completed and made public in print while he lived was the Heptaplus (1489), a Kabbalist commentary on the first 26 verses of Genesis.

 

Eliphas Levi (1810–1875), one of the first modern ceremonial magicians and inspiration for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, discussed the Great Work at length, expanding it from the purely alchemical towards the more spiritual:

Furthermore, there exists in nature a force which is immeasurably more powerful than steam, and by means of which a single man, who knows how to adapt and direct it, might upset and alter the face of the world. This force was known to the ancients; it consists in a universal agent having equilibrium for its supreme law, while its direction is concerned immediately with the great arcanum of transcendental magic... This agent...is precisely that which the adepts of the middle ages denominated the first matter of the Great Work. The Gnostics represented it as the fiery body of the Holy Spirit; it was the object of adoration in the secret rites of the Sabbath and the Temple, under the hieroglyphic figure of Baphomet or the Androgyne of Mendes.

He further defined it as such:

The Great Work is, before all things, the creation of man by himself, that is to say, the full and entire conquest of his faculties and his future; it is especially the perfect emancipation of his will.Within Thelema, the Great Work is generally defined as those spiritual practices leading to the mystical union of the Self and the All. Its founder, author and occultist Aleister Crowley, said of it in his book Magick Without Tears:

The Great Work is the uniting of opposites. It may mean the uniting of the soul with God, of the microcosm with the macrocosm, of the female with the male, of the ego with the non-ego."For each individual this Great Work may take different forms. Crowley described his own personal Great Work in the introduction to Magick (Book 4):In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to the Great Work, understanding thereby the Work of becoming a Spiritual Being, free from the constraints, accidents, and deceptions of material existence.Within the system of the A∴A∴ magical Order the Great Work of the Probationer Grade is considered to be the pursuit of self-knowledge to, as Crowley said in The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, "obtain the knowledge of the nature and powers of my own being."

However, Crowley continues, the Great Work should also be something that is integrated into the daily life of all:I insist that in private life men should not admit their passions to be an end, indulging them and so degrading themselves to the level of the other animals, or suppressing them and creating neuroses. I insist that every thought, word and deed should be consciously devoted to the service of the Great Work. 'Whatsoever ye do, whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God'.Although Crowley often discussed the idea of "succeeding" or "accomplishing" in the Great Work, he also recognized that the process is ongoing. From his Little Essays Toward Truth:The Quest of the Holy Grail, the Search for the Stone of the Philosophers—by whatever name we choose to call the Great Work—is therefore endless. Success only opens up new avenues of brilliant possibility. Yea, verily, and Amen! the task is tireless and its joys without bounds; for the whole Universe, and all that in it is, what is it but the infinite playground of the Crowned and Conquering Child, of the insatiable, the innocent, the ever-rejoicing Heir of Space and Eternity, whose name is MAN?The term also appears in the Benediction at the end of Crowley's Gnostic Mass, where the Priest blesses the congregation with the words:The LORD bring you to the accomplishment of your true Wills, the Great Work, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Work

Location : Dumaguete Boulevard , Dumaguete city,

Negros Oriental, Philippines

  

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Things are going to change soon .

Have Jesus Christ as your personal saviour and Lord

Make Jesus as your only refuge

and have rest in Him .

Whatever happens, you're with the

Lord and will be with the Lord, when things are restored

in own time which is very near.

 

If anyone of you have time, pls listen to this audios / videos:

 

Prophetic revelation to the late David Wilkerson in 1973 -which is coming to reality in our time.

I have no doubt the late DW is an annointed man of God.

David Wilkerson -- The Vision 1973

Stan Deyo "What's Coming in 2013?"

Stan Deyo is a Scientist/ researcher exposing what is possibly on the menu this year or few yrs owards. As a follower of the Bible and a watcher, it all fits in the description. God is in control but it seem we are

close to the timeline. Keep watching. Don't be one of the deceived.

If you don't have Christ seek Him soon, don't delay.

 

Is this the coming Mark of the Beast , and not just America but whole wide world to to have this. The Bible said so. My feeling is once mega economic collapse happens, our day's wages will be just worth a loaf of bread as our money devalued or great inflation ,then we are the mercy of our system -- the one world govt. to feed us all.

And unless we have that mark, we can't eat, work, sell, buy, have health care, this is very plausible and we are closing in. We can't even log in to flickr unless we have this mark / microchip.

New RFID Technology "Obamacare Beware" ~ By Paul Begley

  

Whaaaaat , are you serious ?????

Obama Wants An American To Be The Next Pope!!

 

Hourglass Rapture Vision From The Holy Spirit. Get Ready! The Raptures IMMINENT

 

Endtime News Updates 3-13-13

 

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War is in the horizon, confirming Bible prophecies of big wars in the last of

days,when all things mentioned will happen simultaneously .

Just trust the word of God ( Matthew 24 )

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THE NEW POPE WAS NAMED TODAY ! ' Is he the last Pope but he's not black ," Petrus Romanus" according to St Malachy prophecy ( non- Biblical prophecy,but came accurate with the past Popes including ex-Pope Benedict . It is " wait and see" "time will tell" .

 

The New Pope: Bergoglio of Argentina

    

**HIGH RAPTURE WATCH: ALL SIGNS ARE HERE FOR THE TRIBULATION By Patrick Winfrey , Philippines

    

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)

  

Daily devotional with John Piper

 

Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. We’re on a mission to change that. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ

 

Topic: The Glory of God

 

The following is a lightly edited transcript.

I have three aims, one of which is predominant. One aim is to set the direction of your little boat, the boat of your life toward the completion of world evangelization or missions and to help you build a mast on the top of the boat of great purpose and to stretch out the sails and let them drop and see them filled with the wind of the Spirit. The second aim is I would like to put ballast in your boat. Ballast makes the boat heavier. It draws more water. And it is, therefore, harder to tip over. And the last thing I would like to do is be a means of that Holy Spirit wind filling those sails and that is God’s work. In fact, it is all God’s work. I can’t do any of those three without him...." John Piper

  

Die Garnisonkirche (ehemals: Hof- und Garnisonkirche) war eine evangelische Kirche in der historischen Mitte von Potsdam, deren Turm von 2017 bis 2024 wiederaufgebaut wurde. Erbaut im Auftrag des preußischen Königs Friedrich Wilhelm I. nach Plänen des Architekten Philipp Gerlach in den Jahren 1730–1735, galt sie als ein Hauptwerk des norddeutschen Barocks. Mit einer Turmhöhe von fast 90 Metern war sie das höchste Bauwerk Potsdams und prägte im Dreikirchenblick zusammen mit der Nikolaikirche und der Heiliggeistkirche das Stadtbild. Gegen Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs wurde sie 1945 durch einen britischen Luftangriff in der sogenannten Nacht von Potsdam schwer beschädigt und brannte aus. Die Regierung der DDR ließ die gesicherte Ruine 1968 sprengen, um auf einem Teil des Grundstücks das Rechenzentrum Potsdam zu errichten.

Anhänger eines Wiederaufbaus des Gotteshauses traten 2004 mit dem Ruf aus Potsdam an die Öffentlichkeit. In der Folge ihres Engagements wird seit 2017 die kontrovers debattierte Rekonstruktion als offene Stadtkirche und internationales Versöhnungszentrum betrieben. Am Ostermontag 2024 wurde im wiedererrichteten Kirchturm die neue Nagelkreuzkapelle eröffnet. Im August 2024 wurde eine Ausstellung zur Geschichte des Ortes und die Aussichtsplattform in 57 Meter Höhe eröffnet. Noch fehlt dem Turm die Haube, deren Bau aber noch 2025 neben dem Turm begonnen werden und die dann bis 2027 auf den Turm gehoben werden soll. Das Kirchenschiff wird vermutlich, anders als ursprünglich geplant, nicht wieder errichtet, stattdessen wird über ein Veranstaltungszentrum oder auch einen Saal für die Stadtverordnetenversammlung diskutiert. Der Kirchturm ist bereits jetzt der höchste Aussichtspunkt Posdam, die Aussichtsterrasse ist barrierefrei zu erreichen.

Der Wiederaufbau des Turms war stark umstritten, und ist es immer noch, vor allem wegen des sogenannten "Tags von Potsdam" 1933. Bei den Reichstagswahlen vom 5. März 1933, die in einem Klima von Rechtsunsicherheit und Gewalt stattfanden, erhofften sich die Nationalsozialisten die absolute Mehrheit der Stimmen. Damit sollte die Selbstauflösung des Parlaments durchgesetzt werden, um endgültig den Weg in die Diktatur beschreiten zu können. In der Folge des Reichstagsbrandes in der Nacht vom 27. auf den 28. Februar beschloss das Reichskabinett auf Vorschlag Hitlers, die Reichstagseröffnung nach Potsdam zu verlegen. Unter Bezug auf die erste Reichstagseröffnung 1871 durch Kaiser Wilhelm I. im Weißen Saal des Berliner Schlosses wurde der 21. März als Termin festgesetzt. Höhepunkt der Feierlichkeiten war ein Staatsakt in der Garnisonkirche mit Reichspräsident Paul von Hindenburg, Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, den Mitgliedern seiner Regierung und den Reichstagsabgeordneten mit Ausnahme der Abgeordneten der SPD und der KPD sowie geladenen Gäste aus dem öffentlichen Leben, der Wirtschaft und der Reichswehr. Damit ähnelte die Zusammenkunft dem Empfang der neuen Reichstagsabgeordneten beim Kaiser, wie es vor 1918 der Brauch gewesen war. Der stark von militärischen Traditionen geprägten Staatsakt in Potsdam mit Reden Hindenburgs und Hitlers und einer großen Militärparade wurde reichsweit im Radio live übertragen und von NS-Propagandaminister Joseph Goebbels als Tag von Potsdam inszeniert. Der Handschlag Hitlers und Hindenburgs vor der Garnisonkirche wurde fotografisch festgehalten und später von der NS-Propaganda zum symbolischen Händedruck stilisiert. Die Nazis, die ihre Macht noch nicht gefestigt sahen, sahen im Staatsakt in der Garnisonkirche die Chance, eine Annäherung zwischen Hitler und Hindenburg zu inszenieren und die 1932 im Reichspräsidenten-Wahlkampf noch heftige Spaltung des Mitte-Rechts-Lagers, als überwunden darzustellen. Dieses geschichtliche Ereignis und die Interpretation der Kirche als Symbol des preußischen Militarismus waren vermutlich Hauptgrund für den Abriss der wiederaufbaufähigen Ruine im Jahr 1968 durch die DDR-Behörden gewesen.

  

Dieser Text beruht im Wesentlichen auf Wikipedia

 

The Garrison Church (formerly: Court and Garrison Church) was a Protestant church in the historic centre of Potsdam, whose tower was rebuilt from 2017 to 2024. Built by order of the Prussian King Frederick William I according to plans by the architect Philipp Gerlach between 1730 and 1735, it was considered a major work of North German Baroque architecture. With a tower height of almost 90 metres, it was the tallest building in Potsdam and, together with St. Nicholas' and Holy Spirit Churches, dominated the cityscape in what was known as the 'Three-Churches-View' Towards the end of the Second World War, it was badly damaged by a British air raid in 1945 during the so-called Night of Potsdam and burnt out. The GDR government had the secured ruins blown up in 1968 in order to build the Potsdam Computer Centre on part of the site.

Supporters of rebuilding the church went public with the “'Call from Potsdam”' in 2004. As a result of their commitment, the controversially debated reconstruction as an open city church and international reconciliation centre has been underway since 2017. On Easter Monday 2024, the new Chapel of the Cross of Nails was opened in the rebuilt church tower. In August 2024, an exhibition on the history of the site and the viewing platform at a height of 57 metres were opened. The tower is still missing its spire, but construction will begin next to the tower in 2025 and the spire is due to be raised by 2027. The nave of the church will probably not be rebuilt as originally planned, instead there are discussions about an event centre or a hall for the town council meeting. The church tower is already the highest vantage point in Posdam, and the viewing terrace can be reached barrier-free.

The reconstruction of the tower was, and still is, highly controversial, mainly due to the so-called “Day of Potsdam” in 1933. The Nazis hoped to gain an absolute majority of votes in the Reichstag elections of 5 March 1933, which took place in a climate of legal uncertainty and violence. This was intended to force through the self-dissolution of parliament so that they could finally embark on the path to dictatorship. Following the Reichstag fire on the night of 27/28 February, the Reich Cabinet decided, at Hitler's suggestion, to move the opening of the Reichstag to Potsdam. With reference to the first Reichstag opening in 1871 by Emperor Wilhelm I in the White Hall of the Berlin Palace, 21 March was set as the date. The highlight of the celebrations was a state ceremony in the Garrison Church with Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler, the members of his government and the Reichstag deputies, with the exception of the SPD and KPD deputies, as well as invited guests from public life, business and the armed forces. The gathering thus resembled the reception of the new Reichstag deputies by the Kaiser, as had been the custom before 1918. The state ceremony in Potsdam, which was strongly characterised by military traditions, with speeches by Hindenburg and Hitler and a large military parade, was broadcast live on the radio throughout the Reich and staged by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as the Day of Potsdam. Hitler and Hindenburg's handshake in front of the Garrison Church was photographed and later stylised by Nazi propaganda as a symbolic handshake. The Nazis, who did not yet see their power consolidated, saw the act of state in the Garrison Church as an opportunity to stage a rapprochement between Hitler and Hindenburg and to present the still fierce division of the centre-right in the 1932 presidential election campaign as having been overcome. This historical event and the interpretation of the church as a symbol of Prussian militarism were probably the main reasons for the demolition of the rebuildable ruins in 1968 by the GDR authorities.

 

This text is mainly based on Wikipedia

   

Hi friends,

 

So sorry for not visiting your streams for a while but I’m “super” busy these days. Very limited in what I can shoot as you know, I thought of the work above. It is not a photograph but almost a 100% Photoshop work. It is what came to my mind last night and I wanted it simple so except for the Santa painting which I downloaded from the net searching available “free” Xmas cliparts, the rest is entirely Photoshop cs2. There was a signature at the bottom of the Santa painting but as the painting itself was uploaded small, attempts to enlarge it resulted in jagged, pixilated and hence unreadable signature. There was also no tag attached leading to the ID of the painter for I really wished to include his/her name for such a beautiful work of art. If it is a painting of a well known artist then forgive me my ignorance!

  

As you see, it is a visit that we pay to Santa’s house at midnight to find him busy preparing for the Dec. 25…to add to the excitement we realize that he is not only checking the toys and the list of the kids or houses he intends to visit but also dressed in his uniform and I can imagine him playing “Jingle Bells” to fully enjoy the spirit of the season…and what a merry and holy mission it is to bring joy to kids’ hearts…the beautifully visible angels of our sinful world.

  

Merry Christmas to all of you in advance!

   

(You must know what the first command that God gave man was; however, you might not know how God’s will among these verses was…...)

 

God’s Word | God’s Command to Adam

 

“(Gen 2:15-17) And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.

 

Did you get anything out of these verses? How does this part of the scriptures make you feel? Why was “God’s Command to Adam” extracted from the scriptures? Do each of you now have a snapshot of God and Adam in your minds? You can try to imagine: If you were the one in that scene, what would the God in your heart be like? What emotions does this image make you feel? This is a moving and heartwarming picture. Though there is only God and man in it, the intimacy between them is so worthy of envy: God’s profuse love is gratuitously bestowed upon man, surrounds man; man is naive and innocent, unencumbered and carefree, blissfully living under God’s eye; God shows concern for man, while man lives under God’s protection and blessing; every single thing man does and says is closely linked to and inseparable from God.

 

You can say that this is the first command God gave man since creating him. What does this command carry? It carries God’s will, but it also carries His worries for mankind. This is God’s first command, and it is also the first time God worries about man. That is to say, God has had a responsibility toward man since the moment He created him. What is His responsibility? He has to protect man, to look after man. He hopes man can trust and obey His words. This is also God’s first expectation of man. It is with this expectation that God says the following: “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.” These simple words represent God’s will. They also reveal that God’s heart has already begun to show concern for man. Among all things, only Adam was made in God’s image; Adam was the only living thing with God’s breath of life; he could walk with God, converse with God. That is why God gave him such a command. God made it very plain in this command what man can do, as well as what he cannot do.

 

In these few simple words, we see God’s heart. But what kind of heart do we see? Is there love in God’s heart? Does it have any concern in it? God’s love and concern in these verses can not only be appreciated by people, but it can also well and truly be felt. Isn’t that so? Now that I’ve said these things, do you still think these are just a few simple words? Not so simple, right? Could you see this before? If God personally told you these few words, how would you feel inside? If you are not a humane person, if your heart is ice cold, then you wouldn’t feel anything, you wouldn’t appreciate God’s love, and you wouldn’t try to understand God’s heart. But if you are a person with a conscience, with humanity, then you would feel differently. You would feel warmth, you would feel cared for and loved, and you would feel happiness. Isn’t that right? When you feel these things, how will you act toward God? Would you feel attached to God? Would you love and respect God from the bottom of your heart? Would your heart grow closer to God? You can see from this just how important God’s love is to man. But what is even more crucial is man’s appreciation and comprehension of God’s love. In fact, doesn’t God say a lot of similar things during this stage of His work? But do the people of today appreciate God’s heart? Can you grasp the will of God I just spoke of? You can’t even discern God’s will when it is this concrete, tangible, and realistic. That’s why I say you don’t have real knowledge and understanding of God. Is this not true? That is all we will communicate on this section.”

 

from “God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself I” in The Word Appears in the Flesh

 

Also Recommended: Gospel Books

  

The Hymn of God's Word "Those Who Accept the New Work Are Blessed" | Gospel Music

 

Blessed are all those who are able to obey the actual utterances of the Holy Spirit. No matter how they used to be, or how the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit used to work within them, those who've gained the latest work are the most blessed ones. Today, those who can't follow the latest work will be eliminated. God wants those who can accept the new light, and those who accept and know His latest work.

 

II

 

Why must you be a chaste virgin? A chaste virgin can seek the work of the Holy Spirit; she can take in the new things, and give up the old notions, and obey God's work today, obey God's work today. These people, who accept the newest work of today, were ordained by God before the world, and are the most blessed ones. You hear the voice of God , and behold the appearance of Him. So, in all times and generations, and throughout heaven and earth, none have been more blessed than you, this group of people.

 

from "Know the Newest Work of God and Follow the Footsteps of God" in The Word Appears in the Flesh

 

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In alchemy, earth was believed to be primarily cold, and secondarily dry, (as per ... is Ghob, and the earth elementals (following Paracelsus) are called gnomes. ... left point of the pentagram in the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram.Modernist Alchemy: Poetry and the Occult

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Timothy Materer - 1995 - ‎Literary Criticism

In his description of the magical powers of the pentagram, he cites the most famous of the medieval alchemists, Paracelsus (63). In a passage particularly ...

 

Paracelsus | The Tree of Life

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The key to Alchemy – The Trinities ... The trinity in Alchemy, based on Jacop Boehme and Paracelsus, are Sulphur, ..... The Pentagram and the Ether Streams.

Although the origin of this symbol is lost in time, some occult authorities try to trace the source of its esoteric significance back to an astronomical phenomena, the so called “Pentagram of Venus" . The synodic period of Venus is approximately 584 days. Plotting the greatest elongation west or east of this movement five successive times over a period of approximately 8 years and 5 days traces the figure of a Pentagram on the Zodiacal belt. Incidentally, the numbers 5 and 8 continue to play a role in the Rosicrucian symbolism of the pentagram, as will be seen further on.

The pentagram has been found on potsherds from the pre-cuneiform Uruk period of ancient Babylon (3500BCE). In later periods of Mesopotamian civilization it appears in cuneiform writing to represent the four cardinal directions with the fifth point representing “above;” as such, it represented the dominion of royal authority extending to “the four corners of the world and the heavens above.”

The symbol also appears in Egyptian hieroglyphics, associated with the Goddess Sopdet, who was represented in the night sky by the brightest star, Sirius, the so called Dog Star in the constellation of Canis Major[ii]. Interestingly, the name Sirius is from the Greek word seirios, which means “burning,” and brings to mind the Blazing Star of Alchemy.

The Pythagoreans called the Pentagram Hugieia, with the combined meanings of “health,” “wholeness” and “blessings.” The letters of this word were placed around the points of the pentagram. According to Iamblichus, the five-pointed star was the Pythagorean sign of recognition and held sacred as a symbol of divine perfection. The Greek Goddess of Health was Hygeia, or the Roman Salus. Both of these names appear on talismans from Greek and Roman periods, with the image of the pentagram central.

Pythagoras was a known traveler, and the fact that he appears in Indian tantrik texts by name as Yavanacharya (“the Greek teacher”) may explain why the Pentagram also appears in early Hindu tantrik writings and art.

To the ancient Hebrews, the Pentagram was the symbol of Truth and the five books of the Pentateuch. Ameth, the Hebrew word for Truth, is associated with humanity by the kabbalistic technique of temurah using the Aiq Beqr system, which utilizes letter substitution according to specific rules[iii]. Later it will be seen that the very geometry of the Pentagram also encodes the idea of mankind and Truth.

The Pentagram found its way onto many Gnostic amulets. According to Budge. Gnostic amulets contained the pentacle which contained the ineffable name YHWH within it. More often the names Moses or Solomon were represented, Moses because he was connected with the setting up of the brazen serpent, and Solomon because his seal worked miracles.”[iv]. The early Christians associated the Pentagram with the five wounds of Christ. Later kabalistic Christians would associate the name of Christ in Hebrew characters, IHShVH or Yeheshua, to the five points of the pentagram. This method also shows the divine Tetragrammaton associated to the four points of the star, with the fifth top point being ascribed to the Hebrew letter shin, which symbolized spirit and fire, or the Holy Ghost. Thus the pentagram represented the descent of the divine fire into the world.,The Pentagram has been associated with the Star of Bethlehem or Three Kings’ Star, which led the Magi to the newborn Christ. Of these ideas Pike writes: The Star which guided [the Magi] is that same Blazing Star, the image whereof we find in all initiations. To the Alchemists it is the sign of the Quintessence; to the Magists, the Grand Arcanum; to the Kabalists, the Sacred Pentagram. The study of this Pentagram could not but lead the Magi to the knowledge of the New Name which was about to raise itself above all names, and cause all creatures capable of adoration to bend the knee.[v] In the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Pentagram was emblazoned in gold on Gawain’s shield, representing the five virtues of generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry and piety. The symbol of the pentagram appears on many Knights Templar graves in France, as well as being intrinsic to the architecture and positioning of many chapels. One dramatic example is the mysterious shrine of Rennes du Chartres, said to be a center of Templar activity, which is situated in the center of a ring of mountains that form a nearly perfect pentagram. The symbolism of the Western Mystery tradition has assigned the four elements of earth, air, water and fire to the four points of the pentagram, with the top point being attributed to the quintessence, or spirit. From this pattern is then attributed Kabalistic hierarchies of Archangles (Auriel for Earth, Raphael to Air, Gabriel for Water, and Michael with Fire), the Four Worlds (Assiah, Yetzirah, Briah and Atziluth), parts of the soul, and many more correspondences which are too lengthy to address in this paper.

   

Central on our Rosicrucian Altars in the S.R.I.C.F. is the figure of the Pentagram (also called the pentacle, pentalpha, pentangle, pentancle), a five pointed star, formed by 5 straight lines between the vertices of a pentagon and enclosing another pentagon. The name pentagram is Greek, from penta (“five”) and gramma (“letter”). One of the most intriguing symbols of esotericism, it is has been held to have magical properties since time immemorial, and is a symbol that has been both revered by initiates as a talisman of power, and shunned by the masses in abject fear for hundreds of years.

 

Today the image of the five pointed star has become almost obsequious to the media, and the symbol has been used to promote Rock music and movies, feed Satanic furor with tales of “ritual slayings,” and other hype. Additionally, the many neo-pagan movements have adopted the pentagram as their ensign of “natural religion.” More recently, novels such as The Davinci Code have weaved a colorful blend of fact and fiction, and once again brought the image of the Pentagram into popular view. At the same time, there is a long, somewhat quiet esoteric history of usage associated with this symbol which initiates in all times have utilized.

 

Despite the seeming commonplace appearance of this symbol, it is little understood. This paper will endeavor to highlight some of the symbolic meanings of the pentagram, looking at historical usage across cultures and languages; Masonic usage in both the Craft and Higher Degrees, with emphasis on our Rosicrucian usage; the geometric properties inherent in the symbol, and western occult traditions of initiation and ceremonial magick. It is hoped that this paper will help to cut through the popular misinformation about this symbol, and shed some Light on the real properties and use of this powerful, sacred figure.

  

HISTORICAL USAGE

 

Although the origin of this symbol is lost in time, some occult authorities try to trace the source of its esoteric significance back to an astronomical phenomena, the so called “Pentagram of Venus” shown in the figure below[i]:

 

pentagram_venus

 

The synodic period of Venus is approximately 584 days. Plotting the greatest elongation west or east of this movement five successive times over a period of approximately 8 years and 5 days traces the figure of a Pentagram on the Zodiacal belt. Incidentally, the numbers 5 and 8 continue to play a role in the Rosicrucian symbolism of the pentagram, as will be seen further on.

 

The pentagram has been found on potsherds from the pre-cuneiform Uruk period of ancient Babylon (3500BCE). In later periods of Mesopotamian civilization it appears in cuneiform writing to represent the four cardinal directions with the fifth point representing “above;” as such, it represented the dominion of royal authority extending to “the four corners of the world and the heavens above.”

 

The symbol also appears in Egyptian hieroglyphics, associated with the Goddess Sopdet, who was represented in the night sky by the brightest star, Sirius, the so called Dog Star in the constellation of Canis Major[ii]. Interestingly, the name Sirius is from the Greek word seirios, which means “burning,” and brings to mind the Blazing Star of Masonry.

 

The Pythagoreans called the Pentagram Hugieia, with the combined meanings of “health,” “wholeness” and “blessings.” The letters of this word were placed around the points of the pentagram. According to Iamblichus, the five-pointed star was the Pythagorean sign of recognition and held sacred as a symbol of divine perfection. The Greek Goddess of Health was Hygeia, or the Roman Salus. Both of these names appear on talismans from Greek and Roman periods, with the image of the pentagram central.

 

Pythagoras was a known traveler, and the fact that he appears in Indian tantrik texts by name as Yavanacharya (“the Greek teacher”) may explain why the Pentagram also appears in early Hindu tantrik writings and art.

 

To the ancient Hebrews, the Pentagram was the symbol of Truth and the five books of the Pentateuch. Ameth, the Hebrew word for Truth, is associated with humanity by the kabbalistic technique of temurah using the Aiq Beqr system, which utilizes letter substitution according to specific rules[iii]. Later it will be seen that the very geometry of the Pentagram also encodes the idea of mankind and Truth.

 

The Pentagram found its way onto many Gnostic amulets. According to Budge

 

Gnostic amulets contained the pentacle which contained the ineffable name YHWH within it. More often the names Moses or Solomon were represented, Moses because he was connected with the setting up of the brazen serpent, and Solomon because his seal worked miracles.”[iv]

 

The early Christians associated the Pentagram with the five wounds of Christ. Later kabalistic Christians would associate the name of Christ in Hebrew characters, IHShVH or Yeheshua, to the five points of the pentagram. This method also shows the divine Tetragrammaton associated to the four points of the star, with the fifth top point being ascribed to the Hebrew letter shin, which symbolized spirit and fire, or the Holy Ghost. Thus the pentagram represented the descent of the divine fire into the world.

 

The Pentagram has been associated with the Star of Bethlehem or Three Kings’ Star, which led the Magi to the newborn Christ. Of these ideas Pike writes:

 

The Star which guided [the Magi] is that same Blazing Star, the image whereof we find in all initiations. To the Alchemists it is the sign of the Quintessence; to the Magists, the Grand Arcanum; to the Kabalists, the Sacred Pentagram. The study of this Pentagram could not but lead the Magi to the knowledge of the New Name which was about to raise itself above all names, and cause all creatures capable of adoration to bend the knee.[v]

 

In the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Pentagram was emblazoned in gold on Gawain’s shield, representing the five virtues of generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry and piety.

 

The symbol of the pentagram appears on many Knights Templar graves in France, as well as being intrinsic to the architecture and positioning of many chapels. One dramatic example is the mysterious shrine of Rennes du Chartres, said to be a center of Templar activity, which is situated in the center of a ring of mountains that form a nearly perfect pentagram.

 

The symbolism of the Western Mystery tradition has assigned the four elements of earth, air, water and fire to the four points of the pentagram, with the top point being attributed to the quintessence, or spirit. From this pattern is then attributed Kabalistic hierarchies of Archangles (Auriel for Earth, Raphael to Air, Gabriel for Water, and Michael with Fire), the Four Worlds (Assiah, Yetzirah, Briah and Atziluth), parts of the soul, and many more correspondences which are too lengthy to address in this paper.

  

MASONIC USAGE

 

The Zelator ritual of S.R.I.C.F. briefly introduces the symbolism of the Pentagram on the Altar to the new postulant:

 

The Five-pointed Star reminds us of the five points of felicity, which are to walk with, to intercede for, to love, to assist, and to pray for our Brethren, so as to be united with them in heart and mind.

 

As an emblem of the five points of felicity, the Pentagram reminds us of our duties towards our brethren of the Rose and Cross throughout the world.

 

Further in the ritual the subject of number symbolism is addressed, and the number five is explained as

 

the emblem of Health and Safety; it is also denominated the Occult number; the Pentagram was a famous talisman; it represents Spirit and the four elements.

 

The reference to health and safety is interesting as it is reminiscent of the Greek hygeia discussed earlier.

 

The Pentagram may be seen as symbolic of the entire course of initiation in the S.R.I.C.F. First Order, as the elemental degrees are easily associated with the elemental points of the Pentagram; while initiation into the Second Order represents the quintessence or fifth, top-most point of the Star. In this way, the candidate of the S.R.I.C.F. symbolically builds up the power of the pentagram internally as they progress through and assimilate the lessons of the degrees. Entrance to the Second Order would then represent Adepthood, as the initiate has established the flaming star within their very heart of hearts and embodies the very essence of the Pentagram, and is a living embodiment of the Stone of the Philosophers.

 

Within the Craft degrees, the figure of the Pentagram may also be seen in the image of the 5 rayed Blazing Star. According to Albert Pike, the pentagram is synonymous with the Blazing Star of Masonic Lodges:

 

The Blazing Star in our Lodges, we have already said, represents Sirius, Anubis, or Mercury, Guardian and Guide of Souls. Our Ancient English brethren also considered it an emblem of the Sun. In the old Lectures they said: ‘The Blazing Star or Glory in the centre refers us to that Grand Luminary the Sun, which enlightens the Earth, and by its genial influence dispenses blessings to mankind. It is also said in those lectures to be an emblem of Prudence. The word Prudentia means, in its original and fullest signification, Foresight: and accordingly the Blazing Star has been regarded as an emblem of Omniscience, or the All-

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THE SACRED PENTAGRAM

by Bro.Gregory H. Peters

Burlingame Lodge No. 400 F&AM

Grand Lodge of California

32° Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite in the Valley of Burlingame

Companion of King Solomon Chapter No. 95

Frater of the Golden State College of Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis.

 

Note: paper presented first at the November 2004 Convocation of Golden State College Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis.

Editor's Note: the paper has been edited for publication on this website

 

The Sacred Pentagram

INTRODUCTION

 

Central on our Rosicrucian Altars in the S.R.I.C.F. is the figure of the Pentagram (also called the pentacle, pentalpha, pentangle, pentancle), a five pointed star, formed by 5 straight lines between the vertices of a pentagon and enclosing another pentagon. The name pentagram is Greek, from penta (“five”) and gramma (“letter”). One of the most intriguing symbols of esotericism, it is has been held to have magical properties since time immemorial, and is a symbol that has been both revered by initiates as a talisman of power, and shunned by the masses in abject fear for hundreds of years.

 

Today the image of the five pointed star has become almost obsequious to the media, and the symbol has been used to promote Rock music and movies, feed Satanic furor with tales of “ritual slayings,” and other hype. Additionally, the many neo-pagan movements have adopted the pentagram as their ensign of “natural religion.” More recently, novels such as The Davinci Code have weaved a colorful blend of fact and fiction, and once again brought the image of the Pentagram into popular view. At the same time, there is a long, somewhat quiet esoteric history of usage associated with this symbol which initiates in all times have utilized.

 

Despite the seeming commonplace appearance of this symbol, it is little understood. This paper will endeavor to highlight some of the symbolic meanings of the pentagram, looking at historical usage across cultures and languages; Masonic usage in both the Craft and Higher Degrees, with emphasis on our Rosicrucian usage; the geometric properties inherent in the symbol, and western occult traditions of initiation and ceremonial magick. It is hoped that this paper will help to cut through the popular misinformation about this symbol, and shed some Light on the real properties and use of this powerful, sacred figure.

  

HISTORICAL USAGE

 

Although the origin of this symbol is lost in time, some occult authorities try to trace the source of its esoteric significance back to an astronomical phenomena, the so called “Pentagram of Venus” shown in the figure below[i]:

 

pentagram_venus

 

The synodic period of Venus is approximately 584 days. Plotting the greatest elongation west or east of this movement five successive times over a period of approximately 8 years and 5 days traces the figure of a Pentagram on the Zodiacal belt. Incidentally, the numbers 5 and 8 continue to play a role in the Rosicrucian symbolism of the pentagram, as will be seen further on.

 

The pentagram has been found on potsherds from the pre-cuneiform Uruk period of ancient Babylon (3500BCE). In later periods of Mesopotamian civilization it appears in cuneiform writing to represent the four cardinal directions with the fifth point representing “above;” as such, it represented the dominion of royal authority extending to “the four corners of the world and the heavens above.”

 

The symbol also appears in Egyptian hieroglyphics, associated with the Goddess Sopdet, who was represented in the night sky by the brightest star, Sirius, the so called Dog Star in the constellation of Canis Major[ii]. Interestingly, the name Sirius is from the Greek word seirios, which means “burning,” and brings to mind the Blazing Star of Masonry.

 

The Pythagoreans called the Pentagram Hugieia, with the combined meanings of “health,” “wholeness” and “blessings.” The letters of this word were placed around the points of the pentagram. According to Iamblichus, the five-pointed star was the Pythagorean sign of recognition and held sacred as a symbol of divine perfection. The Greek Goddess of Health was Hygeia, or the Roman Salus. Both of these names appear on talismans from Greek and Roman periods, with the image of the pentagram central.

 

Pythagoras was a known traveler, and the fact that he appears in Indian tantrik texts by name as Yavanacharya (“the Greek teacher”) may explain why the Pentagram also appears in early Hindu tantrik writings and art.

 

To the ancient Hebrews, the Pentagram was the symbol of Truth and the five books of the Pentateuch. Ameth, the Hebrew word for Truth, is associated with humanity by the kabbalistic technique of temurah using the Aiq Beqr system, which utilizes letter substitution according to specific rules[iii]. Later it will be seen that the very geometry of the Pentagram also encodes the idea of mankind and Truth.

 

The Pentagram found its way onto many Gnostic amulets. According to Budge

 

Gnostic amulets contained the pentacle which contained the ineffable name YHWH within it. More often the names Moses or Solomon were represented, Moses because he was connected with the setting up of the brazen serpent, and Solomon because his seal worked miracles.”[iv]

 

The early Christians associated the Pentagram with the five wounds of Christ. Later kabalistic Christians would associate the name of Christ in Hebrew characters, IHShVH or Yeheshua, to the five points of the pentagram. This method also shows the divine Tetragrammaton associated to the four points of the star, with the fifth top point being ascribed to the Hebrew letter shin, which symbolized spirit and fire, or the Holy Ghost. Thus the pentagram represented the descent of the divine fire into the world.

 

The Pentagram has been associated with the Star of Bethlehem or Three Kings’ Star, which led the Magi to the newborn Christ. Of these ideas Pike writes:

 

The Star which guided [the Magi] is that same Blazing Star, the image whereof we find in all initiations. To the Alchemists it is the sign of the Quintessence; to the Magists, the Grand Arcanum; to the Kabalists, the Sacred Pentagram. The study of this Pentagram could not but lead the Magi to the knowledge of the New Name which was about to raise itself above all names, and cause all creatures capable of adoration to bend the knee.[v]

 

In the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Pentagram was emblazoned in gold on Gawain’s shield, representing the five virtues of generosity, courtesy, chastity, chivalry and piety.

 

The symbol of the pentagram appears on many Knights Templar graves in France, as well as being intrinsic to the architecture and positioning of many chapels. One dramatic example is the mysterious shrine of Rennes du Chartres, said to be a center of Templar activity, which is situated in the center of a ring of mountains that form a nearly perfect pentagram.

 

The symbolism of the Western Mystery tradition has assigned the four elements of earth, air, water and fire to the four points of the pentagram, with the top point being attributed to the quintessence, or spirit. From this pattern is then attributed Kabalistic hierarchies of Archangles (Auriel for Earth, Raphael to Air, Gabriel for Water, and Michael with Fire), the Four Worlds (Assiah, Yetzirah, Briah and Atziluth), parts of the soul, and many more correspondences which are too lengthy to address in this paper.

ALCHEMIC USAGE: The Zelator ritual of S.R.I.C.F. briefly introduces the symbolism of the Pentagram on the Altar to the new postulant: The Five-pointed Star reminds us of the five points of felicity, which are to walk with, to intercede for, to love, to assist, and to pray for our Brethren, so as to be united with them in heart and mind. As an emblem of the five points of felicity, the Pentagram reminds us of our duties towards our brethren of the Rose and Cross throughout the world. Further in the ritual the subject of number symbolism is addressed, and the number five is explained as the emblem of Health and Safety; it is also denominated the Occult number; the Pentagram was a famous talisman; it represents Spirit and the four elements.

The reference to health and safety is interesting as it is reminiscent of the Greek hygeia discussed earlier.

The Pentagram may be seen as symbolic of the entire course of initiation in the S.R.I.C.F. First Order, as the elemental degrees are easily associated with the elemental points of the Pentagram; while initiation into the Second Order represents the quintessence or fifth, top-most point of the Star. In this way, the candidate of the S.R.I.C.F. symbolically builds up the power of the pentagram internally as they progress through and assimilate the lessons of the degrees. Entrance to the Second Order would then represent Adepthood, as the initiate has established the flaming star within their very heart of hearts and embodies the very essence of the Pentagram, and is a living embodiment of the Stone of the Philosophers.

Within the Craft degrees, the figure of the Pentagram may also be seen in the image of the 5 rayed Blazing Star. According to Albert Pike, the pentagram is synonymous with the Blazing Star of Masonic Lodges:

The Blazing Star in our Lodges, we have already said, represents Sirius, Anubis, or Mercury, Guardian and Guide of Souls. Our Ancient English brethren also considered it an emblem of the Sun. In the old Lectures they said: ‘The Blazing Star or Glory in the centre refers us to that Grand Luminary the Sun, which enlightens the Earth, and by its genial influence dispenses blessings to mankind. It is also said in those lectures to be an emblem of Prudence. The word Prudentia means, in its original and fullest signification, Foresight: and accordingly the Blazing Star has been regarded as an emblem of Omniscience, or the All-Seeing Eye, which to the Ancients was the Sun.[vi]

He further associates this star with the “Divine Energy, manifested as Light, creating the Universe.”[vii]

The Alchemic scholar Rex Hutchins asserts that the Pentagram is the symbol of the Divine in man… The five-pointed star with a single point upward represents the Divine. It also symbolizes man for its five points allude to the five senses, the five members (head, arms and legs) and his five fingers on each hand, which signify the tokens that distinguish alchemists. Furthermore he writes that this figure is the symbol of the Microcosm, the universe where humans dwell. Since the pentagon which encloses the pentagram may be formed by connecting the five points of the human body, for many centuries the symbol was also used to represent humanity in general. Within this symbol then is a representation of humanity, and our Divine role in the Universe as co-creators of eternity. In addition to being a central altar piece in our Rosicrucian Temples, and the Blazing Star of the Craft Lodges, the Pentagram appears as an ensign in some of the High Degrees and rites. For example, it is central on the apron of the 28th Degree of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, Knight of the Sun or Prince Adept. In discussing the symbol of the pentagram in the lecture of this degree, Pike writes in Morals & Dogma that in certain undertakings [the Pentagram] cannot be dispensed with. It is what is termed the Kabalistic pentacle… This carries with it the power of commanding the spirits of the elements. A central lesson of this highly Kabalistic and Alchemical degree is that there is no death, only change. The Pentagram, symbol of humanity as the microcosm is an apt representation of this wisdom which, to one who has internalized it, may have that contempt for death which is expressed in the line from 1 Corinthians – “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

In the same lecture, Pike alludes to the true meaning of this radiant symbol: When the masters in Alchemy say that it needs but little time and expense to accomplish the works of Science. When they affirm, above all, that but a single vessel is necessary, when they speak of the Great and Single furnace, which all can use, which is within the reach of all the world, and which men possess without knowing it, they allude to the philosophical and moral Alchemy. In fact, a strong and determined will can, in a little while, attain complete independence; and we all possess that chemical instrument, the great and single athanor or furnace, which serves to separate the subtle from the gross, and the fixed from the volatile. This instrument, complete as the world, and accurate as the mathematics themselves, is designated by the Sages under the emblem of the Pentagram or Star with five points, the absolute sign of human intelligence. It may be said that the Pentagram represents the power of the Divine Will, as manifested in Humanity, to effect conscious change. As conscious participants with the Divine Will, humanity is in the unique position of being able to be co-creators with the Divine. Our sisters of the Eastern Star utilize a Pentagram as their primary symbol. Interestingly, their usage places the pentagram “upside down,” with two points on top and a single point facing down. According to esoteric tradition, this usage indicates the “evil” forces of darkness. The occult authority Eliphas Levi writes in Transcendental Magic: The Pentagram with two horns in the ascendant represents Satan, or the goat of the Sabbath, and with the single horn in the ascendant is the sign of the Savior. It is the figure of the human body with the four members and a point representing the head; a human figure head downward naturally represents the demon, that is, intellectual subversion, disorder and folly. As to whether the author of the Easter Star rituals was aware of these qualities when designing the emblem of the rite is most likely unknown. A contemporary member of the Eastern Star has informed us that the explanation of the symbol she received attributes the two points as facing towards the east, providing an unobstructed channel from the altar to the Eastern dais, as well as creating a confined center or “chamber” in the east that is formed between the two extended points and the dais. All Alchemists would be familiar with the idea of having the path from the Altar to the East clear at all times, and this may in fact be the most probable reason for the design., manifested as Light, creating the Universe.”[vii]

The alchemists asserts that the Pentagram is the symbol of the Divine in man… The five-pointed star with a single point upward represents the Divine. It also symbolizes man for its five points allude to the five senses, the five members (head, arms and legs) and his five fingers on each hand, which signify the tokens that distinguish alchemits.Furthermore he writes that this figure is the symbol of the Microcosm, the universe where humans dwell. Since the pentagon which encloses the pentagram may be formed by connecting the five points of the human body, for many centuries the symbol was also used to represent humanity in general. Within this symbol then is a representation of humanity, and our Divine role in the Universe as co-creators of eternity.

In addition to being a central altar piece in our Rosicrucian Temples, and the Blazing Star of the Craft Lodges, the Pentagram appears as an ensign in some of the High Degrees and rites. For example, it is central on the apron of the 28th Degree of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, Knight of the Sun or Prince Adept. In discussing the symbol of the pentagram in the lecture of this degree, Pike writes in Morals & Dogma that in certain undertakings [the Pentagram] cannot be dispensed with. It is what is termed the Kabalistic pentacle… This carries with it the power of commanding the spirits of the elements.

A central lesson of this highly Kabalistic and Alchemical degree is that there is no death, only change. The Pentagram, symbol of humanity as the microcosm is an apt representation of this wisdom which, to one who has internalized it, may have that contempt for death which is expressed in the line from 1 Corinthians – “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”

In the same lecture, Pike alludes to the true meaning of this radiant symbol:

When the masters in Alchemy say that it needs but little time and expense to accomplish the works of Science. When they affirm, above all, that but a single vessel is necessary, when they speak of the Great and Single furnace, which all can use, which is within the reach of all the world, and which men possess without knowing it, they allude to the philosophical and moral Alchemy. In fact, a strong and determined will can, in a little while, attain complete independence; and we all possess that chemical instrument, the great and single athanor or furnace, which serves to separate the subtle from the gross, and the fixed from the volatile. This instrument, complete as the world, and accurate as the mathematics themselves, is designated by the Sages under the emblem of the Pentagram or Star with five points, the absolute sign of human intelligence. It may be said that the Pentagram represents the power of the Divine Will, as manifested in Humanity, to effect conscious change. As conscious participants with the Divine Will, humanity is in the unique position of being able to be co-creators with the Divine. Our sisters of the Eastern Star utilize a Pentagram as their primary symbol. Interestingly, their usage places the pentagram “upside down,” with two points on top and a single point facing down. According to esoteric tradition, this usage indicates the “evil” forces of darkness. The occult authority Eliphas Levi writes in Transcendental Magic:

 

The Pentagram with two horns in the ascendant represents Satan, or the goat of the Sabbath, and with the single horn in the ascendant is the sign of the Savior. It is the figure of the human body with the four members and a point representing the head; a human figure head downward naturally represents the demon, that is, intellectual subversion, disorder and folly. As to whether the author of the Easter Star rituals was aware of these qualities when designing the emblem of the rite is most likely unknown. A contemporary member of the Eastern Star has informed us that the explanation of the symbol she received attributes the two points as facing towards the east, providing an unobstructed channel from the altar to the Eastern dais, as well as creating a confined center or “chamber” in the east that is formed between the two extended points and the dais. All alchemists would be familiar with the idea of having the path from the Altar to the East clear at all times, and this may in fact be the most probable reason for the design. The Pentagram has a long history of occult use. It was by use of a poorly constructed Pentagram that Mephistopheles was able to manifest in the circle of Faust! Magical grimoires of the western esoteric tradition are replete with examples of pentagrams being used as protective and evocatory talismans, or as the seals of circles of the Art which were traced on the floor of the ritual chamber. Literally thousands of examples are extant from the works of Trithemius, Dr. John Dee, Heinrich Agrippa, Kircher, Bruno, and many others, which show the hermetic and kabalistic applications of the Pentagram in ceremonial ritual use.Perhaps one of the most evocative descriptions of the occult powers of this symbol comes from the magician Eliphas Levi (Alphonse Louis Constant), who writes of the Pentagram in his book Transcendental Magic:

The Pentagram expresses the mind's domination over the elements and it is by this sign that we bind the demons of the air, the spirits of fire, the spectres of water, and the ghosts of earth. It is the Star of the Magi, the burning star of the Gnostic schools, the sign of intellectual omnipotence and autocracy. Its complete comprehension is the key of two worlds‑‑it is absolute natural philosophy and natural science. Its use, how-ever, is most dangerous to operators who do not completely and perfectly understand it. All mysteries of magic, all symbols of the gnosis, all figures of occultism, all Qabalis-tic keys of prophecy, are resumed in the sign of the Pentagram, which Paracelsus pro-claims to be the greatest and most potent of all. [...] this absolute sign, this sign as old or as older than history, should and must actually exercise an incalculable influence on souls disengaged from their material envelope. Armed therewith and suitably disposed, we can behold infinity through the medium of that faculty which is as the Soul’s Eye, and can cause ourselves to be served by legions of angels and demon hordes. The empire of the Will over the Astral Light which is the physical soul of the four elements, is represented in magic by the Pentagram.,If it be asked how a sign can exercise that immense power over spirits which is claimed for the Pentagram, we inquire in turn why the Christian world bows before the sign of the cross. The sign by itself is nothing, it derives strength from the doctrine which is resumes, and of which it is the Logos. Now, a sign which epitomizes by expression all the occult forces of Nature, which has always manifested to the elementary and other spirits a power superior to their own, naturally strikes them with fear and respect, and enforces their obedience by the empire of knowledge and will over ignorance and weakness. The points of the pentagram are often associated with the five-fold name of the Christ, IHShVH or Yeheshua. Paul Foster Case describes this: The letters at the five points of the pentagram are the Roman characters corresponding to Yod, Heh, Shin, Vau and Heh. They are the letters which spell the divine name IHVH, Jehovah, with the ‘holy letter,’ Shin, symbol of the Holy Spirit, placed between the first two and last two letters, thus: I H Sh V H. This is the occult and Rosicrucian spelling of the name Yeheshua, or Jesus…’It is the symbol of the Word made flesh.’ […] every pentagram … symbolizes the mystical name IHShVH…[viii]

 

www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/pentagram_freemasonry.html

Gateway Camp Verse

(Pin1) Ging1 Mahn4

Isaiah 62:10

 

What Dale instructed about going out of our way to treat the Mainland Chinese well resonated within me. To be sure, just as the Koreans have gone out of their way to bless me so I must step out to bless and to love my Mainland brethren.

 

After the first meeting, Ed and I wandered off campus and found inside a shopping mall a cha chaan teng where we had a late-night snack. And hardly had we tucked into our meals when in walked several dozen volunteers, all locals, who were overcome, it seemed, by the same munchies that infected Ed and me. It’s surprising how such a primal urge, at such a time, drives everyone to no less than the same, impossibly far location.

 

I thus far have met so many people that, had I not brought along my iPod, I would have already lost track of the multitudinous names flying around like fireflies at night, sparkling luminously one moment and then disappearing the next. And this is only the beginning: more and more people will arrive both today and tomorrow so I had better stay awake, alert, and writing.

 

I am working with a partner who really challenges me, and indeed that is why I chose to work with him. From the first words that came streaming out of his mouth, I knew he would be a special one, and as if to conifrm my conjecture, indeed, the more he spoke, the more confused I became. The challenge, I have realized after much ruminating, isn’t so much the pace of his speech as his choice of words, which fall outside a normal lexical range; that is, at least with me, when he talks, he doesn’t use familiar collocations to communicate; besides, he has an uncanny Tin Shui Wai accent; those, along with his amazing resistance to Chinglish, which impresses me, by the way, have made our communication tedious, since I am bombarded by peculiar lexical constructions that I generally never encounter in Cantonese conversation and must therefore stop our flow to clarify his speech. It’s too bad that he doesn’t speak English as I would love to hear how he structures ideas in my native language to determine whether or not this strange lexis has spilled over into his other modes of communication.

 

Regardless, in being with him, I have learned to be patient, and if I am truly to walk away from resentment, I must continue rather to engage him than to keep him at arm’s length. It helps us, then, that he is a congenial fellow, prone more to expressing love, much in the same way that I do by warmly grabbing a forearm or a shoulder, than to venting his frustration, which with me could certainly be great. He is verily a good guy, and so long as the Lord keeps him — I am sure Daddy will — Tin Shui Wai, that small patch of concrete moon colony, is in capable, faithful human hands.

 

Sau2 muhn6 je2

Mihng6 dihng6

Kyuhn4 lihk6

Lihk6 leuhng6

Chong3 yi3 adjective

Chong3 jouh6 verb

 

Romans 5:3-5

 

Not only so, but we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

 

I cried this morning when I read these words, because they are true, and comfort my soul as water to a dry, parched land. However many times I’ve lamented this place and its people, I am still inextricably tied to this rock, per God’s will for my life; and God really is faithful in providing a way out not from this place but from these spiritual hindrances. These past few days, what with communication failures and fatigue setting in, I could have more easily give into my rationality, in defense of my weaknesses, than resisted this bait of satan. Thank God, hence, for the words which are like fuel for the refiner’s fire that burns up all my expectations, my pride and my flesh. I can survive, nay, rejoice, indeed, because of God, who, in me, day by day teaches me to suffer long with a smile.

 

This is what the gateway is all about, I believe: jumping head-first out of my comfort zone to confront the nations, for my brothers and sisters and I must face each other if we are to raise the banners together. Battling through enemy strongholds of mistrust ad resentment, we demolish carnal thoughts and dig deep in the Spirit for the unity that shall overcome as much language as culture; God, after all, is bigger, even, than the battlefield. In these ways can my brethren and I love each other as ourselves, as we shall be one in the Father, with audacious power and boldness laying hands on His kingdom which advances, in this kairos moment, over all of China, including, no doubt, Hong Kong. No longer will there be curses thrown upon the nations; but rather the river of life will flow through the city, and the leaves of the tree on each side of the river will be for the healing of the nations.

 

1) Welcoming the Father

2) Unifying the body

3) Partnering with the Chinese

4) Serving the city

5) Supporting the Chinese

 

Isaac and I have worked quite hard this morning, putting up signs all over campus, and as if to reward me for my assiduity, he offered to buy me a drink, an offer which I took up. Indeed, this man’s care and concern for others, genuine, doubtlessly, fills me with joy, for, to be sure, the joy of the lord is his strength. My friend is indefatigable, always encouraging and never slighting, no matter the circumstances, rain (that has happened a lot today) or shine. Praise God!

 

Much like my relationship with Isaac, my relationships with my other team members have improved considerably since, even, this morning’s briefing during which, the code-switching, happening too fast and too furiously for my comfort, vexed me so terribly that if Isaac had not put a generous arm around my shoulder immediately afterwards, I surely would have blown my top in frustration at the perplexing language option. Thankfully, my team and I settled our language arrangements: Isaac, Dorcas and I will intractably speak Cantonese to each other whereas my other group mates and I will use English with as little code-switching as possible; and I, along with Ed, no doubt, am satisfied. It’s best to avoid misunderstandings.

 

Lihng4 Mahn4 (soul)

Sihng4 jeung2

Muhng6 Seung2 (dreams)

 

The Lord’s mercies are new everyday. Just now, during the morning rally, by His Spirit, hundreds of brothers and sisters received a new anointing, to be spiritual mothers and fathers of a new generation so as to minister to the next. This outpouring of the Spirit was sudden, and so captivated me that when the call came to reap, I rushed to the front to ask my father for this anointing, and naturally, my life was transformed. In the same way, the pastor called up a new generation of spiritual children to receive the love, care and support of these new parents; and likewise, so many young men and women heeded this call that verily, the pit in front of the stage was soon awash in hugs and tears between generations that, once lost, were now found. Indeed, no sooner did these people embrace their father than Dad immediately swept them up in his strong arms and showered them with audacious encouragement and support. Praise God!

 

An Outburst

 

I was angry this morning during our team time. I temporarily lost my ability to be merciful and to live in God’s grace. When my team leader began to address me in English, yet again, I couldn’t help but berate him for doing so when Cantonese, I argued, would be a more economical medium of delivery. And then I compounded this already incendiary situation by ranting about the hypocrisy of Hong Kong being a gateway to China but not a gateway into its own neighborhoods teeming with Chinese people, 97% of whom, according to one of the pastors at this camp, do not know the Lord Jesus. Cantonese will matter, I posit, if anyone dares to take on the onerous mission in this vexing place.

 

To be sure, even my brother announced that language was a prohibitive barrier to closer relationships with these local people, and therefore, since he neither speaks Cantonese nor is going to give learning the language a go, he is relegated to the outer walls of the gates into Hong Kong.

 

In hindsight, I thought I cared enough about God’s purposes for me in Hong Kong, but I realize now that I still care a lot about myself, and resentment. Though I have prayed and declared boldly that God is bigger than language and culture, I know I don’t believe it; and that’s upsetting. For the time being, I don’t verily believe in my heart that I can have deeper, closer relationships with Chinese people without the benefit of language and culture, patterns of action.

 

OK. This is actually an opportune start for my spiritual parentship, for now I have an opportunity to put aside my very compelling arguments for the necessity of language and culture in deep and close relationships, these conclusions born out of my reason, and to step out in faith, to trust in the Lord who, I pray, will show me deep and close relationships sans language and culture, and with whom my deep and close relationship shall obviously be the key to this victory.

 

I’m thinking about events at this camp that heretofore demonstrated loving relationships without language and culture, and I recalled two acts: the first happened yesterday when I spontaneously joined a line of ushers to high-five and to cheer the audience as they flooded out of the auditorium, the morning rally having scarcely finished; and the second, this was my meeting Yao, a man from the Ivory Coast, whom I befriended in those first, fleeting, if not frantic moments before the opening rally on Friday evening. That encounter was immediate and sudden, neither words nor habits needed; Yao and I simply high-fived, hugged and sat beside each other; and wow, that was terrific companionship — praise God!

 

Finally, however hard my diatribe may have struck my team members’ hearts, my merciful group mates still forgave me, not only on an personal level, but also, as I had sought forgiveness on behalf of all foreigners who have ever cursed locals or stood passively outside the gateway, on a corporate level, thereby releasing countless non-Chinese people into the freedom of these Hong Kong people’s forgiveness; just as brothers and sisters had so recently been reconciled to each other in my church, so local and non-local people have received the others’ freedom of forgiveness; more than a homecoming, that, indeed, is a breakthrough.

 

In listening to this morning’s sermon, I hear such verses as I know God is speaking to me through His word. 2Corinthians 4:16-18, this scripture in particular carries a buoyant, hopeful currency in my heart. My spirit soaks in this divine revelation as a sponge soaks in water and thus becomes malleable, able to be formed and shaped according to its holder’s will: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 

Disagreeable

 

I don’t know why my brother and I undermine each others’ comments; why we no more know consensus than the deaf music. Our interactions have been especially abrasive recently since we have spent so much time together without the benefit of our other brother to act as a natural, vociferous buffer; and as a result we argue like pieces of sand paper being rubbed against flesh, which inevitably leads to significant soreness. I feel sore now.

 

I think back to my outburst this morning and can appreciate my role in this evening’s embarrassing outcome; I am certainly not without fault, for I choose these days not only to venture my opinions but to do so passionately, if not emotionally. People consequently who otherwise are phlegmatic at best are put in a discomfiting position by my impassioned pleas. Besides, I recall Interrupting my brother prolifically, which understandably would not make him a happy camper; just as a hyperactive child doesn’t know when to stop pestering his sibling, so I don’t know nowadays when to hold my tongue. Indeed, I would rather not respond at all to my brother, even after he has fired off his rejoinder, than to strike him down in mid-speech.

 

In view of this latest incident, I have resolved to take the former course of action. To be sure, I simply stopped our petty dispute about a stupid basketball game by, awkward as it was, taking out my book and perusing it as fixedly as my tattered mind would allow. I will try my best to stay away from my brother for a spell, to create physical and spiritual space between us, so hopefully, in this way at least one of us will be able to come to his senses about this matter; better yet, now would be an opportune time for our father in his mercy to reveal to us the fault lines in our flesh so that we could surrender these tremulous spots in our soul, crucifying them to the father for our healing and the redemption of our relationship. I will pray about this.

 

…Praise God. If I had not separated myself from my brother’s presence, I wouldn’t have been sitting at that bench at the exact moment when Isaac came over to me in a plaintive mood. Obviously upset, he had been so recently wronged, he lamented on the verge of tears. And at that, mercy swept over my countenance, for my brother felt as aggrieved as I did earlier; and this appointment, per God’s unfailing, obstinate love, had at last come for me, convicting me to be very, very agreeable, sympathetic and kind to my fellow long-suffering brother. In this instance, thank God, language did not matter so much as empathy, carrying each others’ burdens and thus fulfilling the rule of Christ. We prayed and blessed each other in Jesus’ name, and then boldly went forward into the rally.

 

I suspect the enemy has infiltrated our team what with my outbursts and Isaac’s failing out as evidence. My group mates and I must be more vigilant in prayer and in digging deep into the Father’s word if we are to overcome the spies in our camp that have planted incendiary devices in our mouths and in our hearts. We certainly need such encouragement as the Lord provides for the edification and encouragement of each other, even more so, in fact, in the face of adversity, despite our fatigue and other physical ills that befall us like a hail of arrows. In faith, I’m sure, faith will see us through; and per what the pastors exhorted at the rally, we will become as if the smooth stone in David’s sling, ready to fly into the air to crush the Goliath in this world.

 

Sihng4 jauh6 achievement

Ngwuih misunderstanding

Nggaai2 to misunderstand

Yuhn4 leuhng6 forgive

Gaan2syun2 chosen

 

The Security Guard

 

At the morning rally, a security guard left an indelible impression on my heart what with her showing of unconditional support and her proffering of words of encouragement, which like a waterfall fell in force and power over my friends and me. To my amazement, I first saw her out of the corner of my eye stepping out of her role as a security guard to pray as a spiritual parent to two spiritual children during the morning rally’s prayer time; there she was, clad in her blue uniform, laying hands on those weeping kids; finally, I had witnessed someone courageous enough to step out of that rule of law, her boundary in Hong Kong, to be bound to that which is ethereal, the rule of Christ to carry each others’ burdens. Later, as the audience passed through the exit, I had time to confirm her love for the Lord and at that, we broke into a torrent of encouragement and followed this with a flurry of picture-taking. Indeed, never have I stumbled upon such good will from a dragon security guard in HK so I am hopeful, therefore, that this is but the the start of a greater movement within that particular demon-worshipping core, that at this time, God is opening up the heavenly armory and placing his prayer warriors inside that particular stronghold in Hong Kong to demolish every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and placing in its stead a profusion of love, gentleness and kindness. I look forward to the day when wisdom, and not languid stares, shall emanate from all the people who man the facilities in these universities.

 

Reconciliation

 

This is special. No sooner had Isaac and I stepped into the auditorium than we heard the plaintive cry of the mainland Chinese on the stage forgiving the Hong Kong people for their trespasses against their brethren from the north. A flurry of hugs, replete with a few tears, ensued. That was, as Dale announced from the stage, a delicious moment. Jesus must have been breaking out the good champagne in heaven for a rousing celebration in view of this victory.

 

Sex Talk – Part One

 

The kids finally received the sex talk this morning; a fiery pastor delivered the message which was as much shocking as informative; and gasps and wincing abounded in the audience.

 

While I have recently heard the sex talk at the men’s retreat, and have furthermore by God’s grace been inoculated against this particular area of struggle, it was nonetheless refreshing to hear the news, as shocking and as sensational as it was. I am willing, in addition, to believe that some of the atrocious acts that the pastor referenced, such as gruesome abortions and bizarre sexual acts, are more prevalent than my reason will believe, because my scope is limited by experience, but as the Father witnesses everything, if the Spirit has convicted this man and has told him that the world is heading closer and closer into the mouth of Jezebel in this way, I accept this. In fact, believing this is important if I am to be a good spiritual parent who will not only protect but educate the new generation from the prowling enemy that lurks these days, even, in our computers.

 

Prayer

 

The Holy Spirit fell over me this morning during my group’s team time. He convicted me to pray in Cantonese for the first time, and so I did without fear, those Chinese words pouring out of me as if perfume from an alabaster jar. Praise God: he is good; and this was the moment I have been waiting for.

 

I think about what happened, and am amazed at the Father’s favor; despite my critiques against this culture, and in spite of my recent lamentations, the Lord, ever faithfully, provided a way out under which I could stand and by which I could be protected from the bait of Satan. Little did I know that the escape route would, in fact, ironically, direct me to the very thing that heretofore has stood as an obstruction, a spiritual roadblock, in my mind.

 

A missionary on the stage just spoke into my life when she said about her experience learning Putonghua in China: the difficult part was not learning the language but learning to love those people as Jesus loves them. This will always be my mission, no matter where I am.

 

Keuhng4 jong3

Lai1 hei2 (pull up)

 

In the afternoon, my team had a reconciliation meeting during which, in small groups, each team member at last was given an opportunity to share alternately their joys and struggles. At that time, though having staved off an open rebuke for several days, I could no longer hold back this challenge to my small group: to step out in faith to be a gateway to the nations; and second, per the morning’s message, to on their guard against the sexually explicit, insidious media. I laid out my argument with much cogency, and such a response as I saw fit knocked my group mates into a stupor, because they certainly didn’t have much to say afterwards.

 

Oscillate between…and…

Vacillate…

Equivocated

Prevaricate

 

Sex Talk – Part Two

 

1) Jesus came to show us the Father; John1:18

2) Grace First, Truth Second; John 1:24:25; 16-18

 

Pahn4 mohng6 (hope)

 

Do you believe that Jesus can heal you? Then lay hands.

 

Dale and I are men who have shared similar struggles. His testimony is riveting.

 

Suddenly, I realized that this rally is, in fact, a continuation of yesterday morning’s sex talk, because we ended the previous rally praying more against the shame of abortion than against personal sexual immorality. Notionally, what is being discussed will enable people to really experience the love of the Father such that to change permanently our behavior. So when we are tempted:

 

1) Call for help; Romans 10:13

2) Escape Plan; 1Corinthians 10:13

 

Remember not to stand and rebuke the enemy with your own strength; move physically from the situation.

 

3) Run Away; 2Timothy 2:22

4) Into the Father’s Arms; Hebrews 4:14

 

I like this talk. This might be the first time that these young people get straight sex talk from their leaders; and there is no better time than now for these young people to break through in this particular area of struggle, just as the young men of SP broke through these obstinate barriers during our men’s retreat.

 

5) Confess and be Healed; James 5:16

 

I hope these young people find faithful accountability brothers and sisters in this service.

 

6) Walk in Transparent Accountable Relationships; 1John 1:7

7) Resist the Enemy; James 4:7

www.holyspiritspeaks.org/videos/gospel-movie-waiting-5/

Introduction

"He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 2:29). Have you heard the Holy Spirit speak to the churches? Are the words spoken by Almighty God and the Lord Jesus uttered from one Spirit, from one source? This movie clip will reveal this to you!

 

Storyline:

 

Yang Hou'en is a pastor at a house church in China. With his father Yang Shoudao, they have awaited the Lord Jesus to descend from the clouds and take them up into the kingdom of heaven. For this, they diligently worked for the Lord, held fast to His name, and believed that anyone who is not the Lord Jesus descending from the clouds is a false Christ. And so, when they heard the news of the Lord's second coming, they did not listen to it or accept it. They thought that it was best to watch and wait. … While they waited passively, Yang Hou'en's cousin Li Jiayin accepted the work of Almighty God in the last days, and spread the gospel to them. After some intense discussions, Yang Hou'en finally understood the true meaning of "watch and wait," and could see that Almighty God's words are the truth, the way, the life, and these are the voice of the Lord, and Almighty God is the second coming of the Lord Jesus that they had waited for so many years …

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Third Sunday of Lent

 

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 4:5-42

 

Jesus came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.

Jacob's well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.

A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."

His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, "How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

(The woman) said to him, "Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water?

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?"

Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again;

but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

Jesus said to her, "Go call your husband and come back."

The woman answered and said to him, "I do not have a husband." Jesus answered her, "You are right in saying, 'I do not have a husband.'

For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true."

The woman said to him, "Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.

Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem."

Jesus said to her, "Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.

God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth."

The woman said to him, "I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything."

Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking with you."

At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, "What are you looking for?" or "Why are you talking with her?"

The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people,

Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?

They went out of the town and came to him.

Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat."

But he said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."

So the disciples said to one another, "Could someone have brought him something to eat?"

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.

Do you not say, 'In four months the harvest will be here'? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.

The reaper is already receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.

For here the saying is verified that 'One sows and another reaps.'

I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work."

Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me everything I have done."

When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.

Many more began to believe in him because of his word,

and they said to the woman, "We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world."

The Furnace of Affliction!

William Nicholson and Milburn Cockrell

 

"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction!" Isaiah 48:10

The Bible has much to say about the afflictions of God's people. Psalm 34:19 declares: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous." It is sometimes necessary for God to put His people in the furnace of affliction. This act flows from both the justice and compassion of God. He does this to try and to prove His people. This was true of Israel of old (Deuteronomy 4:20), and it is equally true of the New Testament believer. Sometimes He exercised them with heavy trials; placing them in the furnace of affliction. And it appears from the context, that a consignment to such an ordeal had been beneficial in its influence.

In the time of the Old Testament a "furnace" was a crucible for melting and refining silver and gold (Proverbs 17:3; 27:21). The word is used figuratively in the Scriptures. It this text, it means severe and grievous afflictions by which God purifies and proves His people (Ezekiel 22:18-22; Isaiah 32:9).

 

The Furnace is AFFLICTIVE

That is, the furnace is composed of many severe trials, of much mental and bodily suffering, which are designed by the great Proprietor and Manager of this furnace, to purge and refine the souls of His people.

Many agents are used by God in working out His sovereign purposes. He may use men, things, and circumstances. This is all hinted at in the action of fire in a furnace. A furnace with a fire in it causes suffering and separation. Fire finds out what is worthless; it cleanses. Now I want to list some of the forms these afflictions take.

First, God may send us a scantiness of earthly things. This may be induced by lack of employment—it may be the result of sickness—it may result from the injustice of man.

"I gave you empty stomachs in every city and lack of bread in every town" (Amos 4:6). We may not have enough food to dirty our teeth. The Lord controls both nature and worldly circumstances. He has many ways of taking away our temporal goods. Though we may work hard every work day and make much money, God can cause it to not go very far. "You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." (Haggai 1:6).

Second, there can be affliction in our body. "My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body." (Psalm 38:5-7). The great Manager of the furnace of affliction, chastens the body with pain, burns with fever, or wastes it by disease.

Third, this affliction may take the form of bereavements. "And Sarah died at Kiriath-arba in the land of Canaan. There Abraham mourned and wept for her." (Genesis 23:2). Our friends and relatives get sick and die. Many of us have been put in this furnace of affliction. Friends and relatives are removed by death, lest we trust too much in them, instead of the Lord.

Fourth, the Lord sends domestic trials. "At the age of forty, Esau married two Hittite wives: Judith, the daughter of Beeri, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon. But Esau’s wives made life miserable for Isaac and Rebekah!" (Genesis 26:34-35). Sometimes our child will make a bad choice of a mate for life. Often times even small children in the home mock their father and despise their mother (Proverbs 30:17). The actions of our children can . . .

break our hearts,

put gray hairs in our heads,

and hasten us to the grave!

All of God's elect have been in this furnace of affliction! Adam first experienced it when he sinned in Eden.

Moses suffered afflictions with the people of God.

David was persecuted by his blood-thirsty enemies.

Job lost his possessions, children, and health.

Jeremiah and Isaiah were cruelly treated.

Daniel was put in the lions' den.

Paul and Silas were put in prison.

Even our Lord was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

 

This Furnace is DIVINELY APPOINTED

Afflictions are not the result of chance or blind fate.

Afflictions do not arise out of the dust (Job 5:6).

Afflictions are not to be traced to secondary causes.

Afflictions are not merely the work of our enemies.

Afflictions come from the moral government of God.

Afflictions come by the wise and gracious arrangement of God's divine providence. "So that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this!" (1 Thessalonians 3:3). "Heed the rod, and the One who appointed it!" (Micah 6:9).

The same God who sends the sunshine and the rain — also sends His people into the furnace of affliction. "The LORD kills, and makes alive. He brings down to the grave, and raises up. The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts!" (1 Samuel 2:7). In Isaiah 45:7 Jehovah declares: "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things!"

The wise man sees the hand of God in affliction — as well as in affluence. Every event is either of His appointment — or it has His all-wise permission. God works all things after the counsel of His own will (Ephesians 1:11), and so all things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28). "Behold, He snatches away; who can hinder or turn Him back? Who will say to Him, What are You doing? He destroys the blameless and the wicked" (Job 9:12, 22).

God's afflictive providence, is the working out of His sovereign will. Often we see God's hand in great things — but not in little things. We see His hand in good things — but not in evil things. "Behold, this evil is of the LORD" (2 Kings 6:33). Job asked his wife: "What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:10). "Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD has not done it?" (Amos 3:6). "For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good: but evil came down from the LORD unto the gate of Jerusalem" (Micah 1:12). These verses do not teach that God is the author of sin. Rather they teach that when God sends us afflictions — they seem evil unto us.

When grace enables us to see the hand of God in all events, we can bear these without murmuring or complaining. Job lost his family, his wealth, and his good health, yet he consoled himself: "For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such decrees are with Him!" (Job 23:14). David suffered much from his enemies and his family, yet he was happy to say: "My times are in Your hand!" (Psalm 31:15). Still again hear him: "I was silent; I would not open my mouth — for You are the one who has done this!" (Psalm 39:9). When Eli was told his family tree would be cut off, he said to young Samuel: "He is the LORD; let Him do what is good in His eyes!" (1 Samuel 3:18). When Hezekiah was told by the Prophet Isaiah that his sons would be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon, he said: "The word of the LORD you have spoken is good" (Isaiah 39:8).

How wonderful to know that a God of infinite love and wisdom has arranged all things which come to pass in this world. When we find ourselves in a very dark chapter of the book of Divine Providence, we must fall upon the words of our Lord: "What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand!" (John 13:7).

 

This Furnace is Not Vindictive, but GRACIOUS

The chastisement of God is always less than we deserve: "He has not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities" (Psalm 103:10). If God dealt with us as our sins deserved, we would be consigned to the lowest Hell. But because of His mercy and grace, we never suffer as we deserve to suffer. "But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath!" (Psalm 78:38). "And after all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved!" (Ezra 9:13). Our sins are many: "We all stumble in many ways!" (James 3:2). Nevertheless, God's judgments are few: "For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." (Lamentations 3:33).

The afflictions He sends are "light affliction" (2 Corinthians 4:17).

They are of short duration: "For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life. Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning!" (Psalm 30:5). The Lord told the Israelites: "For a brief moment I deserted you — but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid My face from you — but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you — says the LORD, your Redeemer." (Isaiah 54:7-8).

 

The Furnace is for OUR EVERLASTING GOOD

There can be no caprice, nor unwise anger in God toward His chosen purchased people. When He sends upon us afflictions, they are designed for our spiritual and everlasting good. They are corrective, not destructive. When we are cold and indifferent to His cause — He will permit persecutions and reproaches to befall us. But this is not the same way God punishes the wicked for their sins. The wicked are punished in wrath — the righteous are chastened in love. The wicked are punished for the good of society — the righteous are disciplined for their individual good: "When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold!" (Job 23:10; cf. Deuteronomy 8:15-16).

Afflictions exhibit the faithfulness of God: "I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me" (Psalm 119:75). God always justly and wisely chastens us. It is the faithfulness of God to His covenant, which brings the elect under the afflictive rod. "If they break My statutes and do not keep My commandments — then I will punish their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, Nor allow My faithfulness to fail." (Psalm 89:31-34; cf. Ezekiel 20:37). God's chastisements are blessings in disguise — they are veiled mercies.

When sore afflictions come upon us, we have the greatest evidence that we are loved with an everlasting love: "As many as I love — I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent!" (Revelation 3:19). "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him. For whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives." (Hebrews 12:6-7). None but the sons and daughters of God's family are corrected. To live without chastisement is a sad sign of alienation from God. Our heavenly Father chastens us to prevent our final condemnation: "But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world" (1 Corinthians 11:32).

 

The Furnace is PROPORTIONATE

As a furnace is prepared for refining gold (Proverbs 17:3), so afflictions are appointed for the saints, who are compared to fine gold (Lamentations 4:2). Let us see here the high value that God places upon His people. Being . . .

chosen by the Father,

redeemed by the Son, and

regenerated by the Holy Spirit

— they are His precious gold!

As His gold, they get tarnished by the world and sin, and they must be subjected to the refining process. The beauty of His grace must be seen in them. Hence Jehovah seeks their spiritual improvement: "I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities!" (Isaiah 1:25).

The Lord does not treat Israel in the severe manner in which gold or silver is treated by the refiner: "Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver. . ." (Isaiah 48:10). The Great Refiner knows His metal — He knows what each one can bear. He never allows us to be tested above what we are able to bear. Sometimes He pours water on the fire if it gets too hot. He never goes beyond our strength. Neither does He turn the furnace up to the same temperature for all alike. He proportions the temperature to the strength of the bearer, allotting a greater heat to the strongest, and a less to the weakest. "I will correct you in measure" (Jeremiah 30:11). God will not over-afflict.

The goldsmith keeps the furnace burning with the gold in it, until all the dross has been removed, and he can see his face in the pure gold. Even so does our heavenly Father. Let us be cheerful and hopeful when we are in the furnace, knowing He seeks only to see His pure image clearly in us! We are in the furnace of affliction "for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness" (Hebrews 12:10).

An all-wise God regulates the heat of the furnace according to the needs of His people. "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver." (Malachi 3:3).

Some of us need more heat than others, so He increases the fire when needed. Micah said: "I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against Him." (Micah 7:9).

There are other times that He lowers the temperature, according to His Divine inspection. The prophet Jeremiah said: "Correct me, LORD, but only with justice — not in your anger, lest You reduce me to nothing." (Jeremiah 10:24).

Remember the time of trial is but short. "Weeping may endure for a night." It is called the day of adversity—the hour of affliction. Afflictions are but for a moment.

 

The Design of the Furnace is BENEFICIAL

The design of God in choosing us to suffer in the furnace of affliction, is for our everlasting good, and for His glory. Regenerating grace implants in us the seeds of immortality, which require cultivation in order to bring about maturity. The furnace is designed to develop these principles, and to fit us for higher enjoyment. Afflictions . . .

scour off our rust,

preserve us from sin,

assimilate us to Christ, who was a man of sorrows,

show us the frailty of human life,

manifest the vanity of the world,

teach us sympathy to others,

make us very humble, break the haughty mind, and bring down the lofty thought,

induce a spirit of prayer, "In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord."

The people of God have the same need of affliction . . .

that our bodies have of medicine,

that fruit trees have of pruning,

that gold and silver have of the furnace,

that iron has of the file, and

that the child has of the rod of correction!

"However the wicked, like trees in the wilderness, grow without culture — yet the saints, like trees in the garden, must be pruned to be made fruitful; and affliction does this. There is as much difference between the sufferings of the saints and those of the ungodly — as between the cords with which an executioner pinions a condemned malefactor, and the bandages wherewith a tender surgeon binds his patient!" Wall

1. The furnace of affliction is designed to prevent us from going astray. "Before I was afflicted I went astray — but now have I kept Your Word" (Psalm 119:67). "It is good for me that I have been afflicted — that I might learn Your statutes" (Psalm 119:71). The believer comes from this furnace improved and refined!

By our natural corruption, we are ready to wander in the pathway of sin, and go astray after worldly vanities. Hence the Lord makes affliction to serve us as a thorny hedge — to keep us on the right course. Afflictions amend us and strengthen us to keep God's statutes.

2. Afflictions wean us from the evil world. "For You have tried us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined!" (Psalm 66:10). When Egypt became an iron furnace — the Israelites became weary of it. The prodigal never thought of his father — until he experienced famine. The Lord makes this world a grief — so it may not become our idol. It is to be our purgatory — that we may never make it our paradise.

3. Afflictions test our religious profession. "But He knows the way that I take! When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). We profess to be gold for God's treasury — yet there is much dross in us. We claim to be grain fit for the garner of heavenly glory — yet there seems to be more chaff than wheat in us. Therefore the Lord casts us into the furnace of affliction — that we may be tried and purified. The dross must be severed and separated from us. We must be winnowed with the strong wind of affliction — that the chaff may be blown away and the pure grain remain.

We profess to be soldiers in the army of the King of kings. We claim to fight under the banner of the Lord Almighty. Therefore the Lord allows us to be attacked by Satan and assaulted by the world with afflictions and persecutions — to try us and to find out if we are traitors. Cowards will yield early in the fight. Real soldiers will stand and fight to the death, but a traitor will join with the enemy. "The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away!" (Matthew 13:20-21). "You therefore endure hardship, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Timothy 2:3).

4. The furnace of affliction brings about growth in Christian graces. "We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope" (Romans 5:3-4). Our heavenly Father longs to see His children grow up spiritually. To bring this about, He uses the instrumentality of afflictions. In these we learn patience, and we are caused to hope in God. The Lord buffets and afflicts us with severe trials — to give occasion to exercise these graces which otherwise would lie dormant with us.

The Christian graces are like perfumes — the more they are pressed by affliction, the sweeter they smell. They are like the stars — they appear best in the darkness of trouble. They are like the snow (though cold and uncomfortable), yet it warms and nourishes the earth in winter. Just so, the believer is nourished in the winter of affliction. Worldly joy ends in sorrow — but godly sorrow ends in joy. As it sometimes rains when the sun shines, so there is frequently joy in the saint's heart — when there are tears in his eyes!

5. The great Refiner aims to drive us to prayer. "LORD, in trouble have they visited You; they poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them" (Isaiah 26:16). "Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray" (James 5:13). The furnace is necessary to stir up prayer in us. In peace and prosperity we seldom recognize our need of Divine help. Afflictions bring us to God, and show our need of dependence upon Him. "In their affliction, they will seek Me early" (Hosea 5:15).

6. Afflictions prepare us for greater usefulness and fruitfulness. "Every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (John 15:2). The wise farmer prunes his fruit trees in the winter, so that they may produce more fruit in the summer. Superfluous branches and suckers which steal the sap, must be removed. Creature comforts are often to the soul, what suckers are to the tree. Therefore the great Farmer prunes these off, that the tree of the Lord may produce much fruit. God will prune His people, but not hew them down. The right hand of His mercy, knows what the left hand of His severity is doing!

 

CONCLUSION

1. Do not think the life of a Christian is easy. It is not a flowery bed of ease. During our life on earth, we all must spend some time in the furnace of affliction. But like the three Hebrews in the furnace in Babylon, God is always with us in all these sufferings. "Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are Mine. When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior!" (Isaiah 43:1-3).

2. In short, God, by placing his people in the furnace of affliction, is educating them . . .

for crowns and scepters,

for thrones and dominions,

for a place in Paradise, and

for a seat at his right hand!

At present, the Lord is fashioning the inward spiritual life for the world to come. The oppression, the piercings, the anguish, the disappointments, and all events — are but the preparation for the position we shall occupy in the world to come.

3. As Israel did not understand election until they were in Egypt, even so today we come to see our election in the furnace of afflictions. When the sorrows of death compass us and the pains of Hell get hold upon us — then we come to see distinguishing grace and everlasting love. In soul trouble we come to understand the text: "I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction!"

4. There is in this world — a furnace of afflictions for God's elect. Then in the world to come — there is another furnace of literal, physical fire that is heated for the ungodly after the judgment. "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!" (Matthew 13:41-42). Oh, lost sinner, flee the wrath to come!

  

APPLICATION

1. Let the sublime design of this furnace induce patience, and submission.

2. Remember the time of trial is but short. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning!" Called the day of adversity — the hour of affliction — are but for a moment.

3. What a furnace of infliction awaits the ungodly in the world to come!

The god of popular Christianity!

(Milburn Cockrell, "The Master of the World!")

 

"Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth! Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might!" 1 Chronicles 29:11-12

 

In these days of man-centered religion, verses like these have been ignored. The pulpits of our land preach . . .

a defeated God,

a disappointed Christ and

a defenseless Holy Spirit.

Man has been deified — and God dethroned.

God has been relegated to the background.

 

The God most people believe in has benevolent intentions, yet He is unable to carry them out. He wants to bless men, but they will not let Him. The average church-goer thinks Satan has gained the upper hand, and that God is to be pitied rather than worshiped. The god of popular Christianity has a weak smile and a halo!

 

To suppose in the slightest that God has failed, or that He has been defeated, is the height of foolishness and the depth of impiety! The religious world needs to get God off the charity list!

 

The Bible knows nothing of a defeated, disappointed, and defenseless God. The God of the Bible is the "Almighty God" (Genesis 17:1) Who has all power in Heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). With Him nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37) or too hard (Jeremiah 32:17). His eternal purpose is being worked out. Everything is going according to His plan, and all things are under His control.

 

The God of the Bible is the Supreme Being in the universe! He is the most High, higher than the highest. He has no superiors and no equals.

God is God. He does . . .

as He pleases,

only as He pleases,

always as He pleases.

 

"He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? What His soul desires, even that He does" (Job 23:13). Agreeing with this is Psalm 115:3: "But our God is in the heavens: He has done whatever He has pleased." As the Master of the World He declares: "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure!" (Isaiah 46:10)

 

God is the Supreme Being and the Sovereign of the universe. He exercises His power . . .

as He wills,

when He wills,

where He wills.

"All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. But He does according to His will in the host of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth. No one can ward off His hand or say to Him: What have You done?" (Daniel 4:35)

 

God governs all His creatures and their actions. The events that take place on earth do not take place by chance, or fate, or luck. The so-called accidents are not even incidents with the Master of the World. He numbered the hairs of our head and noted the sparrow's fall in eternity past by His "determinate counsel and foreknowledge" (Acts 2:23).

 

The Master of the World set the bounds of our habitation on earth. The number of our months is with Him, and our days are appointed!

 

God is holding the helm of the universe, and regulating all events. The Master of the World "works all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11). It is God's eternal right to do all His pleasure. He is not accountable to any of His creatures. Job 33:13 declares: "He gives no account of any of His matters."

 

God controls all things — or nothing.

He must either rule — or be ruled.

He must either sway — or be swayed.

He must either accomplish His will — or be thwarted by His creatures.

He is not obligated to leave the affairs of this world to be governed by accident, chance, or the will of sinful men.

Shuhada' Sadaqat[8][a] (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor; 8 December 1966 – July 2023), known professionally as Sinéad O'Connor,[9][b] was an Irish singer, songwriter and political activist. Her debut studio album, The Lion and the Cobra, was released in 1987 and charted internationally. Her second studio album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (1990), became her biggest success, selling over seven million copies worldwide.[11] Its lead single, "Nothing Compares 2 U", was named the number-one world single in 1990 by the Billboard Music Awards.[12]

O'Connor released ten studio albums. Am I Not Your Girl? (1992) and Universal Mother (1994) were certified gold in the UK,[13] Faith and Courage (2000) was certified gold in Australia,[14] and Throw Down Your Arms (2005) went gold in Ireland.[15] Her work included songs for films, collaborations with many other artists, and appearances at charity fundraising concerts. Her 2021 memoir Rememberings was a bestseller.[16]

In 1999, O'Connor was ordained as a priest by the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, an Independent Catholic sect that is not recognised by the Roman Catholic Church.[17] She consistently spoke out on issues related to child abuse (including her 1992 Saturday Night Live protest against the continued cover-up of Catholic Church sexual abuse cases), human rights, racism, organised religion, and women's rights. Throughout her music career, she spoke about her spiritual journey, activism, socio-political views, as well as her trauma and mental health struggles. In 2017, O'Connor changed her name to Magda Davitt. After converting to Islam in 2018 she changed it to Shuhada' Sadaqat,[2][8][18] but continued to record and perform under her birth name.[

O'Connor was born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor[20] in the Cascia House Nursing Home at 13 Pembroke Road, Dublin, on 8 December 1966.[2] She was named Sinéad after Sinéad de Valera, the mother of the doctor presiding over the delivery, Éamon de Valera, Jnr., and Bernadette in honour of Saint Bernadette of Lourdes.[21][22] She was the third of five children;[23] her siblings are novelist Joseph,[24] Eimear,[25] John,[26] and Eoin.[27]

Her parents are John Oliver "Seán" O'Connor, a structural engineer later turned barrister[23] and chairperson of the Divorce Action Group,[28] and Johanna Marie O'Grady (1939–1985), who married in the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Drimnagh, Dublin, in 1960. She attended Dominican College Sion Hill school in Blackrock, County Dublin.[29]

In 1979, O'Connor left her mother and went to live with her father, who had married Viola Margaret Suiter (née Cook) in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, in 1976.[30] At the age of 15, her shoplifting and truancy led to her being placed for 18 months in a Magdalene asylum called the Grianán Training Centre in Drumcondra run by the Order of Our Lady of Charity.[31] In some ways, she thrived there, especially in the development of her writing and music, but she also chafed under the imposed conformity. Unruly students there were sometimes sent to sleep in the adjoining nursing home, an experience of which she later commented, "I have never—and probably will never—experience such panic and terror and agony over anything."[32] She later for a period attended the Quaker Newtown School, Waterford for 5th and 6th year but did not sit the Leaving Certificate in 1985.[33][34]

On 10 February 1985, when O'Connor was 18, her mother Marie died in a car accident, aged 45, after losing control of her car on an icy road in Ballybrack and crashing into a bus.[35][36]

In June 1993, O'Connor wrote a public letter in The Irish Times which asked people to "stop hurting" her: "If only I can fight off the voices of my parents / and gather a sense of self-esteem / Then I'll be able to REALLY sing ..." The letter repeated accusations of abuse by her parents as a child which O'Connor had made in interviews. Her brother Joseph defended their father to the newspaper but agreed regarding their mother's "extreme and violent abuse, both emotional and physical". O'Connor said that month, "Our family is very messed up. We can't communicate with each other. We are all in agony. I for one am in agony."[37]

Musical career 1980s

One of the volunteers at Grianán was the sister of Paul Byrne, drummer for the band In Tua Nua, who heard O'Connor singing "Evergreen" by Barbra Streisand. She recorded a song with them called "Take My Hand" but they felt that at 15, she was too young to join the band.[38] Through an ad she placed in Hot Press in mid-1984, she met Colm Farrelly. Together they recruited a few other members and formed a band called Ton Ton Macoute.[22] The band moved to Waterford briefly while O'Connor attended Newtown School, but she soon dropped out of school and followed them to Dublin, where their performances received positive reviews. Their sound was inspired by Farrelly's interest in world music, though most observers thought O'Connor's singing and stage presence were the band's strongest features.[22][39]

O'Connor's time as singer for Ton Ton Macoute brought her to the attention of the music industry, and she was eventually signed by Ensign Records. She also acquired an experienced manager, Fachtna Ó Ceallaigh, former head of U2's Mother Records. Soon after she was signed, she embarked on her first major assignment, providing the vocals for the song "Heroine", which she co-wrote with U2's guitarist the Edge for the soundtrack to the film Captive. Ó Ceallaigh, who had been fired by U2 for complaining about them in an interview, was outspoken with his views on music and politics, and O'Connor adopted the same habits; she defended the actions of the Provisional IRA and said U2's music was "bombastic".[2] She later retracted her IRA comments saying they were based on nonsense, and that she was "too young to understand the tense situation in Northern Ireland properly".[40]

 

Her first album The Lion and the Cobra was "a sensation" when it was released in 1987 on Chrysalis Records,[41] and it reached gold record status, earning a Best Female Rock Vocal Performance Grammy nomination. The single "Mandinka" was a big college radio hit in the United States, and "I Want Your (Hands on Me)" received both college and urban play in a remixed form that featured rapper MC Lyte. In her first U.S. network television appearance, O'Connor sang "Mandinka" on Late Night with David Letterman in 1988.[42] The song "Troy" was also released as a single in the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands, where it reached number 5 on the Dutch Top 40 chart.[43]

O'Connor named Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Bob Marley, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Pretenders as the artists who influenced her on her debut album.[44] In 1989 O'Connor joined The The frontman Matt Johnson as a guest vocalist on the band's album Mind Bomb, which spawned the duet "Kingdom of Rain".[45] That same year, she made her first foray into cinema, starring in and writing the music for the Northern Irish film Hush-a-Bye-Baby.[46]

1990s

O'Connor's second album – 1990's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got – gained considerable attention and mostly positive reviews:[47] it was rated "second best album of the year" by the NME.[48] She was praised for her voice and original songs, while being noted for her appearance: trademark shaved head, often angry expression, and sometimes shapeless or unusual clothing.[47] The album featured Marco Pirroni (of Adam and the Ants fame), Andy Rourke (from The Smiths) and John Reynolds, her first husband;[49] most notably, it contained her international breakthrough hit "Nothing Compares 2 U", a song written by Prince[50][51] and originally recorded and released by a side project of his, the Family.[51] Hank Shocklee, producer for Public Enemy, remixed the album's next single, "The Emperor's New Clothes",[49] for a 12-inch that was coupled with another song from the LP, "I Am Stretched on Your Grave". Pre-dating but included on I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, was "Jump in the River", which originally appeared on the Married to the Mob soundtrack; the 12-inch version of the single had included a remix featuring performance artist Karen Finley.[52][53]

In July 1990, she joined other guests for former Pink Floyd member Roger Waters' performance of The Wall in Berlin.[54] She contributed a cover of "You Do Something to Me" to the Cole Porter tribute/AIDS fundraising album Red Hot + Blue produced by the Red Hot Organization.[55] Red Hot + Blue was followed by the release of Am I Not Your Girl?, an album made of covers of jazz standards and torch songs she had listened to while growing up; the album received mixed-to-poor reviews, and was a commercial disappointment in light of the success of her previous work.[56] Her take on Elton John's "Sacrifice" was acclaimed as one of the best efforts on the tribute album Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin.[57]

Also in 1990, she was criticised after she stated that she would not perform if the United States national anthem was played before one of her concerts; Frank Sinatra threatened to "kick her in the ass".[58] After receiving four Grammy Award nominations, she withdrew her name from consideration.[2] Although nominated for the Brit Award for International Female Solo Artist, which she won, she did not attend the awards ceremony, but did accept the Irish IRMA in February 1991.[59]

I don't do anything in order to cause trouble. It just so happens that what I do naturally causes trouble. I'm proud to be a troublemaker.

—O'Connor in NME, March 1991[60]

She spent the following months studying bel canto singing with teacher Frank Merriman at the Parnell School of Music. In an interview with The Guardian, published in May 1993, she reported that singing lessons with Merriman were the only therapy she was receiving, describing Merriman as "the most amazing teacher in the universe."[61]

In 1992, she contributed backing vocals on the track "Come Talk To Me", and shared vocals on the single "Blood of Eden" from the studio album Us by Peter Gabriel. Gabriel invited her to join his ongoing Secret World Tour in May 1993, to sing these songs and more in an elaborate stage setting. O'Connor travelled and performed as a guest artist.[62] She was seen at Gabriel's side at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards in September. While in Los Angeles, she took too many sleeping pills, inciting media conjecture about a suicide attempt. She said she "was in a bad way emotionally at the time, but it wasn't a suicide attempt."[63] She left the tour suddenly, causing Gabriel to scramble for a replacement singer.[62] Decades later, she wrote in her memoir Rememberings that she left Gabriel because he treated her casually, and would not make a commitment.[6]

The 1993 soundtrack to the film In the Name of the Father featured O'Connor's "You Made Me the Thief of Your Heart".[49] Her more conventional Universal Mother album (1994) spawned two music videos for the first and second singles, "Fire on Babylon" and "Famine", that were nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video.[64][65] She toured with Lollapalooza in 1995, but dropped out when she became pregnant with her second child.[66] In 1997, she released the Gospel Oak EP.[67]

In 1994, she appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who,[68] also known as Daltrey Sings Townshend. This was a two-night concert at Carnegie Hall produced by Roger Daltrey of the Who in celebration of his 50th birthday.[69] A CD and a VHS video of the concert were issued in 1994, followed by a DVD in 1998.[70][71]

In 1996, O'Connor guested on Broken China, a solo album by Pink Floyd's Richard Wright.[72]

O'Connor made her final feature film appearance in Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy in 1997, playing the Virgin Mary.[73]

In 1998, she worked again with the Red Hot Organization to co-produce and perform on Red Hot + Rhapsody.[74]

2000s

 

O'Connor at the "Music in My Head" festival in The Hague, 13 June 2008

Faith and Courage was released in 2000, including the single "No Man's Woman", and featured contributions from Wyclef Jean of the Fugees and Dave Stewart of Eurythmics.[75]

Her 2002 album, Sean-Nós Nua, marked a departure in that O'Connor interpreted or, in her own words, "sexed up" traditional Irish folk songs, including several in the Irish language.[76] In Sean-Nós Nua, she covered a well-known Canadian folk song, "Peggy Gordon".[77]

In 2003, she contributed a track to the Dolly Parton tribute album Just Because I'm a Woman, a cover of Parton's "Dagger Through the Heart". That same year, she also featured on three songs of Massive Attack's album 100th Window before releasing her double album, She Who Dwells in the Secret Place of the Most High Shall Abide Under the Shadow of the Almighty. This compilation contained one disc of demos and previously unreleased tracks and one disc of a live concert recording. Directly after the album's release, O'Connor announced that she was retiring from music.[78] Collaborations, a compilation album of guest appearances, was released in 2005—featuring tracks recorded with Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack, Jah Wobble, Terry Hall, Moby, Bomb the Bass, the Edge, U2, and The The.[79]

Ultimately, after a brief period of inactivity and a bout with fibromyalgia, her retirement proved to be short-lived. O'Connor stated in an interview with Harp magazine that she had only intended to retire from making mainstream pop/rock music, and after dealing with her fibromyalgia she chose to move into other musical styles.[80] The reggae album Throw Down Your Arms appeared in late 2005.[81]

On 8 November 2006, O'Connor performed seven songs from her upcoming album Theology at The Sugar Club in Dublin. Thirty fans were given the opportunity to win pairs of tickets to attend along with music industry critics.[82] The performance was released in 2008 as Live at the Sugar Club deluxe CD/DVD package sold exclusively on her website.[83]

O'Connor released two songs from her album Theology to download for free from her official website: "If You Had a Vineyard" and "Jeremiah (Something Beautiful)". The album, a collection of covered and original Rastafari spiritual songs, was released in June 2007. The first single from the album, the Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber classic "I Don't Know How to Love Him", was released on 30 April 2007.[84] To promote the album, O'Connor toured extensively in Europe and North America. She also appeared on two tracks of the new Ian Brown album The World Is Yours, including the anti-war single "Illegal Attacks".[85]

2010s

In January 2010, O'Connor performed a duet with R&B singer Mary J. Blige produced by former A Tribe Called Quest member Ali Shaheed Muhammad of O'Connor's song "This Is To Mother You" (first recorded by O'Connor on her 1997 Gospel Oak EP). The proceeds of the song's sales were donated to the organisation GEMS (Girls Educational and Mentoring Services).[86] In 2012 the song "Lay Your Head Down", written by Brian Byrne and Glenn Close for the soundtrack of the film Albert Nobbs and performed by O'Connor, was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.[87]

O'Connor performing in 2013

In 2011, O'Connor worked on recording a new album, titled Home, to be released in the beginning of 2012,[88] titled How About I Be Me (and You Be You)?,[89][90] with the first single being "The Wolf is Getting Married". She planned an extensive tour in support of the album but suffered a serious breakdown between December 2011 and March 2012,[91] resulting in the tour and all other musical activities for the rest of 2012 being cancelled. O'Connor resumed touring in 2013 with The Crazy Baldhead Tour. The second single "4th and Vine" was released on 18 February 2013.[92]

In February 2014, it was revealed that O'Connor had been recording a new album of original material, titled The Vishnu Room, consisting of romantic love songs.[93] In early June 2014, the new album was retitled I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss, with an 11 August release date. The title derives from the Ban Bossy campaign that took place earlier the same year. The album's first single is entitled "Take Me to Church".[94][95]

In November 2014, O'Connor's management was taken over by Simon Napier-Bell and Björn de Water.[96] On 15 November, O'Connor joined the charity supergroup Band Aid 30 along with other British and Irish pop acts, recording a new version of the track "Do They Know It's Christmas?" at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, to raise money for the West African Ebola virus epidemic.[97]

In September 2019, O'Connor performed live for the first time in five years, singing "Nothing Compares 2 U" with the Irish Chamber Orchestra on RTÉ's The Late Late Show.[98][99]

2020s

In October 2020, O'Connor released a cover of Mahalia Jackson's Trouble of the World, with proceeds from the single to benefit Black Lives Matter charities.[100]

On 4 June 2021, O'Connor announced her immediate retirement from the music industry. While her final studio album, No Veteran Dies Alone, was due to be released in 2022, O'Connor stated that she would not be touring or promoting it.[101] Announcing the news on Twitter, she said "This is to announce my retirement from touring and from working in the record business. I've gotten older and I'm tired. So it's time for me to hang up my nipple tassels, having truly given my all. NVDA in 2022 will be my last release. And there'll be no more touring or promo."[101][102] On 7 June she retracted her previous statement, describing the original announcement as "a knee-jerk reaction" to an insensitive interview, and announcing that she would go ahead with her already scheduled 2022 tour.[103]

On 1 June 2021, O'Connor's memoir Rememberings was released to positive critical reception. It was listed among the best books of the year on BBC Culture.[104]

On 7 January 2022, O'Connor's son, Shane, died by suicide at the age of 17.[42] She subsequently decided to cancel her 2022 tour and her album No Veteran Dies Alone was postponed indefinitely.[105]

In February 2023, she shared a new version of "The Skye Boat Song", a 19th century Scottish adaptation of a 1782 Gaelic song, which is also the theme for the fantasy drama series Outlander.[106] The following month, she was awarded the inaugural Choice Music Prize Classic Irish Album by Irish broadcaster RTÉ for her 1990 album, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got.[107][108]

Name

In 2017, O'Connor changed her legal name to Magda Davitt, saying in an interview that she wished to be "free of the patriarchal slave names. Free of the parental curses."[113][114] On her conversion to Islam in October 2018, she adopted the name 'Shuhada', and before mid-2019 also changed her surname from Davitt to Sadaqat.[115]

Personal and public image

Her shaved head has been seen as a statement against traditional views of femininity.[116]

Marriages and children

O'Connor had four children and was married and divorced four times. She had her first son, Jake, in 1987 with her first husband, music producer John Reynolds,[117] who co-produced several of her albums, including Universal Mother. Reynolds and O'Connor later married in Westminster register office in March 1989.[118][119] The same year, O'Connor had an abortion after things did not work out with the father. She later wrote the song "My Special Child" about the experience.[120] O'Connor and Reynolds announced their plan to divorce in November 1991 after being separated for some time.[121]

Soon after the birth of her daughter Brigidine Roisin Waters on 10 March 1996, O'Connor and the girl's father, Irish journalist John Waters, began a long custody battle that ended with O'Connor agreeing to let Roisin live in Dublin with Waters.[122][119][117] In August 2001, O'Connor married British journalist Nick Sommerlad in Wales; the marriage ended in July 2002 after 11 months.[123][117] She had her third child, son Shane, in 2004 with musician Donal Lunny.[117][119] In 2006, she had her fourth child, Yeshua Francis Neil Bonadio, whose father is Frank Bonadio.[124][125]

O'Connor was married a third time on 22 July 2010, to longtime friend and collaborator Steve Cooney,[4][126] and in late March 2011, made the decision to separate.[127] Her fourth marriage was to Irish therapist Barry Herridge. They wed on 9 December 2011, in Las Vegas, but their marriage ended after having "lived together for 7 days only".[128] The following week, on 3 January 2012, O'Connor issued a further string of internet comments to the effect that the couple had re-united.[5]

On 18 July 2015, her first grandson was born to her son Jake Reynolds and his girlfriend Lia.[129]

On 7 January 2022, two days after her 17-year-old son Shane was reported missing from Newbridge, County Kildare, he was found dead by suicide. His body was found by Gardaí in the Bray/Shankill part of Dublin.[130][131][132] O'Connor stated that her son, custody of whom she lost in 2013, had been on "suicide watch" at Tallaght Hospital, and had "ended his earthly struggle". O'Connor criticised the Health Service Executive (HSE) with regard to their handling of her son's case.[133][134][135] She initially criticised Ireland's family services agency, Tusla, but retracted this a few days later.[136][137] In January 2022, a week after her son's suicide, she was hospitalised on her own volition following a series of tweets in which she indicated she was going to take her own life.[138]

Relationship with Prince

Speaking about her relationship with Prince in an interview with Norwegian station NRK in November 2014 she said, "I did meet him a couple of times. We didn't get on at all. In fact we had a punch-up." She continued: "He summoned me to his house after 'Nothing Compares'. I made it without him. I'd never met him. He summoned me to his house – and it's foolish to do this to an Irish woman – he said he didn't like me saying bad words in interviews. So I told him to f*** off....He got quite violent. I had to escape out of his house at 5 in the morning. He packed a bigger punch than mine."[139] In her 2021 memoir Rememberings, O'Connor described her meeting with Prince in detail, which ranged from having his butler serve soup repeatedly despite no desire for soup, to hitting her with a hard object placed in a pillowcase after wanting a pillow fight, and stalking her with his car after she left the mansion.[140]

Health

In the early 2000s, O'Connor revealed that she suffered from fibromyalgia. The pain and fatigue she experienced caused her to take a break from music from 2003 to 2005.[141]

On an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show broadcast on 4 October 2007, O'Connor disclosed that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder four years earlier, and had attempted suicide on her 33rd birthday, 8 December 1999.[142] Then, on Oprah: Where Are They Now? of 9 February 2014, O'Connor said that she had received three "second opinions" and was told by all three that she was not bipolar.

O'Connor was also diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder.[143]

In August 2015, she announced that she was to undergo a hysterectomy after suffering gynaecological problems for over three years.[144] O'Connor later blamed the hospital's refusal to administer hormonal replacement therapy after the operation as the main reason for her mental health issues in the subsequent years, stating "I was flung into surgical menopause. Hormones were everywhere. I became very suicidal. I was a basket case."[145]

Having smoked cannabis for 30 years, O'Connor went to a rehabilitation centre in 2016, to end her "addiction".[146] O'Connor was agoraphobic.[147]

In August 2017, O'Connor posted a 12-minute video on her Facebook page in which she stated that she had felt alone since losing custody of her 13-year-old son, Shane, and that for the prior two years she had wanted to kill herself, with only her doctor and psychiatrist "keeping her alive".[148] The month after her Facebook post, O'Connor appeared on the American television talk show Dr. Phil on the show's 16th season debut episode.[149] According to Dr. Phil, O'Connor wanted to do the interview because she wanted to "destigmatize mental illness", noting the prevalence of mental health issues among musicians.[150] Shane died in January 2022. A week later, following a series of tweets in which she indicated that she was going to kill herself, O'Connor was hospitalised.[151]

Sexuality

In a 2000 interview in Curve, O'Connor said that she was a lesbian.[152] She later retracted the statement, and in 2005 told Entertainment Weekly "I'm three-quarters heterosexual, a quarter gay".[153]

In 2013, O'Connor published an open letter on her own website to American singer and actress Miley Cyrus in which she warned Cyrus of the treatment of women in the music industry and stated that sexuality is a factor in this, which was in response to Cyrus's music video for her song "Wrecking Ball".[154] Cyrus responded by mocking O'Connor and alluding to her mental health problems.[155]

Politics

O'Connor was a vocal supporter of a united Ireland, and called on the left-wing republican Sinn Féin party to be "braver". In December 2014 it was reported O'Connor had joined Sinn Féin.[156] O'Connor called for the "demolition" of the Republic of Ireland and its replacement with a new, united country. She also called for key Sinn Féin politicians like Gerry Adams to step down because "they remind people of violence", referring to the Troubles.[157]

In a 2015 interview with the BBC, O'Connor said she wished that Ireland had remained under British rule (which ended after the Irish War of Independence, except for Northern Ireland), saying "the church took over and it was disastrous".[158] Following the Brexit referendum in 2016, O'Connor wrote on Facebook "Ireland is officially no longer owned by Britain".[159]

Religion

 

Sinéad O'Connor on After Dark on 21 January 1995

In January 1995, O'Connor made an unexpected appearance on the British late-night television programme After Dark during an episode about sexual abuse and the Catholic Church in Ireland.[160] The discussion included a Dominican friar and another representative of the Catholic Church, along with former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald. Host Helena Kennedy described the event: "Sinéad came on and argued that abuse in families was coded in by the church because it refused to accept the accounts of women and children."[161]

In the late 1990s, Bishop Michael Cox of the Irish Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church (an Independent Catholic group not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church) ordained O'Connor as a priest.[17] The Catholic Church considers the ordination of women to be invalid and asserts that a person attempting the sacrament of ordination upon a woman incurs excommunication.[17] The bishop had contacted her to offer ordination following her appearance on RTÉ's The Late Late Show, during which she told the presenter, Gay Byrne, that had she not been a singer she would have wished to have been a Catholic priest. After her ordination, she indicated that she wished to be called Mother Bernadette Mary.[17]

In a July 2007 interview with Christianity Today, O'Connor stated that she considered herself a Christian and that she believed in core Christian concepts about the Trinity and Jesus Christ. She said, "I think God saves everybody whether they want to be saved or not. So when we die, we're all going home ... I don't think God judges anybody. He loves everybody equally."[162] In an October 2002 interview, she credited her Christian faith in giving her the strength to live through and overcome the effects of her childhood abuse.[112]

On 26 March 2010, O'Connor appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360° to speak out about the Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Ireland.[163] On 28 March 2010, she had an opinion piece published in the Sunday edition of The Washington Post in which she wrote about the scandal and her time in a Magdalene laundry as a teenager.[31] Writing for the Sunday Independent she labelled the Vatican as "a nest of devils" and called for the establishment of an "alternative church", opining that "Christ is being murdered by liars" in the Vatican.[164] Shortly after the election of Pope Francis, she said:[165][166]

Well, you know, I guess I wish everyone the best, and I don't know anything about the man, so I'm not going to rush to judge him on one thing or another, but I would say he has a scientifically impossible task, because all religions, but certainly the Catholic Church, is really a house built on sand, and it's drowning in a sea of conditional love, and therefore it can't survive, and actually the office of Pope itself is an anti-Christian office, the idea that Christ needs a representative is laughable and blasphemous at the same time, therefore it is a house built on sand, and we need to rescue God from religion, all religions, they've become a smokescreen that distracts people from the fact that there is a holy spirit, and when you study the Gospels you see the Christ character came to tell us that we only need to talk directly to God, we never needed Religion ...

Asked whether from her point of view, it is therefore irrelevant who is elected to be pope, O'Connor replied:

Genuinely I don't mean disrespect to Catholic people because I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe in the Holy Spirit, all of those, but I also believe in all of them, I don't think it cares if you call it Fred or Daisy, you know? Religion is a smokescreen, it has everybody talking to the wall. There is a Holy Spirit who can't intervene on our behalf unless we ask it. Religion has us talking to the wall. The Christ character tells us himself: you must only talk directly to the Father; you don't need intermediaries. We all thought we did, and that's ok, we're not bad people, but let's wake up ... God was there before religion; it's there [today] despite religion; it'll be there when religion is gone.[167]

Tatiana Kavelka wrote about O'Connor's later Christian work, describing it as "theologically charged yet unorthodox, oriented toward interfaith dialogue and those on the margins".[168]

In August 2018, via an open letter, she asked Pope Francis to excommunicate her as she had also asked Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II.[113]

In October 2018, O'Connor converted to Islam, calling it "the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian's journey".[169] The ceremony was conducted in Ireland by Sunni Islamic theologian Shaykh Umar Al-Qadri. She also changed her name to Shuhada' Davitt. In a message on Twitter, she thanked fellow Muslims for their support and uploaded a video of herself reciting the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer. She also posted photos of herself wearing a hijab.[170]

After her conversion to Islam, O'Connor called those who were not Muslims "disgusting" and criticised Christian and Jewish theologians on Twitter in November 2018. She wrote: "What I'm about to say is something so racist I never thought my soul could ever feel it. But truly I never wanna spend time with white people again (if that's what non-muslims are called). Not for one moment, for any reason. They are disgusting."[171][172] Later that month, O'Connor stated that her remarks were made in an attempt to force Twitter to close down her account.[173] In September 2019, she apologised for the remarks, saying "They were not true at the time and they are not true now. I was triggered as a result of Islamophobia dumped on me. I apologize for hurt caused. That was one of many crazy tweets lord knows."[174]

Death

On 26 July 2023, O'Connor was found dead at her flat in Herne Hill, South London, at the age of 56 Her family issued a statement later the same day, without indicating the cause of her death.[108][177][178] The following day, the Metropolitan Police reported that O'Connor's death was not being treated as suspicious] On 28 July, the Coronor in London said that the date of death was still unknown.

Saturday, and hey, hey it's the weekend.

 

I felt as though the weather had kept me trapped in the house pretty much all week, so I wanted to go out.

 

Jools came back from work evening, saying that her old boss had visited Rochester Cathedral and said there is a fantastic art display of thousands of paper doves, and a huge table made from reclaimed 5,000 tree trunk found in a fen in Norfolk.

 

Yes, we would like some of that action, and as it has been three years since we were last there, seemed like a good idea.

 

In fact, at the beginning of March 2020, it was the first trip we took in the new Audi, and of course, two weeks later there was lockdown and deaths.

 

So, a trip back, at Easter, for a rebirth and to see some art and a huge table.

 

But first, shopping.

 

And being the start of the month, we get much more than usual, including wine to make sloe port and stuff for washing and cleaning.

 

Back home to put it all away and have breakfast and second coffee before heading out. Though because of Brexit-related delays in the port, we did have to leave through Guston and Pineham to get to the A2 as traffic through Whitfield was at a standstill.

 

Up the A2 to Faversham, then along the Motorway until we turned off just after the Medway bridge. It was later than we had hoped, but thought nothing of it, really.

 

But there was a food festival on near the caste, and all parking was full, we drove along the river thinking we would just give up, then following the sat nav back into town we find a tiny car park with spaces, and just a few minutes walk from the cathedral and castle.

 

Perfect.

 

As we drove past the parish church in Strood, I saw thatt he door was open: oh good.

 

On the way to the cathedral, we called into a café for breakfast. Second breakfast. Elevenses. I had a bacon butty and Jools had a panini, which hit the spot, meaning we were ready to go and mingle with people.

 

By the time we emerged, and walked along the High Street to the church, it was closed. So I took some shots of the outside, and then we headed for the bridge over the Medway, and before the Cathedral, there was the Bridge Chapel.

 

I had discovered from a fr

 

iend that the Bridge over the Medway at Rochester was owned, repaired and funded by a charity/trust, and had been this was pretty much from the 14th century.

 

Only the other shell of the Chantry Chapel of the Bridge now remains, but a new roof has been put on, and the chapel now used for meetings, and has a large wooden table filling most of the Chancel. I record the details, say thanks to the two friendly guides, and we finally walk to the Cathedral.

 

The food festival needed tickets to go in, it smelled good, and a band was playing poor Britpop numbers to entertain the thin crowds.

 

We entered the cathedral, and hit by the sight of over 10,000 paper doves, all lit with pink light, having over the Nave.

 

It was impressive.

 

As was the table, pushed to one side but half the length of the Nave, and made of two and three thick planks.

 

I went round taking shots of the stained glass with the big lens, whilst Jools sat and looked after the camera bag.

 

Despite it being a cool day, with my fleece on I was hot, so needed a drink, and along the old High Street was The George, and they showed us to the "garden", which was a huge tent filled with people, one party were loudly celebrating someone's 40th birthday.

 

But our drinks were brought quickly, and being in the corner we could people watch, of course.

 

It was two, and time to go home. The traffic jams of earlier had melted away, so we walked to the car, turned out onto the main road out of town, to the motorway and home.

 

On the radio Citeh put 4 (four) past Liverpool, then all was about preparations for the main group of games.

 

We arrived back home at three, time for a brew and two hot cross buns each, and for me, listen to the footy on the radio, and hopeful that City's late push to the play-offs would start today.

  

It didn't.

 

A 1-0 loss to Sheffield Utd, just one shot on goal, and the season is deader than flares.

 

I watched the evening game, Chelsea losing to Villa, whilst Craig returned on the radio and spun some funk and soul.

 

Perfect.

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

Rochester Cathedral has been transformed by ‘Peace Doves’ an artwork by Peter Walker Sculptor

 

Bringing a message of peace and hope, the Peace Doves artwork has been created from around fifteen thousand individually hand made paper doves, together they collectively form this beautiful artwork which as a whole reflects joining together in unity, peace and hope moving forward.

 

Peace Doves is an artwork that has been re-curated for different spaces as it tours the UK, adaptations have been seen in Liverpool, Lichfield, Derby, Sheffield and now at Rochester.

 

The Peace Doves project has incorporated educational engagement with many schools and community groups in the local area and each person has written individual messages of peace and hope onto each dove.

 

Throughout history the dove has been viewed as a symbol of peace in many different cultures. For example in Greek mythology the dove is a symbol of the renewal of life, and liturgically within the Bible the dove appears at the Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan and in the teachings of Noah and the Ark as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

 

www.rochestercathedral.org/peacedoves

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church of England and the seat (cathedra) of the Bishop of Rochester, the second oldest bishopric in England after that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The edifice is a Grade I listed building (number 1086423)

 

The Rochester diocese was founded by Justus, one of the missionaries who accompanied Augustine of Canterbury to convert the pagan southern English to Christianity in the early 7th century. As the first Bishop of Rochester, Justus was granted permission by King Æthelberht of Kent to establish a church dedicated to Andrew the Apostle (like the monastery at Rome where Augustine and Justus had set out for England) on the site of the present cathedral, which was made the seat of a bishopric. The cathedral was to be served by a college of secular priests and was endowed with land near the city called Priestfields.[3][a][b]

 

Under the Roman system, a bishop was required to establish a school for the training of priests.[4] To provide the upper parts for music in the services a choir school was required.[5] Together these formed the genesis of the cathedral school which today is represented by the King's School, Rochester. The quality of chorister training was praised by Bede.

 

The original cathedral was 42 feet (13 m) high and 28 feet (8.5 m) wide. The apse is marked in the current cathedral on the floor and setts outside show the line of the walls. Credit for the construction of the building goes to King Æthelberht rather than St Justus. Bede describes St Paulinus' burial as "in the sanctuary of the Blessed Apostle Andrew which Æthelberht founded likewise he built the city of Rochester."[c][7]

 

Æthelberht died in 617 and his successor, Eadbald of Kent, was not a Christian. Justus fled to Francia and remained there for a year before he was recalled by the king.[8]

 

In 644 Ithamar, the first English-born bishop, was consecrated at the cathedral.[d] Ithamar consecrated Deusdedit as the first Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury on 26 March 655.[9]

 

The cathedral suffered much from the ravaging of Kent by King Æthelred of Mercia in 676. So great was the damage that Putta retired from the diocese and his appointed successor, Cwichelm, gave up the see "because of its poverty".[10]

 

In 762, the local overlord, Sigerd, granted land to the bishop, as did his successor Egbert.[e][11] The charter is notable as it is confirmed by Offa of Mercia as overlord of the local kingdom.

 

Following the invasion of 1066, William the Conqueror granted the cathedral and its estates to his half-brother, Odo of Bayeux. Odo misappropriated the resources and reduced the cathedral to near-destitution. The building itself was ancient and decayed. During the episcopate of Siward (1058–1075) it was served by four or five canons "living in squalor and poverty".[12] One of the canons became vicar of Chatham and raised sufficient money to make a gift to the cathedral for the soul and burial of his

 

Gundulf's church

 

Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, amongst others, brought Odo to account at the trial of Penenden Heath c. 1072. Following Odo's final fall, Gundulf was appointed as the first Norman bishop of Rochester in 1077. The cathedral and its lands were restored to the bishop.

 

Gundulf's first undertaking in the construction of the new cathedral seems to have been the construction of the tower which today bears his name. In about 1080 he began construction of a new cathedral to replace Justus' church. He was a talented architect who probably played a major part in the design or the works he commissioned. The original cathedral had a presbytery of six bays with aisles of the same length. The four easternmost bays stood over an undercroft which forms part of the present crypt. To the east was a small projection, probably for the silver shrine of Paulinus which was translated there from the old cathedral.[f] The transepts were 120 feet long, but only 14 feet wide. With such narrow transepts it is thought that the eastern arches of the nave abuted the quire arch.[14] To the south another tower (of which nothing visible remains) was built. There was no crossing tower.[15] The nave was not completed at first. Apparently designed to be nine bays long, most of the south side but only five bays to the north were completed by Gundulf. The quire was required by the priory and the south wall formed part of its buildings. It has been speculated that Gundulf simply left the citizens to complete the parochial part of the building.[16] Gundulf did not stop with the fabric, he also replaced the secular chaplains with Benedictine monks, obtained several royal grants of land and proved a great benefactor to his cathedral city.

 

In 1078 Gudulf founded St Bartholomew's Hospital just outside the city of Rochester. The Priory of St Andrew contributed daily and weekly provisions to the hospital which also received the offerings from the two altars of St James and of St Giles.[17]

 

During the episcopates of Ernulf (1115–1124) and John (I) (1125–1137) the cathedral was completed. The quire was rearranged, the nave partly rebuilt, Gundulf's nave piers were cased and the west end built. Ernulf is also credited with building the refectory, dormitory and chapter house, only portions of which remain. Finally John translated the body of Ithamar from the old Saxon cathedral to the new Norman one, the whole being dedicated in 1130 (or possibly 1133) by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by 13 bishops in the presence of Henry I, but the occasion was marred by a great fire which nearly destroyed the whole city and damaged the new cathedral. It was badly damaged by fires again in 1137 and 1179. One or other of these fires was sufficiently severe to badly damage or destroy the eastern arm and the transepts. Ernulf's monastic buildings were also damaged.

 

Probably from about 1190, Gilbert de Glanville (bishop 1185–1214) commenced the rebuilding of the east end and the replacement on the monastic buildings. The north quire transept may have been sufficiently advanced to allow the burial of St William of Perth in 1201, alternatively the coffin may have lain in the north quire aisle until the transept was ready. It was then looted in 1215 by the forces of King John during siege of Rochester Castle. Edmund de Hadenham recounts that there was not a pyx left "in which the body of the Lord might rest upon the altar".[14] However, by 1227, the quire was again in use when the monks made their solemn entry into it. The cathedral was rededicated in 1240 by Richard Wendene (also known as Richard de Wendover) who had been translated from Bangor.[14][18]

 

The shrines of Ss Paulinus and William of Perth, along with the relics of St Ithamar, drew pilgrims to the cathedral. Their offerings were so great that both the work mentioned above and the ensuing work could be funded.

 

Unlike the abbeys of the period (which were led by an abbot) the monastic cathedrals were priories ruled over by a prior with further support from the bishop.[19] Rochester and Carlisle (the other impoverished see) were unusual in securing the promotion of a number of monks to be bishop. Seven bishops of Rochester were originally regular monks between 1215 and the Dissolution.[20] A consequence of the monastic attachment was a lack of patronage at the bishop's disposal. By the early 16th century only 4% of the bishop's patronage came from non-parochial sources.[21] The bishop was therefore chronically limited in funds to spend on the non-monastic part of the cathedral.

 

The next phase of the development was begun by Richard de Eastgate, the sacrist. The two eastern bays of the nave were cleared and the four large piers to support the tower were built. The north nave transept was then constructed. The work was nearly completed by Thomas de Mepeham who became sacrist in 1255. Not long after the south transept was completed and the two bays of the nave nearest the crossing rebuilt to their current form. The intention seems to have been to rebuild the whole nave, but probably lack of funds saved the late Norman work.

 

The cathedral was desecrated in 1264 by the troops of Simon de Montfort, during sieges of the city and castle. It is recorded that armed knights rode into the church and dragged away some refugees. Gold and silver were stolen and documents destroyed. Some of the monastic buildings were turned into stables.[22] Just over a year later De Montfort fell at the Battle of Evesham to the forces of Edward I. Later, in 1300, Edward passed through Rochester on his way to Canterbury and is recorded as having given seven shillings (35p) at the shrine of St William, and the same again the following day. During his return he again visited the cathedral and gave a further seven shillings at each of the shrines of Ss Paulinus and Ithamar.

 

The new century saw the completion of the new Decorated work with the original Norman architecture. The rebuilding of the nave being finally abandoned. Around 1320 the south transept was altered to accommodate the altar of the Virgin Mary.

 

There appears to have been a rood screen thrown between the two western piers of the crossing. A rood loft may have surmounted it.[23] Against this screen was placed the altar of St Nicholas, the parochial altar of the city. The citizens demanded the right of entrance by day or night to what was after all their altar. There were also crowds of strangers passing through the city. The friction broke out as a riot in 1327 after which the strong stone screens and doors which wall off the eastern end of the church from the nave were built.[24] The priory itself was walled off from the town at this period. An oratory was established in angulo navis ("in the corner of the nave") for the reserved sacrament; it is not clear which corner was being referred to, but Dr Palmer[25] argues that the buttress against the north-west tower pier is the most likely setting. He notes the arch filled in with rubble on the aisle side; and on nave side there is a scar line with lower quality stonework below. The buttress is about 4 feet (1.2 m) thick, enough for an oratory. Palmer notes that provision for reservation of consecrated hosts was often made to the north of the altar which would be the case here.

 

The central tower was at last raised by Hamo de Hythe in 1343, thus essentially completing the cathedral. Bells were placed in the central tower (see Bells section below). The chapter room doorway was constructed at around this time. The Black Death struck England in 1347–49. From then on there were probably considerably more than twenty monks in the priory.

 

The modern paintwork of the quire walls is modelled on artwork from the Middle Ages. Gilbert Scott found remains of painting behind the wooden stalls during his restoration work in the 1870s. The painting is therefore part original and part authentic. The alternate lions and fleurs-de-lis reflect Edward III's victories, and assumed sovereignty over the French. In 1356 the Black Prince had defeated John II of France at Poitiers and took him prisoner. On 2 July 1360 John passed through Rochester on his way home and made an offering of 60 crowns (£15) at the Church of St Andrew.[27]

 

The Oratory provided for the citizens of Rochester did not settle the differences between the monks and the city. The eventual solution was the construction of St Nicholas' Church by the north side of the cathedral. A doorway was knocked through the western end of the north aisle (since walled up) to allow processions to pass along the north aisle of the cathedral before leaving by the west door.[27][28]

 

In the mid-15th century the clerestory and vaulting of the north quire aisle was completed and new Perpendicular Period windows inserted into the nave aisles. Possible preparatory work for this is indicated in 1410–11 by the Bridge Wardens of Rochester who recorded a gift of lead from the Lord Prior. The lead was sold on for 41 shillings.[g][29] In 1470 the great west window at the cathedral was completed and finally, in around 1490, what is now the Lady Chapel was built.[27] Rochester Cathedral, although one of England's smaller cathedrals, thus demonstrates all styles of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.[30]

 

In 1504 John Fisher was appointed Bishop of Rochester. Although Rochester was by then an impoverished see, Fisher elected to remain as bishop for the remainder of his life. He had been tutor to the young Prince Henry and on the prince's accession as Henry VIII, Fisher remained his staunch supporter and mentor. He figured in the anti-Lutheran policies of Henry right up until the divorce issue and split from Rome in the early 1530s. Fisher remained true to Rome and for his defence of the Pope was elevated as a cardinal in May 1535. Henry was angered by these moves and, on 22 June 1535, Cardinal Fisher was beheaded on Tower Green.

 

Henry VIII visited Rochester on 1 January 1540 when he met Ann of Cleves for the first time and was "greatly disappointed".[31] Whether connected or not, the old Priory of St Andrew was dissolved by royal command later in the year, one of the last monasteries to be dissolved.

 

The west front is dominated by the central perpendicular great west window. Above the window the dripstone terminates in a small carved head at each side. The line of the nave roof is delineated by a string course above which rises the crenelated parapet. Below the window is a blind arcade interrupted by the top of the Great West Door. Some of the niches in the arcade are filled with statuary. Below the arcade the door is flanked with Norman recesses. The door itself is of Norman work with concentric patterned arches. The semicircular tympanum depicts Christ sitting in glory in the centre, with Saints Justus and Ethelbert flanking him on either side of the doorway. Supporting the saints are angels and surrounding them are the symbols of the Four Evangelists: Ss Matthew (a winged man), Mark (a lion), Luke (an ox) and John (an eagle).[52] On the lintel below are the Twelve Apostles and on the shafts supporting it King Soloman and the Queen of Sheba.[53] Within the Great West Door there is a glass porch which allows the doors themselves to be kept open throughout the day.

 

Either side of the nave end rises a tower which forms the junction of the front and the nave walls. The towers are decorated with blind arcading and are carried up a further two stories above the roof and surmounted with pyramidal spires. The aisle ends are Norman. Each has a large round headed arch containing a window and in the northern recess is a small door. Above each arch is plain wall surmounted by a blind arcade, string course at the roof line and plain parapet. The flanking towers are Norman in the lower part with the style being maintained in the later work. Above the plain bases there are four stories of blind arcading topped with an octagonal spire.[54]

 

The outside of the nave and its aisles is undistinguished, apart from the walled up north-west door which allowed access from the cathedral to the adjacent St Nicholas' Church.[28] The north transept is reached from the High Street via Black Boy Alley, a medieval pilgrimage route. The decoration is Early English, but reworked by Gilbert Scott. Scott rebuilt the gable ends to the original high pitch from the lower one adopted at the start of the 19th century. The gable itself is set back from the main wall behind a parapet with walkway. He also restored the pilgrim entrance and opened up the blind arcade in the northern end of the west wall.[55]

 

To the east of the north transept is the Sextry Gate. It dates from Edward III's reign and has wooden domestic premises above. The area beyond was originally enclosed, but is now open to the High Street through the memorial garden and gates. Beyond the Sextry Gate is the entrance to Gundulf's Tower, used as a private back door to the cathedral.

 

The north quire transept and east end are all executed in Early English style, the lower windows light the crypt which is earlier. Adjoining the east end of the cathedral is the east end of the Chapter Room which is in the same style. The exact form of the east end is more modern than it appears, being largely due to the work of Scott in the 19th century. Scott raised the gable ends to the original high pitch, but for lack of funds the roofs have not been raised; writing in 1897 Palmer noted: "they still require roofs of corresponding pitch, a need both great and conspicuous".[56]

 

On the south side of the cathedral the nave reaches the main transept and beyond a modern porch. The aisle between the transepts is itself a buttress to the older wall behind and supported by a flying buttress. The unusual position of this wall is best explained when considering the interior, below. The southern wall of the presbytery is hidden by the chapter room, an 18th-century structure.

 

he western part of the nave is substantially as Gundulf designed it. According to George H. Palmer (who substantially follows St John Hope) "Rochester and Peterborough possess probably the best examples of the Norman nave in the country".[60] The main arcade is topped by a string course below a triforium. The triforium is Norman with a further string course above. The clerestory above is of perpendicular style. From the capitals pilasters rise to the first string course but appear to have been removed from the triforium stage. Originally they might have supported the roof timbers, or even been the springing of a vault.[61]

 

The easternmost bay of the triforium appears to be Norman, but is the work of 14th-century masons. The final bay of the nave is Decorated in style and leads to the tower piers. Of note is the north pier which possibly contains the Oratory Chapel mentioned above.[62]

 

The aisles are plain with flat pilasters. The eastern two bays are Decorated with springing for vaulting. Whether the vault was ever constructed is unknown, the present wooden roof extends the full length of the aisles.

 

The crossing is bounded to the east by the quire screen with the organ above. This is of 19th-century work and shows figures associated with the early cathedral. Above the crossing is the central tower, housing the bells and above that the spire. The ceiling of the crossing is notable for the four Green Men carved on the bosses. Visible from the ground is the outline of the trapdoor through which bells can be raised and lowered when required. The floor is stepped up to the pulpitum and gives access to the quire through the organ screen.

 

The north transept is from 1235 in Early English style. The Victorian insertion of windows has been mentioned above in the external description. Dominating the transept is the baptistery fresco. The fresco by Russian artist Sergei Fyodorov is displayed on the eastern wall. It is located within an arched recess. The recess may have been a former site of the altar of St Nicholas from the time of its construction in 1235 until it was moved to the screen before the pulpitum in 1322. A will suggests that "an altar of Jesu" also stood here at some point, an altar of some sort must have existed as evidenced by the piscina to the right of the recess.[64] The vaulting is unusual in being octpartite, a development of the more common sexpartite. The Pilgrim Door is now the main visitor entrance and is level for disabled access.

 

he original Lady Chapel was formed in the south transept by screening it off from the crossing. The altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary was housed in the eastern arch of the transept. There are traces of painting both on the east wall and under the arch. The painting delineates the location of the mediaeval north screen of the Lady Chapel. Around 1490 this chapel was extended westwards by piercing the western wall with a large arch and building the chapel's nave against the existing south aisle of cathedral. From within the Lady Chapel the upper parts of two smaller clerestory windows may be seen above the chapel's chancel arch. Subsequently, a screen was placed under the arch and the modern Lady Chapel formed in the 1490 extension.

 

The south transept is of early Decorated style. The eastern wall of it is a single wide arch at the arcade level. There are two doorways in the arch, neither of which is used, the northern one being hidden by the memorial to Dr William Franklin. The south wall starts plain but part way up is a notable monument to Richard Watts, a "coloured bust, with long gray beard".[65] According to Palmer there used to be a brass plaque to Charles Dickens below this but only the outline exists, the plaque having been moved to the east wall of the quire transept.[66] The west wall is filled by the large arch mentioned above with the screen below dividing it from the present Lady Chapel.

 

The Lady Chapel as it now exists is of Decorated style with three lights along southern wall and two in the west wall. The style is a light and airy counterpart to the stolid Norman work of the nave. The altar has been placed against the southern wall resulting in a chapel where the congregation wraps around the altar. The window stained glass is modern and tells the gospel story.

 

The first, easternmost, window has the Annunciation in the upper light: Gabriel speaking to Mary (both crowned) with the Holy Spirit as a dove descending. The lower light shows the Nativity with the Holy Family, three angels and shepherds. The next window shows St Elizabeth in the upper light surrounded by stars and the sun in splendour device. The lower light shows the Adoration of the Magi with Mary enthroned with the Infant. The final window of the south wall has St Mary Magdelene with her ointment surrounded by Tudor roses and fleurs-de-lis in the upper light with the lower light showing the Presentation in the Temple. The west wall continues with St. Margaret of Scotland in the upper light surrounded by fouled anchor and thistle roundels. The reference is to the original dedication of the cathedral as the Priory of St Andrew. The lower light shows the Crucifixion with Mary and St Peter. The final window is unusual, the upper light is divided in three and shows King Arthur with the royal arms flanked by St George on the left and St Michael on the right. The lower light shows the Ascension: two disciples to the left, three women with unguents to the right and three bare crosses top right.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Cathedral

 

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The priory and cathedral church

ABOUT THE YEAR 600, Ethelbert, king of Kent, at the instance of St. Augustine, began to build a CHURCH at Rochester, in honour of St. Andrew, and a MONASTERY adjoining to it, of which church St. Augustine in 604, appointed Justus to be bishop, and placed secular priests in the monastery; for the maintenance of whom the king gave a portion of land to the south of the city, called Prestefelde; to be possessed by them for ever, and he added other parcels of land, both within and without the walls of the city. (fn. 1) And notwithstanding in after times the gifts to this church were many and extensive, yet by the troubles which followed in the Danish wars, it was stripped of almost all of them, and at the time of the conquest it was in such a state of poverty, that divine worship was entirely neglected in it, and there remained in it only five secular priests, who had not sufficient for their maintenance.

 

Many of the possessions belonging to the church of Rochester had come into the hands of the conqueror at his accession to the crown, most of which he gave to his half-brother, Odo, bishop of Baieux, from whom archbishop Lanfranc recovered them, amongother lands belonging to his own church, in the solemn assembly of the whole county, held by the king's command at Pinnenden-heath, in the year 1076.

 

Soon after this, Gundulf was elected bishop of Rochester, to whom and to this church, archbishop Lanfranc immediately restored all those lands which he had recovered, formerly belonging to it.

 

Bishop Gundulf displaced the secular canons which he found here, and with the advice and assistance of archbishop Lanfranc, placed Benedictine monks in their room, the number of which, before his death, amounted to sixty. Besides which, the bishop continuing his unwearied zeal in promoting the interest of his church, recovered and purchased back again many other lands and manors, which had been formerly given to it by several kings, and other pious persons, and had been at different times wrested from it. He followed the example of archbishop Lanfranc, and separated his revenues from those of his monks; for before the bishop and his monks lived in common as one family. He rebuilt the church and enlarged the priory; and though he did not live to complete the great improvements he had undertaken, yet he certainly laid the foundation of the future prosperity of both. (fn. 2) The most material occurrences which happened to the church and priory, from the above time to the dissolution of the latter, will be found in the subsequent account of the several priors and bishops of this church.

 

From the conquest to the reign of Henry VIII. almost every king granted some liberties and privileges, as well to the bishop of Rochester as to the prior of the convent; each confirmed likewise those granted by his predecessors. The succeeding bishops and archbishops confirmed the possessions of the priory to the monks of it, as did many of the popes. The Registrum Roffense is full of these grants in almost every page and as the most material of them are mentioned under the respective places they relate to in the course of this history, the reader will, it is hoped, the more readily excuse the omission of them in this place.

 

A list of the Priors of Rochester.

Ordowinus was appointed the first prior, and was witness to the charter of foundation, dated Sept. 20, 1089. He afterwards resigned. (fn. 3)

 

Arnulph, originally a monk of Christ church, was constituted in his room, and continued here till he was elected prior of Canterbury, in 1096, from whence he was preferred to the abbot of Peterborough, and in 1115, to the see of Rochester. He was a good benefactor to this priory, and built the dormitory, chapter house, and refectory.

 

Ralph succeeded him; he had been a monk at Caen, and came over into England with Lanfranc, in 1107. On his being chosen abbot of Battle, in Sussex, he resigned this office. On the death of bishop Gundulf, the monks of Rochester desired him for their bishop, but in vain.

 

Ordowinus was again restored in 1107. He is said to have held this office under bishop Ernulph, therefore he was living in 1115.

 

Letard presided here under the same bishop.

 

Brian presided in 1145; and died on Decemb. 5, 1146.

 

Reginald, who in the year 1154, obtained from pope Adrian IV. a confirmation of the privliges of the church of Rochester. He is said to have died on April 29, in the obituary of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, but the year is not mentioned, nor that of the election of

 

Ernulf II. who was prior in the time of bishop Walter. The next I find is

 

William de Borstalle, who was preferred to the priorship from being cellarer to this monastery.

 

Silvester, who was his successor, from being cellarer was likewise made prior. In his time, anno 1177, the church and the offices, as well within as without the walls were burnt. He rebuilt the refectory and dormitory, and three windows in the chapter house, towards the east. His successor was

 

Richard, who in 1182, resigned this office on being chosen abbot of Burton, in Staffordshire.

 

Alfred succeeded him as prior, and quitted it on being made abbot of Abingdon by king Henry II. between the years 1185 and 1189. (fn. 4)

 

Osbert de Scapella, from being sacrist was chosen prior. He wrote several books, and made the window of St. Peter's altar, and did many other works; he was a great benefactor to the buildings of this church.

 

Ralph de Ros, who presided in 1199, was the next prior, and whilst he was sacrist built the brewhouse, and the prior's great and lesser chamber, the stone houses in the church yard, the hostiary, stable, and the barn in the vineyard, and caused the church to be covered and most of it leaded.

 

Helias seems to have succeeded him. He finished the covering of the church with lead, and built with stone a stable for himself and his successors. He also leaded that part of the cloisters next the dormitory, and made the laundry and door of the refectory.

 

William is said after him to have enjoyed this office in 1222.

 

Richard de Derente was elected prior of Rochester in 1225; he, among others, in the year 1227, signified to the archbishop the election of Henry de Sandford to the see of Rochester, and he is said to have presided in the year 1238, and to have been succeeded by

 

William de Hoo, sacrist of this church, who was chosen prior in 1239. He built the whole choir of this church, from the north and south wings, out of the oblations made at the shrine of St. William; and after having governed here for two years, because he would not consent to the sale of some lands belonging to his convent, he was much persecuted, and resigning this office, became a monk at Wooburn, and there died. In his time, in 1240, the altar in the infirmary chapel was dedicated to St. Mary; and on the nones of November that year the cathedral church itself being finished, was dedicated by the bishop, assisted by the bishops of Bangor and St. Andrew. (fn. 5)

 

Alexander de Glanville succeeded him, who dying suddenly of grief, in 1252, was succeeded by

 

John de Renham or Rensham. In his time the church and monastery were plundered, and many ornaments and charters taken away. He is said by some to have resigned in Dec. 1283; but in reality he was then deposed by John, archbishop of Canterbury, visiting this church as metropolitan.

 

Thomas de Woldham, alias Suthflete, was elected bishop of Rochesler, and refused it; but being elected a second time, was consecrated in the parish of Chartham, in Kent, the 6th of January, 1291. (fn. 6)

 

Simon de Clyve, sacrist of this church, who growing infirm, resigned this office of prior in 1622, and was the same year succeeded by

 

John de Renham or Rensham who, was again chosen prior, in 1292. He died in 1294, and

 

Thomas de Shuldeford succeeded him, who being infirm, resigned in 1301, and was succeeded by

 

John de Greenstreet in February the same year, on whose resignation, in 1314.

 

Hamo de Hethe was elected to this office that year, as he was to the see of Rochester in 1317, though he was not consecrated till two years afterwards; during the time he governed this church as prior and bishop he was a great benefactor to it.

 

John de Westerham succeeded him, in 1320, and died in 1321, and was succeeded by

 

John de Speldhurst, cellarer of this convent, who was chosen by the monks, and confirmed by the bishop; he resigned in 1333. His successor was

 

John de Shepey, S. T. P. In 1336, he built the new refectory, and received towards the expence of it one hundred marcs. In his time also, in 1344, the shrines of St. Michael, St. Paulinus, and St. Ythamar, were now made with marble and alabaster, which cost two hundred marcs; and the year before he caused the tower to be raised higher with wood and stone, and covered it with lead, and placed four new bells there, calling them Dunstan, Paulin, Ythamar, and Lanfranc. On December 27, 1352, he was elected bishop of Rochester by papal bull. (fn. 7)

 

Robert de Suthflete, warden of Filchestowe cell succeeded on his predecessor's preferment to the bishop. ric in 1352, he died in 1361.

 

John de Hertlepe or Hertley, warden of the same cell, was chosen to succeed him that year; he resigned in 1380, and was succeeded by

 

John de Shepey, S. T. P. the subprior, who was elected the same year; he governed the priory thirtynine years, and died in 1419.

 

William de Tunbrigg was the next prior, who having been elected by the monks, was confirmed by the archbishop of Canterbury (the see of Rochester being vacant) the same year; he presided in 1444, and was soon succeeded by John Clyfe, in 1447. After him,

 

John Cardone was prior, in 1448.

 

William Wode was prior in the reign of king Edward IV. and he was succeeded by

 

Thomas Bourne, who was prior in 1480, to whom

 

William Bishop probably succeeded; he occurs prior in 1496, and seems to have been succeeded by

 

William Frysell, who was elected to this office in 1509. His successor in it was probably

 

Laurence. Mereworth, who occurs prior in 1533 and 1534, when he, with eighteen monks, subscribed to the king's supremacy.

 

Walter Boxley was the next, and last prior of this monastery; for king Henry VIII. in the 31st year of his reign, granted a commission to the archbishop of Canterbury, George lord Cobham, and others, to receive the surrendry of this priory; and accordingly, the above mentioned prior and convent, by their instrument, under their common seal, dated April 8, that year (1540) with their unanimous assent and consent, deliberately, and of their own certain knowledge and mere motion, from certain just and reasonable causes, especially moving their minds and consciences, of their own free good will, gave and granted all that their monastery, and the scite thereof, with all their churches, yard, debts, and moveable goods, together with all their manors, demesnes, messuages, &c. to king Henry. VIII. with a general warrantry against all persons whatsoever. This deed was executed in the presence of a master in chancery, and was afterwards inrolled in the court of augmentation.

 

The prior above mentioned, after the dissolution of this monastery, again took on him his original family and lay name of Phillips; for when any person took upon him the monastic habit, he immediately assumed the name of the place of his dwelling or birth, that by having so done, he might be divested and alienated from all former family connections and relationship, and consider himself entirely as the son of the church, and as having no other relations than those who were his brethren in the monastery.

 

The priory of Rochester was valued at 486l. 11s. 5d. yearly income; (fn. 8) the whole of which came into the king's hands, as above mentioned; who, though he was empowered by parliament to erect new sees, and ecclesiastical corporate bodies out of the estates belonging to these suppressed monasteries, yet more than two years passed before there was any new establishment founded by him here.

 

AFTER the dissolution of the priory of Rochester, king Henry VIII. by his charter under his privy seal, dated June 18, in his 33d year, founded within the precincts of the late monastery here, to the glory and honour of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, a CATHEDRAL CHURCH of one dean and six prebendaries, who were to be priests, together with other ministers necessary for the performing of divine service, in future to be called, The Cathedral church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary of Rochester, and to be the episcopal seat of the bishop of Rochestet and his successors; and he granted the same episcopal seat within the precincts of the late monastery, to him and his successors for ever; and he appointed Walter Philippes, late prior there, the first dean of this church, and Hugh Aprice, John Wildbore, Robert Johnson, John Symkins, Robert Salisbury, and Richard Engest, the six prebendaries of it; and he incorporated them by the name of the dean and chapter of it, and granted that they should have perpetual succession, and be the chapter of the bishopric of Rochester, to plead and be impleaded by that name, and have a common seal; and he granted to the dean and chapter and their successors, the scite and precincts of the late monastery, the church there, and all things whatsoever within it, excepting and reserving to the king the particular buildings and parts of it therein mentioned; which premises, or at least the greatest part of them, seem to have been afterwards granted to the dean and chapter; and also excepting always to the bishop of Rochester and his successors, the great messuage, called the Bishop's palace, with all other his lands and tenements, in right of his bishopric, to hold the said scite, precincts, church, and appurtenances, to the dean and chapter and their successors for ever in pure and perpetual alms; and he granted them full power of making and admitting the inferior officers of the church, and afterwards of correcting and displacing them as they thought fit; saving to the king the full power of nominating the dean and six prebendaries, and also six almsmen, by his letters patent, as often as they should become vacant; and lastly, he granted, that they should have these his letters patent made and sealed in the accustomed manner, under his great seal. These letters patent were sealed with the great seal, June 20th following.

 

The dotation charter, under the king's privy seal, is dated the same day; by which he granted to the dean and chapter, and their successors, sundry premises, manors, lands, tenements, rents, advowsons and appropriations, part of the possessions of the late priory of Rochester, of the late priory of Ledys, of the hospital of Stroud and of the priory of Boxley, in the counties of Kent, Buckingham, Surry, and in the city of London, to hold in pure and perpetual alms, and he granted them, and each of them to be exempt and discharged from all payments of first fruits and tenths, reserving to him and his successors, in lieu thereof, the yearly sum of one hundred and fifteen pounds, (which rent has been since increased to 124l 6s. for reasons as has been already mentioned under Southfleet and Shorne in the former volumes of this history) and lastly, that they should have these his letters patent made and sealed with his great seal, &c. On the 4th of July following, the king granted a commission to George, lord Cobham, and others, reciting, that whereas he had lately founded and erected the said cathedral church in the scite and place of the late priory at Rochester, and in the same one dean, six prebendaries, six minor canons, one deacon and subdeacon, six lay clerks, one master of the choristers, eight choristers, one teacher of the boys in grammar, to consist of twenty scholars, two subsacrists, and six poor men, he gave power and authority to them, or any two of them, to repair to the scite of the late priory, and there, according as they thought fit, to allot the whole of it, and to assign to the dean and canons separate and fit stalls in the choir, and separate places in the chapter there, and to allot to the dean the new lodging, containing two parlours, a kitchen, four bedchambers, the gallery, the study over the gate, with all other buildings leading to the house of John Symkins, one of the residentiaries, together with the garden adjoining, on the north side of the king's lodging. The hay, barn in the woodyard of the dean under the vestry, a stable for the dean adjoining the gate of the tower, and the pidgeon-house on the wall adjoining the ponds; and also to the prebendaries and minor canons and other ministers, and persons above-mentioned, and to each of them, according to their degree, convenient houses, and places about the church to be divided and assigned to each of them, as far as the buildings and ground of the scite would allow, so that the said dean and canons might have separate houses for their convenient habitation, and that the rest of the ministers and persons, that is, minor canons, deacon and subdeacon, scholars, choiristers, and upper and under master, should have smaller houses, in which they and their families should inhabit, and further, that they should put the dean, canons and other ministers in possession of the houses and premises so assigned as asoresaid, provided always, that the said minor canons, and other ministers (except the dean and prebendaries) should eat at one common table, according to the statutes to be prescribed to them, and that they should certify under their seals to the chancellor and court of augmentation what they had done in it.

 

About three years afterwards, a body of statutes for the government of this church was delivered to it by three commissioners appointed by the king for that purpose, but like many others, they were neither under the great seal nor indented, so that their validity continued in dispute till the reign of queen Anne, in the sixth year of whose reign, an act passed to make them good and valid in law, so far as they were not inconsistent with the constitution of the church, or the laws of the land.

 

In these statutes, besides the members already mentioned, there is named a porter, who was likewise to be a barber, a butler, a cook and an under-cook; all the members still subsist in this church, except the deacon and subdeacon, the butler, cook and under-cook; the two first have been disused ever since the reformation, or at least very soon afterwards, and the other three are not necessary, as there is not. any common table kept, nor indeed does there appear to have been one kept as directed by the statutes, for the several members of this church, excepting the dean and prebendaries, and the six almsmen. There were also by the statutes yearly exhibitions of five pounds to be paid to four scholars, two at each university. By the statutes they were to be more than fifteen, and under twenty years of age, to be chosen from this school in preference, and if none such were here, then from any other, so that there were neither fellow or scholar in either university; the pension of five pounds to continue till they commenced bachelor, and that within the space of four years; after which they were to enjoy the same for three years; when commencing master of arts they were to be allowed six pounds per annum, and after that 6l. 13s. 4d. The college to be at the option of the dean, or vice-dean, and chapter, who nominate the scholars, and forty pounds was directed to be laid out yearly in charity, and the repairing of highways and bridges.

 

By the charter of foundation, king Henry VIII. reserved to himself and his successors the right of nominating and appointing, by his letters patent, the dean and prebendaries, and by the statutes the dean must be a doctor of divinity, a batchelor, or doctor of law, and each of the prebendaries the same, or master of arts, or batchelor of laws, and to be appointed by the king's letters patent under his great seal, and presented to the bishop. The dean continues to be nominated by the king, four of the prebends are in the gift of the lordkeeper of the great seal, one is annexed by letters patent, and confirmed by act of parliament, anno 12 queen Anne, to the provostship of Oriel college, in Oxford, and confirmed by parliament the same year, and another was by letters patent, anno 13 king Charles I. annexed to the archdeaconry of Rochester. The crown likewise nominates the six poor bedesmen, who are admitted by warrant under the sign manual; these are in general old and maimed sailors, who are pensioners of the chest at Chatham.

 

Walter Phillips, the last prior, on the surrendry of this monastery into the king's hands, was, by the foundation charter of the dean and chapter, dated June 18, anno 33 Henry VIII. appointed the first dean. He died in 1570. (fn. 9)

 

Edmund Freake, S. T. P. was installed in 1570, and was consecrated bishop of Rochester in 1571.

 

Thomas Willoughby, S. T. P. and prebendary of Canterbury, in 1574, he died in 1585.

 

John Coldwell, M. D. of St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1585, and was consecrated bishop of Salisbury in 1591.

 

Thomas Blague, S. T. P. master of Clare-hall, and rector of Bangor, in 1591, and died in 1611.

 

Richard Milbourne, A. M. rector of Cheam, in Surry, and vicar of Sevenoke, in 1611, and was consecrated bishop of St. David's in 1615. (fn. 10)

 

Robert Scott, S. T. P. and master of Clare-hall, in 1615. He died in 1620.

 

Godfrey Goodman, a native of Essex, and fellow of Trinity college, then master of Clare-hall, Cambridge, afterwards prebendary of Westminster, rector of Kemmerton, in Gloucestershire, and West Isley, in Berkshire, and S. T. P. in 1620, and was consecrated bishop of Gloucester in 1624.

 

Walter Balcanquall, a native of Scotland, and S. T. P. in 1624. He was first fellow of Pembroke-hall, Cambridge, then master of the Savoy. (fn. 11) He resigned this deanry for that of Durham in 1638. (fn. 12)

 

Henry King, S. T. P. of Christ-church, Oxford, archdeacon of Colchester, residentiary of St. Paul's, and canon of Christ-church, (fn. 13) in 1638, and was consecrated bishop of Chichester in 1641.

 

Thomas Turner, S. T. P. canon residentiary of St. Paul's, London, rector of St. Olave's, Southwark, and of Fetcham, in Surry, in 1641, and was made dean of Canterbury in 1643.

 

Benjamin Laney, S. T. P. master of Pembroke-hall, vicar of Soham, in Cambridgeshire, rector of Buriton, in Hampshire, and prebendary of Westminster and Winchester, in 1660, and was consecrated bishop of Peterborough, at the latter end of that year. (fn. 14)

 

Nathaniel Hardy S. T. P. rector of St. Dionis Backchurch, archdeacon of Lewes, and rector of Henley upon Thames, in 1660. He died at Croydon in 1670, and was buried in the church of St. Martin's in the Fields, of which church he was vicar, having been by his will a good benefactor to the members of this cathedral, and their successors, as well as to the parishes of this city.

 

Peter Mew, S. T. P. succeeded in 1670. He had been canon of Windsor, archdeacon of Berks, and pre sident of St. John's college, Oxford. He was consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells at the end of the year 1672. (fn. 15)

 

Thomas Lamplugh, S. T. P. in 1672. He was first fellow of queen's college, Oxford, then principal of Alban-hall, and vicar of St. Martin's in the Fields. He was consecrated bishop of Exeter in 1676. (fn. 16)

 

John Castilion, S. T. P. prebendary of Canterbury, and vicar of Minster, in Thanet, in 1676. He died in 1688, and was buried in Canterbury cathedral.

 

On the death of Dr. Castilion, Simon Lowth, A. M. was nominated that year by king James II. to succeed him; but not being qualified as to his degree according to the statutes, his admittance and installation was refused, and the revolution quickly after following, he was set aside, and Dr. Ullock was nominated in his itead.

 

Henry Ullock, S. T. P. succeeded in 1689, at that time prebendary of this church, and rector of Leyborne. He died in 1706, and was buried there.

 

Samuel Pratt, S. T. P. clerk of the closet, succeeded in 1706. (fn. 17) He was canon of Windsor, vicar of Twickenham, and chaplain of the Savoy chapel. He died in 1723.

 

Nicholas Claggett, S. T. P. rector of Brington, in Northamptonshire, and of Overton sinecure, in Hampshire, and archdeacon of Buckingham in 1724. He was promoted to the bishopric of St. David's in 1731.

 

Thomas Herring, S. T. P. was first of Jesus college, Cambridge, and afterwards fellow of Bennet college. After a variety of parochial preferments he was advanced to this deanry in 1731, which he held in commendam from 1737, when he was promoted to the bi shopric of Bangor till his translation to the archbishopric of York in 1743. (fn. 18)

 

William Bernard, S. T. P. prebendary of Westminster, (fn. 19) succeeded in 1743, but next year was promoted to the see of Raphoe, in Ireland. (fn. 20)

 

John Newcome, S. T. P. lady Margaret's lecturer of divinity, and master of St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1744. He had supplied the divinity chair at Cambridge with great reputation, during the latter part of Dr. Bentley's life, then regius professor, who for several years before his death had retired from all public business. He died in 1765.

 

William Markham, LL. D. and prebendary of Durham, in 1765. He was a great benefactor to the deanry-house, the two wings of which were erected by him, but were not finished before his quitting this preferment for the deanry of Christ-church, Oxford, which he did in 1767. (fn. 21)

 

Benjamin Newcombe, S. T. P. and rector of St. Mildred's, in the Poultry, in 1767. He was afterwards vicar of Lamberhurst, and died at Rochester in 1775.

 

Thomas Thurlow, D. D. and master of the Temple, in 1775, was in 1779 made bishop of Lincoln. (fn. 22)

 

Richard Cust, S. T. P. canon of Christ-church, in Oxford, which he resigned on this promotion. He was a younger brother of the late Sir John Cust, bart. of Lincolnshire, speaker of the house of commons, and uncle to lord Brownlow. He resigned this deanry in 1781, on being made dean of Lincoln, and residentiary of that cathedral.

 

Thomas Dampier, son of Thomas Dampier, dean of Durham, was educated at Eton, and was afterwards fellow of King's college, in Cambridge, vicar of Boxley, prebendary of Durham, and master of Sherborne hospital. In 1780 he was created by royal mandate S. T. P. and in March 1782, succeeded to this deanry, with which he holds, excepting the fellowship, the several preferments before-mentioned.

 

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ROCHESTER is situated at a small distance from the south side of the middle of the High-street, within the antient gate of the priory.

 

This church was rebuilt by bishop Gundulph in the year 1080, and some part of this building still remains. The whole bears venerable marks of its antiquity, but time has so far impaired the strength of the materials with which it is built, that in all likelihood the care and attention of the present chapter towards the support of it will not be sufficient to prevent the fall of great part of it at no great distance of time.

 

The cathedral consists of a body and two isles, the length of it from the west door to the steps of the choir is fifty yards; at the entrance of the choir is the lower or great cross isle, the length of which is one hundred and twenty-two feet; from the steps of the choir to the east end of the church is fifty-two yards; at the upper end of the choir is another cross isle of the length of ninety feet. In the middle of the western cross isle, at the entrance of the choir, stands the steeple, which is a spire covered with lead, being one hundred and fifty-six feet in height, in which hang six bells. Between the two cross isles, on the north side without the church, stands an old ruined tower, no higher than the roof of the church. This is generally allowed to have been erected by bishop Gundulph, and there is a tradition of its having been called the bell tower, and of its having had five bells hanging in it; yet the better conjecture is, that it was first intended as a place of strength and security, either as a treasury or a repository for records. The walls of it are six feet thick, and the area on the inside twenty-four feet square. On the opposite side, at the west end of the south isle, is a chapel of a later date than the isle, wherein the bishop's consistory court is held, and where early prayers were used to be read till within these few years. The roof of the nave or body of the church, from the west end to the first cross isle, is flat at the top like a parish church, as it is likewise under the great steeple; but all the other parts, viz. the four cross isles, the choir, and those on each side of it, except the lower south isle, which was never finished, are handsomely vaulted with stone groins.

 

The choir is upwards of five hundred and seventy years old, being first used at the consecration of Henry de Sandford in 1227. It is ornamented, as well as other parts of the church, with small pillars of Petworth marble, which however, as well as many of those in a neighbouring cathedral, have been injudiciously covered with whitewash, and several of them with thick coats of plaister. The choir was repaired, as to new wainscot, stalls, pews, &c. at a large expence, in 1743, and very handsomely new paved; at which time the bishop's throne was rebuilt at the charge of bishop Wilcocks.

 

The organ is over the entrance into the choir. The late one was erected early in the last century, and was but a very indifferent instrument. In the room of which a new one, built by Green, was erected in in 1791, which is esteemed an exceeding good instrument.

 

At the north end of the upper cross isle, near the pulpit, is a chapel, called St. Williams's chapel, a saint whose repute brought such considerable profit to this priory, as to raise it from a state of poverty to affluence and riches. A large stone chest, much defaced, is all that remains of his shrine.

 

At the south-east corner of the opposite cross isle is an arched door-way, richly carved and ornamented with a variety of figures, which formerly led to the chapter-house of the priory, in the room of which there is erected a small mean room, which is made use of as a chapter-house and library; for the increase of this library, the same as was intended at Canterbury; every new dean and prebendary gives a certain sum of money at their admission towards the increase of books in it, instead of making an entertainment, as was formerly the custom. In this library is that well known and curious MSS. called the Textus Roffensis, compiled chiefly by bishop Ernulfus in the 12th century, which was published by Thomas Hearne, from a copy in the Surrenden library. During the troubles in the last century this MSS. was conveyed into private hands, nor could the dean and chapter after the restoration, for two years, discover where it was; and at last they were obliged to solicit the court of chancery for a decree to recover it again. Since which they have been once more in great danger of being deprived of it; for Dr. Harris, having borrowed it for the use of his intended history of this county, sent it up to London by water, and the vessel being by the badness of the weather overset, this MSS. lay for some hours under water before it was discovered, which has somewhat damaged it.

 

There is also another antient MSS. here, entitled Custumale Roffense, thought by some to be more antient than the other. Great part of this MSS. has been published by Mr. Thorpe in a volume under that title.

 

Near the west end, in the same isle, is a square chapel, called St. Edmund's chapel; hence you descend into the undercroft, which is very spacious and vaulted with stone. There seems to have been part of it well ornamented with paintings of figures and history, but the whole is so obliterated, that nothing can be made out what it was intended for.

 

The body of this church, the greatest part of which is the same as was erected by bishop Gundulph, is built with circular arches on large massy pillars, with plain capitals; the smaller arches above them being decorated with zigzag ornaments. The roof of the nave seems to have been raised since, and all the windows made new and enlarged at different times, particularly the large one in the west front; though the roof is now flat, by the feet of the groins still remaining, it appears as if this part of the church had been, or at least was intended to be vaulted. The breadth of it, with the side isles, is twenty-two yards. The west front extends eighty-one feet in breadth; the arch of the great door is certainly the same which bishop Gundulph built, and is a most curious piece of workmanship; every stone has been engraved with some device, and it must have been very magnificent in its original state. It is supported the depth of the wall, on each side the door, by several small columns, two of which are carved into statues representing Gundulph's royal patrons, Henry I. and his queen Matilda. The capitals of these columns, as well as the whole arch, are cut into the figures of various animals and flowers The key-stone of the arch seems to have been designed to represent our Saviour in a niche with an angel on each side, but the head is broken off; under this figure are twelve others, representing the apostles, few of which are entire.

 

In this front were four towers, one on each side the great door, and the others at the two extremes; three of these terminated in a turret, and the other in an octangular tower, above the roof. That tower at the north corner being in danger of falling, was taken down a few years ago, in order to be rebuilt. Dean Newcombe left one hundred pounds towards the finishing of it. Against the lower part of this tower was the figure of bishop Gundulph, with his crozier in his hand; on the rebuilding of which it was replaced, but the tower remains unfinished, at not half the height it was before, to the great disfigurement of the front of this church. Since which the tower at the opposite, or south-west corner, being ruinous, has likewise been taken down even with the roof of the church.

 

The royal grammar school of this foundation, besides the exhibitions before-mentioned, has had a later benefactor in Robert Gunsley, clerk, rector of Titsey, in Surry, who by his will in 1618, gave to the master and fellows of University college, Oxford, sixty pounds per annum, for the maintenance of four scholars to be chosen by them from the free school of Maidstone, and from this grammar school, such as are natives of the county of Kent only, of whom those of his name and kindred to have the preference, who are to be allowed chambers, and fifteen pounds per annum.

 

To conclude the account of this priory and cathedral, it should be observed that the precincts of it, after the dissolution, seem to have been a scene of devastation and confusion: the buildings were huge, irregular and ruinous, and little calculated to be turned into separate dwellings for small private families. Even a century afterwards, in the great rebellion in 1647, they were reported to be in a ruinous and woeful condition; at which time the church itself does not seem to have been much better; for archbishop Laud, in his return of the state of this diocese to Charles I. in 1633, says, that the cathedral suffered much for want of glass in the church windows, that the church-yard lay very indecently, and that the gates were down; about nine years afterwards this church suffered much from the fury of the rebel soldiers under colonel Sandys, who having plundered it, and broken to pieces what they could, made use of it as a tipling house, (fn. 23) and the body of the church was used as a carpenter's shop and yard, several sawpits being dug, and frames for houses made by the city joiners in it.

 

After the restoration dean Hardy took great pains to repair the whole of it, which was effected by means of the benefactions of the gentry of the county, and 7000l. added by the dean and chapter; notwithstanding which, time has so corroded and weakened every part of this building, that its future existence for any length of time has been much feared, but this church has lately had every endeavour used, and great repairs have been made which it is hoped will secure it from the fatal ruin which has threatened it, the inside has been beautified, and being kept exceeding clean, it makes at this time a very pleasing appearance.

 

In this cathedral, among other monuments, inscriptions, &c. are the following:— In the choir, within the altar rails on the south wall, under three small arches, are pictures of three bishops with their mitres and crosiers, now almost defaced, on the outside these arms, first, the see of Rochester; second, the priory of Canterbury; third, a cross quartier pierced azure; within the rails, under the north and south windows, are several stone coffins and other remains of bishops monuments, but no inscriptions or arms; on the north side the choir a large altar monument for bishop Lowe, on the south side of it, these arms on a bend, three wolves

The Hymn of God's Word "Those Who Accept the New Work Are Blessed" | Gospel Music

 

Blessed are all those who are able to obey the actual utterances of the Holy Spirit. No matter how they used to be, or how the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit used to work within them, those who've gained the latest work are the most blessed ones. Today, those who can't follow the latest work will be eliminated. God wants those who can accept the new light, and those who accept and know His latest work.

 

II

 

Why must you be a chaste virgin? A chaste virgin can seek the work of the Holy Spirit; she can take in the new things, and give up the old notions, and obey God's work today, obey God's work today. These people, who accept the newest work of today, were ordained by God before the world, and are the most blessed ones. You hear the voice of God , and behold the appearance of Him. So, in all times and generations, and throughout heaven and earth, none have been more blessed than you, this group of people.

 

from "Know the Newest Work of God and Follow the Footsteps of God" in The Word Appears in the Flesh

 

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O Interior do Pantheon, em Roma.

The Pantheon's Interior, in Rome.

 

A text, in english, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Pantheon, Rome.

The Pantheon (Latin: Pantheon, from Greek: Πάνθειον, meaning "Temple of all the gods") is a building in Rome which was originally built as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt circa 126 AD during Hadrian's reign. The intended degree of inclusiveness of this dedication is debated. The generic term pantheon is now applied to a monument in which illustrious dead are buried. It is the best preserved of all Roman buildings, and perhaps the best preserved building of its age in the world. It has been in continuous use throughout its history. The design of the extant building is sometimes credited to Trajan's architect Apollodorus of Damascus, but it is equally likely that the building and the design should be credited to Emperor Hadrian's architects, though not to Hadrian himself as many art scholars once thought. Since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as a Roman Catholic church. The Pantheon is the oldest standing domed structure in Rome. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres (142 ft).

n the aftermath of the Battle of Actium (31 BC), Agrippa built and dedicated the original Pantheon during his third consulship (27 BC). Agrippa's Pantheon was destroyed along with other buildings in a huge fire in 80 AD. The current building dates from about 126 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian, as date-stamps on the bricks reveal. It was totally reconstructed with the text of the original inscription ("M·AGRIPPA·L·F·COS·TERTIVM·FECIT", standing for Latin: Marcus Agrippa, Lucii filius, consul tertium fecit translated to "'Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, Consul for the third time, built this") which was added to the new facade, a common practice in Hadrian's rebuilding projects all over Rome. Hadrian was a cosmopolitan emperor who travelled widely in the East and was a great admirer of Greek culture. He might have intended the Pantheon, a temple to all the gods, to be a kind of ecumenical or syncretist gesture to the subjects of the Roman Empire who did not worship the old gods of Rome, or who (as was increasingly the case) worshipped them under other names. How the building was actually used is not known.

Cassius Dio, a Graeco-Roman senator, consul and author of a comprehensive History of Rome, writing approximately 75 years after the Pantheon's reconstruction, mistakenly attributed the domed building to Agrippa rather than Hadrian. Dio's book appears to be the only near-contemporary writing on the Pantheon, and it is interesting that even by the year 200 there was uncertainty about the origin of the building and its purpose:

Agrippa finished the construction of the building called the Pantheon. It has this name, perhaps because it received among the images which decorated it the statues of many gods, including Mars and Venus; but my own opinion of the name is that, because of its vaulted roof, it resembles the heavens. (Cassius Dio History of Rome 53.27.2)

The building was repaired by Septimius Severus and Caracalla in 202 AD, for which there is another, smaller inscription. This inscription reads "pantheum vetustate corruptum cum omni cultu restituerunt" ('with every refinement they restored the Pantheon worn by age').

In 609 the Byzantine emperor Phocas gave the building to Pope Boniface IV, who converted it into a Christian church and consecrated it to Santa Maria ad Martyres, now known as Santa Maria dei Martiri.

The building's consecration as a church saved it from the abandonment, destruction, and the worst of the spoliation which befell the majority of ancient Rome's buildings during the early medieval period. Paul the Deacon records the spoliation of the building by the Emperor Constans II, who visited Rome in July 663:

Remaining at Rome twelve days he pulled down everything that in ancient times had been made of metal for the ornament of the city, to such an extent that he even stripped off the roof of the church [of the blessed Mary] which at one time was called the Pantheon, and had been founded in honor of all the gods and was now by the consent of the former rulers the place of all the martyrs; and he took away from there the bronze tiles and sent them with all the other ornaments to Constantinople.

Much fine external marble has been removed over the centuries, and there are capitals from some of the pilasters in the British Museum. Two columns were swallowed up in the medieval buildings that abbutted the Pantheon on the east and were lost. In the early seventeenth century, Urban VIII Barberini tore away the bronze ceiling of the portico, and replaced the medieval campanile with the famous twin towers built by Maderno, which were not removed until the late nineteenth century. The only other loss has been the external sculptures, which adorned the pediment above Agrippa's inscription. The marble interior and the great bronze doors have survived, although both have been extensively restored.

Since the Renaissance the Pantheon has been used as a tomb. Among those buried there are the painters Raphael and Annibale Carracci, the composer Arcangelo Corelli, and the architect Baldassare Peruzzi. In the 15th century, the Pantheon was adorned with paintings: the best-known is the Annunciation by Melozzo da Forlì. Architects, like Brunelleschi, who used the Pantheon as help when designing the Cathedral of Florence's dome, looked to the Pantheon as inspiration for their works.

Pope Urban VIII (1623 to 1644) ordered the bronze ceiling of the Pantheon's portico melted down. Most of the bronze was used to make bombards for the fortification of Castel Sant'Angelo, with the remaining amount used by the Apostolic Camera for various other works. It is also said that the bronze was used by Bernini in creating his famous baldachin above the high altar of St. Peter's Basilica, but according to at least one expert, the Pope's accounts state that about 90% of the bronze was used for the cannon, and that the bronze for the baldachin came from Venice. This led the Roman satirical figure Pasquino to issue the famous proverb: Quod non fecerunt barbari, fecerunt Barberini ("What the barbarians did not do, the Barberinis [Urban VIII's family name] did")

In 1747, the broad frieze below the dome with its false windows was “restored,” but bore little resemblance to the original. In the early decades of the twentieth century, a piece of the original, as could be reconstructed from Renaissance drawings and paintings, was recreated in one of the panels.

Also buried there are two kings of Italy: Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I, as well as Umberto's Queen, Margherita. Although Italy has been a republic since 1946, volunteer members of Italian monarchist organizations maintain a vigil over the royal tombs in the Pantheon. This has aroused protests from time to time from republicans, but the Catholic authorities allow the practice to continue, although the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage is in charge of the security and maintenance.

The Pantheon is still used as a church. Masses are celebrated there, particularly on important Catholic days of obligation, and weddings.

The building is circular with a portico of three ranks of huge granite Corinthian columns (eight in the first rank and two groups of four behind) under a pediment opening into the rotunda, under a coffered, concrete dome, with a central opening (oculus), the Great Eye, open to the sky. A rectangular structure links the portico with the rotunda. Though often still drawn as a free-standing building, there was a building at its rear into which it abutted; of this building there are only archaeological remains.

In the walls at the back of the portico were niches, probably for statues of Caesar, Augustus and Agrippa, or for the Capitoline Triad, or another set of gods. The large bronze doors to the cella, once plated with gold, still remain but the gold has long since vanished. The pediment was decorated with a sculpture — holes may still be seen where the clamps which held the sculpture in place were fixed.

The 4,535 metric ton (5,000 tn) weight of the concrete dome is concentrated on a ring of voussoirs 9.1 metres (30 ft) in diameter which form the oculus while the downward thrust of the dome is carried by eight barrel vaults in the 6.4 metre (21 ft) thick drum wall into eight piers. The thickness of the dome varies from 6.4 metres (21 ft) at the base of the dome to 1.2 metres (4 ft) around the oculus. The height to the oculus and the diameter of the interior circle are the same, 43.3 metres (142 ft), so the whole interior would fit exactly within a cube (alternatively, the interior could house a sphere 43.3 metres (142 ft) in diameter). The Pantheon holds the record for the largest unreinforced concrete dome. The interior of the roof was possibly intended to symbolize the arched vault of the heavens. The Great Eye at the dome's apex is the source of all light in the interior. The oculus also serves as a cooling and ventilation method. During storms, a drainage system below the floor handles the rain that falls through the oculus.

The interior features sunken panels (coffers), which, in antiquity, may have contained bronze stars, rosettes, or other ornaments. This coffering was not only decorative, but also reduced the weight of the roof, as did the elimination of the apex by means of the Great Eye. The top of the rotunda wall features a series of brick-relieving arches, visible on the outside and built into the mass of the brickwork. The Pantheon is full of such devices — for example, there are relieving arches over the recesses inside — but all these arches were hidden by marble facing on the interior and possibly by stone revetment or stucco on the exterior. Some changes have been made in the interior decoration.

It is known from Roman sources that their concrete is made up of a pasty hydrate of lime, with pozzolanic ash (Latin pulvis puteolanum) and lightweight pumice from a nearby volcano, and fist-sized pieces of rock. In this, it is very similar to modern concrete. No tensile test results are available on the concrete used in the Pantheon; however Cowan discussed tests on ancient concrete from Roman ruins in Libya which gave a compressive strength of 2.8 ksi (20 MPa). An empirical relationship gives a tensile strength of 213 psi (1.5 MPa) for this specimen. Finite element analysis of the structure by Mark and Hutchison found a maximum tensile stress of only 18.5 psi (0.13 MPa) at the point where the dome joins the raised outer wall. The stresses in the dome were found to be substantially reduced by the use of successively less dense concrete in higher layers of the dome. Mark and Hutchison estimated that if normal weight concrete had been used throughout the stresses in the arch would have been some 80% higher.

The 16 gray granite columns Hadrian ordered for the Pantheon's pronaos were quarried at Mons Claudianus in Egypt's eastern mountains. Each was 39 feet (11.8 m) tall, five feet (1.5 m) in diameter, and 60 tons in weight. These were dragged on wooden sledges when transporting on land. They were floated by barge down the Nile and transferred to vessels to cross the Mediterranean to the Roman port of Ostia where they were transferred back onto barges and up the Tiber to Rome.

As the best-preserved example of an Ancient Roman monumental building, the Pantheon has been enormously influential in Western Architecture from at least the Renaissance on; starting with Brunelleschi's 42-meter dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, completed in 1436 – the first sizeable dome to be constructed in Western Europe since Late Antiquity. The style of the Pantheon can be detected in many buildings of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; numerous city halls, universities and public libraries echo its portico-and-dome structure. Examples of notable buildings influenced by the Pantheon include: the Panthéon in Paris, the Temple in Dartrey, the British Museum Reading Room, Manchester Central Library, Thomas Jefferson's Rotunda at the University of Virginia, the Rotunda of Mosta, in Malta, Low Memorial Library at Columbia University, New York, the domed Marble Hall of Sanssouci palace in Potsdam, Germany, the State Library of Victoria, and the Supreme Court Library of Victoria, both in Melbourne, Australia, the 52-meter-tall Ottokár Prohászka Memorial Church in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, Holy Trinity Church in Karlskrona by Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, Sweden, The National Gallery of Art West Building by John Russell Pope, located in Washington, D.C, as well as the California State Capitol in Sacramento.

The present high altar and the apse were commissioned by Pope Clement XI (1700-1721) and designed by Alessandro Specchi. In the apse, a copy of a Byzantine icon of the Madonna is enshrined. The original, now in the Chapel of the Canons in the Vatican, has been dated to the 13th century, although tradition claims that it is much older. The choir was added in 1840, and was designed by Luigi Poletti.

The first niche to the right of the entrance holds a Madonna of the Girdle and St Nicholas of Bari (1686) painted by an unknown artist. The first chapel on the right, the Chapel of the Annunciation, has a fresco of the Annunication attributed to Melozzo da Forli. On the left side is a canvas by Clement Maioli of St Lawrence and St Agnes (1645-1650). On the right wall is the Incredulity of St Thomas (1633) by Pietro Paolo Bonzi.

The second niche has a 15th century fresco of the Tuscan school, depicting the Coronation of the Virgin. In the second chapel is the tomb of King Victor Emmanuel II (died 1878). It was originally dedicated to the Holy Spirit. A competition was held to decide which architect should be given the honor of designing it. Giuseppe Sacconi participated, but lost — he would later design the tomb of Umberto I in the opposite chapel. Manfredio Manfredi won the competition, and started work in 1885. The tomb consists of a large bronze plaque surmounted by a Roman eagle and the arms of the house of Savoy. The golden lamp above the tomb burns in honor of Victor Emmanuel III, who died in exile in 1947.

The third niche has a sculpture by Il Lorenzone of St Anne and the Blessed Virgin. In the third chapel is a 15th-century painting of the Umbrian school, The Madonna of Mercy between St Francis and St John the Baptist. It is also known as the Madonna of the Railing, because it originally hung in the niche on the left-hand side of the portico, where it was protected by a railing. It was moved to the Chapel of the Annunciation, and then to its present position some time after 1837. The bronze epigram commemorated Pope Clement XI's restoration of the sanctuary. On the right wall is the canvas Emperor Phocas presenting the Pantheon to Pope Boniface IV (1750) by an unknown. There are three memorial plaques in the floor, one conmmemorating a Gismonda written in the vernacular. The final niche on the right side has a statue of St. Anastasio (1725) by Bernardino Cametti.

On the first niche to the left of the entrance is an Assumption (1638) by Andrea Camassei. The first chapel on the left, is the Chapel of St Joseph in the Holy Land, and is the chapel of the Confraternity of the Virtuosi at the Pantheon. This refers to the confraternity of artists and musicians that was formed here by a 16th-century Canon of the church, Desiderio da Segni, to ensure that worship was maintained in the chapel. The first members were, among others, Antonio da Sangallo the younger, Jacopo Meneghino, Giovanni Mangone, Zuccari, Domenico Beccafumi and Flaminio Vacca. The confraternity continued to draw members from the elite of Rome's artists and architects, and among later members we find Bernini, Cortona, Algardi and many others. The institution still exists, and is now called the Academia Ponteficia di Belle Arti (The Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts), based in the palace of the Cancelleria. The altar in the chapel is covered with false marble. On the altar is a statue of St Joseph and the Holy Child by Vincenzo de Rossi. To the sides are paintings (1661) by Francesco Cozza, one of the Virtuosi: Adoration of the Shepherds on left side and Adoration of the Magi on right. The stucco relief on the left, Dream of St Joseph is by Paolo Benaglia, and the one on the right, Rest during the flight from Egypt is by Carlo Monaldi. On the vault are several 17th-century canvases, from left to right: Cumean Sibyl by Ludovico Gimignani; Moses by Francesco Rosa; Eternal Father by Giovanni Peruzzini; David by Luigi Garzi and finally Eritrean Sibyl by Giovanni Andrea Carlone.

The second niche has a statue of St Agnes, by Vincenco Felici. The bust on the left is a portrait of Baldassare Peruzzi, derived from a plaster portrait by Giovanni Duprè. The tomb of King Umberto I and his wife Margherita di Savoia is in the next chapel. The chapel was originally dedicated to St Michael the Archangel, and then to St. Thomas the Apostle. The present design is by Giuseppe Sacconi, completed after his death by his pupil Guido Cirilli. The tomb consists of a slab of alabaster mounted in gilded bronze. The frieze has allegorical representations of Generosity, by Eugenio Maccagnani, and Munificence, by Arnaldo Zocchi. The royal tombs are maintained by the National Institute of Honour Guards to the Royal Tombs, founded in 1878. They also organize picket guards at the tombs. The altar with the royal arms is by Cirilli.

The third niche holds the mortal remains — his Ossa et cineres, "Bones and ashes", as the inscription on the sarcophagus says — of the great artist Raphael. His fiancée, Maria Bibbiena is buried to the right of his sarcophagus; she died before they could marry. The sarcophagus was given by Pope Gregory XVI, and its insription reads ILLE HIC EST RAPHAEL TIMUIT QUO SOSPITE VINCI / RERUM MAGNA PARENS ET MORIENTE MORI, meaning "Here lies Raphael, by whom the mother of all things (Nature) feared to be overcome while he was living, and while he was dying, herself to die". The epigraph was written by Pietro Bembo. The present arrangement is from 1811, designed by Antonio Munoz. The bust of Raphael (1833) is by Giuseppe Fabris. The two plaques commemorate Maria Bibbiena and Annibale Carracci. Behind the tomb is the statue known as the Madonna del Sasso (Madonna of the Rock) so named because she rests one foot on a boulder. It was commissioned by Raphael and made by Lorenzetto in 1524.

In the Chapel of the Crucifixion, the Roman brick wall is visible in the niches. The wooden crucifix on the altar is from the 15th century. On the left wall is a Descent of the Holy Ghost (1790) by Pietro Labruzi. On the right side is the low relief Cardinal Consalvi presents to Pope Pius VII the five provinces restored to the Holy See (1824) made by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. The bust is a portrait of Cardinal Agostino Rivarola. The final niche on this side has a statue of St. Rasius (S. Erasio) (1727) by Francesco Moderati.

 

Heading back to town, along XXXX street, one passes through a residential area. The Kertikli Hamam is a 16th-century bathhouse, which was built by the Ottomans not long after their arrival. Evidence suggests that it was built on the foundations of a medieval structure. Although ruinous, its six well-proportioned domes are still intact.

 

Famagusta is a city on the east coast of the de facto state Northern Cyprus. It is located east of Nicosia and possesses the deepest harbour of the island. During the Middle Ages (especially under the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice), Famagusta was the island's most important port city and a gateway to trade with the ports of the Levant, from where the Silk Road merchants carried their goods to Western Europe. The old walled city and parts of the modern city are de facto part of Northern Cyprus as the capital of the Gazimağusa District.

 

The city was known as Arsinoe or Arsinoë (Greek: Ἀρσινόη, Arsinóē) in antiquity, after Ptolemy II of Egypt's sister and wife Arsinoe II.

 

By the 3rd century, the city appears as Ammochostos (Greek: Ἀμμόχωστος or Αμμόχωστος, Ammókhōstos, "Hidden in Sand") in the Stadiasmus Maris Magni.[5] This name is still used in modern Greek with the pronunciation [aˈmːoxostos], while it developed into Latin Fama Augusta, French Famagouste, Italian Famagosta, and English Famagusta during the medieval period. Its informal modern Turkish name Mağusa (Turkish pronunciation: [maˈusa]) came from the same source. Since 1974, it has formally been known to Turkey and Northern Cyprus as Gazimağusa ([ɡaːzimaˈusa]), from the addition of the title gazi, meaning "veteran" or "one who has faught in a holy war".

 

In the early medieval period, the city was also known as New Justiniana (Greek: Νέα Ἰουστινιανία, Néa Ioustinianía) in appreciation for the patronage of the Byzantine emperor Justinian, whose wife Theodora was born there.

 

The old town of Famagusta has also been nicknamed "the City of 365 Churches" from the legend that, at its peak, it boasted a church for every day of the year.

 

The city was founded around 274 BC, after the serious damage to Salamis by an earthquake, by Ptolemy II Philadelphus and named "Arsinoe" after his sister.[6] Arsinoe was described as a "fishing town" by Strabo in his Geographica in the first century BC. In essence, Famagusta was the successor of the most famous and most important ancient city of Cyprus, Salamis. According to Greek mythology, Salamis was founded after the end of the Trojan War by Teucros, the son of Telamon and brother of Aedes, from the Greek island of Salamis.

 

The city experienced great prosperity much later, during the time of the Byzantine emperor Justinian. To honor the city, from which his wife Theodora came, Justinian enriched it with many buildings, while the inhabitants named it New Justiniania to express their gratitude. In AD 647, when the neighboring cities were destroyed by Arab raiding, the inhabitants of these cities moved to Famagusta, as a result of which the city's population increased significantly and the city experienced another boom.

 

Later, when Jerusalem was occupied by the Arabs, the Christian population fled to Famagusta, as a result of which the city became an important Christian center, but also one of the most important commercial centers in the eastern Mediterranean.

 

The turning point for Famagusta was 1192 with the onset of Lusignan rule. It was during this period that Famagusta developed as a fully-fledged town. It increased in importance to the Eastern Mediterranean due to its natural harbour and the walls that protected its inner town. Its population began to increase. This development accelerated in the 13th century as the town became a centre of commerce for both the East and West. An influx of Christian refugees fleeing the downfall of Acre (1291) in Palestine transformed it from a tiny village into one of the richest cities in Christendom.

 

In 1372 the port was seized by Genoa and in 1489 by Venice. This commercial activity turned Famagusta into a place where merchants and ship owners led lives of luxury. By the mid-14th century, Famagusta was said to have the richest citizens in the world. The belief that people's wealth could be measured by the churches they built inspired these merchants to have churches built in varying styles. These churches, which still exist, were the reason Famagusta came to be known as "the district of churches". The development of the town focused on the social lives of the wealthy people and was centred upon the Lusignan palace, the cathedral, the Square and the harbour.

 

In 1570–1571, Famagusta was the last stronghold in Venetian Cyprus to hold out against the Turks under Mustafa Pasha. It resisted a siege of thirteen months and a terrible bombardment, until at last the garrison surrendered. The Ottoman forces had lost 50,000 men, including Mustafa Pasha's son. Although the surrender terms had stipulated that the Venetian forces be allowed to return home, the Venetian commander, Marco Antonio Bragadin, was flayed alive, his lieutenant Tiepolo was hanged, and many other Christians were killed.

 

With the advent of the Ottoman rule, Latins lost their privileged status in Famagusta and were expelled from the city. Greek Cypriots natives were at first allowed to own and buy property in the city, but were banished from the walled city in 1573–74 and had to settle outside in the area that later developed into Varosha. Turkish families from Anatolia were resettled in the walled city but could not fill the buildings that previously hosted a population of 10,000. This caused a drastic decrease in the population of Famagusta. Merchants from Famagusta, who mostly consisted of Latins that had been expelled, resettled in Larnaca and as Larnaca flourished, Famagusta lost its importance as a trade centre. Over time, Varosha developed into a prosperous agricultural town thanks to its location away from the marshes, whilst the walled city remained dilapidated.

 

In the walled city, some buildings were repurposed to serve the interests of the Muslim population: the Cathedral of St. Nicholas was converted to a mosque (now known as Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque), a bazaar was developed, public baths, fountains and a theological school were built to accommodate the inhabitants' needs. Dead end streets, an Ottoman urban characteristic, was imported to the city and a communal spirit developed in which a small number of two-storey houses inhabited by the small upper class co-existed with the widespread one-storey houses.

 

With the British takeover, Famagusta regained its significance as a port and an economic centre and its development was specifically targeted in British plans. As soon as the British took over the island, a Famagusta Development Act was passed that aimed at the reconstruction and redevelopment of the city's streets and dilapidated buildings as well as better hygiene. The port was developed and expanded between 1903 and 1906 and Cyprus Government Railway, with its terminus in Famagusta, started construction in 1904. Whilst Larnaca continued to be used as the main port of the island for some time, after Famagusta's use as a military base in World War I trade significantly shifted to Famagusta. The city outside the walls grew at an accelerated rate, with development being centred around Varosha. Varosha became the administrative centre as the British moved their headquarters and residences there and tourism grew significantly in the last years of the British rule. Pottery and production of citrus and potatoes also significantly grew in the city outside the walls, whilst agriculture within the walled city declined to non-existence.

 

New residential areas were built to accommodate the increasing population towards the end of the British rule,[11] and by 1960, Famagusta was a modern port city extending far beyond Varosha and the walled city.

 

The British period saw a significant demographic shift in the city. In 1881, Christians constituted 60% of the city's population while Muslims were at 40%. By 1960, the Turkish Cypriot population had dropped to 17.5% of the overall population, while the Greek Cypriot population had risen to 70%. The city was also the site for one of the British internment camps for nearly 50,000 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust trying to emigrate to Palestine.

 

From independence in 1960 to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus of 1974, Famagusta developed toward the south west of Varosha as a well-known entertainment and tourist centre. The contribution of Famagusta to the country's economic activity by 1974 far exceeded its proportional dimensions within the country. Whilst its population was only about 7% of the total of the country, Famagusta by 1974 accounted for over 10% of the total industrial employment and production of Cyprus, concentrating mainly on light industry compatible with its activity as a tourist resort and turning out high-quality products ranging from food, beverages and tobacco to clothing, footwear, plastics, light machinery and transport equipment. It contributed 19.3% of the business units and employed 21.3% of the total number of persons engaged in commerce on the island. It acted as the main tourist destination of Cyprus, hosting 31.5% of the hotels and 45% of Cyprus' total bed capacity. Varosha acted as the main touristic and business quarters.

 

In this period, the urbanisation of Famagusta slowed down and the development of the rural areas accelerated. Therefore, economic growth was shared between the city of Famagusta and the district, which had a balanced agricultural economy, with citrus, potatoes, tobacco and wheat as main products. Famagusta maintained good communications with this hinterland. The city's port remained the island's main seaport and in 1961, it was expanded to double its capacity in order to accommodate the growing volume of exports and imports. The port handled 42.7% of Cypriot exports, 48.6% of imports and 49% of passenger traffic.

 

There has not been an official census since 1960 but the population of the town in 1974 was estimated to be around 39,000 not counting about 12,000–15,000 persons commuting daily from the surrounding villages and suburbs to work in Famagusta. The number of people staying in the city would swell to about 90,000–100,000 during the peak summer tourist period, with the influx of tourists from numerous European countries, mainly Britain, France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. The majority of the city population were Greek Cypriots (26,500), with 8,500 Turkish Cypriots and 4,000 people from other ethnic groups.

 

During the second phase of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 14 August 1974 the Mesaoria plain was overrun by Turkish tanks and Famagusta was bombed by Turkish aircraft. It took two days for the Turkish Army to occupy the city, prior to which Famagusta's entire Greek Cypriot population had fled into surrounding fields. As a result of Turkish airstrikes dozens of civilians died, including tourists.

 

Unlike other parts of the Turkish-controlled areas of Cyprus, the Varosha suburb of Famagusta was fenced off by the Turkish army immediately after being captured and remained fenced off until October 2020, when the TRNC reopened some streets to visitors. Some Greek Cypriots who had fled Varosha have been allowed to view the town and journalists have been allowed in.

 

UN Security Council resolution 550 (1984) considers any attempts to settle any part of Famagusta by people other than its inhabitants as inadmissible and calls for the transfer of this area to the administration of the UN. The UN's Security Council resolution 789 (1992) also urges that with a view to the implementation of resolution 550 (1984), the area at present under the control of the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus be extended to include Varosha.

 

Famagusta's historic city centre is surrounded by the fortifications of Famagusta, which have a roughly rectangular shape, built mainly by the Venetians in the 15th and 16th centuries, though some sections of the walls have been dated earlier times, as far as 1211.

 

Some important landmarks and visitor attractions in the old city are:

The Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque

The Othello Castle

Palazzo del Provveditore - the Venetian palace of the governor, built on the site of the former Lusignan royal palace

St. Francis' Church

Sinan Pasha Mosque

Church of St. George of the Greeks

Church of St. George of the Latins

Twin Churches

Nestorian Church (of St George the Exiler)

Namık Kemal Dungeon

Agios Ioannis Church

Venetian House

Akkule Masjid

Mustafa Pasha Mosque

Ganchvor monastery

 

In an October 2010 report titled Saving Our Vanishing Heritage, Global Heritage Fund listed Famagusta, a "maritime ancient city of crusader kings", among the 12 sites most "On the Verge" of irreparable loss and destruction, citing insufficient management and development pressures.

 

Famagusta is an important commercial hub of Northern Cyprus. The main economic activities in the city are tourism, education, construction and industrial production. It has a 115-acre free port, which is the most important seaport of Northern Cyprus for travel and commerce. The port is an important source of income and employment for the city, though its volume of trade is restricted by the embargo against Northern Cyprus. Its historical sites, including the walled city, Salamis, the Othello Castle and the St Barnabas Church, as well as the sandy beaches surrounding it make it a tourist attraction; efforts are also underway to make the city more attractive for international congresses. The Eastern Mediterranean University is also an important employer and supplies significant income and activity, as well as opportunities for the construction sector. The university also raises a qualified workforce that stimulates the city's industry and makes communications industry viable. The city has two industrial zones: the Large Industrial Zone and the Little Industrial Zone. The city is also home to a fishing port, but inadequate infrastructure of the port restricts the growth of this sector. The industry in the city has traditionally been concentrated on processing agricultural products.

 

Historically, the port was the primary source of income and employment for the city, especially right after 1974. However, it gradually lost some of its importance to the economy as the share of its employees in the population of Famagusta diminished due to various reasons. However, it still is the primary port for commerce in Northern Cyprus, with more than half of ships that came to Northern Cyprus in 2013 coming to Famagusta. It is the second most popular seaport for passengers, after Kyrenia, with around 20,000 passengers using the port in 2013.

 

The mayor-in-exile of Famagusta is Simos Ioannou. Süleyman Uluçay heads the Turkish Cypriot municipal administration of Famagusta, which remains legal as a communal-based body under the constitutional system of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Since 1974, Greek Cypriots submitted a number of proposals within the context of bicommunal discussions for the return of Varosha to UN administration, allowing the return of its previous inhabitants, requesting also the opening of Famagusta harbour for use by both communities. Varosha would have been returned to Greek Cypriot control as part of the 2004 Annan Plan but the plan had been rejected by a majority(3/4) of Greek Cypriot voters.

 

The walled city of Famagusta contains many unique buildings. Famagusta has a walled city popular with tourists.

 

Every year, the International Famagusta Art and Culture Festival is organized in Famagusta. Concerts, dance shows and theater plays take place during the festival.

 

A growth in tourism and the city's university have fueled the development of Famagusta's vibrant nightlife. Nightlife in the city is especially active on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights and in the hotter months of the year, starting from April. Larger hotels in the city have casinos that cater to their customers. Salamis Road is an area of Famagusta with a heavy concentration of bars frequented by students and locals.

 

Famagusta's Othello Castle is the setting for Shakespeare's play Othello. The city was also the setting for Victoria Hislop's 2015 novel The Sunrise, and Michael Paraskos's 2016 novel In Search of Sixpence. The city is the birthplace of the eponymous hero of the Renaissance proto-novel Fortunatus.

 

Famagusta was home to many Greek Cypriot sport teams that left the city because of the Turkish invasion and still bear their original names. Most notable football clubs originally from the city are Anorthosis Famagusta FC and Nea Salamis Famagusta FC, both of the Cypriot First Division, which are now based in Larnaca. Usually Anorthosis Famagusta fans are politically right wing where Nea Salamis fans are left wing.

 

Famagusta is represented by Mağusa Türk Gücü in the Turkish Cypriot First Division. Dr. Fazıl Küçük Stadium is the largest football stadium in Famagusta. Many Turkish Cypriot sport teams that left Southern Cyprus because of the Cypriot intercommunal violence are based in Famagusta.

 

Famagusta is represented by DAÜ Sports Club and Magem Sports Club in North Cyprus First Volleyball Division. Gazimağusa Türk Maarif Koleji represents Famagusta in the North Cyprus High School Volleyball League.

 

Famagusta has a modern volleyball stadium called the Mağusa Arena.

 

The Eastern Mediterranean University was founded in the city in 1979. The Istanbul Technical University founded a campus in the city in 2010.

 

The Cyprus College of Art was founded in Famagusta by the Cypriot artist Stass Paraskos in 1969, before moving to Paphos in 1972 after protests from local hoteliers that the presence of art students in the city was putting off holidaymakers.

 

Famagusta has three general hospitals. Gazimağusa Devlet Hastahanesi, a state hospital, is the biggest hospital in city. Gazimağusa Tıp Merkezi and Gazimağusa Yaşam Hastahanesi are private hospitals.

 

Personalities

Saint Barnabas, born and died in Salamis, Famagusta

Chris Achilleos, illustrator of the book versions on the BBC children's series Doctor Who

Beran Bertuğ, former Governor of Famagusta, first Cypriot woman to hold this position

Marios Constantinou, former international Cypriot football midfielder and current manager.

Eleftheria Eleftheriou, Cypriot singer.

Derviş Eroğlu, former President of Northern Cyprus

Alexis Galanos, 7th President of the House of Representatives and Famagusta mayor-in-exile (2006-2019) (Republic of Cyprus)

Xanthos Hadjisoteriou, Cypriot painter

Oz Karahan, political activist, President of the Union of Cypriots

Oktay Kayalp, former Turkish Cypriot Famagusta mayor (Northern Cyprus)

Harry Luke British diplomat

Angelos Misos, former international footballer

Costas Montis was an influential and prolific Greek Cypriot poet, novelist, and playwright born in Famagusta.

Hal Ozsan, actor (Dawson's Creek, Kyle XY)

Dimitris Papadakis, a Greek Cypriot politician, who served as a Member of the European Parliament.

Ṣubḥ-i-Azal, Persian religious leader, lived and died in exile in Famagusta

Touker Suleyman (born Türker Süleyman), British Turkish Cypriot fashion retail entrepreneur, investor and reality television personality.

Alexia Vassiliou, singer, left here as a refugee when the town was invaded.

George Vasiliou, former President of Cyprus

Vamik Volkan, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry

Derviş Zaim, film director

 

Famagusta is twinned with:

İzmir, Turkey (since 1974)

Corfu, Greece (since 1994)

Patras, Greece (since 1994)

Antalya, Turkey (since 1997)

Salamina (city), Greece (since 1998)

Struga, North Macedonia

Athens, Greece (since 2005)

Mersin, Turkey

 

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all other states to be part of the Republic of Cyprus.

 

Northern Cyprus extends from the tip of the Karpass Peninsula in the northeast to Morphou Bay, Cape Kormakitis and its westernmost point, the Kokkina exclave in the west. Its southernmost point is the village of Louroujina. A buffer zone under the control of the United Nations stretches between Northern Cyprus and the rest of the island and divides Nicosia, the island's largest city and capital of both sides.

 

A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of an attempt to annex the island to Greece, prompted the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population, the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south, and the partitioning of the island, leading to a unilateral declaration of independence by the north in 1983. Due to its lack of recognition, Northern Cyprus is heavily dependent on Turkey for economic, political and military support.

 

Attempts to reach a solution to the Cyprus dispute have been unsuccessful. The Turkish Army maintains a large force in Northern Cyprus with the support and approval of the TRNC government, while the Republic of Cyprus, the European Union as a whole, and the international community regard it as an occupation force. This military presence has been denounced in several United Nations Security Council resolutions.

 

Northern Cyprus is a semi-presidential, democratic republic with a cultural heritage incorporating various influences and an economy that is dominated by the services sector. The economy has seen growth through the 2000s and 2010s, with the GNP per capita more than tripling in the 2000s, but is held back by an international embargo due to the official closure of the ports in Northern Cyprus by the Republic of Cyprus. The official language is Turkish, with a distinct local dialect being spoken. The vast majority of the population consists of Sunni Muslims, while religious attitudes are mostly moderate and secular. Northern Cyprus is an observer state of ECO and OIC under the name "Turkish Cypriot State", PACE under the name "Turkish Cypriot Community", and Organization of Turkic States with its own name.

 

Several distinct periods of Cypriot intercommunal violence involving the two main ethnic communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, marked mid-20th century Cyprus. These included the Cyprus Emergency of 1955–59 during British rule, the post-independence Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, and the Cyprus crisis of 1967. Hostilities culminated in the 1974 de facto division of the island along the Green Line following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The region has been relatively peaceful since then, but the Cyprus dispute has continued, with various attempts to solve it diplomatically having been generally unsuccessful.

 

Cyprus, an island lying in the eastern Mediterranean, hosted a population of Greeks and Turks (four-fifths and one-fifth, respectively), who lived under British rule in the late nineteenth-century and the first half of the twentieth-century. Christian Orthodox Church of Cyprus played a prominent political role among the Greek Cypriot community, a privilege that it acquired during the Ottoman Empire with the employment of the millet system, which gave the archbishop an unofficial ethnarch status.

 

The repeated rejections by the British of Greek Cypriot demands for enosis, union with Greece, led to armed resistance, organised by the National Organization of Cypriot Struggle, or EOKA. EOKA, led by the Greek-Cypriot commander George Grivas, systematically targeted British colonial authorities. One of the effects of EOKA's campaign was to alter the Turkish position from demanding full reincorporation into Turkey to a demand for taksim (partition). EOKA's mission and activities caused a "Cretan syndrome" (see Turkish Resistance Organisation) within the Turkish Cypriot community, as its members feared that they would be forced to leave the island in such a case as had been the case with Cretan Turks. As such, they preferred the continuation of British colonial rule and then taksim, the division of the island. Due to the Turkish Cypriots' support for the British, EOKA's leader, Georgios Grivas, declared them to be enemies. The fact that the Turks were a minority was, according to Nihat Erim, to be addressed by the transfer of thousands of Turks from mainland Turkey so that Greek Cypriots would cease to be the majority. When Erim visited Cyprus as the Turkish representative, he was advised by Field Marshal Sir John Harding, the then Governor of Cyprus, that Turkey should send educated Turks to settle in Cyprus.

 

Turkey actively promoted the idea that on the island of Cyprus two distinctive communities existed, and sidestepped its former claim that "the people of Cyprus were all Turkish subjects". In doing so, Turkey's aim to have self-determination of two to-be equal communities in effect led to de jure partition of the island.[citation needed] This could be justified to the international community against the will of the majority Greek population of the island. Dr. Fazil Küçük in 1954 had already proposed Cyprus be divided in two at the 35° parallel.

 

Lindley Dan, from Notre Dame University, spotted the roots of intercommunal violence to different visions among the two communities of Cyprus (enosis for Greek Cypriots, taksim for Turkish Cypriots). Also, Lindlay wrote that "the merging of church, schools/education, and politics in divisive and nationalistic ways" had played a crucial role in creation of havoc in Cyprus' history. Attalides Michael also pointed to the opposing nationalisms as the cause of the Cyprus problem.

 

By the mid-1950's, the "Cyprus is Turkish" party, movement, and slogan gained force in both Cyprus and Turkey. In a 1954 editorial, Turkish Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Kuchuk expressed the sentiment that the Turkish youth had grown up with the idea that "as soon as Great Britain leaves the island, it will be taken over by the Turks", and that "Turkey cannot tolerate otherwise". This perspective contributed to the willingness of Turkish Cypriots to align themselves with the British, who started recruiting Turkish Cypriots into the police force that patrolled Cyprus to fight EOKA, a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation that sought to rid the island of British rule.

 

EOKA targeted colonial authorities, including police, but Georgios Grivas, the leader of EOKA, did not initially wish to open up a new front by fighting Turkish Cypriots and reassured them that EOKA would not harm their people. In 1956, some Turkish Cypriot policemen were killed by EOKA members and this provoked some intercommunal violence in the spring and summer, but these attacks on policemen were not motivated by the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots.

 

However, in January 1957, Grivas changed his policy as his forces in the mountains became increasingly pressured by the British Crown forces. In order to divert the attention of the Crown forces, EOKA members started to target Turkish Cypriot policemen intentionally in the towns, so that Turkish Cypriots would riot against the Greek Cypriots and the security forces would have to be diverted to the towns to restore order. The killing of a Turkish Cypriot policeman on 19 January, when a power station was bombed, and the injury of three others, provoked three days of intercommunal violence in Nicosia. The two communities targeted each other in reprisals, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed and the British Army was deployed in the streets. Greek Cypriot stores were burned and their neighbourhoods attacked. Following the events, the Greek Cypriot leadership spread the propaganda that the riots had merely been an act of Turkish Cypriot aggression. Such events created chaos and drove the communities apart both in Cyprus and in Turkey.

 

On 22 October 1957 Sir Hugh Mackintosh Foot replaced Sir John Harding as the British Governor of Cyprus. Foot suggested five to seven years of self-government before any final decision. His plan rejected both enosis and taksim. The Turkish Cypriot response to this plan was a series of anti-British demonstrations in Nicosia on 27 and 28 January 1958 rejecting the proposed plan because the plan did not include partition. The British then withdrew the plan.

 

In 1957, Black Gang, a Turkish Cypriot pro-taksim paramilitary organisation, was formed to patrol a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the Tahtakale district of Nicosia, against activities of EOKA. The organisation later attempted to grow into a national scale, but failed to gain public support.

 

By 1958, signs of dissatisfaction with the British increased on both sides, with a group of Turkish Cypriots forming Volkan (later renamed to the Turkish Resistance Organisation) paramilitary group to promote partition and the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey as dictated by the Menderes plan. Volkan initially consisted of roughly 100 members, with the stated aim of raising awareness in Turkey of the Cyprus issue and courting military training and support for Turkish Cypriot fighters from the Turkish government.

 

In June 1958, the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, was expected to propose a plan to resolve the Cyprus issue. In light of the new development, the Turks rioted in Nicosia to promote the idea that Greek and Turkish Cypriots could not live together and therefore any plan that did not include partition would not be viable. This violence was soon followed by bombing, Greek Cypriot deaths and looting of Greek Cypriot-owned shops and houses. Greek and Turkish Cypriots started to flee mixed population villages where they were a minority in search of safety. This was effectively the beginning of the segregation of the two communities. On 7 June 1958, a bomb exploded at the entrance of the Turkish Embassy in Cyprus. Following the bombing, Turkish Cypriots looted Greek Cypriot properties. On 26 June 1984, the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktaş, admitted on British channel ITV that the bomb was placed by the Turks themselves in order to create tension. On 9 January 1995, Rauf Denktaş repeated his claim to the famous Turkish newspaper Milliyet in Turkey.

 

The crisis reached a climax on 12 June 1958, when eight Greeks, out of an armed group of thirty five arrested by soldiers of the Royal Horse Guards on suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura, were killed in a suspected attack by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos.

 

After the EOKA campaign had begun, the British government successfully began to turn the Cyprus issue from a British colonial problem into a Greek-Turkish issue. British diplomacy exerted backstage influence on the Adnan Menderes government, with the aim of making Turkey active in Cyprus. For the British, the attempt had a twofold objective. The EOKA campaign would be silenced as quickly as possible, and Turkish Cypriots would not side with Greek Cypriots against the British colonial claims over the island, which would thus remain under the British. The Turkish Cypriot leadership visited Menderes to discuss the Cyprus issue. When asked how the Turkish Cypriots should respond to the Greek Cypriot claim of enosis, Menderes replied: "You should go to the British foreign minister and request the status quo be prolonged, Cyprus to remain as a British colony". When the Turkish Cypriots visited the British Foreign Secretary and requested for Cyprus to remain a colony, he replied: "You should not be asking for colonialism at this day and age, you should be asking for Cyprus be returned to Turkey, its former owner".

 

As Turkish Cypriots began to look to Turkey for protection, Greek Cypriots soon understood that enosis was extremely unlikely. The Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios III, now set independence for the island as his objective.

 

Britain resolved to solve the dispute by creating an independent Cyprus. In 1959, all involved parties signed the Zurich Agreements: Britain, Turkey, Greece, and the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Makarios and Dr. Fazil Kucuk, respectively. The new constitution drew heavily on the ethnic composition of the island. The President would be a Greek Cypriot, and the Vice-President a Turkish Cypriot with an equal veto. The contribution to the public service would be set at a ratio of 70:30, and the Supreme Court would consist of an equal number of judges from both communities as well as an independent judge who was not Greek, Turkish or British. The Zurich Agreements were supplemented by a number of treaties. The Treaty of Guarantee stated that secession or union with any state was forbidden, and that Greece, Turkey and Britain would be given guarantor status to intervene if that was violated. The Treaty of Alliance allowed for two small Greek and Turkish military contingents to be stationed on the island, and the Treaty of Establishment gave Britain sovereignty over two bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

 

On 15 August 1960, the Colony of Cyprus became fully independent as the Republic of Cyprus. The new republic remained within the Commonwealth of Nations.

 

The new constitution brought dissatisfaction to Greek Cypriots, who felt it to be highly unjust for them for historical, demographic and contributional reasons. Although 80% of the island's population were Greek Cypriots and these indigenous people had lived on the island for thousands of years and paid 94% of taxes, the new constitution was giving the 17% of the population that was Turkish Cypriots, who paid 6% of taxes, around 30% of government jobs and 40% of national security jobs.

 

Within three years tensions between the two communities in administrative affairs began to show. In particular disputes over separate municipalities and taxation created a deadlock in government. A constitutional court ruled in 1963 Makarios had failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which called for the establishment of separate municipalities for Turkish Cypriots. Makarios subsequently declared his intention to ignore the judgement, resulting in the West German judge resigning from his position. Makarios proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution, which would have had the effect of resolving most of the issues in the Greek Cypriot favour. Under the proposals, the President and Vice-President would lose their veto, the separate municipalities as sought after by the Turkish Cypriots would be abandoned, the need for separate majorities by both communities in passing legislation would be discarded and the civil service contribution would be set at actual population ratios (82:18) instead of the slightly higher figure for Turkish Cypriots.

 

The intention behind the amendments has long been called into question. The Akritas plan, written in the height of the constitutional dispute by the Greek Cypriot interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, called for the removal of undesirable elements of the constitution so as to allow power-sharing to work. The plan envisaged a swift retaliatory attack on Turkish Cypriot strongholds should Turkish Cypriots resort to violence to resist the measures, stating "In the event of a planned or staged Turkish attack, it is imperative to overcome it by force in the shortest possible time, because if we succeed in gaining command of the situation (in one or two days), no outside, intervention would be either justified or possible." Whether Makarios's proposals were part of the Akritas plan is unclear, however it remains that sentiment towards enosis had not completely disappeared with independence. Makarios described independence as "a step on the road to enosis".[31] Preparations for conflict were not entirely absent from Turkish Cypriots either, with right wing elements still believing taksim (partition) the best safeguard against enosis.

 

Greek Cypriots however believe the amendments were a necessity stemming from a perceived attempt by Turkish Cypriots to frustrate the working of government. Turkish Cypriots saw it as a means to reduce their status within the state from one of co-founder to that of minority, seeing it as a first step towards enosis. The security situation deteriorated rapidly.

 

Main articles: Bloody Christmas (1963) and Battle of Tillyria

An armed conflict was triggered after December 21, 1963, a period remembered by Turkish Cypriots as Bloody Christmas, when a Greek Cypriot policemen that had been called to help deal with a taxi driver refusing officers already on the scene access to check the identification documents of his customers, took out his gun upon arrival and shot and killed the taxi driver and his partner. Eric Solsten summarised the events as follows: "a Greek Cypriot police patrol, ostensibly checking identification documents, stopped a Turkish Cypriot couple on the edge of the Turkish quarter. A hostile crowd gathered, shots were fired, and two Turkish Cypriots were killed."

 

In the morning after the shooting, crowds gathered in protest in Northern Nicosia, likely encouraged by the TMT, without incident. On the evening of the 22nd, gunfire broke out, communication lines to the Turkish neighbourhoods were cut, and the Greek Cypriot police occupied the nearby airport. On the 23rd, a ceasefire was negotiated, but did not hold. Fighting, including automatic weapons fire, between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and militias increased in Nicosia and Larnaca. A force of Greek Cypriot irregulars led by Nikos Sampson entered the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita and engaged in heavy firing on armed, as well as by some accounts unarmed, Turkish Cypriots. The Omorphita clash has been described by Turkish Cypriots as a massacre, while this view has generally not been acknowledged by Greek Cypriots.

 

Further ceasefires were arranged between the two sides, but also failed. By Christmas Eve, the 24th, Britain, Greece, and Turkey had joined talks, with all sides calling for a truce. On Christmas day, Turkish fighter jets overflew Nicosia in a show of support. Finally it was agreed to allow a force of 2,700 British soldiers to help enforce a ceasefire. In the next days, a "buffer zone" was created in Nicosia, and a British officer marked a line on a map with green ink, separating the two sides of the city, which was the beginning of the "Green Line". Fighting continued across the island for the next several weeks.

 

In total 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed during the violence. 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 103-109 villages fled and were displaced into enclaves and thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses were ransacked or completely destroyed.

 

Contemporary newspapers also reported on the forceful exodus of the Turkish Cypriots from their homes. According to The Times in 1964, threats, shootings and attempts of arson were committed against the Turkish Cypriots to force them out of their homes. The Daily Express wrote that "25,000 Turks have already been forced to leave their homes". The Guardian reported a massacre of Turks at Limassol on 16 February 1964.

 

Turkey had by now readied its fleet and its fighter jets appeared over Nicosia. Turkey was dissuaded from direct involvement by the creation of a United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) in 1964. Despite the negotiated ceasefire in Nicosia, attacks on the Turkish Cypriot persisted, particularly in Limassol. Concerned about the possibility of a Turkish invasion, Makarios undertook the creation of a Greek Cypriot conscript-based army called the "National Guard". A general from Greece took charge of the army, whilst a further 20,000 well-equipped officers and men were smuggled from Greece into Cyprus. Turkey threatened to intervene once more, but was prevented by a strongly worded letter from the American President Lyndon B. Johnson, anxious to avoid a conflict between NATO allies Greece and Turkey at the height of the Cold War.

 

Turkish Cypriots had by now established an important bridgehead at Kokkina, provided with arms, volunteers and materials from Turkey and abroad. Seeing this incursion of foreign weapons and troops as a major threat, the Cypriot government invited George Grivas to return from Greece as commander of the Greek troops on the island and launch a major attack on the bridgehead. Turkey retaliated by dispatching its fighter jets to bomb Greek positions, causing Makarios to threaten an attack on every Turkish Cypriot village on the island if the bombings did not cease. The conflict had now drawn in Greece and Turkey, with both countries amassing troops on their Thracian borders. Efforts at mediation by Dean Acheson, a former U.S. Secretary of State, and UN-appointed mediator Galo Plaza had failed, all the while the division of the two communities becoming more apparent. Greek Cypriot forces were estimated at some 30,000, including the National Guard and the large contingent from Greece. Defending the Turkish Cypriot enclaves was a force of approximately 5,000 irregulars, led by a Turkish colonel, but lacking the equipment and organisation of the Greek forces.

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1964, U Thant, reported the damage during the conflicts:

 

UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances; it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting.

 

The situation worsened in 1967, when a military junta overthrew the democratically elected government of Greece, and began applying pressure on Makarios to achieve enosis. Makarios, not wishing to become part of a military dictatorship or trigger a Turkish invasion, began to distance himself from the goal of enosis. This caused tensions with the junta in Greece as well as George Grivas in Cyprus. Grivas's control over the National Guard and Greek contingent was seen as a threat to Makarios's position, who now feared a possible coup.[citation needed] The National Guard and Cyprus Police began patrolling the Turkish Cypriot enclaves of Ayios Theodoros and Kophinou, and on November 15 engaged in heavy fighting with the Turkish Cypriots.

 

By the time of his withdrawal 26 Turkish Cypriots had been killed. Turkey replied with an ultimatum demanding that Grivas be removed from the island, that the troops smuggled from Greece in excess of the limits of the Treaty of Alliance be removed, and that the economic blockades on the Turkish Cypriot enclaves be lifted. Grivas was recalled by the Athens Junta and the 12,000 Greek troops were withdrawn. Makarios now attempted to consolidate his position by reducing the number of National Guard troops, and by creating a paramilitary force loyal to Cypriot independence. In 1968, acknowledging that enosis was now all but impossible, Makarios stated, "A solution by necessity must be sought within the limits of what is feasible which does not always coincide with the limits of what is desirable."

 

After 1967 tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots subsided. Instead, the main source of tension on the island came from factions within the Greek Cypriot community. Although Makarios had effectively abandoned enosis in favour of an 'attainable solution', many others continued to believe that the only legitimate political aspiration for Greek Cypriots was union with Greece.

 

On his arrival, Grivas began by establishing a nationalist paramilitary group known as the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston B or EOKA-B), drawing comparisons with the EOKA struggle for enosis under the British colonial administration of the 1950s.

 

The military junta in Athens saw Makarios as an obstacle. Makarios's failure to disband the National Guard, whose officer class was dominated by mainland Greeks, had meant the junta had practical control over the Cypriot military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target.

 

During the first Turkish invasion, Turkish troops invaded Cyprus territory on 20 July 1974, invoking its rights under the Treaty of Guarantee. This expansion of Turkish-occupied zone violated International Law as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Turkish troops managed to capture 3% of the island which was accompanied by the burning of the Turkish Cypriot quarter, as well as the raping and killing of women and children. A temporary cease-fire followed which was mitigated by the UN Security Council. Subsequently, the Greek military Junta collapsed on July 23, 1974, and peace talks commenced in which a democratic government was installed. The Resolution 353 was broken after Turkey attacked a second time and managed to get a hold of 37% of Cyprus territory. The Island of Cyprus was appointed a Buffer Zone by the United Nations, which divided the island into two zones through the 'Green Line' and put an end to the Turkish invasion. Although Turkey announced that the occupied areas of Cyprus to be called the Federated Turkish State in 1975, it is not legitimised on a worldwide political scale. The United Nations called for the international recognition of independence for the Republic of Cyprus in the Security Council Resolution 367.

 

In the years after the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus one can observe a history of failed talks between the two parties. The 1983 declaration of the independent Turkish Republic of Cyprus resulted in a rise of inter-communal tensions and made it increasingly hard to find mutual understanding. With Cyprus' interest of a possible EU membership and a new UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1997 new hopes arose for a fresh start. International involvement from sides of the US and UK, wanting a solution to the Cyprus dispute prior to the EU accession led to political pressures for new talks. The believe that an accession without a solution would threaten Greek-Turkish relations and acknowledge the partition of the island would direct the coming negotiations.

 

Over the course of two years a concrete plan, the Annan plan was formulated. In 2004 the fifth version agreed upon from both sides and with the endorsement of Turkey, US, UK and EU then was presented to the public and was given a referendum in both Cypriot communities to assure the legitimisation of the resolution. The Turkish Cypriots voted with 65% for the plan, however the Greek Cypriots voted with a 76% majority against. The Annan plan contained multiple important topics. Firstly it established a confederation of two separate states called the United Cyprus Republic. Both communities would have autonomous states combined under one unified government. The members of parliament would be chosen according to the percentage in population numbers to ensure a just involvement from both communities. The paper proposed a demilitarisation of the island over the next years. Furthermore it agreed upon a number of 45000 Turkish settlers that could remain on the island. These settlers became a very important issue concerning peace talks. Originally the Turkish government encouraged Turks to settle in Cyprus providing transfer and property, to establish a counterpart to the Greek Cypriot population due to their 1 to 5 minority. With the economic situation many Turkish-Cypriot decided to leave the island, however their departure is made up by incoming Turkish settlers leaving the population ratio between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots stable. However all these points where criticised and as seen in the vote rejected mainly by the Greek Cypriots. These name the dissolution of the „Republic of Cyprus", economic consequences of a reunion and the remaining Turkish settlers as reason. Many claim that the plan was indeed drawing more from Turkish-Cypriot demands then Greek-Cypriot interests. Taking in consideration that the US wanted to keep Turkey as a strategic partner in future Middle Eastern conflicts.

 

A week after the failed referendum the Republic of Cyprus joined the EU. In multiple instances the EU tried to promote trade with Northern Cyprus but without internationally recognised ports this spiked a grand debate. Both side endure their intention of negotiations, however without the prospect of any new compromises or agreements the UN is unwilling to start the process again. Since 2004 negotiations took place in numbers but without any results, both sides are strongly holding on to their position without an agreeable solution in sight that would suit both parties.

Marc Zakharovich Chagall (/ʃəˈɡɑːl/ shə-GAHL;[3][nb 1] born Moishe Zakharovich Shagal;[4] 6 July [O.S. 24 June] 1887 – 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist of Belarusian Jewish origin.[1] An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic format, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.

 

Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century" (though Chagall saw his work as "not the dream of one people but of all humanity"). According to art historian Michael J. Lewis, Chagall was considered to be "the last survivor of the first generation of European modernists". For decades, he "had also been respected as the world's preeminent Jewish artist". Using the medium of stained glass, he produced windows for the cathedrals of Reims and Metz, windows for the UN, and the Jerusalem Windows in Israel. He also did large-scale paintings, including part of the ceiling of the Paris Opéra.

 

Before World War I, he travelled between Saint Petersburg, Paris and Berlin. During this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his idea of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. He spent the wartime years in Soviet Belarus, becoming one of the country's most distinguished artists and a member of the modernist avant-garde, founding the Vitebsk Arts College before leaving again for Paris in 1922.

 

He had two basic reputations, writes Lewis: as a pioneer of modernism and as a major Jewish artist. He experienced modernism's "golden age" in Paris, where "he synthesized the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism, and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to Surrealism". Yet throughout these phases of his style "he remained most emphatically a Jewish artist, whose work was one long dreamy reverie of life in his native village of Vitebsk."[5] "When Matisse dies," Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, "Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is".[6]

 

Contents

 

1 Early life and education

1.1 Early life

1.2 Art education

1.3 Artistic inspiration

2 Art career

2.1 Russia (1906–1910)

2.2 France (1910–1914)

2.3 Russia and Soviet Belarus (1914–1922)

2.4 France (1923–1941)

2.4.1 The Bible illustrations

2.4.2 Nazi campaigns against modern art

2.4.3 Escaping occupied France

2.5 United States (1941–1948)

2.5.1 Aleko ballet (1942)

2.5.2 Coming to grips with World War II

2.5.3 Post-war years

2.6 France (1948–1985)

2.6.1 Ceiling of the Paris Opera (1963)

3 Art styles and techniques

3.1 Color

3.2 Subject matter

3.2.1 From life memories to fantasy

3.2.2 Jewish themes

  

Early life and education

Chagall's Parents

 

Marc Chagall was born Moishe Segal in a Lithuanian Jewish family in Liozna,[7] near the city of Vitebsk (Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire) in 1887.[note][8] At the time of his birth, Vitebsk's population was about 66,000, with half the population being Jewish.[5] A picturesque city of churches and synagogues, it was called "Russian Toledo", after a cosmopolitan city of the former Spanish Empire. As the city was built mostly of wood, little of it survived years of occupation and destruction during World War II.

 

Chagall was the eldest of nine children. The family name, Shagal, is a variant of the name Segal, which in a Jewish community was usually borne by a Levitic family.[9] His father, Khatskl (Zachar) Shagal, was employed by a herring merchant, and his mother, Feige-Ite, sold groceries from their home. His father worked hard, carrying heavy barrels but earning only 20 roubles each month (the average wages across the Russian Empire being 13 roubles a month). Chagall would later include fish motifs "out of respect for his father", writes Chagall biographer, Jacob Baal-Teshuva. Chagall wrote of these early years:

 

Day after day, winter and summer, at six o'clock in the morning, my father got up and went off to the synagogue. There he said his usual prayer for some dead man or other. On his return he made ready the samovar, drank some tea and went to work. Hellish work, the work of a galley-slave. Why try to hide it? How tell about it? No word will ever ease my father's lot... There was always plenty of butter and cheese on our table. Buttered bread, like an eternal symbol, was never out of my childish hands.[10]

 

One of the main sources of income of the Jewish population of the town was from the manufacture of clothing that was sold throughout Russia. They also made furniture and various agricultural tools.[11] From the late 18th century to the First World War, the Russian government confined Jews to living within the Pale of Settlement, which included modern Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, almost exactly corresponding to the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth recently taken over by Imperial Russia. This caused the creation of Jewish market-villages (shtetls) throughout today's Eastern Europe, with their own markets, schools, hospitals, and other community institutions.[12]:14

 

Most of what is known about Chagall's early life has come from his autobiography, My Life. In it, he described the major influence that the culture of Hasidic Judaism had on his life as an artist. Vitebsk itself had been a center of that culture dating from the 1730s with its teachings derived from the Kabbalah. Chagall scholar Susan Tumarkin Goodman describes the links and sources of his art to his early home:

 

Chagall's art can be understood as the response to a situation that has long marked the history of Russian Jews. Though they were cultural innovators who made important contributions to the broader society, Jews were considered outsiders in a frequently hostile society... Chagall himself was born of a family steeped in religious life; his parents were observant Hasidic Jews who found spiritual satisfaction in a life defined by their faith and organized by prayer.[12]:14

 

Chagall was friends with Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, and later with Menachem M. Schneerson.[13]

Art education

Portrait of Chagall by Yehuda (Yuri) Pen, his first art teacher in Vitebsk

 

In Russia at that time, Jewish children were not allowed to attend regular Russian schools or universities. Their movement within the city was also restricted. Chagall therefore received his primary education at the local Jewish religious school, where he studied Hebrew and the Bible. At the age of 13, his mother tried to enroll him in a Russian high school, and he recalled, "But in that school, they don't take Jews. Without a moment's hesitation, my courageous mother walks up to a professor." She offered the headmaster 50 roubles to let him attend, which he accepted.[10]

 

A turning point of his artistic life came when he first noticed a fellow student drawing. Baal-Teshuva writes that for the young Chagall, watching someone draw "was like a vision, a revelation in black and white". Chagall would later say that there was no art of any kind in his family's home and the concept was totally alien to him. When Chagall asked the schoolmate how he learned to draw, his friend replied, "Go and find a book in the library, idiot, choose any picture you like, and just copy it". He soon began copying images from books and found the experience so rewarding he then decided he wanted to become an artist.[11]

 

He eventually confided to his mother, "I want to be a painter", although she could not yet understand his sudden interest in art or why he would choose a vocation that "seemed so impractical", writes Goodman. The young Chagall explained, "There's a place in town; if I'm admitted and if I complete the course, I'll come out a regular artist. I'd be so happy!" It was 1906, and he had noticed the studio of Yehuda (Yuri) Pen, a realist artist who also operated a small drawing school in Vitebsk, which included the future artists El Lissitzky and Ossip Zadkine. Due to Chagall's youth and lack of income, Pen offered to teach him free of charge. However, after a few months at the school, Chagall realized that academic portrait painting did not suit his desires.[11]

Artistic inspiration

Marc Chagall, 1912, Calvary (Golgotha), oil on canvas, 174.6 × 192.4 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Alternative titles: Kreuzigung Bild 2 Christus gewidmet [Golgotha. Crucifixion. Dedicated to Christ]. Sold through Galerie Der Sturm (Herwarth Walden), Berlin to Bernhard Koehler (1849–1927), Berlin, 1913. Exhibited: Erster Deutscher Herbstsalon, Berlin, 1913

 

Goodman notes that during this period in Russia, Jews had two basic alternatives for joining the art world: One was to "hide or deny one's Jewish roots". The other alternative—the one that Chagall chose—was "to cherish and publicly express one's Jewish roots" by integrating them into his art. For Chagall, this was also his means of "self-assertion and an expression of principle."[12]:14

 

Chagall biographer Franz Meyer, explains that with the connections between his art and early life "the hassidic spirit is still the basis and source of nourishment for his art."[14] Lewis adds, "As cosmopolitan an artist as he would later become, his storehouse of visual imagery would never expand beyond the landscape of his childhood, with its snowy streets, wooden houses, and ubiquitous fiddlers... [with] scenes of childhood so indelibly in one's mind and to invest them with an emotional charge so intense that it could only be discharged obliquely through an obsessive repetition of the same cryptic symbols and ideograms... "[5]

 

Years later, at the age of 57 while living in the United States, Chagall confirmed this when he published an open letter entitled, "To My City Vitebsk":

 

Why? Why did I leave you many years ago? ... You thought, the boy seeks something, seeks such a special subtlety, that color descending like stars from the sky and landing, bright and transparent, like snow on our roofs. Where did he get it? How would it come to a boy like him? I don't know why he couldn't find it with us, in the city—in his homeland. Maybe the boy is "crazy", but "crazy" for the sake of art. ...You thought: "I can see, I am etched in the boy's heart, but he is still 'flying,' he is still striving to take off, he has 'wind' in his head." ... I did not live with you, but I didn't have one single painting that didn't breathe with your spirit and reflection.[15]

 

Art career

Russia (1906–1910)

 

In 1906, he moved to Saint Petersburg which was then the capital of Russia and the center of the country's artistic life with its famous art schools. Since Jews were not permitted into the city without an internal passport, he managed to get a temporary passport from a friend. He enrolled in a prestigious art school and studied there for two years.[11] By 1907, he had begun painting naturalistic self-portraits and landscapes.

 

Between 1908 and 1910, Chagall was a student of Léon Bakst at the Zvantseva School of Drawing and Painting. While in Saint Petersburg, he discovered experimental theater and the work of such artists as Paul Gauguin.[16] Bakst, also Jewish, was a designer of decorative art and was famous as a draftsman designer of stage sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes, and helped Chagall by acting as a role model for Jewish success. Bakst moved to Paris a year later. Art historian Raymond Cogniat writes that after living and studying art on his own for four years, "Chagall entered into the mainstream of contemporary art. ...His apprenticeship over, Russia had played a memorable initial role in his life."[17]:30

 

Chagall stayed in Saint Petersburg until 1910, often visiting Vitebsk where he met Bella Rosenfeld. In My Life, Chagall described his first meeting her: "Her silence is mine, her eyes mine. It is as if she knows everything about my childhood, my present, my future, as if she can see right through me."[11]:22

France (1910–1914)

Marc Chagall, 1911–12, The Drunkard (Le saoul), 1912, oil on canvas. 85 × 115 cm. Private collection

Marc Chagall, 1912, The Fiddler, an inspiration for the musical Fiddler on the Roof[18]

 

In 1910, Chagall relocated to Paris to develop his artistic style. Art historian and curator James Sweeney notes that when Chagall first arrived in Paris, Cubism was the dominant art form, and French art was still dominated by the "materialistic outlook of the 19th century". But Chagall arrived from Russia with "a ripe color gift, a fresh, unashamed response to sentiment, a feeling for simple poetry and a sense of humor", he adds. These notions were alien to Paris at that time, and as a result, his first recognition came not from other painters but from poets such as Blaise Cendrars and Guillaume Apollinaire.[19]:7 Art historian Jean Leymarie observes that Chagall began thinking of art as "emerging from the internal being outward, from the seen object to the psychic outpouring", which was the reverse of the Cubist way of creating.[20]

 

He therefore developed friendships with Guillaume Apollinaire and other avant-garde luminaries such as Robert Delaunay and Fernand Léger.[21] Baal-Teshuva writes that "Chagall's dream of Paris, the city of light and above all, of freedom, had come true."[11]:33 His first days were a hardship for the 23-year-old Chagall, who was lonely in the big city and unable to speak French. Some days he "felt like fleeing back to Russia, as he daydreamed while he painted, about the riches of Russian folklore, his Hasidic experiences, his family, and especially Bella".

 

In Paris, he enrolled at Académie de La Palette, an avant-garde school of art where the painters Jean Metzinger, André Dunoyer de Segonzac and Henri Le Fauconnier taught, and also found work at another academy. He would spend his free hours visiting galleries and salons, especially the Louvre; artists he came to admire included Rembrandt, the Le Nain brothers, Chardin, van Gogh, Renoir, Pissarro, Matisse, Gauguin, Courbet, Millet, Manet, Monet, Delacroix, and others. It was in Paris that he learned the technique of gouache, which he used to paint Belarusian scenes. He also visited Montmartre and the Latin Quarter "and was happy just breathing Parisian air."[11] Baal-Teshuva describes this new phase in Chagall's artistic development:

 

Chagall was exhilarated, intoxicated, as he strolled through the streets and along the banks of the Seine. Everything about the French capital excited him: the shops, the smell of fresh bread in the morning, the markets with their fresh fruit and vegetables, the wide boulevards, the cafés and restaurants, and above all the Eiffel Tower.

 

Another completely new world that opened up for him was the kaleidoscope of colours and forms in the works of French artists. Chagall enthusiastically reviewed their many different tendencies, having to rethink his position as an artist and decide what creative avenue he wanted to pursue.[11]:33

 

During his time in Paris, Chagall was constantly reminded of his home in Vitebsk, as Paris was also home to many painters, writers, poets, composers, dancers, and other émigrés from the Russian Empire. However, "night after night he painted until dawn", only then going to bed for a few hours, and resisted the many temptations of the big city at night.[11]:44 "My homeland exists only in my soul", he once said.[20]:viii He continued painting Jewish motifs and subjects from his memories of Vitebsk, although he included Parisian scenes—- the Eiffel Tower in particular, along with portraits. Many of his works were updated versions of paintings he had made in Russia, transposed into Fauvist or Cubist keys.[5]

Marc Chagall, 1912, Still-life (Nature morte), oil on canvas, private collection

 

Chagall developed a whole repertoire of quirky motifs: ghostly figures floating in the sky, ... the gigantic fiddler dancing on miniature dollhouses, the livestock and transparent wombs and, within them, tiny offspring sleeping upside down.[5] The majority of his scenes of life in Vitebsk were painted while living in Paris, and "in a sense they were dreams", notes Lewis. Their "undertone of yearning and loss", with a detached and abstract appearance, caused Apollinaire to be "struck by this quality", calling them "surnaturel!" His "animal/human hybrids and airborne phantoms" would later become a formative influence on Surrealism.[5] Chagall, however, did not want his work to be associated with any school or movement and considered his own personal language of symbols to be meaningful to himself. But Sweeney notes that others often still associate his work with "illogical and fantastic painting", especially when he uses "curious representational juxtapositions".[19]:10

 

Sweeney writes that "This is Chagall's contribution to contemporary art: the reawakening of a poetry of representation, avoiding factual illustration on the one hand, and non-figurative abstractions on the other". André Breton said that "with him alone, the metaphor made its triumphant return to modern painting".[19]:7

Russia and Soviet Belarus (1914–1922)

 

Because he missed his fiancée, Bella, who was still in Vitebsk—"He thought about her day and night", writes Baal-Teshuva—and was afraid of losing her, Chagall decided to accept an invitation from a noted art dealer in Berlin to exhibit his work, his intention being to continue on to Belarus, marry Bella, and then return with her to Paris. Chagall took 40 canvases and 160 gouaches, watercolors and drawings to be exhibited. The exhibit, held at Herwarth Walden's Sturm Gallery was a huge success, "The German critics positively sang his praises."[11]

People's Art School where the Vitebsk Museum of Modern Art was situated

 

After the exhibit, he continued on to Vitebsk, where he planned to stay only long enough to marry Bella. However, after a few weeks, the First World War began, closing the Russian border for an indefinite period. A year later he married Bella Rosenfeld and they had their first child, Ida. Before the marriage, Chagall had difficulty convincing Bella's parents that he would be a suitable husband for their daughter. They were worried about her marrying a painter from a poor family and wondered how he would support her. Becoming a successful artist now became a goal and inspiration. According to Lewis, "[T]he euphoric paintings of this time, which show the young couple floating balloon-like over Vitebsk—its wooden buildings faceted in the Delaunay manner—are the most lighthearted of his career".[5] His wedding pictures were also a subject he would return to in later years as he thought about this period of his life.[11]:75

Bella with White Collar, 1917

 

In 1915, Chagall began exhibiting his work in Moscow, first exhibiting his works at a well-known salon and in 1916 exhibiting pictures in St. Petersburg. He again showed his art at a Moscow exhibition of avant-garde artists. This exposure brought recognition, and a number of wealthy collectors began buying his art. He also began illustrating a number of Yiddish books with ink drawings. He illustrated I. L. Peretz's The Magician in 1917.[22] Chagall was 30 years old and had begun to become well known.[11]:77

 

The October Revolution of 1917 was a dangerous time for Chagall although it also offered opportunity. By then he was one of the Russia's most distinguished artists and a member of the modernist avant-garde, which enjoyed special privileges and prestige as the "aesthetic arm of the revolution".[5] He was offered a notable position as a commissar of visual arts for the country[clarification needed], but preferred something less political, and instead accepted a job as commissar of arts for Vitebsk. This resulted in his founding the Vitebsk Arts College which, adds Lewis, became the "most distinguished school of art in the Soviet Union".

 

It obtained for its faculty some of the most important artists in the country, such as El Lissitzky and Kazimir Malevich. He also added his first teacher, Yehuda Pen. Chagall tried to create an atmosphere of a collective of independently minded artists, each with their own unique style. However, this would soon prove to be difficult as a few of the key faculty members preferred a Suprematist art of squares and circles, and disapproved of Chagall's attempt at creating "bourgeois individualism". Chagall then resigned as commissar and moved to Moscow.

 

In Moscow he was offered a job as stage designer for the newly formed State Jewish Chamber Theater. It was set to begin operation in early 1921 with a number of plays by Sholem Aleichem. For its opening he created a number of large background murals using techniques he learned from Bakst, his early teacher. One of the main murals was 9 feet (2.7 m) tall by 24 feet (7.3 m) long and included images of various lively subjects such as dancers, fiddlers, acrobats, and farm animals. One critic at the time called it "Hebrew jazz in paint". Chagall created it as a "storehouse of symbols and devices", notes Lewis.[5] The murals "constituted a landmark" in the history of the theatre, and were forerunners of his later large-scale works, including murals for the New York Metropolitan Opera and the Paris Opera.[11]:87

 

Famine spread after the war ended in 1918. The Chagalls found it necessary to move to a smaller, less expensive, town near Moscow, although he now had to commute to Moscow daily using crowded trains. In 1921, he worked as an art teacher in a Jewish boys' shelter in suburban Malakhovka, which housed orphaned refugees from Ukrainian pogroms.[6]:270 While there, he created a series of illustrations for the Yiddish poetry cycle Grief written by David Hofstein, who was another teacher at the Malakhovka shelter.[6]:273

 

After spending the years between 1921 and 1922 living in primitive conditions, he decided to go back to France so that he could develop his art in a more comfortable country. Numerous other artists, writers, and musicians were also planning to relocate to the West. He applied for an exit visa and while waiting for its uncertain approval, wrote his autobiography, My Life.[11]:121

France (1923–1941)

 

In 1923, Chagall left Moscow to return to France. On his way he stopped in Berlin to recover the many pictures he had left there on exhibit ten years earlier, before the war began, but was unable to find or recover any of them. Nonetheless, after returning to Paris he again "rediscovered the free expansion and fulfillment which were so essential to him", writes Lewis. With all his early works now lost, he began trying to paint from his memories of his earliest years in Vitebsk with sketches and oil paintings.[5]

 

He formed a business relationship with French art dealer Ambroise Vollard. This inspired him to begin creating etchings for a series of illustrated books, including Gogol's Dead Souls, the Bible, and the La Fontaine's Fables. These illustrations would eventually come to represent his finest printmaking efforts.[5] In 1924, he travelled to Brittany and painted La fenêtre sur l'Île-de-Bréhat.[23] By 1926 he had his first exhibition in the United States at the Reinhardt gallery of New York which included about 100 works, although he did not travel to the opening. He instead stayed in France, "painting ceaselessly", notes Baal-Teshuva.[11] It was not until 1927 that Chagall made his name in the French art world, when art critic and historian Maurice Raynal awarded him a place in his book Modern French Painters. However, Raynal was still at a loss to accurately describe Chagall to his readers:

 

Chagall interrogates life in the light of a refined, anxious, childlike sensibility, a slightly romantic temperament ... a blend of sadness and gaiety characteristic of a grave view of life. His imagination, his temperament, no doubt forbid a Latin severity of composition.[6]:314

 

During this period he traveled throughout France and the Côte d'Azur, where he enjoyed the landscapes, colorful vegetation, the blue Mediterranean Sea, and the mild weather. He made repeated trips to the countryside, taking his sketchbook.[6]:9 He also visited nearby countries and later wrote about the impressions some of those travels left on him:

 

I should like to recall how advantageous my travels outside France have been for me in an artistic sense—in Holland or in Spain, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, or simply in the south of France. There, in the south, for the first time in my life, I saw that rich greenness—the like of which I had never seen in my own country. In Holland I thought I discovered that familiar and throbbing light, like the light between the late afternoon and dusk. In Italy I found that peace of the museums which the sunlight brought to life. In Spain I was happy to find the inspiration of a mystical, if sometimes cruel, past, to find the song of its sky and of its people. And in the East [Palestine] I found unexpectedly the Bible and a part of my very being.[15]:77

 

The Bible illustrations

"The Prophet Jeremiah" (1968)

 

After returning to Paris from one of his trips, Vollard commissioned Chagall to illustrate the Old Testament. Although he could have completed the project in France, he used the assignment as an excuse to travel to Israel to experience for himself the Holy Land. He arrived there in February 1931 and ended up staying for two months. Chagall felt at home in Israel where many people spoke Yiddish and Russian. According to Jacob Baal-Teshuva, "he was impressed by the pioneering spirit of the people in the kibbutzim and deeply moved by the Wailing Wall and the other holy places".[11]:133

 

Chagall later told a friend that Israel gave him "the most vivid impression he had ever received". Wullschlager notes, however, that whereas Delacroix and Matisse had found inspiration in the exoticism of North Africa, he as a Jew in Israel had different perspective. "What he was really searching for there was not external stimulus but an inner authorization from the land of his ancestors, to plunge into his work on the Bible illustrations".[6]:343 Chagall stated that "In the East I found the Bible and part of my own being."

 

As a result, he immersed himself in "the history of the Jews, their trials, prophecies, and disasters", notes Wullschlager. She adds that beginning the assignment was an "extraordinary risk" for Chagall, as he had finally become well known as a leading contemporary painter, but would now end his modernist themes and delve into "an ancient past".[6]:350 Between 1931 and 1934 he worked "obsessively" on "The Bible", even going to Amsterdam in order to carefully study the biblical paintings of Rembrandt and El Greco, to see the extremes of religious painting. He walked the streets of the city's Jewish quarter to again feel the earlier atmosphere. He told Franz Meyer:

 

I did not see the Bible, I dreamed it. Ever since early childhood, I have been captivated by the Bible. It has always seemed to me and still seems today the greatest source of poetry of all time.[6]:350

 

Chagall saw the Old Testament as a "human story, ... not with the creation of the cosmos but with the creation of man, and his figures of angels are rhymed or combined with human ones", writes Wullschlager. She points out that in one of his early Bible images, "Abraham and the Three Angels", the angels sit and chat over a glass of wine "as if they have just dropped by for dinner".[6]:350

 

He returned to France and by the next year had completed 32 out of the total of 105 plates. By 1939, at the beginning of World War II, he had finished 66. However, Vollard died that same year. When the series was completed in 1956, it was published by Edition Tériade. Baal-Teshuva writes that "the illustrations were stunning and met with great acclaim. Once again Chagall had shown himself to be one of the 20th century's most important graphic artists".[11]:135 Leymarie has described these drawings by Chagall as "monumental" and,

 

...full of divine inspiration, which retrace the legendary destiny and the epic history of Israel to Genesis to the Prophets, through the Patriarchs and the Heroes. Each picture becomes one with the event, informing the text with a solemn intimacy unknown since Rembrandt.[20]:ix

 

Nazi campaigns against modern art

 

Not long after Chagall began his work on the Bible, Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany. Anti-Semitic laws were being introduced and the first concentration camp at Dachau had been established. Wullschlager describes the early effects on art:

 

The Nazis had begun their campaign against modernist art as soon as they seized power. Expressionist, cubist, abstract, and surrealist art—anything intellectual, Jewish, foreign, socialist-inspired, or difficult to understand—was targeted, from Picasso and Matisse going back to Cézanne and van Gogh; in its place traditional German realism, accessible and open to patriotic interpretation, was extolled.[6]:374

 

Beginning during 1937 about twenty thousand works from German museums were confiscated as "degenerate" by a committee directed by Joseph Goebbels.[6]:375 Although the German press had once "swooned over him", the new German authorities now made a mockery of Chagall's art, describing them as "green, purple, and red Jews shooting out of the earth, fiddling on violins, flying through the air ... representing [an] assault on Western civilization".[6]:376

 

After Germany invaded and occupied France, the Chagalls naively remained in Vichy France, unaware that French Jews, with the help of the Vichy government, were being collected and sent to German concentration camps, from which few would return. The Vichy collaborationist government, directed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, immediately upon assuming power established a commission to "redefine French citizenship" with the aim of stripping "undesirables", including naturalized citizens, of their French nationality. Chagall had been so involved with his art, that it was not until October 1940, after the Vichy government, at the behest of the Nazi occupying forces, began approving anti-Semitic laws, that he began to understand what was happening. Learning that Jews were being removed from public and academic positions, the Chagalls finally "woke up to the danger they faced". But Wullschlager notes that "by then they were trapped".[6]:382 Their only refuge could be America, but "they could not afford the passage to New York" or the large bond that each immigrant had to provide upon entry to ensure that they would not become a financial burden to the country.

Escaping occupied France

 

According to Wullschlager, "[T]he speed with which France collapsed astonished everyone: the French army, with British support, capitulated even more quickly than Poland had done" a year earlier. "Shock waves crossed the Atlantic... as Paris had until then been equated with civilization throughout the non-Nazi world."[6]:388 Yet the attachment of the Chagalls to France "blinded them to the urgency of the situation."[6]:389 Many other well-known Russian and Jewish artists eventually sought to escape: these included Chaim Soutine, Max Ernst, Max Beckmann, Ludwig Fulda, author Victor Serge and prize-winning author Vladimir Nabokov, who although not Jewish himself, was married to a Jewish woman.[24]:1181 Russian author Victor Serge described many of the people living temporarily in Marseille who were waiting to emigrate to America:

 

Here is a beggar's alley gathering the remnants of revolutions, democracies and crushed intellects... In our ranks are enough doctors, psychologists, engineers, educationalists, poets, painters, writers, musicians, economists and public men to vitalize a whole great country.[6]:392

 

After prodding by their daughter Ida, who "perceived the need to act fast",[6]:388 and with help from Alfred Barr of the New York Museum of Modern Art, Chagall was saved by having his name added to the list of prominent artists whose lives were at risk and who the United States should try to extricate. Varian Fry, the American journalist, and Hiram Bingham IV, the American Vice-Consul in Marseilles, ran a rescue operation to smuggle artists and intellectuals out of Europe to the US by providing them with forged visas to the US. Chagall was one of over 2,000 who were rescued by this operation. He left France in May 1941, "when it was almost too late", adds Lewis. Picasso and Matisse were also invited to come to America but they decided to remain in France. Chagall and Bella arrived in New York on 23 June 1941, the day after Germany invaded the Soviet Union.[11]:150 Ida and her husband Michel followed on the notorious refugee ship SS Navemar with a large case of Chagall's work.[25] A chance post-war meeting in a French café between Ida and intelligence analyst Konrad Kellen led to Kellen carrying more paintings on his return to the United States.[26]

United States (1941–1948)

Photo portrait of Chagall in 1941 by Carl Van Vechten

 

Even before arriving in the United States in 1941, Chagall was awarded the Carnegie Prize third prize in 1939 for "Les Fiancés". After being in America he discovered that he had already achieved "international stature", writes Cogniat, although he felt ill-suited in this new role in a foreign country whose language he could not yet speak. He became a celebrity mostly against his will, feeling lost in the strange surroundings.[17]:57

 

After a while he began to settle in New York, which was full of writers, painters, and composers who, like himself, had fled from Europe during the Nazi invasions. He lived at 4 East 74th Street.[27] He spent time visiting galleries and museums, and befriended other artists including Piet Mondrian and André Breton.[11]:155

 

Baal-Teshuva writes that Chagall "loved" going to the sections of New York where Jews lived, especially the Lower East Side. There he felt at home, enjoying the Jewish foods and being able to read the Yiddish press, which became his main source of information since he did not yet speak English.[11]

 

Contemporary artists did not yet understand or even like Chagall's art. According to Baal-Teshuva, "they had little in common with a folkloristic storyteller of Russo-Jewish extraction with a propensity for mysticism." The Paris School, which was referred to as 'Parisian Surrealism,' meant little to them.[11]:155 Those attitudes would begin to change, however, when Pierre Matisse, the son of recognized French artist Henri Matisse, became his representative and managed Chagall exhibitions in New York and Chicago in 1941. One of the earliest exhibitions included 21 of his masterpieces from 1910 to 1941.[11] Art critic Henry McBride wrote about this exhibit for the New York Sun:

 

Chagall is about as gypsy as they come... these pictures do more for his reputation than anything we have previously seen... His colors sparkle with poetry... his work is authentically Russian as a Volga boatman's song...[28]

 

He was offered a commission by choreographer Leonid Massine of the Ballet Theatre of New York to design the sets and costumes for his new ballet, Aleko. This ballet would stage the words of Pushkin's verse narrative The Gypsies with the music of Tchaikovsky. While Chagall had done stage settings before while in Russia, this was his first ballet, and it would give him the opportunity to visit Mexico. While there he quickly began to appreciate the "primitive ways and colorful art of the Mexicans," notes Cogniat. He found "something very closely related to his own nature", and did all the color detail for the sets while there.[17] Eventually, he created four large backdrops and had Mexican seamstresses sew the ballet costumes.

 

When the ballet premiered on 8 September 1942 it was considered a "remarkable success."[11] In the audience were other famous mural painters who came to see Chagall's work, including Diego Rivera and José Orozco. According to Baal-Teshuva, when the final bar of music ended, "there was a tumultuous applause and 19 curtain calls, with Chagall himself being called back onto the stage again and again." The ballet also opened in New York City four weeks later at the Metropolitan Opera and the response was repeated, "again Chagall was the hero of the evening".[11]:158 Art critic Edwin Denby wrote of the opening for the New York Herald Tribune that Chagall's work:

 

has turned into a dramatized exhibition of giant paintings... It surpasses anything Chagall has done on the easel scale, and it is a breathtaking experience, of a kind one hardly expects in the theatre.[29]

 

Coming to grips with World War II

 

After Chagall returned to New York in 1943, however, current events began to interest him more, and this was represented by his art, where he painted subjects including the Crucifixion and scenes of war. He learned that the Germans had destroyed the town where he was raised, Vitebsk, and became greatly distressed.[11]:159 He also learned about the Nazi concentration camps.[11] During a speech in February 1944, he described some of his feelings:

 

Meanwhile, the enemy jokes, saying that we are a "stupid nation." He thought that when he started slaughtering the Jews, we would all in our grief suddenly raise the greatest prophetic scream, and would be joined by the Christian humanists. But, after two thousand years of "Christianity" in the world—say whatever you like—but, with few exceptions, their hearts are silent... I see the artists in Christian nations sit still—who has heard them speak up? They are not worried about themselves, and our Jewish life doesn't concern them.[15]:89

 

In the same speech he credited Soviet Russia with doing the most to save the Jews:

 

The Jews will always be grateful to it. What other great country has saved a million and a half Jews from Hitler's hands, and shared its last piece of bread? What country abolished antisemitism? What other country devoted at least a piece of land as an autonomous region for Jews who want to live there? All this, and more, weighs heavily on the scales of history.[15]:89

 

On 2 September 1944, Bella died suddenly due to a virus infection, which was not treated due to the wartime shortage of medicine. As a result, he stopped all work for many months, and when he did resume painting his first pictures were concerned with preserving Bella's memory.[17] Wullschlager writes of the effect on Chagall: "As news poured in through 1945 of the ongoing Holocaust at Nazi concentration camps, Bella took her place in Chagall's mind with the millions of Jewish victims." He even considered the possibility that their "exile from Europe had sapped her will to live."[6]:419

With Virginia Haggard McNeil

 

After a year of living with his daughter Ida and her husband Michel Gordey, he entered into a romance with Virginia Haggard, daughter of diplomat Sir Godfrey Digby Napier Haggard and great-niece of the author Sir Henry Rider Haggard; their relationship endured seven years. They had a child together, David McNeil, born 22 June 1946.[11] Haggard recalled her "seven years of plenty" with Chagall in her book, My Life with Chagall (Robert Hale, 1986).

 

A few months after the Allies succeeded in liberating Paris from Nazi occupation, with the help of the Allied armies, Chagall published a letter in a Paris weekly, "To the Paris Artists":

 

In recent years I have felt unhappy that I couldn't be with you, my friends. My enemy forced me to take the road of exile. On that tragic road, I lost my wife, the companion of my life, the woman who was my inspiration. I want to say to my friends in France that she joins me in this greeting, she who loved France and French art so faithfully. Her last joy was the liberation of Paris... Now, when Paris is liberated, when the art of France is resurrected, the whole world too will, once and for all, be free of the satanic enemies who wanted to annihilate not just the body but also the soul—the soul, without which there is no life, no artistic creativity.[15]:101

"Those who are in Purgatory do not lack peace. They are perfectly at peace, perfectly sure of their salvation and perfectly beyond sin, even though they are themselves not perfect. Dante brings this out in the early stages of his Purgatorio, by portraying two bitter enemies in life, who sit comforting one another as they wait to make the great journey to heaven. The souls in Purgatory are in love with each other and with God. Purgatory is not a place where bad people become good people, but where good people become perfected in love. How that works is open to speculation, which is why there is a great and legitimate variety of speculation about its nature, among mystics and visionaries, as well as theologians.

 

We would do better to concentrate on the fact of prayer. This is where the doctrine has its life. We pray for the dead, and we do this, not because they need our prayers but because this is what the Holy Spirit has taught us to do. It is a gift of God, to allow us to share in his work in bringing his people to perfection. It is a special gift of hope from God, a great divine courtesy, but it is also a great responsibility on our part.

 

We need to pray for the dead, because this is a task put into our hands. It is why cemeteries should be happy places for us, as they were in the early church; places to celebrate the power of God, places to live in God. The dead, unlike stocks and shares, can only go in one direction, upwards. Either they are not changing at all, or they are improving."

 

– Fr Euan Marley, O.P. from his sermon on Torch.op.org.

 

This triptych of the Holy Souls in Purgatory being purified by the fires of divine charity, which comes from Christ Crucified, and comforted by the angels and our prayers, is in the Dominican church of St Catherine of Siena, New York City.

 

A universal principle for helping others is that we must above all else give hope that comes from God to the person going through a difficult time.

 

1. Hope is the anticipation that there are answers or solutions to our problems, that our needs will be met.

 

Psalm 39:7 What, then, can I hope for, Lord? I put my hope in you. (GNT)

 

Romans 15:13 May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit. (GNT)

 

2. Going through difficult times does not mean that God has forsaken us or that we have no hope.

 

Psalm 43:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (ESV)

 

Psalm 145:14, 18–19 The LORD sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down.… The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. (NASB)

 

Psalm 42:5–6; Jeremiah 29:11–14; Romans 5:3–5; 1 Peter 4:12–13

 

3. Despair can come when sin is part of the problem. As a sinning and captive Israel was given hope for their future, so can we have hope for forgiveness and restoration regarding our sins.

 

Jeremiah 31:16–17 Thus says the LORD: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country.” (ESV)

 

Daniel 9:9 The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him. (NIV)

 

1 John 1:9

 

4. Our only true source of hope is God himself, our rock of strength and refuge, our very present help in trouble.

 

2 Chronicles 32:7–8 “Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the one with us is greater than the one with him. With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. (NASB)

 

Psalm 62:5–8 My soul, wait in silence for God only, for my hope is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I shall not be shaken. On God my salvation and my glory rest; the rock of my strength, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. (NASB)

 

Haggai 2:4–5 But now don’t be discouraged, any of you. Do the work, for I am with you. When you came out of Egypt, I promised that I would always be with you. I am still with you, so do not be afraid. (GNT)

 

Psalm 25:5; 39:7; 71:5–6; Lamentations 3:21–24; 1 Timothy 4:10; Hebrews 12:1–2; 13:5

 

5. Men who rely on God for wisdom, strength, and resources will find him to be their secure anchor and hope.

 

Jeremiah 9:23–24 Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” (ESV)

 

Hebrews 6:18–20 By two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us. (NASB)

 

Zechariah 4:6

 

6. Walking closely with the Lord is required for blessing, hope, and success.

 

Deuteronomy 10:12–13, 20 What does the LORD your God require of you? He requires only that you fear the LORD your God, and live in a way that pleases him, and love him and serve him with all your heart and soul. And you must always obey the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good.… You must fear the LORD your God and worship him and cling to him. (NLT)

 

John 15:4–5 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (ESV)

 

Proverbs 10:28; 1 John 3:3

 

7. As believers in Jesus, we have a guaranteed hope that our future in heaven is secure.

 

Job 19:25–27 But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought! (NLT)

 

1 Peter 1:3, 13 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.… Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (ESV)

 

1 Thessalonians 5:8–9; Titus 3:5–7

 

8. For further study, see the benefits of hope in the following:

 

Isaiah 57:10; Romans 8:24–25; 12:12; Philippians 1:20; Colossians 1:4–5; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 4:13; 1 Timothy 4:10; Hebrews 7:19; 1 John 3:3

  

Biblical Narratives

 

• Job’s great statement of hope, Job 13:15

• Israelites sinned but were not without hope, Ezra 10:2

• Sons of Korah, musicians, Psalm 42

  

Practical Steps

 

• Memorize Romans 15:13. Write it on a card and keep it close at hand—in your wallet, on a nightstand or office desk, for example.

• Participate in men’s Bible study. Fellowship with other men and the discipline in the Word are crucial when hope is needed.

• Study Romans 5:1–8. Complete a word study on the word hope.

 

Keith R. Miller, Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling Men (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2014), 169–172.

Aberystwyth University is a public research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 students studying across three academic faculties and 17 departments.

 

Founded in 1872 as University College Wales, Aberystwyth, it became a founder member of the University of Wales in 1894, and changed its name to the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. In the mid-1990s, the university again changed its name to become the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. On 1 September 2007, the University of Wales ceased to be a federal university and Aberystwyth University became independent again.

 

In 2019, it became the first university to be named "University of the year for teaching quality" by The Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide for two consecutive years. It is the first university in the world to be awarded Plastic Free University status (for single-use plastic items).

 

In the middle of the 19th century, eminent Welsh people were advocating the establishment of a university in the principality. One of these, Thomas Nicholas, whose book, Middle and High Class Schools, and University Education for Wales (1863), is said to have "exerted great influence on educated Welshmen".

 

Funded through public and private subscriptions, and with five regional committees (London, Manchester, Liverpool, North and South Wales) guaranteeing funds for the first three years' running costs, the university opened in October 1872 with 26 students. Thomas Charles Edwards was the principal. In October 1875, chapels in Wales raised the next tranche of funds from over 70,000 contributors. Until 1893, when the college joined the University of Wales as a founder member, students applying to Aberystwyth sat the University of London's entrance exams. Women were admitted in 1884.

 

In 1885, a fire damaged what is now known as the Old College, Aberystwyth, and in 1897 the first 14 acres of what became the main Penglais campus were purchased. Incorporated by Royal Charter in 1893, the university installed the Prince of Wales as chancellor in 1896, the same year it awarded an honorary degree to the British prime minister, William Gladstone.

 

The university's coat of arms dates from the 1880s. The shield features two red dragons to symbolise Wales, and an open book to symbolise learning. The crest, an eagle or phoenix above a flaming tower, may signify the college's rebirth after the 1885 fire. The motto is Nid Byd, Byd Heb Wybodaeth (a world without knowledge is no world at all).

 

In the early 1900s, the university added courses that included law, applied mathematics, pure mathematics and botany. The Department for International Politics, which Aberystwyth says is the oldest such department in the world, was founded in 1919. By 1977, the university's staff included eight Fellows of the Royal Society, such as Gwendolen Rees, the first Welsh woman to be elected an FRS.

 

The Department of Sports and Exercise Science was established in 2000. Joint honours psychology degrees were introduced in September 2007, and single honours psychology in 2009.

 

The chancellor of the university is The Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, who took up the position in January 2018. The visitor of the university is an appointment made by the Privy Council, under the Royal Charter of the university. Since July 2014, the holder of this office is Mr Justice Sir Roderick Evans KC.

 

In 2011, the university appointed a new vice chancellor under whom the academic departments were restructured as larger subject-themed institutes.

 

In 2022, the university celebrated its 150th anniversar,y being established in 1872 (known at the time as The University College of Wales).

 

Aberystwyth is a university and seaside town as well as a community in Ceredigion, Wales. Located in the historic county of Cardiganshire, Aberystwyth means "the mouth of the Ystwyth". Aberystwyth University has been a major educational location in Wales since the establishment of University College Wales in 1872.

 

The town is situated on Cardigan Bay on the west coast of Wales, near the confluence of the River Ystwyth and Afon Rheidol. Following the reconstruction of the harbour, the Ystwyth skirts the town. The Rheidol passes through the town.

 

The seafront, with a pier, stretches from Constitution Hill at the north end of the Promenade to the harbour at the south. The beach is divided by the castle. The town is divided into five areas: Aberystwyth Town; Llanbadarn Fawr; Waunfawr; Llanbadarn; Trefechan; and the most populous, Penparcau.

 

In 2011 the population of the town was 13,040. This rises to nearly 19,000 for the larger conurbation of Aberystwyth and Llanbadarn Fawr.

  

Aberystwyth Bay from a 1748 survey by Lewis Morris (1701–1765)

The distance to Swansea is 55 miles (89 km); to Shrewsbury 60 miles (97 km); to Wrexham 63 miles (101 km); to Cardiff 76 miles (122 km); and to London 180 miles (290 km).

 

Aberystwyth is a university town and tourist destination, and forms a cultural link between North Wales and South Wales. Constitution Hill, scaled by the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, gives access to panoramic views and to other attractions at the summit, including a camera obscura. Scenic Mid Wales landscape within easy reach of the town includes the wilderness of the Cambrian Mountains, whose valleys contain forests and meadows which have changed little in centuries. A convenient way to access the interior is by the preserved narrow-gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway.

 

Although the town is relatively modern, there are a number of historic buildings, including the remains of the castle and the Old College of Aberystwyth University nearby. The Old College was originally built and opened in 1865 as a hotel, but after the owner's bankruptcy the shell of the building was sold to the university in 1867.

 

The new university campus overlooks Aberystwyth from Penglais Hill to the east of the town centre. The station, a terminus of the main railway, was built in 1924 in the typical style of the period, mainly in a mix of Gothic, Classical Revival, and Victorian architecture.

 

The town is the unofficial capital of Mid Wales, and several institutions have regional or national offices there. Public bodies located in the town include the National Library of Wales, which incorporates the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales, one of six British regional film archives. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales maintains and curates the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW), providing the public with information about the built heritage of Wales. Aberystwyth is also the home to the national offices of UCAC and Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society), and the site of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, the Welsh Books Council and the offices of the standard historical dictionary of Welsh, Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru. A purpose built Welsh Government office and an adjoining office of Ceredigion County Council are also located in the town.

 

At the 2001 census, the population of the town was 15,935. This reduced to 13,040 at the 2011 census. Including neighbouring Llanbadarn Fawr, the population was 16,420, and the greater Aberystwyth conurbation having a population of 18,749 in 2011

 

Aberystwyth experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification Cfb) similar to almost all of the United Kingdom. This is particularly pronounced due to its west coast location facing the Irish Sea. Air undergoes little land moderation and so temperatures closely reflect the sea temperature when winds are coming from the predominant onshore (westerly) direction. The nearest Met Office weather station is Gogerddan, 3 miles to the northeast, and at a similar elevation.

 

The absolute maximum temperature is 34.6 °C (94.3 °F), set during July 2006. This is also the July record maximum for all of Wales, suggesting that the area's low lying situation, aided by a possible föhn effect when winds are offshore can act to achieve high temperatures on occasion. Typically the warmest day will average 28.0 °C (82.4 °F) and 5.6 days will achieve a maximum of 25.1 °C (77.2 °F) or above.

 

The absolute minimum temperature is −13.5 °C (7.7 °F), set in January 2010. Typically 39.8 days will register an air frost.

 

Rainfall averages 1,112 mm (44 in) a year, with over 1mm recorded on 161 days. All averages refer to the 1981–2010 period.

 

There is evidence that during the Mesolithic Age the area of Tan-y-Bwlch at the foot of Pen Dinas (Penparcau) was used as a flint knapping floor for hunter-gatherers making weapons from flint that was deposited as the ice retreated.

 

The remains of a Celtic fortress on Pen Dinas (or more correctly 'Dinas Maelor'), a hill in Penparcau overlooking Aberystwyth, indicates that the site was inhabited before 700 BC. On a hill south of the present town, across the River Ystwyth, are the remains of a medieval ringfort believed to be the castle from which Princess Nest was abducted. This rare survival is now on private land and can only be accessed by arrangement.

 

The recorded history of Aberystwyth may be said to date from the building of a fortress in 1109 by Gilbert Fitz Richard (grandfather of Richard de Clare, known as Strongbow, the Cambro-Norman lord notable for his leading role in the Norman invasion of Ireland). Gilbert Fitz Richard was granted lands and the lordship of Cardigan by Henry I, including Cardigan Castle. The fortress built in Aberystwyth was located about a mile and a half south of today's town, on a hill over the south bank of the Ystwyth River, thus giving the settlement of Aberystwyth its name. The location is now known as Tan-Y-Castell.

 

Aberystwyth was usually under the control of the princes of Deheubarth, but its position close to the border with Gwynedd and Powys left it vulnerable to attacks from the leaders of those polities. The town was attacked by Gwenwynwyn ab Owain in 1197, an assault in which Maelgwn ap Rhys was captured. Llywelyn the Great attacked and seized the town in late 1208, building a castle there before withdrawing.

 

Edward I replaced Strongbow's castle in 1277, after its destruction by the Welsh. His castle was, however, built in a different location, at the current Castle Hill, the high point of the town. Between the years 1404 and 1408 Aberystwyth Castle was in the hands of Owain Glyndŵr but finally surrendered to Prince Harry (the future King Henry V of England). Shortly after this, the town was incorporated under the title of Ville de Lampadarn (the ancient name of the place being Llanbadarn Gaerog or the fortified Llanbadarn, to distinguish it from Llanbadarn Fawr, the village one mile (1.6 km) inland. It is thus styled in a Royal charter granted by Henry VIII but, by Elizabeth I's time, the town was invariably named Aberystwyth in all documents.

 

From 1639 to 1642, silver coins were minted at Aberystwyth Castle on behalf of the Royal Mint, using silver from local mines. £10,500 in currency was produced, equivalent to 2.5 million silver pennies.

 

In 1649, Parliamentarian troops razed the castle, although portions of three towers still exist. In 1988, an excavation within the castle area revealed a complete male skeleton, deliberately buried. Though skeletons rarely survive in Wales' acidic soil, this skeleton was probably preserved by the addition of lime from the collapsed building. Affectionately known as "Charlie" and now housed in the Ceredigion Museum in the town, he probably dates from the English Civil War period, and is likely to have died during the Parliamentarian siege. His image is featured in one of nine mosaics created to adorn the castle's walls.

 

The development of Aberystwyth's Port contributed to the town’s economic development during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Port improvements were carried out in both 1780 and 1836, with a new Customs House constructed in 1828. Rural industries and craftsmen were also an important part of life in this country town. The local trade directory for 1830 shows that there were in Aberystwyth: Twenty boot makers, eight bakers, two corn millers, eleven carpenters and joiners, one cooper, seven tailors, two dressmakers, two straw hat makers, two hat makers, three curriers, four saddlers, two tinsmiths, six maltsters, two skinners, four tanners, eight stonemasons, one brewer, four lime burners, three shipwrights, three wheelwrights, five cabinet makers, one nail maker, one rope maker and one sail maker.

 

The Cambrian Railways line from Machynlleth reached Aberystwyth in 1864, closely followed by rail links to Carmarthen, which resulted in the construction of the town's impressive station. The Cambrian line opened on Good Friday 1869, the same day that the new 292 metres (958 ft) Royal Pier (designed by Eugenius Birch) opened, attracting 7,000 visitors.

 

The railway's arrival gave rise to something of a Victorian tourist boom, with Aberystwyth becoming a significant holiday destination for working and middle class families from South Wales in particular. The town was once even billed as the "Biarritz of Wales". During this time, a number of hotels and fine townhouses were built including the Queens Hotel, later renamed Swyddfa'r Sir (County Office) when used as offices by the town council, and most recently used as the external scenes of the police station in the television show Hinterland. One of the largest of these hotels, "The Castle Hotel", was never completed as a hotel but, following bankruptcy, was sold cheaply to the Welsh National University Committee, a group of people dedicated to the creation of a Welsh University. The University College of Wales (later to become Aberystwyth University) was founded in 1872 in this building.

 

Aberystwyth was a contributory parliamentary borough until the Third Reform Act, which merged its representation into that of the county in 1885.

 

In 1895, various businessmen who had been behind the Aberystwyth New Harbour Company formed the Aberystwyth Improvement Company (AIC) to take over the works of the defunct Bourne Engineering & Electrical. In 1896, the AIC completed three projects: the new landside pavilion for the Royal Pier; built the Cambria Hotel (later the United Theological College) and formed Constitution Hill Ltd, to develop a Victorian theme park. Chief engineer George Croydon Marks designed all the AIC developments, including the United Kingdom's second longest funicular railway, which takes passengers up a 50% gradient to a park and camera obscura.

 

Aberystwyth hosted the National Eisteddfod in 1865, 1916, 1952 and 1992.

 

On the night of Friday, 14 January 1938, a storm with estimated wind speeds of up to 90 mph (140 km/h) struck the town. Most of the promenade was destroyed, along with 200 feet (60 m) of the pier. Many properties on the seafront were damaged, with every property from the King's Hall north affected; those on Victoria Terrace suffered the greatest damage. Work commenced on a protective coffer dam which continued into 1940, with total costs of construction coming to £70,000 (equivalent to £2.5 million today).

 

Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg (Welsh Language Society) held their historic first protest on Trefechan Bridge in Aberystwyth, on 2 February 1963. The first independent Welsh Evangelical Church was established in Aberystwyth (see Evangelical Movement of Wales).

 

On 1 March 2005, Aberystwyth was granted Fairtrade Town status.

 

In March 2009 mayor Sue Jones-Davies, who had played the role of Judith Iscariot in the film Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979), organised a charity screening of the film. Principal actors Terry Jones and Michael Palin also attended. There is a popular, but incorrect, urban myth that the town had banned the film (as some authorities did) when it was first released.

 

During the aftermath storms from Cyclone Dirk on Friday 3 January 2014, the town was one of the worst hit in Wales. Properties on the adjoining promenade were then evacuated for the next five days, including 250 students from the University. Ceredigion Council appealed to the Welsh Assembly Government for funds, whilst Natural Resources Wales undertook surveys and emergency preventative measures.

 

North Parade, Aberystwyth was reported to be the most expensive street in Wales in 2018, based on property prices.

 

Penglais Nature Park (Welsh: Parc Natur Penglais) is a woodland overlooking the town. The park was created in 1995 from a disused quarry and surrounding woodland that had formerly been part of the Richardes family estate. In spring a carpet of bluebells bloom, in common with the many other bluebell woods.

 

The park covers 27 acres (11 ha). It was the first Nature reserve to open in Ceredigion and is the only UNESCO Man and Biosphere urban reserve in Wales.

 

Aberystwyth's local government administration has a two-tier structure consisting of two separate councils. As local government is a devolved matter in Wales, the legislation for both Councils is a responsibility of the Senedd.

 

Aberystwyth Town Council is the first tier of local government, which is the closest to the general public; there are 19 elected town councillors from five wards. The last elections were held in 2022. The council is responsible for cycle paths, public footpaths, CCTV, public Wi-Fi, bus shelters, parks, gardens (including the castle grounds and the skateboard park) and allotments. The council is a statutory body which is consulted regarding planning decisions in the town area and makes recommendations to the planning authority, Ceredigion County Council. The Town Council is also involved in leisure, tourism, business (through providing more than half of Menter Aberystwyth's funding in grants), licence applications, wellbeing and environmental health, recycling and refuse collection.

 

A borough council existed in Aberystwyth from 1832 and the Aberystwyth School Board was established in 1870.

 

Ceredigion County Council is another statutory body incorporated by Act of Parliament. It is the second tier of local government in the area and is a unitary authority with a wide range of powers and responsibility. The Council deals with roads (except trunk roads), street lighting, some highways, social services, children and family care, schools and public libraries. Aberystwyth elects six of the 42 councillors in five separate wards (Bronglais, Central, North and Rheidol wards elect one councillor each while Penparcau ward elects two).

 

Aberystwyth has five Senedd members, one of whom (Elin Jones) was elected as a constituency MS for Ceredigion, and four who are elected on the regional list for Mid and West Wales.

 

The town is in the Ceredigion constituency for elections to the House of Commons. Since June 2017, Aberystwyth's MP has been Plaid Cymru's Ben Lake.

 

The first ever public library in Aberystwyth was opened in Compton House, Pier Street on 13 October 1874. In 1882 the library was moved to the Assembly Rooms which were leased to the council for 21 years. The lease expired in 1903 and the library returned to Pier Street, this time to the Old Banking Library at the corner with Eastgate Street, although this was short lived. A Carnegie library was built in Aberystwyth in 1905, with a grant of £3,000. Located in Corporation Street, it was designed by the architect Walter Payton of Birmingham, who was one of 48 who entered the competition to design the building. It was formally opened on 20 April 1906 by Mrs Vaughan Davies, wife of the local MP. The town library moved to Aberystwyth Town Hall, now known as Canolfan Alun R. Edwards, following the building's refurbishment in 2012.

 

The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales. Established in 1907, it is a Welsh Government sponsored body. According to Cyril Evans, the library's centenary events co-ordinator, "The library is considered to be one of the world's greatest libraries, and its international reputation is certainly something that all Welsh men and women are intensely ... proud of". Welsh is the main medium of communication within the organisation; it aims to deliver all public services in Welsh and English.

 

Aberystwyth Arts Centre is one of the largest and busiest arts centres in Wales. It encompasses a 312-seat theatre, 900-seat concert hall, 125-seat cinema, and has accompanied studio, galleries, plus public spaces which include cafes and a bar. Arad Goch is an Arts Council funded community theatre and art gallery based in the town. The premises holds a theatre, gallery, several art studios and meeting rooms, and a darkroom.

 

The town has three works by the Italian sculptor Mario Rutelli; the War Memorial on the promenade, the Tabernacle Chapel Memorial on Powell Street, and the statue of Edward VIII as Prince of Wales in the Old College. All are Grade II listed structures. Rutelli’s connection with the town came through Thomas Jenkins of Aberystwyth, who ran a shipping business. Jenkins was a frequent visitor to Italy where he admired Rutelli’s work. Jo Darke, in her work, The Monument Guide to England and Wales: A National Portrait in Bronze and Stone, describes Rutelli’s war memorial as “striking and rare” and suggests that the life-size statue of Edward VIII is the only recorded example.

 

Aberystwyth has a live music scene which has produced bands and artists such as: The Crocketts; The Hot Puppies; Murry the Hump; and The Lowland Hundred. The University Music Centre promotes a varied programme for instrumentalists, singers and listeners from the university and the wider community. The University chamber choir, The Elizabethan Madrigal Singers, have been singing in the town since 1950 and continue to hold a number of concerts throughout the year. Aberystwyth gives its name to a well known hymn tune composed by Joseph Parry.

 

Aberystwyth RFC is the local rugby union club and acts as a feeder club to professional side Scarlets. It was formed in 1947 and for the 2017/18 season played in the WRU Division One West. Aberystwyth Town F.C. is a semi-professional football club that was formed in 1884. The team currently compete in the Cymru Premier, Wales' top division. The town also has a cricket club which plays in local leagues, an athletics club (founded 1955), and boxing club in Penparcau. The town's golf course opened in 1911.

 

Ceredigion, the county in which Aberystwyth is located, is one of the four most Welsh-speaking counties in Wales and remained majority Welsh speaking until the 2011 census. Since the town's growth as a seaside resort in the Victorian era, it has been more anglicised than its hinterland and the rest of the county in general. The university has also attracted many English-speaking students from England, non-Welsh speaking parts of Wales and elsewhere. The 1891 census recorded that, of the 6635 inhabitants who completed the language section, 3482 (52.5%) were bilingual, 1751 (26.4%) were Welsh monoglots, and 1402 people (21.1%) were returned as English monoglots. Ceredigion (then named Cardiganshire) as a whole was 95.2% Welsh-speaking and 74.5% monoglot Welsh. Although the town remained majority Welsh-speaking for many more decades, English had already replaced Welsh in certain domains, such as entertainment and tourism. By 1961, only 50.0% of the town's population could speak Welsh, compared to 79.5% for Cardiganshire as a whole; by 1971, these numbers had fallen to 44.9% and 67.6% respectively. The 2001 census reported that, in the seven wards of Aberystwyth, 39% of the residents self-identified as able to speak or read or write Welsh. This is lower than Ceredigion as a whole (54%) but higher than Wales overall (19%).

 

Aberystwyth parish church is St Michael's and All Angels, located in Laura Place. The parish was a Rectoral Benefice until 2019, incorporating the Anglican churches of Holy Trinity, Santes Fair (services in Welsh) and Saint Anne's, Penparcau. The Rectoral Benefice has now been converted to a local ministry area (LMA). The church was built between 1886 and 1890, replacing an earlier church. It was designed in a Gothic Revival style and is a Grade II listed building.

 

In addition to the Anglican churches, there are many existing and former Welsh Calvinistic Methodist chapels that have these days merged into Saint David's (United Reformed) and Capel y Morfa (Welsh language services). A former Calvinistic Methodist Sunday school house, Ysgoldy Tanycae, is now the meeting place of the Elim Pentecostal church. Meanwhile there is a Wesleyan Methodist church, Saint Paul's Methodist Centre, located in Bath Street. An Independent Baptist church is located in Alfred Place. In 2021, amid some controversy, Aberystwyth's Catholic church, Saint Winefride's, was closed and the congregation relocated to a new-build church located in Penparcau.

 

There are a number of other smaller congregations, and many former churches that have now been converted to alternative use, such as the Academy bar.

 

Aberystwyth has two comprehensive schools serving the town and a wide rural area: Ysgol Gyfun Gymunedol Penweddig and Ysgol Penglais School. Ysgol Gyfun Gymunedol Penweddig uses Welsh as the primary language of tuition; Ysgol Penglais School teaches in English and in Welsh as a subject.

 

There are currently three primary schools within the town limits, which are: Plascrug, Saint Padarns (Roman Catholic) and Ysgol Gymraeg. Ysgol Gymraeg was the first designated Welsh medium school in Wales, originally established as a private school in 1939 by Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards as Ysgol Gymraeg yr Urdd.

 

Aberystwyth is home to Aberystwyth University (Welsh: Prifysgol Aberystwyth) whose predecessor, University College Wales, was founded in 1872 and renamed the 'University of Wales, Aberystwyth' in the mid-1990s. Prior to the college's establishment, Wales had very limited academic-degree capability through St David's College, Lampeter (founded in 1822, now the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David).

 

As well as having two cinemas and a golf course, the town's attractions include:

The Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, a funicular railway

A Victorian camera obscura at the top of Constitution Hill.

The Vale of Rheidol steam railway (Aberystwyth to Devil's Bridge)

Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

The Parc Penglais nature reserve

The Ystwyth Trail cycle path

National Library of Wales

Park Avenue. Football stadium home to Aberystwyth Town F.C.

The all organic dairy unit of Rachel's Organic is based in Glan yr Afon, and is the largest private sector employer in Aberystwyth.

 

The Cambrian News newspaper came to Aberystwyth from Bala in 1870, after it was purchased by Sir John Gibson. Printed in Oswestry, in May 1880 the paper integrated operations in a former Malthouse in Mill Street. Owned by the Read family from 1926, in 1993 printing was contracted out, enabling the move of editorial staff to the current open-plan offices on Llanbadarn Fawr Science Park. On the death of Henry Read, the paper was purchased in 1999 by Sir Ray Tindle, whose company owns more than 200 weekly newspapers in Britain. Now printed in tabloid format, Cambrian News is the second-largest weekly-print circulation newspaper in Wales, with 24,000 copies in six regional editorial versions, read by 60,000 weekly readers. The circulation area of mid, west and north Wales covers 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2).

 

Since the TV series Hinterland has been filmed in and around Aberystwyth, the area is being promoted as an opportunity for tourists to visit filming locations; many are well publicised.

 

Aberystwyth railway station is situated in the town centre and is the terminus of the scenic Cambrian Line. Transport for Wales Rail operate a mostly hourly service (with some two-hour intervals) to Shrewsbury via Machynlleth and Mid Wales, with nearly all trains continuing to Birmingham International. Connecting services from Dovey Junction provide a link to Gwynedd's west coast as far as Pwllheli, along the Cambrian Coast Line. There is no longer a southbound connection: the Carmarthen–Aberystwyth line was closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts.

 

Aberystwyth station is also the terminus of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, a steam-operated narrow gauge heritage railway. Constructed between 1901 and 1902, it was intended to ship mineral cargo, primarily lead, from Devil's Bridge down to Aberystwyth for trans-shipment. By the time it was finished, lead mining was in a deep downturn and—thanks to the Aberystwyth Improvement Company—the railway came to rely largely on the tourist industry, opening for passengers in December 1902. It still remains open for the summer season, with a journey of 12 miles (19 km).

 

In 1896, the Aberystwyth Improvement Company formed Constitution Hill Ltd which, under the direction of chief engineer George Croydon Marks, developed the United Kingdom's second longest funicular railway, the Aberystwyth Cliff Railway, which takes passengers up a 50% gradient.

 

A TrawsCymru T1 service on the A4120 in Aberystwyth

Aberystwyth is a hub for the TrawsCymru bus network, with four routes serving the town:

 

T1 - hourly service to Carmarthen (connects with T1S to Swansea, Monday-Saturday) via Aberaeron and Lampeter - with one service a day (Monday-Saturday) extended to Cardiff

T1C - daily express coach service to Cardiff, via Aberaeron, Carmarthen (connects with T1S to Swansea, Monday-Saturday), Swansea (Sunday & Bank Holidays only), Port Talbot Parkway and Bridgend

T2 - every 1–2 hours to Bangor via Machynlleth, Dolgellau (connects with T3 to Barmouth and Wrexham), Porthmadog and Caernarfon

T5 - hourly service to Haverfordwest via Aberaeron, New Quay, Cardigan and Fishguard

(TrawsCymru services run less-frequently on Sundays.)

 

There is a daily National Express coach, service 409 to London via Birmingham, along with local bus services within the town and into the surrounding area.

 

The A44 and A487 meet with much traffic between North Wales and South West Wales passing through the town. The A4120 links the A44 and A487 between Llanbadarn Fawr and Penparcau, allowing through traffic to bypass the town centre.

 

The B4574 mountain road linking the town to Rhayader is described by the AA as one of the ten most scenic drives in the world.

 

The port of Aberystwyth, although it is small and relatively inconsequential today, used to be an important Atlantic Ocean entryway. It was used to ship locally, to Ireland and as a transatlantic departure point. Commercially, the once important Cardiganshire lead mines exported from this location.

 

The importance of maritime trade in the 19th century is reflected in the fact that a lifeboat has been based at Aberystwyth since 1843, when a 27 ft (8.2 m) boat powered by six oars was funded by public subscription and placed under the control of the harbourmaster. The RNLI took over the service in 1861 and established Aberystwyth Lifeboat Station which celebrated 150 years in 2011. The station uses the Atlantic 85-class inshore lifeboat Spirit of Friendship.

 

The Owl Service by Alan Garner, a well-known and -loved multi-award-winning classic published 1967, is set in north Wales and has two of its core characters —Gwyn and his mam (mother) Nancy— recently arrived from Aberystwyth for 3 weeks' work, with Nancy repeatedly threatening to return there immediately. They and the Welsh locals refer to it as "Aber"; the English characters use its full name.

Aberystwyth (albeit an alternative universe version) is the setting for the cult Louie Knight series by Malcolm Pryce, which transfers Chandleresque "noir" stories and dialogue to this small seaside town. This alternative reality features many landmarks of Aberystwyth, such as the University and the National Library of Wales, but the social situation is radically altered to more closely resemble the pulp/noir stereotypical "Dirty Town" that the narrative plays off. Most of the humour in the books is derived from the almost seamless juxtaposition of the real Aberystwyth and the fictional, noir Aberystwyth. Various aspects of Welsh culture are reflections of what you might expect to see in reality, but with a pulp twist – for example, prostitutes wear Welsh stovepipe hats.

Stripping Penguins Bare, the book 2 of Michael Carson's Benson Trilogy of comic novels, is set in the town and university in the 1960s.

The local writer Niall Griffiths has set many of his novels here and reflects local slang, settings, and even individuals. Grits and Sheepshagger are set wholly in Aberystwyth, which also features prominently in his other novels such as Kelly and Victor and Stump. He portrays a more gritty side of Aberystwyth.

‘Cofiwch Aberystwyth’ by science fiction writer Val Nolan, is a near-future post-apocalyptic novelette about three young urban explorers visiting Aberystwyth years after a nuclear disaster on the west coast of Wales. It was originally published in Interzone (magazine) and later anthologised in Best of British Science Fiction 2020. The title references the Cofiwch Dryweryn graffiti outside nearby Llanrhystyd, Ceredigion.

 

Television

Y Gwyll (2013–2016), a Welsh-language television programme, and the English-language version Hinterland , broadcast on S4C, BBC One Wales, BBC Four, and syndicated around the world, is set in Aberystwyth. It is filmed in and around the town, often in rural locations.

 

Film

Y Llyfrgell (2017) is an award-winning Welsh language film set in and around the National Library, which was filmed on location in 2016. The 2009 book on which it was based was released in English in 2022.

 

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the Town of Aberystwyth.

Individuals

1912 – Sir John Williams

1912 – David Davies

1912 – Stuart Rendel

1922 – David Lloyd George

1923 – Lewis Pugh Evans

1923 – Matthew Vaughan-Davies

1923 – Sir Herbert Lewis

1928 – Stanley Baldwin

1936 – Sir David Charles Roberts

1936 – Ernest Vaughan

1951 – Winston Churchill

1956 – Sir David James

2011 – Fritz Pratschke

2015 – Jean Guezennec

 

Military Units

1955 – The Welsh Guards

 

Twinning

Arklow in Wicklow, Republic of Ireland Ireland

Kronberg im Taunus in Hesse Hesse, Germany Germany

Saint-Brieuc in Brittany Brittany, France France

Esquel in Patagonia, Argentina Argentina

We Have Seen And Do Testify

 

"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."

1 John 4:14

 

It is a sweet thought that Jesus Christ did not come forth without his Father’s permission, authority, consent, and assistance. He was sent of the Father, that he might be the Saviour of men. We are too apt to forget that, while there are distinctions as to the persons in the Trinity, but there are no distinctions of honour. We too frequently ascribe the honour of our salvation, or at least the depths of its benevolence, more to Jesus Christ than we do the Father. This is a very great mistake. What if Jesus came? Did not his Father send him? If he spoke wondrously, did not his Father pour grace into his lips, that he might be an able minister of the new covenant? He who knows the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit as he should know them, never sets one before another in his love; he sees them at Bethlehem, at Gethsemane, and on Calvary, all equally engaged in the work of salvation. O Christian, have we put our confidence in the Man Christ Jesus? Have we placed our reliance solely on him? And are we united with him? Then believe that we are united unto the God of heaven. Since to the Man Christ Jesus we are brother, and hold closed fellowship, we are linked thereby with God the Eternal, and “the Ancient of days” [Dan.7:9] is our Father and our friend. Did we ever consider the depth of love in the heart of Jehovah, when God the Father equipped his Son for the great enterprise of mercy? If not, be this our day’s meditation. The Father sent him! Contemplate that subject. Think how Jesus works what the Father wills. In the wounds of the dying Saviour see the love of the great I AM [Exo.3:14]. Let every thought of Jesus be also connected with the Eternal, ever-blessed God, for “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he has put him to grief [Is.53:10]” Hallelujah, God bless

“The successful adept must be endowed with a knowledge of the material of the Great Work; also with faith, silence, purity of heart, and prayerfulness. After passing through the gate surmounted with the hieroglyph of philosophic mercury he traverses the seven angles of the citadel, representing the chief operations of the Great Work - calcination, dissolution, purification, introduction into the sealed Vase of Hermes, transference of the Vase to the Athanor [furnace], coagulation, putrefaction, ceration, multiplication and projection. And even upon reaching the Petra Philosophalis, he finds it is held in custody by a formidable dragon.”

 

Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae, Heinrich Khunrath

Saturn is related to Mercury in alchemical text, and is given the same ambiguous sexuality, or androgyny, and named it ‘Mercurius senex’.In Tiphareth, the geometric symbol is the interlaced triangles of water and fire, or the Star of David. When expanded to connect the planetary sepheroth of the Tree (with Saturn being attributed to Daath), the Triangle of Water connects the spheres of Mars, Jupiter, and Luna. The Triangle of Fire connects Saturn, Venus, and Mercury.

Just as Ouroboros is cosmic energy (the serpent) limiting itself (Saturn), Venus is the creative cosmic force multiplying itself in life (its vegetative nature) as a prism splits the light of the sun. Mercury, like Saturn in many respects, is androgynous, and controls the fire of creation, directing it in the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone. Mercury holds the Caduceus, or winged staff with two serpents intertwined around it. The Wings represent sublimation, the serpents the basic forces of creation. There crossing over is the psychic centers, often given as seven in number, here representing the colors in the spectrum, plus white (Venus). Central to the diagram is Sol, which is the cosmic creative forces which unify, enliven, and harmonize creation, and which we can hope to contact. It is central, and directs and controls all of the other planets, psychic centers, or aspects of Cosmic energy.By contacting the fire of the Sun, we can open the fire of the other psychic centers (via Venus), and more easily direct the restrictive and enlightening energy of Saturn, through the powers of the Mind, or Mercury.To understand these multi-faceted aspects of the planets, particularly Venus and Mercury, it is important to have done the Pathworkings up to Tiphareth. While this is not required to perform the techniques later in this monograph, it is a help for an understanding of the theoretical part.However, we can begin to understand the relationship of the Spheres to each other by undertaking a series of meditations based on the following idea:Venus is the regenerating, sensual, active life force in its vegetative and unconscious manner. It responds to heat, light, and emotion. On the Path of the Decent, Venus splits the singular rays of the Sun into the many facets of the color spectrum, and as such, can lead us to a better understanding of the relationship between multiplicity and unity, the psychic centers and planets, and their unique natures. On the Path of Ascent, Venus re-unites the divergent energies, both planetary and personal (psychic centers) and harmonizes it into a singular force, although still multi-colored, until it returns to the Sun as pure light.

“This Stone rises in growing, greening things. Wherefore when the Green is reduced to its former nature, whereby things sprout and come forth in due time, it must be decocted and putrefied in the way of our secret art.” Splendor solis, Trismosin.The Stone is made through the greening of nature (Netzach) and it returning to its source (Tipahreth) by putrefaction (Death card of the path connecting them).Mercury gives form and meaning to the diverse energies made by the splitting actions of Venus, and re-unites them as fundamental forces, symbolized by the Caduceus. Mercury is Psychopomp, or Guide of the Soul, and directs the energies that Venus represents. Since both Venus and Mercury sit at the base of the Pillars of kabbalah, they access the material, astral, and mental realms, and can influence all three to some degree. On the Descent, Mercury creates form and structure, for the body, the mind, or the soul, and on the ascent, Mercury helps free us from the limitations of form, without forgetting its lessons.The serpent is primordial force or energy, fire and water being the principle two of creation, with air and earth following them. Because it shed it’s skin, it is seen as a symbol of regeneration and renewal. It is also dangerous, deadly, can be found often in ‘guardian’ roles near springs or water as well as deserts. When controlled or mastered, it is seen as mastering a powerful and deadly, yet regenerating force, basic to creation, or possibly from which creation came.

The Secret Fire is directly linked to the sexual, (i.e. principle and most basic creative forces) in humanity. Here, the relationship between ‘bliss’ ‘ecstasy’ and the erotic impulse can be clearly seen and experienced. The development of a host of ‘sexual yogas’ and ‘sex magic(k)’ practices bear this out to some degree. However, it is the sexual desire in humanity that acts as its basic drive and evolutionary force. It also suggests that the ability and need for mystical experience is biologically rooted. Only by ignoring the most basic of pleasures, sex, can we ignore the drive to ecstatic union on some level. The ‘little death’ or petite morte, is a forerunner of the ‘big death’ as we let go and experience divine oblivion.Sexual power, linked to our innate drive for mystical experiences, is also linked to human evolution, and some kind of predetermined point or state to which we are being directed.This is a significant point, in that almost all of modern Western societies psychological illnesses are focused around sexual repression and obsession.If the Secret Fire flows freely, or with greater strength than before, without the proper purification of the Vital Energy of the physical body, it is possible that it will result in what appears to be extreme physical, but more likely psychological, illness in the form of schizophrenia and psychosis, instead of psychic gifts, genius, and either transpersonal states, or simply altered states of consciousness.Wilhelm Reich, the father of Orgon Therapy states that the basis for all mental-emotional disturbances are anchored in the physical body, and that these anchors can be released through breathing techniques, somewhat similar to pranayamana. Since the body is the “Salt” of alchemy, and partially composed of accessible unconscious elements through its “Watery Element” all of our emotional and physical experiences become indelibly marked, associated, or stored in our physical body. If these blocks, or energy concentrations of emotional and physical trauma (composed of Vital Energy) are not removed before the Secret Fire begins to flow more intensely, the so-called negative side effects of ‘Kundalini phenomena’ will appear.

Abuse of drugs, alcohol, and sexual extremes only worsen the condition in that they inadvertently release the Secret Fire by weakening the physical body and its link to the astral, thereby damaging the etheric substructure, and create energy blocks in the end rather than diminish them, when the mind and body attempt to make repairs.A nervous system damaged by substance abuse makes a tricky vehicle for the clear, clean, and powerful expression of the Secret Fire. It is through our nervous system (under the domain of Yesod-Luna) that we engage both the physical world, as well as out interior world. It links the body (Malkooth) with the Mind-Intellect (Hod) as well as instinctual, creative, and sensual urges (Netzach). If it is damaged, our ability to relate fully, creatively, and productively to these psyhco-physical-spiritual parts of our self becomes endangered. If it is damaged, then our most direct and important link to our Holy Guardian Angel, and means of releasing the Secret Fire safely (via Tiphareth) is threatened in this incarnation.

“Listen, then while I make known the Grand Arcanum of this wonder-working Stone, which at the same time is not a stone, which exists in every man, and may be found in its own place at all times…. It is called a stone, not because it is like a stone, but only because by virtue of its fixed nature, it resists the action of fire as successfully as any stone….If we say that its nature is spiritual, it would be no more than the truth; if we describe it as corporeal, the expression would be equally correct; for it is subtle, penetrative, glorified, spiritual gold. It is the noblest of all created things…it is a spirit or quintessence.”

hermetic.com/stavish/essays/secret-fire.html

 

The American artist Mark Dion invests Fine Arts in Paris which he is invited in 2016. It offers a labyrinthine exhibition consisting of works from the heritage collection of fine arts, contemporary works and his own productions. The theme of the supernatural, they open to a reinterpretation of the collections and the historic site of Fine Arts.Extending the exhibition, two exceptional nocturnal journey in the Fine Arts in Paris will be offered during the night of the opening (Tuesday May 17) and as part of the Museum Night (Saturday 21 May).Since the 1990s, Mark Dion speaks regularly at the heart of cultural and scientific institutions such as museums and natural history museums which it involves typologies and scenic codes. In his speech to the Fine Arts, he will hold a series of works chosen for their report more or less allegorical in the supernatural.Extranatural, large immersive installation, will engage older pieces (drawings, prints, photographs, sculptures ...) and contemporary works, some produced by students and graduates of Fine Arts in Paris, which will result in an original narrative form close of the investigation.Chosen for their enigmatic power, and the power of suggestion, not reducible to a genus, the works assembled by Mark Dion is an opportunity to probe the report to the strange and the supernatural, which passes through art and creation: magic and alchemy, hybrid, and grotesque monsters, witches and sabbaths, unusual objects, morphological elements ...The issue of representation, that of anthropological works and their resonance, form the issues of the work of Mark Dion, whose scenography thwarts the traditional codes, sometimes diverting objects from their original meaning and function.The central device, the Palace of Fine Arts, each room corresponds to one of the four elements (earth, water, air, fire), will mingle including Dürer and Goya, and Kawanabe Goltzius and contemporary works by Jimmie Durham , Extra Lucid, Matt Mullican, morgane tschiember ...Both nocturnal journey to the heart of Beaux-Arts in Paris will allow visitors to discover surprising places, some of which opened for the first time to the public. From the room Melpomene, the course will provide access to lounges and hotel garden Chimay, library, collections, to the cellars of the Palace of studies.Extranatural result of a collaborative process of reflection and research, conducted in close collaboration with the curators of collections of Fine Arts. Particularly significant in the eyes of the artist, the historical continuity of the collection, closely linked to his vocation of transmitting artistic practices, echoes his visual approach and the fact archaeologist museum. The choice of institution and venues that will host this specific work, then makes sense.The works collected by Mark Dion invite the viewer to renew his experience of curiosity through 500 years of history.

www.beauxartsparis.com/fr/expositions/expositions-en-cours

What is the significance of the right hand of God?

In ancient times, a person with high or highest rank stood to the king's right side. Even today, a person may be called someone's "right hand man" or "wingman" when he or she serves as the closest person to another leader. An example of this can be found in Genesis 48:13-14 where Jacob blessed the child who would receive a greater blessing with his right hand. The right hand of God likewise relates to this concept of someone being right next to God, acknowledging both authority and closeness to Him.While God the Father does not consist of a physical body like humans do, the right hand of God is often used figuratively in Scripture. In the Old Testament, the phrase is used to refer to the coming Messiah. For example, Psalm 110:1 predicts, "The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool'" (also quoted in Matthew 22:44). Psalm 118:16 adds, "the right hand of the LORD exalts, the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!" In the New Testament, we find additional expressions of this phrase in reference to Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:20-21 notes, "…that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come." Romans 8:34 teaches, "Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us."In fact, many times the New Testament writers use "the right hand of God" to express where Jesus is now. Mark 16:19 shares, "So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God." Acts 2:33 shares a portion of Peter's sermon on Pentecost that includes, "Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." The first martyr Stephen was said to have looked into the sky and saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:55). Colossians 3:1 also notes that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God.Hebrews 10:12-13 describes this right hand of God as a place of honor and exaltation for Jesus, sharing, "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet." This location gives Him reign over all powers: "Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him" (1 Peter 3:21-22).The right hand of God, therefore, is a reference to both a place of proximity to God the Father and a position of power above all other powers. Jesus the Messiah exists at this right hand of God today, perfectly reigning with God the Father and God the Spirit in community and power.

www.compellingtruth.org/right-hand-of-God.html

The term at the right hand of God points to his exalted position he now is active on. There is numerous things that need to be considered to understand this phrase. The phrase right hand is a metaphor, God exercises his authority by his right hand.

 

Right after Peter writes of the resurrection he says 1 Pt.3:22 Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having made subject to him". If he is God the Father then they are already subjected to him, If he is only a man, then the ruling of the universe is in a humans hands. So it is as in Mt.28:18 all authority was given to him in both heaven and earth. This is something he did not have as he came to earth in a state of humility Phil.2:5-8.

christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/3237/what-is-so-...

AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER

To sit at ones right hand means a place of authority, it was a place of honor it meant dignity and rulership. Throughout the O.T there is used what are called anthropomorphism to describe God in some function or characteristic. this is figurative language describing a certain characteristic of God it is describing his divine actions from a human view point. For example there are the scriptures such as the eyes of the Lord go to and through upon the earth. There are mention of his ears, feet, mouth, back, fingers, arms, and hands. None of these should be taken in the solid literal sense that God has form as a human creature, these are meant to communicate something of his being of service. Example God is called a shield, a buckler, a high tower, a vine, a door, a hen, the Lion of the tribe of Judah his eyes run to and fro upon the earth. Men are called sheep, lambs, salt, branches, we seek his face (do we really look for his face literally) we are to keep our eyes on Jesus (can we really see him). Their are examples of his arm which was a symbol of his power. the arm was used as the agency of strength, when the Bible refers the arm of the Lord it is consistently about the son, as God reaches into the Earth to do his work. Ex.6:6 the Lord redeemed Israel "with an outstretched arm." Isa.53:1 " to who has the arm of the Lord been revealed." Isa.63:5 "therefore my own arm brought salvation for me. Also in like manner his hand is used to most often symbolize an activity of service. Isa.48:13 'speaks of his hand laying the foundation of the Earth, and my right hand spanned the heavens..." Isa.62:8 " the Lord has sworn by his right hand, and by his arm of strength." Isa. 59:1" the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save." We also have numerous scriptures combining both the arm and hand. Duet. 26:8 " so the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm." ( also Duet.5:15, 7:19, 11:2; Ps.44:3; Jer. 32:21; Ez. 20:33) We need to distinguish when anthropormorphic or symbolic terms are used and when they are not. The term at the right hand of God points to his exalted position he now is active on. There is numerous things that need to be considered to understand this phrase. The phrase right hand is a metaphor, God exercises his authority by his right hand. Right after Peter writes of the resurrection he says 1 Pt.3:22 Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having made subject to him". If he is God the Father then they are already subjected to him, If he is only a man, then the ruling of the universe is in a humans hands. So it is as in Mt.28:18 all authority was given to him in both heaven and earth. This is something he did not have as he came to earth in a state of humility Phil.2:5-8. The term to lift up in Greek is epeirthei which means to lift up, it is in the passive state showing us that the Son was taken to heaven by God the Father. He was received up to him and sat down next to him continuing to function in his high priestly office. Jesus returned to Father sitting down showing his work is done. Jn.14:28, 16:16,17, 20:17. Their is now a man at the right hand of God the Father, who is God the Son. Acts 2:32-35, Heb.10:12, Eph. 1:20, 1 Pt. 3:22. He is now functioning in his high priestly ministry Rom.8:34; Heb. 4:14-16, 7:24-25. 1 Tim.2:5. Because of his exaltation and new position he is able to send the Holy Spirit Acts 2:33, Jn. 7:39, and give spiritual gifts to the Church Eph. 4:7-11. Ps. 80:17 " Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, upon the Son of man whom you made strong for yourself." The Son of man was a messianic term for the messiah, coming in human flesh. While the phrase right hand means prominence some argue that there is only one person on the throne. Yet the scripture reads the right hand of God. Eph. 3:11 Christ is sitting at the right hand of God." The question that arises is God a person? Yes, and we find that Christ Jesus is sitting at the Fathers right hand.The father is a person (not human of course)The Son is also a person as both God and man. . However we know from other scriptures the Son was sent by the Father from heaven and is later received back to his former place by the Father. Ps.110:1 "The Lord said to my Lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool." In Heb. 1:13 we find it is the Father who says to the Son " to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool." Notice I will make your enemies, whose enemies, God's enemies. The question that arises is God a person? Yes, and we find that Christ Jesus is sitting at the Fathers right hand. Since there is only one at a time which one of these is not a person? The Father is designating a different place of position to the son. Bernard and others insists "this passage describes the dual nature of Christ, with the spirit of God (the Lord) speaking prophetically to the human manifestation of Christ (the Lord)." (p.107). the Lord is speaking to himself as the Lord not only the man. Notice he says your enemies, not my enemies. Are they only the enemy of his humanity or of his whole person? Bernard says we should note the word until. Have his enemies been made his footstool? No this event has not happen, this will occur at the 2nd coming. So he's still at the right hand he didn't change into the Holy spirit. In Eph.1:20 " according to his mighty power which he ( the Father) worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places." So we find that there are two persons involved here. the one who raised Jesus and sat him next to him. God is a person not an it, nor just a title he is the Lord Jesus next to the Father, not just the humanity. Heb 1:3 says he sat down at the right hand of majesty, Heb. 8:1 the right hand of the throne of majesty."Heb.1:8 The Father speaking-" But to the Son he says "Your throne, O God is forever and ever... God, even thy God, hath anointed you with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Here is God the Father saying to the Son he is God and his throne is eternal. According to the Oneness view the Son is only his humanity. Bernard says "the first portion of the above passage clearly refers to the deity in the Son, while the second portion refers to the humanity of the Son." Again he attributes this to prophecy of the future incarnation of God in the flesh. (p.121) The term at the right hand of God points to his exalted position he now is active in. The phrase right hand is a figurative expression of a literal event. God exercises his authority by his right hand. Acts 5:31 Him (Christ) God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and savior. Only God is the savior. Rev.4:2 John sees the same scene that Stephen did in Acts 7, a throne set in heaven and one who sat on the throne ( God ). Rev.5:6-7 Stood a lamb as though it had been slain...vs.7 and he came to take the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat upon the throne." The lamb is Identified as Jesus and the one who sits on the throne is the Father. We then see the angels and the creatures and the elders worship both the lamb and the Father. vs.13 " Blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits upon the throne and to the lamb, forever and ever." According to Oneness the lamb who is only the man is being worshipped in heaven, now we have idolatry going on in heaven! Certainly Jesus is still the God/man and the father is distinct from him as he is sitting and Jesus is not. Rev3:21" to him who overcomes I will grant to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." Whether the thrones are literal is inconsequential right now to what we want to distinguish. Here we have a analogy of us sitting down on his throne, just as he did on his Fathers throne. Clearly two individuals are portrayed. In Hebrews the father says to the Son 1:8 your throne is forever, O God. He goes on and says to the Son "you Lord in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands,"The father calls the Son God, he does not call him Father. Neither does Jesus call the Father Jesus.Right hand of God Rom. 8:34, Col.3:1, Eph. 3:20 Heb. 10;12, 12:2,1 Pt. 3:21.Right hand of power Mt. 26:64 Mk.14:62,The Lord said to my Lord. Mt.22:43-45, Mk.12:35-37, Lk.20:41-44

www.letusreason.org/onenes10.htm

Mount Buzhou (不周山), a pillar holding up the sky. The pillar collapsed and caused the sky to tilt towards the northwest and the earth to shift to the southeast. This caused great floods and suffering to the people....

The characters 伏羲 Fu Xi lit. mean “lie prostrate” & “sacrifice”. In 女媧 Nü Wa, Nü 女literally means ‘female’, whereas ‘Wa’ 媧 has no meaning. Contrary to Shen Nong and Huang Di, Fu Xi and Nü Wa are a rather obscure and distant couple in the misty fog of Chinese antiquity, and only very little is known about them.Fu Xi and Nü Wa pictured with dragon tails intertwined. (Picture by Hughes Songe)..Every school-child in China, Taiwan, and other Chinese places, learns already early on about their original Chinese patriarchs and their histories. But the most ancient Chinese history has become quite embellished over 4 1/2 thousand years and changed into mythology. As a result, the 21st Century Chinese are quite confused about their earliest primo-genitors, and if it weren’t for a very interesting discovery that this article reveals, their earliest patriarchs would have stayed obscure until the end of time.The earliest records speak of “Sān Huáng Wǔ Dì”, meaning the “Three August Ones, Sovereigns or Kings” and the “Five Emperors.” These 3+5= 8 god-kings or demi-gods purportedly used their magical powers to improve the lives of their people. Because of their lofty virtue, they lived to a great age and ruled over a period of great peace.The three Sovereigns are generally denoted as Fu Xi, Nü Wa, and Shen Nong Shi, but in other literary sources Nü Wa is often replaced by Huang Di, one of the five Emperors. Actually, depending on the source, there are six to seven known variations of who classifies as the “Three Sovereigns & the Five Emperors”. Many of these sources were written long after the actual events, during much later dynasties. Hence the distortion.These Three + Five = Eight Chinese primo-patriarchs, concur with a global occurrence of eight Flood survivors in ancient legends.

India: Manu and his 7 ‘Rishis’ = 8. (picture above)

S-India: Satyavratha (Noah) + 3 sons Sharma, Charma, Yapheti +their 4 wives = 8.

Egypt: The ‘Ogdoad‘ [octo=8], Nun {Noah} Heh, Kuk, & (h)Amun + 3 wives = 8.

Sumeria: Uan or Oannes and 7 ‘Apkallu’ (wise men) = 8. OR the 4 post-diluvian Apkalluh with 4 wives would also make 8.

Hebrews: Noah, Shem, Ham, Yapheth + their 4 wives= 8.

Others: Also 8, as we’ll show about the Miao Zu people.The ‘Ogdoad’ also puts to rest the mistaken idea that the Egyptians did not have a Flood story! See how Nun upholds the boat with 7 survivors.In yet another version of the more than 700 global flood stories, the Chinese legend tells how the world was swept by a Great Flood, and only Fu Xi and his sister NüWa survived. They then retired to Kunlun Mountain where they prayed for a sign from the Emperor of Heaven — God — or as he is called in Chinese Shang Di.The Divine Being approved their union and the siblings set about to procreate the human race all over again. It was mythically told of them that in order to speed up the natural procreation of humans, Fu Xi and Nüwa found an additional way by using clay to create human figures, and with divine power entrusted to them, they made these figures come alive. The Han period book Fengsu tongyi 風俗通義 says that in the beginning, just when Heaven and Earth had separated, Nü Wa formed humans out of mud, giving birth to the human race.The new father of humanity Fu Xi then came to rule over his descendants, although reports of his long reign vary between sources. He is supposed to have lived mid 29th century BC, or 2.900 BC, which is very close to the timing of the Biblical flood of about 2.500 BC. Nü Wa after surviving the great flood, “fixed the broken sky/heaven (Tian) with either five or seven colored stones.” “女媧補天 = Nü Wa Bu Tian!”Now the three earliest Chinese historians mentioned Nü Wa. The fourth, the noted Chinese historian Si Ma Qian (in the Shiji, Chapter Benji or prologue) clearly identifies Nüwa as a man with the last name of Feng.“Herbert James Allen erroneously translated Tang dynasty historian Sima Zhen’s interpolated prologue to the Han dynasty Sima Qian’s Shiji. In one of his more serious flaws, Nüwa was described as male even though the Nü (女) in the name means female and the wa (媧) also contains the female radical. ]”Why does obfuscating W.P. dislike Allen’ s translation? Read on and get the full picture why!Some scholars consider Nüwa a tribal leader (or emperor); others consider the name Nüwa a title. Only after the fourth (Si Ma Qian) Nü Wah was suddenly cast into a woman’s role, and became known as Fu Xi’s wife! Over time these histories grew into even more bizarre myths, as the two of them are still proudly reported by Chinese people today, as being half dragons! Their early depictions as a couple shows both of them with intertwined reptilian tails. (see picture at the top) The legend goes as follows:The earliest literary role seems to be the upkeep and maintenance of the Wall of Heaven*, whose collapse would obliterate everything. [Note the association with Flood traditions.] There was a quarrel between two of the more powerful gods, and they decided to settle it with a fight. When the water god Gong Gong saw that he was losing, he smashed his head against Mount Buzhou (不周山), a pillar holding up the sky. The pillar collapsed and caused the sky to tilt towards the northwest and the earth to shift to the southeast. This caused great floods and suffering to the people. Nüwa cut off the legs of a giant tortoise and used them to supplant the fallen pillar, alleviating the situation and sealing the broken sky using stones of seven different colours, but she was unable to fully correct the tilted sky. This explains the phenomenon that sun, moon, and stars move towards the northwest, and that rivers in China flow southeast into the Pacific Ocean. (this account is similar to the Huainanzi account; it was added as The Upkeep and Maintenance of Heaven).Other versions of the story describe Nüwa going up to heaven and filling the gap with her body (half human half serpent) and thus stopping the flood. According to this legend some of the minorities in South-Western China hail Nüwa as their goddess and some festivals such as the ‘Water-Splashing Festival’ are in part a tribute to her sacrifices.Other versions of the story describe Nüwa going up to heaven and filling the gap with her body (half human half serpent) and thus stopping the flood. According to this legend some of the minorities in South-Western China hail Nüwa as their goddess and some festivals such as the ‘Water-Splashing Festival’ are in part a tribute to her sacrifices.As the ancient Chinese also originated from Sumeria, they were most likely familiar with the early Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh adopting its symbolisms.Seeing the similarity between dragontail Nüwa and fishtail Vishnu (next picture) also holding instruments in their hands, there is evidence that perhaps also the early Xia in proximity to the sea, as the Jomon had naval contacts not just with America where the Chinese left 3000 yr. Old stone sea anchors, and the Jomon with Ecuador, seeing the Jomon similarity with Valdivan pottery (Betty Meggers Smithsonian!), but also with seafaring ancient Indians or Dravidians and their versions of the ubiquitous 700 ethnic Flood legends, where Noah was called MaNu (plus his 7 Rishis make 8), or in South India Satyavratha and his three sons Charma, Sharma and Phra Yapeti! (As Biblical Noah, Ham, Shem, Japheth) plus 4 wives also make 8!).Seeing that Ham named the “Land of Cham” in Vietnam and Chambodia and other places in between like India Cambay, after himself, perhaps Ham was one of the very “Oannes sailors of the sea wizards” who personally came as far as the Yellow Sea in his astronomical surveys to map the stars and measure the new post-Flood Earth! Because whether it is politically correct with historical (qu)academia or not, it is a fact that the ancients DID travel the entire earth and its oceans, seeing the ubiquitous spread of pyramids (25 in China!) and Bronze Age megaliths in almost every part of the world!Like Nüwa the Indian god Vishnu who guided Manu also sports a fishtail. Manu was instructed by the god Vishnu who came from the ocean as a fish with a fish tail, (Fish Nu!) to save himself from an impending global deluge! We find a similar symbolism in the early Sumerian demi-god Oannes, who emerged from the sea half fish/half man and taught humans civilisation and culture! Man obviously likes to embellish history!

NOW WHO COULD ‘FU XI’ BE?If we look at the meaning of the characters Fu and Xi, as its sound does not coincide at all with any of the other historical records, unless it is a bastardisation of Vishnu?, we get the following meanings: “Fu” means “lying prostrate” and “Xi” has the meaning of “sacrifice.” The picture arises of a man lying prostrate in front of an animal sacrifice.

 

According to both the Miao and Hebrew records, after Noah’s Ark had landed, he ordered that his family should present a great thanksgiving sacrifice to God, and so they offered and barbecued some animals. Is it possible that Noah’s original name in Chinese, was the honorable “Fu Xi Nü-Wa“, meaning the “Prostrating Sacrificer Noah”?

 

Is it perhaps also possible that originally Fu meant Father Noah? Was the character Fu changed perhaps from Fu meaning “father” to Fu meaning “prostrate”, around the same time when Nü-Wa was turned female, and that Fu Xi Nü-Wa was suddenly spliced into two people? Only God knows what really happened. Is that perhaps also the reason why their tails were entwined?

 

But the most interesting and IMHO most likely explanation for the names Fu Xi Nü-Wa, is when you consider the Chinese accent and its bastardisation of non-Chinese accents. A “bus” in Chinese (& Japanese) becomes “Ba Se” or “Ba Su” for example. Now the Chinese may have been aware of the name NüWa through the Han legends coming overland like Noah, Noe, Nuh, Nu-Uh, Nur, or Noach from the Middle East and Babylon originally. But the Xia (dynasty) who settled closer to the ocean than Huang Di, most likely introduced the concept of fish tailed Vish-NU into China from their contact with the seafaring sons of Ham like Dravidian Cushites from India, where Noah is called Manu under god Vishnu.

 

And when those early Chinese tried to pronounce Vish-Nu, it probably came out very similar to Fishi-Nüwa or FuXi-NüWa. And that makes a whole lot of sense in the light of Chinese pronunciation. Perhaps the Dravidian/Indian name VishNu was itself a bastardisation of NuAh or Noah, the common patriarch of us all mixed with some of that fish-man Oannes influence! We’ll find out in the Heavenly Museum of REAL History! Ha!

 

Ararat-Ximu-Nuwa-Huangdi-Xia

 

And why did Fu Xi & Nü-Wa live such long lives, as Shen Nong did too? Because, according to the most detailed and accurate Biblical account in Genesis, Noah, his wife, and three sons, lived to amazing old ages. According to the Greek ‘Sibylline Oracles’, even the wives of Shem, Ham & Japheth also enjoyed fantastically long life-spans, living for centuries! Noah lived almost a thousand years, totally 950 years in fact! 600 years until the Flood began, and 350 after!

 

Shem (Miao: Lo-Shen, or Shen Nong Shi?) lived a total of 600 years, according to Genesis. If you divide 600 years by a generation of 35-40 years, you easily arrive at a total of 15 or 17 generations. Huang Di was purportedly a distant descendant of Shen Nong, while also his friend and fellow scholar! Well, if he was 7-18 generations removed from Shem or Shen Nong, that would have been very possible being Shem’s great (17 times) -grandchild.

 

Shem is considered the forefather of most Arabs and of some Asian tribes. The following are the haplo DNA groups found in nations all over the world. You see that the (orange D) South Asians/South Chinese/Tibetans, and (blue O) Han Chinese belong to different groups. (And most originating in the Middle East where Noah landed his ark in Eastern Turkey on the mountains of Ararat!). (NB: The C3 and Q3 “going across the Bering Street” is pure Darwinist propaganda, because the Bering street was frozen until quite recently. It could not have happened!)

 

DNAmap

 

There are many legends about Fuxi and Nü-Wa recorded in several ancient Chinese books such as ‘Book of Changes’, ‘Elegies of Chu’, ‘Writings of Prince Huai Nan’ and the ‘Book of Mountains and Seas’. These legends were all passed on orally until written down, but sadly not via rhyming stanzas, yet their impact is very wide and profound. Now the leading aspects and basic facts of these myths become very meaningful in this new Miao and other inter-ethnic context.

 

BaGua8Story has it, that Fu Xi is not only the clan leader in the East and the chief of the three sage kings and five virtuous emperors of China at the dawn of human civilization, but also an omnipotent wise man capable of various kinds of skills. He is told to have created the Eight Diagrams and simulated the spider to weave fishing net. He was not only able to make musical instruments, but also good at cooking tasty food. Moreover, he contributed a lot to the traditional Chinese medicine and was the forefather of Chinese civilization. He also formulated etiquette’s and regulations for people, reducing the barbaric marriage by plundering. All that could easily be said of the Patriarch Noah as well!

 

Was Fu Xi Father Sin of the Chinese?

hittiteshoeHITTITE SHOE with upturned toes

 

OR was Fu Xi the most ancient patriarch of the Chinese “Father Sin” — son of Canaan & grandson of Ham — the patriarch of the Sinites? Sin was the brother of Heth, the patriarch of the Hittites who lived in Anatolia (now Turkey) but after the Bronze Age Collapse they were defeated and dispersed mixing with conquering tribes. Hittites had long pony tails and turned up shoes!

 

However Sin and his Sinites were totally lost from history. There are no ancient Middle Eastern records or memorials left of them. Many think that they left the Sumerian homeland already very early, traveling across the Silk Route Eastward and fathered the ancient Chinese and other tribes. Study of ancient China and its language is still called ‘Sinology‘ today, while the ancient Arabs called the Chinese the people of “Sin” & the Greeks called them ‘Sinae’.

 

Nü-Wa Chinese Name for Noah

Nü-Wa, during the remote legendary period of China, had powerful abilities. It is said that when a great flood took place that the heaven collapsed, and the earth sank under water, while wild beasts cruelly killed common people. Then Nü-Wa repaired the heaven/sky (same character Tian!) with five or seven colored rocks and killed the brutal beasts.

 

All this coincides nicely with the Hebrew scriptures, where the windows of heaven were broken open! After the flood reached its peak they were closed up, and after the water had retreated God showed Noah a beautiful seven-colored rainbow in that broken sky! It seemed to have appeared for the first time in history, the earth being newly covered with clouds!

 

Most likely some special ante-diluvial condition prevented clouds or water vapour projecting a rainbow, as well as a clear view of the sun which for some odd reason suddenly became much more visible! So much so that Noah’s global descendants, mostly those fathered by the family rebel Ham even began to worship it, and him as “Hamon Ra the Sun God!”

 

Instead of worshipping the saving God of their Grandfather Noah, they became ardent Sun worshippers! Egyptians, Canaanites, those early megalith builders in Peru, Mexico, Atlantis, Dwarka, China, and in many other places all over the globe, they all began to worship “that magnificent red sun” shining between the horns of their beloved “mother of all life!” The Holy Cow! Now you know where India got that idea via their early Indus Valley civilisation, and Dravidians? From Ham and his Pharaohs!

 

whitecow

 

They even had special sun boxes in many megalithic structures and the solar Temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak (Thebes – at present, Luxor city) in Egypt built some time after 2000 B.C. near the present day Luxor was located in such a way as to align with the summer solstice sunrise and is considered the day of the “manifestation of Ra”.

 

Yet for all she tried Nü-Wa could not fix the “tilt of the sky” and winter, spring, summer, and fall became permanent! Obviously there was no tilt in the Earth’s axis before the Deluge, as witnessed in the wood-sample found in the mysterious ship-shape in Armenia many believe to be the 5000 year old remains of Noahs’ Ark. That wood has no rings in it!

 

Nü-Wa and Fu Xi also used clay to create humans and human society by simulating their own appearance. That makes sense when you consider that all of us are the offspring of Noah and his wife, their children created in their likeness!

 

Nü-Wa also invented a kind of musical instrument called reed pipe wind instrument so that she is esteemed as a musical goddess. Moreover, she created the marriage system to enable humans to multiply offspring, so she is called the marriage goddess, which is very likely, because of her being the mother of all resultant humans. I’m sure they all wanted to be married by Noah and his wife!

 

And so, all this taken into consideration, everything certainly starts to make a lot more sense than some of the myths and embellishments that sprung up in the minds of the early Chinese storytellers long ago. You can hardly blame them, not having any other comparative historical records to consult with, as we have today.

 

Again, evidence has come to light that Noah, Shem, Ham & Japheth were real historical people, who built a real historical boat, and survived a real genuine global flood, no matter what skeptic intellectuals are saying against it in the name of “science” falsely so-called. Certainly not my kind of science!

 

But there is one even more important thing we can conclude from all this, and that is that we need to remember that we are all one family! And that we, as Chinese or Westerners, should all reverence and respect our great great great great great grandfather “Fu Xi Nü Wa” and his Father God! And each and every one of us as well, for we all turn out to be brothers and sisters! True or not?

 

God bless you brother! God bless you sister!

 

Love and Peace! Lu.

 

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中國神話的苗族說明證實了諾亞洪水的歷史

每一位在中國、台灣以及大中華地區的學子們很早就已經學過中國的始祖和歷史。 但大部分的中國古老歷史都被修飾美化超過近4500年而且演變成了神話。因此現今21世紀的中國人對於他們最早的祖先相當模糊，若不是這篇文章裡揭露這有 趣的發現，直到末日前，他們可能對自己最早的祖先仍然是模糊不清的。

三皇五帝

 

最早記載的 ”三皇五帝” 就是指 ”三位尊者” 或是三位君主或王，以及 ”五位皇帝” 。 這些3+5神般的王或半仙人據稱他們運用法力來提昇人類的生活，也因為他們崇高的品德讓他們得以長壽並統治世界帶來長久的和平。 這三位王者分別為伏羲、女媧和神農氏。但在別的文獻記載中女媧通常是被五皇之一的黃帝取而代之。實際上依據資料的來源，有6~7種已知的說法列出到底誰才 是三皇五帝。很多這些資料來源都是在實際事件之後的好幾個朝代所寫的，因此多少會被扭曲

黃帝

那誰會是伏羲呢?

 

假如讓我們來看伏和羲這兩字，他們的發音雖然和其他歷史記載中的名字不太接近，但我們知道”伏”意謂著”屈身”以及”羲”代表著”犧牲”的意思，我們便可以聯想到一個人屈身於動物貢品前面。

 

根據苗族和希伯來兩者的記載，在諾亞的方舟停下後，他便告訴他的家人應該要對神感恩，所以他們烤了一些動物來祭拜神，那諾亞原來的中文名字會有可能是”伏羲女媧”嗎? 意謂著”諾亞向神朝貢”?

 

或者也有可能是”伏”指的是”父親”諾亞? 從”父”的”父親”意思轉變到”伏地”，且在差不多同一個時間，女媧變成了女性而伏羲女媧從一個人分成兩個人? 真相只有神知道! 這或許也解釋了為什麼他們的尾巴會交纏在一起?

 

再者為什麼伏羲和女媧還有神農都可以那麼長壽呢? 因為根據聖經創世紀裡所記載的，諾亞的妻子和3個兒子也都非常非常的長壽，而根據希臘” Sibylline Oracles”記錄，就連Shem、Ham 和 Japheth的妻子都活的非常久超過一世紀! 諾亞就活了近1000年(事實上是960年)!

 

Shem(神)(lo-shen神農 or Shen Nong shi神農氏)活了整整600年，根據聖經所記載，假如你將35-40年訂為一代，那600年就將近是15到17代，據稱黃帝是神農的後代,也是他的朋友及之後學者，那黃帝有可能就是神農的(第17代)曾孫子。

 

神(shem)被視為大部分亞洲人及部分的歐洲部落的先父，以下是一些在世界各地發現的單一DNA族群，藍色D為南方的中國人和橘色O為漢人，兩者分別為不同的族群。

HuangDi-YellowEmperor1-201x300皇 帝或黃帝(姓黃)，認為如此比較像傳奇人物而非神話，也因為他被視為真實歷史人物以及在夏朝前的第一位皇帝，因此伏羲、女媧和神農氏被視為神話中的人物因 為較不為人所知。 黃帝又名軒轅氏，是五位傳奇皇帝中的領袖。黃帝和他的兄弟炎帝一同被認為是中國人的祖先，所以後代的中國人也被稱之為炎黃子孫。(炎帝和黃帝的子孫) 目前中國學術界普遍主張，黃帝是出生於有熊(現今湖南省新鄭)並安葬於陜西的橋山(現今黃陵縣)。黃帝及炎帝兩者都是中國兩大族的祖先，也在之後再度融而 為一。 早期的歷史學家”司馬遷”則記載黃帝事實上是神農氏(簡稱神農)的後裔，雖然只約8到17代的血統，儘管在這中間相隔久遠，黃帝仍被視為是神農的朋友和學 者，很明顯地據說非常的長壽。

在很多中國古老的書籍裡都有記載著伏羲及女媧的傳說，如易經、楚辭集注、淮南子以及山海經，這些傳說有著深遠的影響力且一直被流傳著，這些神話的有部分觀點對這個新苗族及不同族群間是非常有意義的。

 

故事裡有說到，伏羲不只是東方部落或三皇五帝的領袖，同時也是樣樣精通非常聰明的人。他創造了八卦和模擬蜘蛛網而演變出的魚網，他不只會做樂器也很 會做好吃的飯菜，更對中藥上做出了許多貢獻，身為中國人民文明的始祖，他更替人民規劃出了禮儀規範，變革婚姻習俗，倡導男聘女嫁的婚俗禮節，使血緣婚改為 族外婚，這些和諾亞都很相似。

 

女媧在古老的中國傳奇裡有著強大的法力，傳說中大洪水時天崩塌，地球被下沉到水裡面，各式猛獸都跑出來虐殺人類，女媧用七彩石補天及捕殺這些猛獸。

 

這和希伯來文聖經裡的創世紀都有些雷同的地方，上面說到”天堂之窗裂開”! 當大洪水淹到最高點時窗就關起來了，當水乾的時候，神讓諾亞看到了天上的七色彩虹，因這是歷史上的第一次。地球被雲給蓋住，很可能因為天空上面外殼的水的 遮蓋這些紫外線防老化，所以人類可以活得更久一點且還沒有雲彩!

 

女媧和伏羲也同樣用泥土以他們的外表來造人類社會，那這樣就會很合理如果我們都是諾亞和他妻子的子孫，他們的孩子都很像他們的爸媽，女媧也發明一種樂器叫簧管吹奏樂器，所以她也被稱為音樂女神，因為她作為所有人類的母親，我敢肯定他們都希望能嫁給諾亞和他的妻子!

 

綜合以上我們所提到的，所有事情似乎比那經過修飾過後的古老神話更加合理。我們也無法怪罪當時這些傳說為何沒辦法像我們現在可以找到其他歷史記載來做比對。

 

再者，所有證據都指向諾亞、神(Shem) 、漢(Ham)和賈費斯(Japheth)都是那些曾蓋過方舟和真的從大洪水中生還的真實歷史人物，無論說什麼所謂的知識分子在科學的角度上仍還是持懷疑的態度。

 

ancientpatriarchs.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/%E4%B8%AD%E5%9...

  

This splendid sage lived for 197 years, a number of presumably tremendous significance. Now he is in Heaven where he looks after Cosmic Harmony and Contemplation, which makes him very popular in DAOist circles.FU-XI is very strong on home improvements, and also spiritual improvements. He’s often seen with a carpenter’s square — which symbolizes both as he created the Eight Trigrams for Divination.Fu Xi 伏羲, also written 伏犧 or 伏戲, also called Mi Xi 宓羲 (also written 宓犧), or Pao Xi 包犧, (also written 包羲, 炮犧 or 庖犧), is one of the mythical Three Augusts 三皇 or Five Emperors 五帝. He is therefore known as Xi Huang 犧皇 or Huang Xi 皇羲 "August Shepherd". His cognomen is Tai Hao 太皞 (also written 太昊) "Great Brightness", his tribal name Huang Xiong 黄熊氏. He was the brother and husband of Nü Wa 女媧. The couple was, according to legend, the creators of the world. Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) stone bricks therefore depict Fu Xi and Nü wa with a human body ending in intertwining dragon tails, each of them holding an instrument of architects, namely scissors (ju 榘) and rulers (gui 規). The story of the couple was very widespread in southern China, where the Miao people 苗 saw themselves as descendants of Fu Xi and Nü Wa. The two of them were, in other words, the parents of mankind. Fu Xi is also the deity representing the east and reigning the element wood (mu 木). According to the books Huainanzi 淮南子 and Lüshi chunqiu 呂氏春秋, he is assisted by the spirit Gou Mang 句芒 who pull out the sprouts of all plants in spring. A story in the Shanhaijing 山海經 says that the mother of Fu Xi was Lady Huaxu 華胥氏 who conceived when she tread on the footpint of the God of Thunder (Leishen 雷神). Fu Xi is credited by several inventions, like the Eight Trigrams (bagua 八卦) used for prognostication. Each one of the trigrams represented a formation of the cosm, like Heaven and Earth, mountains and rivers, wind and thunder, and so on. According to the book Baopuzi 抱朴子 Fu Xi is also credited with the invention of the fishing net. In the song collection Chuci 楚辭 he is called the inventor of music. The book Yishi 繹史 says he invented matrimonial rites that are otherwise attributed to his sister Nü Wa. The Hetu ting fuzuo 河圖挺輔佐 praises him as the one who told men how to use the fire.

Emperor Tai Hao is not always identified with Fu Xi. According to other legends, Tai Hao had the surname Feng 風. His officials had the designations of dragons. His residence was Chen 陳 (modern Huaiyang 淮陽, Henan), and he reigned over the lower course of the Yellow River. The families of this region with the surnames Ren 任, Su 宿, Xugou 須句 and Zhuansou 頊臾 (rather the ruling houses of these minor fiefs of the Spring and Autumn period 春秋, 770-5th cent. BCE) are said to be his descendants. Tai Hao or Fu Xi are also called Green Emperor (Qing Di 青帝 or Cang Di 蒼帝) and ruled over the East.

www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Myth/personsfuxi.html

 

"In the sign on the right hand, the etymologists know how to read a precept, and the right hand is used for eating. The right hand is therefore appropriate to the things of the earth, and the element D is found in the sign adopted for the Left This square is the symbol of all the arts, especially the religious and magical arts, and is the insignia of Fuxi, the first sovereign , The first soothsayer, Fou-hi is the husband or brother of Niu-koua, whose compass is the insignia. This primordial couple invented marriage also to say good morals. The pictures represent Fou-hi and Niu-koua holding each other by the lower part of the body, and Niu-koua, who occupies the right, holds the compass with his right hand. Left, holds the square with the left hand The square, which produces the Square, emblem Earth, can not be insigned to until after an exchange hierogamic of attributes; , the square rightly deserves to be the emblem of the sorcerer is , and especially of Fuxi, a scholar in the bones of heaven as in those of the earth . Fou-hi can therefore carry the square of the left hand, and the left hand (with the square) evoke the Royal Work, the first hierogamy, the magico-religious activity. The Chinese do not strongly oppose religion to magic, any more than pure to impure. The sacred and the profane do not themselves form two distinct genres. The Right can be devoted to secular works and earthly activities without becoming the antagonist of the Left. Chinese thought is concerned not with contraries, but with contrasts, alternations, correlatives, and hierogamic exchanges of attributes."

Marcel Granet

The war with Zhurong tRAh, banged his head against Mount Buzhou RR Ill the pillar of the sky and the terrestrial a until it broke d 25 There are numerous examples showing how excessive anger, or even joy, can be delete- rious. In another example, the viscount of Zhu furious that one of his employees could inadvertently fell into a brazicr and was burnt alivc xie Hogwei on the other hand, died in a fit of rage while playing weigi, when his oppo nent, on the point of losing, was given a hint by a guest watching the game broad meaning of also encompasses the concepts of fury and rage, as is made clear in the phrase "unable to control one's rage" HIB), to contain one's fury" (8 RBJiA), and "in a towering rage (s HUR). It is also used to refer to the fury of elements, as in "the howl of the vio- ent wind's blowin (1EH89t). In various chéngyii it is described as rage (ili&Z& US), fierce and frightening ourning rage (L & E). Indiscriminate arbitrarily complain about what is here and there U8 illi B), and "venting one's anger on others" TN. It can be hidden (i Tri nursing one's anger and rancour"; to be furious but not dare to speak out), manifested ("showing one's rage th), or modulated ("restraining one's anger at home and venting it outside.

books.google.fr/books?id=lQ55CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA466&lp...(%E4%B8%8D%E5%91%A8%E5%B1%B1&source=bl&ots=28Vw4K4HLv&sig=BSxz_Zn8jm88IhvIhaKdOEeI4GM&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjigJ7h357TAhUBvBQKHQfyAZoQ6AEILDAC#v=onepage&q=Mont%20Buzhou%20(%E4%B8%8D%E5%91%A8%E5%B1%B1&f=false

Depiction of the original sin by Hughes Songe

 

Forbidden fruit is a phrase that originates from the Book of Genesis concerning Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:16–17. In the narrative, Adam and Eve eat the fruit of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, which they had been commanded not to do by God. As a metaphor, the phrase typically refers to any indulgence or pleasure that is considered illegal or immoral.

15 Answers

Mike Reddy

Mike Reddy, former Ex Forensic Investigator student of Religion

Updated Mar 1, 2019 · Author has 1.7k answers and 122k answer views

This story is written in cryptic language and is not intended to be taken literally. The “forbidden fruit” is a metaphor for something else.

 

According to several Jewish and Christian commentators:

 

The “forbidden fruit” in this context is the sex act. Because Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit she was cursed to suffer pain during childbirth.

 

She was not yet “married” to Adam and she had no knowledge of sex. The “Serpent” a metaphor for a Man like animal, seduced Eve. Eve conceived by the Serpent and had sex with Adam and also conceived.

 

Cain is believed to be of the devil because he was the son of the Serpent. Abel was the son of Adam. later both groups (Adams lineage and Cain’s lineage) would mix and it is believed that we are the products of this hybrid race of humans.

 

Lest, readers think I am sucking this out of my thumb, the story of the Serpent Seed Doctrine first appeared in the Gospel of Phillip in the first century, and was preached by certain Jewish Rabbis in the 5th and 9th century. These writings appear in the 9th century Jewish Midrash and Kaballah.

 

Later it was preached by a leading Christian evangelist in the 18th century, and revived in the 19th and 20th century by the controversial and world famous (or infamous) Reverend William Branham.

 

Did Adam and Eve have bellybuttons?

Why did God use Adam's rib to create Eve?

Did God set Adam and Eve up to fail knowing that they'd eat the fruit?

Why did Adam and Eve eat that damn fruit, anyway?

How do we know that the fruit Adam and Eve consumed was Apple?

Crowly Mathew Arackal

Crowly Mathew Arackal, The message of Bible is the word of God.

Answered Apr 29, 2019 · Author has 9.1k answers and 7.1m answer views

Originally Answered: What fruit did Adam and Eve actually eat?

If you really need to understand what fruit it was please read Genesis Chapter 3 once.

 

Now let us re-read it for clarity.

 

1Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

 

Serpent is used to represent the Evil. Why not a monkey? We will see this later.

 

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

 

God had asked Adam not to eat from the tree in the midst of the garden (the tree of knowledge of good and evil). Satan knows it. At least the Satan had seen both Adam and Eve eating fruits of other trees. But still Satan asks “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” This is a harmless question that compels Eve to answer.

 

Here the evil made an opportunity for a dialogue. A harmless dialogue. Eve did not see anything threatening in the question. So she feels free to answer the Satan. The first target of evil is achieved. Starting a dialogue with the woman! Is it not the way every evil enter people’s mind and influence them? It appears as something harmless, and slowly lead people into temptation and then in to sin or do something unwanted.

 

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

 

See, Eve is fully aware of the command. The command was very clear and simple. Both Adam and Eve had been enjoying the life in the Garden of Eden and they obeyed it so far. And so far they never thought of eating from that tree. They simply avoided it. They do not want to disobey God.

 

4But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

 

“You will be like God”, you will be “knowing good and evil”. What a temptation? They always knew God and they respected Him, revered Him, venerated Him. They looked at God as their father. Never thought of becoming like Him! It may took some time to grow the seed of temptation in their minds.

 

6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

 

This is a process of justifying own decision. Once we wanted to do something evil we will start balancing the merits and demerits of proceeding with it. Here Eve is finding justifications to eat the fruit. She ate it not because it was good for food (it was the same yesterday) a delight to the eyes (it was the same yesterday). But remember she ignored the value of being obedient to God.

 

They knew a lot of things including it was God who created them, entrusted the whole creations to him for maintaining them. God was interested in their happiness and God visited them very often! But after all they trusted the Satan and took God for a liar!! God had clearly said they would die if they eat from the tree, but Satan said they will not die. They trusted the Satan more than God who was known to them.

 

Is it not true even in our case? We all know it is our parents who want our safety and well being more than anybody else. Then comes our teachers and our good friends. But many a times we ignore the guidelines given by them and we proceed to embrace evil not to become God, but to enjoy some pleasure, satisfy our greed, revenge to somebody etc. Evil always comes with sugar coated. It always comes with some kind of satisfaction. Is it not meaningful even to our lives as it was to Adam and Eve?

 

7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

 

See what did the disobedience did to them? It changed their vision. They were always naked. But it was acceptable to them. Then why they “sewed fig leaves together” and try to cover themselves? It is very clear that they spoiled the relationships by disobedience, sin. They spoiled the relationship with God, with oneself, and with each other. They could not accept themselves, then how they can present themselves to others?

 

Reading this some interpret that the sin they did was sexual, or the sin was sexual intercourse. No. It was not. God created everything as male and female so that they will multiply. It is true in the case of Adam and Eve also. Now let us read further.

 

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

 

When our parents or authorities are away and as they come back we will be happy to greet them. But we will be hiding our-self, or keep away from them, if we did some damages in their absence. It means we spoiled the relationship with something undesirable we did, in short we disobeyed!

 

9But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” 10And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

 

We feel we are not presentable before you! If one cannot accept himself how do he present himself to others?

 

Being naked also explains helplessness. Ancient Indian scriptures use the word ‘nakedness’ to indicate the ones who are out of protection of four Vedas. It points to the ones who lost the protection of God.

 

11He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

 

Did you disobey me?

 

12The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” 13Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

 

When Adam saw Eve for first see what he said about Eve: “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”. Wow, he is accepting her as himself. What a love, what an acceptance! But after they spoiled their relationship with God Adam now says “the woman whom you gave to be with me”. See how detached he is now from Eve. He also sounds as if what happened was the mistake of God!

 

Eve says “the serpent deceived me, and I ate”. Remember the only knowledge they gained by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was that Satan was telling a lie!! What a pity?

 

What did really happen here? What is this knowledge of good and evil? It is nothing other than rejection of God. It is the stand “I know what is good and evil” and you need not try to direct me or teach me. “I know” so I do not want you any more! Is this not happening in everybody’s life? We had moments when we disobeyed our true well wishers thinking our knowledge is better and rejected or refused to listen to God, parents, or other well wishers and gave ear to evil.

 

14The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,

cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

 

Answering a common question why snake travel on its belly!

 

15I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

 

The first prophesy about someone who will overpower evil. The first prophesy about Jesus Christ.

 

16To the woman he said,“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

 

Answering a common question why childbearing is painful?

 

17And to Adam he said,“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

 

Life on earth is painful and difficult today only because we are away from God and we sinned against him.

 

20The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.g 21And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

 

“And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them”. Adam and Eve sinned against God, disobeyed God and went away from Him saying they know what is good and evil and they do not need the guidance of God anymore. But still the loving Father, God accept them and protect them.

 

22Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—” 23therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. 24He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

God protected the tree of life for his love for human beings. Being away from God and eating from the tree of life, they will live for ever away from God and their life in this earth is not easy. So God give them an opportunity to go back to God after death in this world and then have the fruit from the tree of life! God wanted men to be with God for ever.

 

Why snake, why not monkey? This part of the Bible was written during the time of king Solomon. In those days the greatest damage they faced to the Jews was from Canaanites who also worshiped snake. Their feasts were an opportunity for adultery and liquor. The people of Israel also were attracted to these celebrations. The writer wanted to keep the Israelis away from worshiping snake and joining such celebrations.

 

Is it Historical? Genesis chapters from 12 onward have a historical background. But chapters 1 to 11 deal with prehistory. It is written to convey a very clear message and it is packed with intelligence. The message is word of God. There is no meaning in asking if the fruit was apple or orange! Same is the case with the question why God planted the tree in the Garden? Man disobeyed God and went away from Him. The message is very clear to both a scholar as well as a child. Both understand it in their own way.

 

I do not claim I have explained everything in Chapter 3 of Genesis. There are much more. But what we need to understand is that anything in the Bible have a meaning and a message.

 

There are good and bad, good people and bad people, good events and bad events recorded in the Bible. The good is to follow. The bad is lessons. So doing something and saying ‘it is written in bible’ does not justify it.

 

Judging Bible should be done after studying it from the right resources. Bible use different forms of literature. Metaphor is one of them. Bible carry poetry, drama, history, apocalyptic writings, etc. It is the history of salvation.

 

While reading Bible it is fine we picture what is written. That is the elementary meaning but still give a message. When you read again you will understand it is not just something that happened in the past but have a relevance TODAY in the world you are living in, and it has a meaning and message for you.

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Thando Xaluva

Thando Xaluva

Answered Sep 28, 2018 · Author has 259 answers and 16k answer views

it's not the fruit that matters it is the knowledge that the fruit held. such knowledge was forbidden, that is self awareness.

 

ie. it is when man became aware of himself, but also became aware of time and so had to be given physical form and live out his day's on earth, because he now had days to count when before there was no time and no awareness of self.

 

no physical body, no aging, no future, no past, only the present and what was “right” with consciousness.

 

this isn't like what the animals had to go through mind you, the animals had to partake in survival of the fittest. man was simply given form physical on the back of an already existing creation, hence the missing link.

 

we are still in the image of the creator mind you because we can detach from the physical and experience all time via dreams or narcotics, though not at will. we are capable of creation and we do this in more aspects than people care to think, (this very post is in the spirit of the image of the creator, I manifest it incorporeal from the ether that is consciousness and bring it forth into the physical with either my hands or my voice.) we also shape people around us like clay, sometimes in machiavellian fashion pending a malevolent turn.

 

enter chaos to disrupt the perfect order that was, in the form of a snake, specifically aimed at the women, (explanation for this choice by the ancients is pending another less PC era) and so we were banished from the land of the incorporeal and had to experience time as the creation itself does, but not as the creator does.

 

one can only hope this makes sense lol

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Brown Mosa

Brown Mosa, Bakery Supervisor (2016-present)

Answered Apr 6, 2018

Why should it be an apple when apples were never mentioned in the Word of God in reference to the Garden of Eden? Although the Bible speaks that they were not to eat of the TREE of the knowledge of good and evil, but never can we find in the entire Scriptures that it was an apple that have caused our transgressions and fall (Genesis 2:17). It will be difficult for many readers to believe this, but of a truth, it was SEX or ADULTERY with the SERPENT that caused the fall of EVE and ADAM, through which sin came into the world and brought each of us under its curse.

 

Here is where we receive the true revelation of the SERPENT’S SEED, and here is what really happened in the Garden of Eden. The Word says that Eve was beguiled by the serpent. She was actually seduced by the serpent. Satan took advantage of the serpent’s physical characteristics to use him to beguile Eve. Remember that it was Lucifer’s ambition to build himself a greater kingdom than Michael did in heaven, before he was kicked out on earth. And still, he wanted to pursue his evil plan in this world after that. And the only way for Satan to accomplish what he wanted to do was to enter the serpent in Eden even as he entered by evil spirits into the swine at Gadara. He could not have a child directly by Eve as did God by Mary, so he entered into the serpent and then beguiled Eve. He seduced her and by her did Satan have a child vicariously - CAIN, the seed of the serpent, who bore the full spiritual characteristics of Satan and the animalistic ( sensual, fleshly) characteristic of the serpent, and a murderer, too.

 

It says in Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” This beast was so close to a human being (and yet was pure animal) that he could reason and talk. He was close to a man. He was almost man. He was an upright creature and was somewhat in between a chimpanzee and a man, but closer to a man. He was so close to being human that his seed could, and did mingle with that of the woman and cause her to conceive. Before Adam ever had a carnal knowledge of Eve, the serpent had that knowledge ahead of him. And that one born of it was CAIN. “Cain was of (born of, begotten of) that “Wicked One”, according to I John 3:12.

 

Notice what God said to the SERPENT in the garden. Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” If we give credit to the Word that the woman did have a seed, then the serpent must have surely had a SEED also. If the SEED of the woman was a MAN-CHILD apart from the man, then the SEED of the serpent will have to be in the same pattern, and that is another male must be born apart from human male instrumentality.

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Contents

1Biblical narrative

2Identifications and depictions

2.1Apple

2.2Grape

2.3Fig

2.4Pomegranate

2.5Wheat

2.6Mushroom

3Parallel concepts

3.1Ancient Greeks

4Other views

4.1Islamic traditions

5See also

6References

7External links

Biblical narrative[edit]

Main articles: Tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Original sin

The narrative of the Book of Genesis places the first man and woman (Adam and Eve) in a garden where they may eat the fruit of many trees but are forbidden by God to eat from the "tree of knowledge of good and evil".

 

And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

 

— Genesis 2:16–17[1]

In Genesis 3, a serpent tempts the woman:

 

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil.

 

— Genesis 3:4–5[2]

Desiring this wisdom, the woman eats the forbidden fruit and gives some to the man who also eats it. They become aware of their "nakedness" and make fig-leaf clothes, and hide themselves when God approaches. God curses The Serpent, The Woman then The Man, and expels the Man and Woman from the garden and thereby from eternal life.

 

Identifications and depictions[edit]

 

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

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The word fruit appears in Hebrew as פֶּ֫רִי (pərî ). As to which fruit may have been the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden, possibilities include apple, grape, pomegranate,[3] fig,[4] carob,[3] etrog or citron,[3] pear, and mushrooms. The pseudepigraphic Book of Enoch describes the tree of knowledge: "It was like a species of the Tamarind tree, bearing fruit which resembled grapes extremely fine; and its fragrance extended to a considerable distance. I exclaimed, How beautiful is this tree, and how delightful is its appearance!" (1 Enoch 31:4).

 

An alternative view is that the forbidden fruit is metaphorical, possibly the fruit of the womb, i.e. sex and procreation from the tree of life. In his Autobiography of a Yogi, Hindu spiritual teacher Paramhansa Yogananda cites an interpretation by his master Swami Sri Yukteswar Giri that the Garden of Eden refers to man's body, with the fruit in the center being that of the sexual organs.[5]

 

Apple[edit]

In Western Europe, the fruit was often depicted as an apple. This was possibly because of a misunderstanding of – or a pun on – mălum, a native Latin noun which means evil (from the adjective malus), and mālum, another Latin noun, borrowed from Greek μῆλον, which means apple. In the Vulgate, Genesis 2:17 describes the tree as de ligno autem scientiae boni et mali : "but of the tree [literally wood ] of knowledge of good and evil" (mali here is the genitive of malum).

 

The larynx, specifically the laryngeal prominence that joins the thyroid cartilage, in the human throat is noticeably more prominent in males and was consequently called an Adam's apple, from a notion that it was caused by the forbidden fruit getting stuck in Adam's throat as he swallowed it.[6]

 

Grape[edit]

Rabbi Meir says that the fruit was a grape, made into wine.[7] The Zohar explains similarly that Noah attempted (but failed) to rectify the sin of Adam by using grape wine for holy purposes.[8][9] The midrash of Bereishit Rabah states that the fruit was grape,[10] or squeezed grapes (perhaps alluding to wine).[11] Chapter 4 of 3 Baruch, also known as the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, designates the fruit as the grape. 3 Baruch is a first to third century text that is either Christian or Jewish with Christian interpolations. [12]

 

Fig[edit]

See also: Figs in the Bible

The Bible states in the book of Genesis that Adam and Eve had made their own fig leaf clothing: "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves girdles".[13] Based on that reference, the forbidden fruit may have been the fig.

 

Rabbi Nechemia, based on the Talmud, supports the idea that the fruit was a fig, as it was from fig leaves that God made garments for Adam and Eve upon expelling them from the Garden. "By that with which they were made low were they rectified."[14]

 

Since the fig is a long-standing symbol of female sexuality, it enjoyed a run as a favorite understudy to the apple as the forbidden fruit during the Italian Renaissance. The most famous depiction of the fig as the forbidden fruit was painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti in his masterpiece fresco on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.[15]

 

Pomegranate[edit]

Proponents of the theory that the Garden of Eden was located somewhere in what is now known as the Middle East suggest that the fruit was actually a pomegranate, a plant indigenous from Iran to the Himalayas and cultivated since ancient times.[16] The association of the pomegranate with knowledge of the underworld as provided in the Ancient Greek legend of Persephone may also have given rise to an association with knowledge of the otherworld, tying-in with knowledge that is forbidden to mortals.

 

Wheat[edit]

Rabbi Yehuda proposes that the fruit was wheat, because "a baby does not know to call its mother and father until it tastes the taste of grain."[7]

 

In Hebrew, wheat is "khitah", which has been considered to be a pun on "khet", meaning "sin".[3]

 

Although commonly confused with a seed, in the study of botany a wheat berry is technically a simple fruit known as a caryopsis, which has the same structure as an apple. Just as an apple is a fleshy fruit that contains seeds, a grain is a dry fruit that absorbs water and contains a seed. The confusion comes from the fact that the fruit of a grass happens to have a form similar to some seeds.[17]

 

Mushroom[edit]

A fresco in the 13th-century Plaincourault Abbey in France depicts Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, flanking a Tree of Knowledge that has the appearance of a gigantic Amanita muscaria, a psychoactive mushroom.[18] Terence McKenna proposed that the forbidden fruit was a reference to psychotropic plants and fungi, specifically psilocybin mushrooms, which he theorized played a central role in the evolution of the human brain.[19] Earlier, in a well-documented and heavily criticized study,[20][21] John M. Allegro proposed the mushroom as the forbidden fruit.[22]

 

Parallel concepts[edit]

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This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2017)

Ancient Greeks[edit]

The similarities of the story to the story of Pandora's box were identified by early Christians such as Tertullian, Origen, and Gregory of Nazianzus.[23]

 

Other views[edit]

Islamic traditions[edit]

See also: Adam and Eve § Islamic tradition, and Original sin § Islamic view

According to the Quran, Surah Al-A'raf 7:19 describes Adam and his wife in Paradise where they may eat what is provided, except that they may not eat from one particular tree, lest they be considered Zalimun (wrongdoers).[24] Surah Ibrahim 14:26 describes the forbidden tree as an evil tree that is forbidden for guidance.[25]

 

Surah Al-A'raf 7:22 describes the ˈibliːs (Satan) who misled them with deception, and then it was Adam who initiated eating from the forbidden tree. Then when they tasted of the tree, that which was hidden from them of their shame became manifest to them and they began to cover themselves with the leaves of Paradise. And their Lord called out to them: "Did I not forbid you that tree and tell you; Verily, Shaitân is an open enemy unto you?" (Quran 7:19). The Quran holds both Adam and his wife accountable for eating the forbidden fruit. As punishment, they were forced to leave the garden, banished from Heaven and sent to the Earth where they were forgiven after repenting.

 

The fruit is commonly either identified with wheat or with grapevine in Islamic tradition.[26]

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_fruit

The Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed (Russian: Собо́р Васи́лия Блаже́нного, tr. Sobór Vasíliya Blazhénnogo), commonly known as Saint Basil's Cathedral, is an Orthodox church in Red Square of Moscow, and is one of the most popular cultural symbols of Russia. The building, now a museum, is officially known as the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat, or Pokrovsky Cathedral. It was built from 1555 to 1561 on orders from Ivan the Terrible and commemorates the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan. Its completion, with its colors, was made in 1683. It was the city's tallest building until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.

 

The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight chapels arranged around a ninth, central chapel dedicated to the Intercession; a tenth chapel was erected in 1588 over the grave of the venerated local saint Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and 17th centuries, because it was perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City, like all churches in Byzantine Christianity, the church was popularly known as the "Jerusalem" and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the Tsar.

 

The cathedral has nine domes (each one corresponding to a different church) and is shaped like the flame of a bonfire rising into the sky. Dmitry Shvidkovsky, in his book Russian Architecture and the West, states that "it is like no other Russian building. Nothing similar can be found in the entire millennium of Byzantine tradition from the fifth to the fifteenth century ... a strangeness that astonishes by its unexpectedness, complexity and dazzling interleaving of the manifold details of its design." The cathedral foreshadowed the climax of Russian national architecture in the 17th century.

 

As part of the program of state atheism, the church was confiscated from the Russian Orthodox community as part of the Soviet Union's antireligious campaigns and has operated as a division of the State Historical Museum since 1928. It was completely secularized in 1929, and remains a federal property of the Russian Federation. The church has been part of the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1990. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, weekly Orthodox Christian services with prayer to St. Basil have been restored since 1997.

 

Construction under Ivan IV

The site of the church had been, historically, a busy marketplace between the St. Frol's (later Saviour's) Gate of the Moscow Kremlin and the outlying posad. The centre of the marketplace was marked by the Trinity Church, built of the same white stone as the Kremlin of Dmitry Donskoy (1366–68) and its cathedrals. Tsar Ivan IV marked every victory of the Russo-Kazan War by erecting a wooden memorial church next to the walls of Trinity Church; by the end of his Astrakhan campaign, it was shrouded within a cluster of seven wooden churches. According to the report in Nikon's Chronicle, in the autumn of 1554 Ivan ordered the construction of the wooden Church of Intercession on the same site, "on the moat". One year later, Ivan ordered the construction of a new stone cathedral on the site of Trinity Church to commemorate his campaigns. Dedication of a church to a military victory was "a major innovation" for Muscovy. The placement of the church outside the Kremlin walls was a political statement in favour of posad commoners and against hereditary boyars.

 

Contemporary commentators clearly identified the new building as Trinity Church, after its easternmost sanctuary; the status of "katholikon" (собор, sobor, large assembly church) had not been bestowed on it yet:

 

On the Trinity on the Moat in Moscow.

In the same year, through the will of czar and lord and grand prince Ivan began making the pledged church, as he promised for the capture of Kazan: Trinity and Intercession and seven sanctuaries, also called "on the moat". And the builder was Barma with company.

 

— Piskaryov Chronicle, 1560 (7068 per Byzantine calendar)

The identity of the architect is unknown. Tradition held that the church was built by two architects, Barma and Postnik, the official Russian cultural heritage register lists "Barma and Postnik Yakovlev". Researchers proposed that both names refer to the same person, Postnik Yakovlev or, alternatively, Ivan Yakovlevich Barma (Varfolomey). Legend held that Ivan blinded the architect so that he could not re-create the masterpiece elsewhere. Many historians are convinced that it is a myth, as the architect later participated in the construction of the Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow as well as in building the walls and towers of the Kazan Kremlin. Postnik Yakovlev remained active at least throughout the 1560s. This myth likely originated with Jerome Horsey's account of Ivan III of Moscow having blinded the architect of the fortress of Ivangorod.

 

There is evidence that construction involved stonemasons from Pskov and German lands.

 

Architectural style

Because the church has no analog—in the preceding, contemporary, or later architecture of Muscovy and Byzantine cultural tradition, in general,—the sources that inspired Barma and Postnik are disputed. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc rejected European roots for the cathedral, opining that its corbel arches were Byzantine and ultimately Asian. A modern "Asian" hypothesis considers the cathedral a recreation of Qolşärif Mosque, which was destroyed by Russian troops after the Siege of Kazan.

 

Nineteenth-century Russian writers, starting with Ivan Zabelin,[5] emphasized the influence of the vernacular wooden churches of the Russian North; their motifs made their ways into masonry, particularly the votive churches that did not need to house substantial congregations. David Watkin also wrote of a blend of Russian and Byzantine roots, calling the cathedral "the climax" of Russian vernacular wooden architecture.

 

The church combines the staggered layered design of the earliest (1505–1508) part of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower, the central tent of the Church of Ascension in Kolomenskoye (1530s), and the cylindric shape of the Church of Beheading of John the Baptist in Dyakovo (1547); but the origin of these unique buildings is equally debated. The Church in Kolomenskoye, according to Sergei Podyapolsky, was built by Italian Petrok Maly, although mainstream history has not yet accepted his opinion. Andrey Batalov revised the year of completion of Dyakovo church from 1547 to the 1560s–70s, and noted that Trinity Church could have had no tangible predecessors at all.

 

Dmitry Shvidkovsky suggested that the "improbable" shapes of the Intercession Church and the Church of Ascension in Kolomenskoye manifested an emerging national renaissance, blending earlier Muscovite elements with the influence of Italian Renaissance. A large group of Italian architects and craftsmen continuously worked in Moscow in 1474–1539, as well as Greek refugees who arrived in the city after the fall of Constantinople. These two groups, according to Shvidkovsky, helped Moscow rulers in forging the doctrine of Third Rome, which in turn promoted assimilation of contemporary Greek and Italian culture. Shvidkovsky noted the resemblance of the cathedral's floorplan to Italian concepts by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Donato Bramante, but most likely Filarete's Trattato di architettura. Other Russian researchers noted a resemblance to sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, although he could not have been known in Ivan's Moscow. Nikolay Brunov recognized the influence of these prototypes but not their significance; he suggested that mid-16th century Moscow already had local architects trained in Italian tradition, architectural drawing and perspective, and that this culture was lost during the Time of Troubles.

 

Andrey Batalov wrote that judging by the number of novel elements introduced with Trinity Church, it was most likely built by German craftsmen. Batalov and Shvidkovsky noted that during Ivan's reign, Germans and Englishmen replaced Italians, although German influence peaked later during the reign of Mikhail Romanov. German influence is indirectly supported by the rusticated pilasters of the central church, a feature more common in contemporary Northern Europe than in Italy.

 

The 1983 academic edition of Monuments of Architecture in Moscow takes the middle ground: the church is, most likely, a product of the complex interaction of distinct Russian traditions of wooden and stone architecture, with some elements borrowed from the works of Italians in Moscow. Specifically, the style of brickwork in the vaults is Italian.

 

Layout

Instead of following the original ad hoc layout (seven churches around the central core), Ivan's architects opted for a more symmetrical floor plan with eight side churches around the core, producing "a thoroughly coherent, logical plan" despite the erroneous latter "notion of a structure devoid of restraint or reason" influenced by the memory of Ivan's irrational atrocities. The central core and the four larger churches placed on the four major compass points are octagonal; the four diagonally placed smaller churches are cuboid, although their shape is hardly visible through later additions. The larger churches stand on massive foundations, while the smaller ones were each placed on a raised platform as if hovering above ground.

 

Although the side churches are arranged in perfect symmetry, the cathedral as a whole is not. The larger central church was deliberately offset to the west from the geometric centre of the side churches, to accommodate its larger apse on the eastern side. As a result of this subtle calculated asymmetry, viewing from the north and the south presents a complex multi-axial shape, while the western façade, facing the Kremlin, appears properly symmetrical and monolithic. The latter perception is reinforced by the fortress-style machicolation and corbeled cornice of the western Church of Entry into Jerusalem, mirroring the real fortifications of the Kremlin.

 

Inside the composite church is a labyrinth of narrow vaulted corridors and vertical cylinders of the churches. Today the cathedral consists of nine individual chapels. The largest, central one, the Church of the Intercession, is 46 metres (151 ft) tall internally but has a floor area of only 64 square metres (690 sq ft). Nevertheless, it is wider and airier than the church in Kolomenskoye with its exceptionally thick walls. The corridors functioned as internal parvises; the western corridor, adorned with a unique flat caissoned ceiling, doubled as the narthex.

 

The detached belfry of the original Trinity Church stood southwest or south of the main structure. Late 16th- and early 17th-century plans depict a simple structure with three roof tents, most likely covered with sheet metal. No buildings of this type survive to date, although it was then common and used in all of the pass-through towers of Skorodom. August von Meyenberg's panorama (1661) presents a different building, with a cluster of small onion domes.

 

Structure

The foundations, as was traditional in medieval Moscow, were built of white stone, while the churches themselves were built of red brick (28 by 14 by 8 cm (11.0 by 5.5 by 3.1 in)), then a relatively new material (the first attested brick building in Moscow, the new Kremlin Wall, was started in 1485). Surveys of the structure show that the basement level is perfectly aligned, indicating use of professional drawing and measurement, but each subsequent level becomes less and less regular. Restorers who replaced parts of the brickwork in 1954–1955 discovered that the massive brick walls conceal an internal wooden frame running the entire height of the church. This frame, made of elaborately tied thin studs, was erected as a life-size spatial model of the future cathedral and was then gradually enclosed in solid masonry.

 

The builders, fascinated by the flexibility of the new technology, used red bricks as a decorative medium both inside and out, leaving as much brickwork open as possible; when location required the use of stone walls, it was decorated with a brickwork pattern painted over stucco. A major novelty introduced by the church was the use of strictly "architectural" means of exterior decoration. Sculpture and sacred symbols employed by earlier Russian architecture are completely missing; floral ornaments are a later addition. Instead, the church boasts a diversity of three-dimensional architectural elements executed in brick.

 

Colour

The church acquired its present-day vivid colours in several stages from the 1680s to 1848. Russian attitude towards colour in the 17th century changed in favour of bright colours; iconographic and mural art experienced an explosive growth in the number of available paints, dyes and their combinations. The original colour scheme, missing these innovations, was far less challenging. It followed the depiction of the Heavenly City in the Book of Revelation:

 

And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.

And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats, I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

 

— Revelation, 4:3–4 (KJV)

The 25 seats from the biblical reference are alluded to in the building's structure, with the addition of eight small onion domes around the central tent, four around the western side church and four elsewhere. This arrangement survived through most of the 17th century. The walls of the church mixed bare red brickwork or painted imitation of bricks with white ornaments, in roughly equal proportion. The domes, covered with tin, were uniformly gilded, creating an overall bright but fairly traditional combination of white, red and golden colours. Moderate use of green and blue ceramic inserts provided a touch of rainbow as prescribed by the Bible.

 

While historians agree on the colour of the 16th-century domes, their shape is disputed. Boris Eding wrote that they most likely were of the same onion shape as the present-day domes. However, both Kolomenskoye and Dyakovo churches have flattened hemispherical domes, and the same type could have been used by Barma and Postnik.

 

Development

1583–1596

The original Trinity Church burnt down in 1583 and was refitted by 1593. The ninth sanctuary, dedicated to Basil Fool for Christ (the 1460s–1552), was added in 1588 next to the north-eastern sanctuary of the Three Patriarchs. Another local fool, Ivan the Blessed, was buried on the church grounds in 1589; a sanctuary in his memory was established in 1672 inside the south-eastern arcade.

 

The vault of the Saint Basil Sanctuary serves as a reference point in evaluating the quality of Muscovite stonemasonry and engineering. As one of the first vaults of its type, it represents the average of engineering craft that peaked a decade later in the church of the Trinity in Khoroshovo (completed 1596). The craft was lost in the Time of Troubles; buildings from the first half of the 17th century lack the refinement of the late 16th century, compensating for poor construction skill with thicker walls and heavier vaults.

 

1680–1683

The second, and most significant, round of refitting and expansion took place in 1680–1683. The nine churches themselves retained their appearance, but additions to the ground-floor arcade and the first-floor platform were so profound that Nikolay Brunov rebuilt a composite church from an "old" building and an independent work that incorporated the "new" Trinity Church. What once was a group of nine independent churches on a common platform became a monolithic temple.

 

The formerly open ground-floor arcades were filled with brick walls; the new space housed altars from thirteen former wooden churches erected on the site of Ivan's executions in Red Square. Wooden shelters above the first-floor platform and stairs (the cause of frequent fires) were rebuilt in brick, creating the present-day wrap-around galleries with tented roofs above the porches and vestibules.

 

The old detached belfry was demolished; its square basement was reused for a new belltower. The tall single tented roof of this belltower, built in the vernacular style of the reign of Alexis I, significantly changed the appearance of the cathedral, adding a strong asymmetrical counterweight to the church itself. The effect is most pronounced on the southern and eastern facades (as viewed from Zaryadye), although the belltower is large enough to be seen from the west.

 

The first ornamental murals in the cathedral appeared in the same period, starting with floral ornaments inside the new galleries; the towers retained their original brickwork pattern. Finally, in 1683, the church was adorned with a tiled cornice in yellow and blue, featuring a written history of the church in Old Slavic typeface.

 

1737–1784

In 1737 the church was damaged by a massive fire and later restored by Ivan Michurin. The inscriptions made in 1683 were removed during the repairs of 1761–1784. The church received its first figurative murals inside the churches; all exterior and interior walls of the first two floors were covered with floral ornamentation. The belltower was connected with the church through a ground-floor annex; the last remaining open arches of the former ground-floor arcade were filled during the same period, erasing the last hint of what was once an open platform carrying the nine churches of Ivan's Jerusalem.

 

1800–1848

Paintings of Red Square by Fyodor Alekseyev, made in 1800–1802, show that by this time the church was enclosed in an apparently chaotic cluster of commercial buildings; rows of shops "transformed Red Square into an oblong and closed yard." In 1800 the space between the Kremlin wall and the church was still occupied by a moat that predated the church itself. The moat was filled in preparation for the coronation of Alexander I in 1801. The French troops who occupied Moscow in 1812 used the church for stables and looted anything worth taking. The church was spared by the Fire of Moscow (1812) that razed Kitai-gorod, and by the troops' failure to blow it up according to Napoleon's order. The interiors were repaired in 1813 and the exterior in 1816. Instead of replacing missing ceramic tiles of the main tent, the Church preferred to simply cover it with a tin roof.

 

The fate of the immediate environment of the church has been a subject of dispute between city planners since 1813. Scotsman William Hastie proposed clearing the space around all sides of the church and all the way down to the Moskva River; the official commission led by Fyodor Rostopchin and Mikhail Tsitsianov agreed to clear only the space between the church and Lobnoye Mesto. Hastie's plan could have radically transformed the city, but he lost to the opposition, whose plans were finally endorsed by Alexander I in December 1817 (the specific decision on clearing the rubble around the church was issued in 1816).

 

Nevertheless, actual redevelopment by Joseph Bove resulted in clearing the rubble and creating Vasilyevskaya (St. Basil's) Square between the church and Kremlin wall by shaving off the crest of the Kremlin Hill between the church and the Moskva River. Red Square was opened to the river, and "St. Basil thus crowned the decapitated hillock." Bove built the stone terrace wall separating the church from the pavement of Moskvoretskaya Street; the southern side of the terrace was completed in 1834. Minor repairs continued until 1848, when the domes acquired their present-day colours.

 

1890–1914

Preservationist societies monitored the state of the church and called for a proper restoration throughout the 1880s and 1890s, but it was regularly delayed for lack of funds. The church did not have a congregation of its own and could only rely on donations raised through public campaigning; national authorities in Saint Petersburg and local in Moscow prevented financing from state and municipal budgets. In 1899 Nicholas II reluctantly admitted that this expense was necessary, but again all the involved state and municipal offices, including the Holy Synod, denied financing. Restoration, headed by Andrey Pavlinov (died 1898) and Sergey Solovyov, dragged on from 1896 to 1909; in total, preservationists managed to raise around 100,000 roubles.

 

Restoration began with replacing the roofing of the domes. Solovyov removed the tin roofing of the main tent installed in the 1810s and found many original tiles missing and others discoloured; after a protracted debate the whole set of tiles on the tented roof was replaced with new ones. Another dubious decision allowed the use of standard bricks that were smaller than the original 16th-century ones. Restorers agreed that the paintwork of the 19th century must be replaced with a "truthful recreation" of historic patterns, but these had to be reconstructed and deduced based on medieval miniatures. In the end, Solovyov and his advisers chose a combination of deep red with deep green that is retained to the present.

 

In 1908 the church received its first warm air heating system, which did not work well because of heat losses in long air ducts, heating only the eastern and northern sanctuaries. In 1913 it was complemented with a pumped water heating system serving the rest of the church.

 

1918–1941

During World War I, the church was headed by protoiereus Ioann Vostorgov, a nationalist preacher and a leader of the Black-Hundredist Union of the Russian People. Vostorgov was arrested by Bolsheviks in 1918 on a pretext of embezzling nationalized church properties and was executed in 1919.[citation needed] The church briefly enjoyed Vladimir Lenin's "personal interest"; in 1923 it became a public museum, though religious services continued until 1929.

 

Bolshevik planners entertained ideas of demolishing the church after Lenin's funeral (January 1924). In the first half of the 1930s, the church became an obstacle for Joseph Stalin's urbanist plans, carried out by Moscow party boss Lazar Kaganovich, "the moving spirit behind the reconstruction of the capital". The conflict between preservationists, notably Pyotr Baranovsky, and the administration continued at least until 1936 and spawned urban legends. In particular, a frequently-told story is that Kaganovich picked up a model of the church in the process of envisioning Red Square without it, and Stalin sharply responded "Lazar, put it back!" Similarly, Stalin's master planner, architect Vladimir Semyonov, reputedly dared to "grab Stalin's elbow when the leader picked up a model of the church to see how Red Square would look without it" and was replaced by pure functionary Sergey Chernyshov.

 

In the autumn of 1933, the church was struck from the heritage register. Baranovsky was summoned to perform a last-minute survey of the church slated for demolition, and was then arrested for his objections. While he served his term in the Gulag, attitudes changed and by 1937 even hard-line Bolshevik planners admitted that the church should be spared. In the spring of 1939, the church was locked, probably because demolition was again on the agenda; however, the 1941 publication of Dmitry Sukhov's detailed book on the survey of the church in 1939–1940 speaks against this assumption.

 

1947 to present

In the first years after World War II renovators restored the historical ground-floor arcades and pillars that supported the first-floor platform, cleared up vaulted and caissoned ceilings in the galleries, and removed "unhistoric" 19th-century oil paint murals inside the churches. Another round of repairs, led by Nikolay Sobolev in 1954–1955, restored original paint imitating brickwork, and allowed restorers to dig inside old masonry, revealing the wooden frame inside it. In the 1960s, the tin roofing of the domes was replaced with copper.

 

The last round of renovation was completed in September 2008 with the opening of the restored sanctuary of St. Alexander Svirsky. The building is still partly in use today as a museum and, since 1991, is occasionally used for services by the Russian Orthodox Church. Since 1997 Orthodox Christian services have been held regularly. Nowadays every Sunday at Saint Basil's church there is a divine liturgy at 10 a.m. with an Akathist to Saint Basil.

 

Naming

The building, originally known as "Trinity Church",[8] was consecrated on 12 July 1561, and was subsequently elevated to the status of a sobor (similar to an ecclesiastical basilica in the Catholic Church, but usually and incorrectly translated as "cathedral"). "Trinity", according to tradition, refers to the easternmost sanctuary of the Holy Trinity, while the central sanctuary of the church is dedicated to the Intercession of Mary. Together with the westernmost sanctuary of the Entry into Jerusalem, these sanctuaries form the main east–west axis (Christ, Mary, Holy Trinity), while other sanctuaries are dedicated to individual saints.

 

Sanctuaries of the cathedral

Compass point Type Dedicated to Commemorates

Central coreTented churchIntercession of Most Holy TheotokosBeginning of the final assault of Kazan, 1 October 1552

WestColumnEntry of Christ into JerusalemTriumph of the Muscovite troops

North-westGroin vaultSaint Gregory the Illuminator of ArmeniaCapture of Ars Tower of Kazan Kremlin, 30 September 1552

NorthColumnSaint Martyrs Cyprian and Justinia (since 1786 Saint Adrian and Natalia of Nicomedia)Complete capture of Kazan Kremlin, 2 October 1552

North-eastGroin vaultThree Patriarchs of Alexandria (since 1680 Saint John the Merciful)Defeat of Yepancha's cavalry on 30 August 1552

EastColumnLife-giving Holy TrinityHistorical Trinity Church on the same site

South-eastGroin vaultSaint Alexander SvirskyDefeat of Yepancha's cavalry on 30 August 1552

SouthColumnThe icon of Saint Nicholas from the Velikaya River (Nikola Velikoretsky)The icon was brought to Moscow in 1555.

South-westGroin vaultSaint Barlaam of KhutynMay have been built to commemorate Vasili III of Russia

North-eastern annex (1588)Groin vaultBasil the BlessedGrave of venerated local saint

South-eastern annex (1672)Groin vaultLaying the Veil (since 1680: Nativity of Theotokos, since 1916: Saint John the Blessed of Moscow)Grave of venerated local saint

The name "Intercession Church" came into use later, coexisting with Trinity Church. From the end of the 16th century[66] to the end of the 17th century the cathedral was also popularly called Jerusalem, with reference to its church of Entry into Jerusalem as well as to its sacral role in religious rituals. Finally, the name of Vasily (Basil) the Blessed, who died during construction and was buried on-site, was attached to the church at the beginning of the 17th century.

 

Current Russian tradition accepts two coexisting names of the church: the official "Church of Intercession on the Moat" (in full, the "Church of Intercession of Most Holy Theotokos on the Moat"), and the "Temple of Basil the Blessed". When these names are listed together the latter name, being informal, is always mentioned second.

 

The common Western translations "Cathedral of Basil the Blessed" and "Saint Basil's Cathedral" incorrectly bestow the status of cathedral on the church of Basil, but are nevertheless widely used even in academic literature. Especially during the 19. century, in English and other languages the Saint Basil's Cathedral was also called (Cathedral or Church of) Vassili Blagennoi.

 

Sacral and social role

On the day of its consecration the church itself became part of Orthodox thaumaturgy. According to the legend, its "missing" ninth church (more precisely a sanctuary) was "miraculously found" during a ceremony attended by Tsar Ivan IV, Metropolitan Makarius with the divine intervention of Saint Tikhon. Piskaryov's Chronist wrote in the second quarter of the 17th century:

 

And the Tsar came to the dedication of the said church with Tsaritsa Nastasia and with Metropolitan Makarius and brought the icon of St Nicholas the Wonderworker that came from Vyatka. And they began to offer a prayer service with sanctified water. And the Tsar touched the base with his own hands. And the builders saw that another sanctuary appeared, and told the Tsar. And the Tsar, and Metropolitan, and all the clergy were surprised by the finding of another sanctuary. And the Tsar ordered it to be dedicated to Nicholas ...

 

— Piskaryov Chronicle, 1560 (7068 per Byzantine calendar)

 

Allegory of Jerusalem

Construction of wrap-around ground-floor arcades in the 1680s visually united the nine churches of the original cathedral into a single building. Earlier, the clergy and the public perceived it as nine distinct churches on a common base, a generalized allegory of the Orthodox Heavenly City similar to fantastic cities of medieval miniatures. At a distance, separate churches towering over their base resembled the towers and churches of a distant citadel rising above the defensive wall. The abstract allegory was reinforced by real-life religious rituals where the church played the role of the biblical Temple in Jerusalem:

 

The capital city, Moscow, is split into three parts; the first of them, called Kitai-gorod, is encircled with a solid thick wall. It contains an extraordinary beautiful church, all clad in shiny bright gems, called Jerusalem. It is the destination of an annual Palm Sunday walk, when the Grand Prince must lead a donkey carrying the Patriarch, from the Church of Virgin Mary to the church of Jerusalem which stands next to the citadel walls. Here is where the most illustrious princely, noble and merchant families live. Here is, also, the main muscovite marketplace: the trading square is built as a brick rectangle, with twenty lanes on each side where the merchants have their shops and cellars ...

 

— Peter Petreius, History of the Great Duchy of Moscow, 1620

Templum S. Trinitatis, etiam Hierusalem dicitur; ad quo Palmarum fest Patriarcha asino insidens a Caesare introducitur.

Temple of Holy Trinity, also called Jerusalem, to where the tsar leads the Patriarch, sitting on a donkey, on the Palm Holiday.

 

— Legend of Peter's map of Moscow, 1597, as reproduced in the Bleau Atlas

The last donkey walk (хождение на осляти) took place in 1693. Mikhail Petrovich Kudryavtsev noted that all cross processions of the period began, as described by Petreius, from the Dormition Church, passed through St. Frol's (Saviour's) Gate and ended at Trinity Cathedral. For these processions the Kremlin itself became an open-air temple, properly oriented from its "narthex" (Cathedral Square) in the west, through the "royal doors" (Saviour's Gate), to the "sanctuary" (Trinity Cathedral) in the east.

 

Urban hub

Tradition calls the Kremlin the centre of Moscow, but the geometric centre of the Garden Ring, first established as the Skorodom defensive wall in the 1590s, lies outside the Kremlin wall, coincident with the cathedral. Pyotr Goldenberg (1902–71), who popularized this notion in 1947, still regarded the Kremlin as the starting seed of Moscow's radial-concentric system, despite Alexander Chayanov's earlier suggestion that the system was not strictly concentric at all.

 

In the 1960s Gennady Mokeev (born 1932) formulated a different concept of the historical growth of Moscow. According to Mokeev, medieval Moscow, constrained by the natural boundaries of the Moskva and Neglinnaya Rivers, grew primarily in a north-easterly direction into the posad of Kitai-gorod and beyond. The main road connecting the Kremlin to Kitai-gorod passed through St. Frol's (Saviour's) Gate and immediately afterwards fanned out into at least two radial streets (present-day Ilyinka and Varvarka), forming the central market square. In the 14th century the city was largely contained within two balancing halves, Kremlin and Kitai-gorod, separated by a marketplace, but by the end of the century it extended further along the north-eastern axis. Two secondary hubs in the west and south spawned their own street networks, but their development lagged behind until the Time of Troubles.

 

Tsar Ivan's decision to build the church next to St. Frol's Gate established the dominance of the eastern hub with a major vertical accent, and inserted a pivot point between the nearly equal Kremlin and Kitai-gorod into the once amorphous marketplace. The cathedral was the main church of the posad, and at the same time it was perceived as a part of the Kremlin thrust into the posad, a personal messenger of the Tsar reaching the masses without the mediation of the boyars and clergy. It was complemented by the nearby Lobnoye mesto, a rostrum for the Tsar's public announcements first mentioned in chronicles in 1547 and rebuilt in stone in 1597–1598. Conrad Bussow, describing the triumph of False Dmitriy I, wrote that on 3 June 1606 "a few thousand men hastily assembled and followed the boyarin with [the impostor's] letter through the whole Moscow to the main church they call Jerusalem that stands right next to the Kremlin gates, raised him on Lobnoye Mesto, called out for the Muscovites, read the letter and listened to the boyarin's oral explanation."

 

Replicas

A scale model of Saint Basil's Cathedral has been built in Jalainur in Inner Mongolia, near China's border with Russia. The building houses a science museum.

ON DETACHMENT

 

"I have read many writings of pagan masters, and of the prophets, and of the Old and New Testaments, and have sought earnestly and with all diligence to discover which is the best and highest virtue whereby a man may chiefly and most firmly join himself to God,and whereby a man may become by grace what God is by nature, and whereby a man may come closest to his image when he was in God, wherein there was no difference between him and God, before God made creatures. After a thorough study of these writings I find, as well as my reason can testify or perceive, that only pure detachment surpasses all things, for all virtues have some regard to creatures, but detachment is free of all creatures. Therefore our Lord said to Martha, "unum est necessarium " (Luke 1 0 : 42), which is as much as to say, 'Martha, he who would be serene and pure needs but one thing: detachment.'

 

The teachers greatly praise love, as does St. Paul who says, "Whatever things I may do, and have not love, I am nothing" (cf. 1 Cor. 1 3 : 1 ). But I extol detachment above any love. First, because, at best, love constrains me to love God, but detachment compels God to love me. Now it is a far nobler thing my constraining God to me than for me to constrain myself to God. That is because God is more readily able to adapt Himself to me, and can more easily unite with me than I could unite with God. That detachment forces God to me, I can prove thus: everything wants to be in its natural place. Now God's natural place is unity and purity, and that comes from detachment. Therefore God is bound to give Himself to a detached heart.

 

In the second place I extol detachment above love because love compels me to suffer all things for God's sake, whereas detachment makes me receptive of nothing but God. Now it is far nobler to be receptive of nothing but God than to suffer all things for God, for in suffering a man has some regard to the creatures from which he gets the suffering, but detachment is quite free of all creatures. But that detachment is receptive of nothing but God, I can prove this way: whatever is to be received must be taken in somewhere. Now detachment is so nearly nothing that there is no thing subtle enough to maintain itself in detachment except God alone. He is so subtle and so simple that He can stay in a detached heart. Therefore detachment is receptive of nothing but God.

 

The masters also extol humility above many other virtues. But I extol detachment above humility for this reason: humility can exist without detachment, but perfect detachment cannot exist without perfect humility, for perfect humility ends in the destruction of self. Now detachment comes so close to nothing, that between perfect detachment and nothing no thing can exist. Therefore perfect detachment cannot be without humility. But two virtues are always better than one.

 

The second reason why I praise detachment above humility is because humility means abasing oneself beneath all creatures, and in that abasement man goes out of himself into creatures, but detachment rests within itself. Now no going out can ever be so noble, but remaining within is nobler still. As the prophet David says, "Omnis gloria eius filiae regis ab intus " (Ps. 44 : 14), which is to say, "All the glory of the daughter comes from her inwardness. " Perfect detachment is not concerned about being above or below any creature; it does not wish to be below or above, it would stand on its own, loving none and hating none, and seeks neither equality nor inequality with any creature, nor this nor that: it wants merely to be. But to be either this or that it does not wish at all. For whoever would be this or that wants to be something, but detachment wants to be nothing. It is therefore no burden on anything.

 

Now somebody might say, 'Well, our Lady possessed all virtues to perfection, and so she must have had perfect detachment. But ifdetachment is higher than humility, why then did our Lady glory in her h umility and not in her detachment when she said, "Quia respexit dominus humilitatem ancillae suae " (Luke 1 : 48 ) , that is to say, " He regarded the humility of his handmaiden " ? '

 

I reply that in God there is detachment and humility, insofar as

we can speak of God's having virtues. You should know that it was loving humility that led God to stoop to enter human nature, while detachment stood immovable within itself when he became man, just as it did when He created heaven and earth, as I shall tell you later. And because our Lord, when he would become man, stood unmoved in his detachment, our Lady knew that he required the same of her too, and that in this case he looked to her humility and not her detachment. For if she had thought once about her detachment and said, 'he regarded my detachment,' that detachment would have been sullied and would not have been whole and perfect, since a going forth would have occurred. But nothing, however little, may proceed from detachment without staining it. There you have the reason why our Lady gloried in her humility and not her detachment. Concerning this, the prophet said, "Audiam, quid Loquatur in me dominus deus " (Ps. 84:9), that is to say, " I will (be silent and) hear what my lord God says within me,'' as if he were to say, 'If God wishes to speak to me, let Him come into me, for I will not go out.'

 

I also praise detachment above all compassion, for compassion isnothing but a man's going out of himself by reason of his fellow creatures' lack, by which his heart is troubled. But detachment is freeof this, stays in itself and is not troubled by any thing: for as long asany thing can trouble a man, he is not in a right state. In short, when I consider all the virtues, I find none so completely without lack and so conformed to God as detachment.

 

A master called Avicenna declares that the mind of him who

stands detached is of such nobility that whatever he sees is true, and whatever he desires he obtains, and whatever he commands must be obeyed. And this you must know for sure: when the free mind is quite detached, it constrains God to itself, and if it were able to stand formless and free of all accidentals, it would assume God's proper nature. But God can give that to none but Himself, therefore God can do no more for the detached mind than give Himself to it. But

the man who stands thus in utter detachment is rapt into eternity in such a way that nothing transient can move him, and that he is aware of nothing corporeal and is said to be dead to the world, for he has no taste for anything earthly. That is what St. Paul meant when he said, "I live and yet do not live - Christ lives in me" (Gal. 2:20).

 

Now you may ask what this detachment is that is so noble in

itself. You should know that true detachment is nothing else but a mind that stands unmoved by all accidents of joy or sorrow, honor, shame, or disgrace, as a mountain of lead stands unmoved by a breath of wind. This immovable detachment brings a man into the greatest likeness to God. For the reason why God is God is because of His immovable detachment, and from this detachment He has His purity, His simplicity, and His immutability. Therefore, if a man is to be like

God, as far as a creature can have likeness with God, this must come from detachment. This draws a man into purity, and from purity into simplicity, and from simplicity into immutability, and these things make a likeness between God and that man; and this likeness must occur through grace, for grace draws a man away from all temporal things and purges him of all that is transient. You must know, too, that to be empty of all creatures is to be full of God, and to be full of all creatures is to be empty of God.

 

You should also know that God has stood in this unmoved detachment from all eternity, and still so stands; and you should know further that when God created heaven and earth and all creatures, this affected His unmoved detachment just as little as if no creature had ever been created. I say further: all the prayers and good works that a man can do in time affect God's detachment as little as if no prayers or good works had ever occurred in time, and God never became more ready to give or more inclined toward a man than if he had never uttered the prayer or performed the good works. I say still further: when the Son in the Godhead wanted to become man, and became man and endured martyrdom, that affected God's unmoved detachment as little as if he had never become man. You might say atthis, 'Then I hear that all prayers and good works are wasted because God does not allow Himself to be moved by anyone with such things, and yet it is said that God wants us to pray to Him for everything.'

 

Now you should mark me well, and understand properly if you

can, that God in His first eternal glance (if we can assume that there was a first glance) saw all things as they should occur, and saw in the same glance when and how He would create all creatures and when the Son would become man and suffer; He saw too the least prayer and good work that anyone should do, and saw which prayers and devotion He would and should accede to; He saw that you will call upon Him earnestly tomorrow and pray to Him, but God will not grant your petition and prayer tomorrow, for He has granted it in His eternity, before ever you became a man. But if your prayer is not sincere and in earnest, God will not deny it to you now, for He has denied it to you in His eternity.

 

And thus God has regarded all things in His first eternal glance, and God performs nothing afresh, for all has been performed in advance. Thus God ever stands in His immovable detachment, and yet the prayers and good works of people are not wasted, for he who does well will be rewarded, and he who does evil will reap accordingly. This is explained by St. Augustine in the fifth book of On the Trinity, in the last chapter thus: 'Deus autem, etc. ' which means, 'God forbid that anyone should say that God loves anyone in time, for with Him there is no past and no future, and He loved all the saints before the world was ever created, as He foresaw them. And when it comes to be that He displays in time what He has seen in eternity, then people think He has gained a new love for them; so too, when God is angry or does some good thing, it is we who are changed while He remains

unchanged, j ust as the sun's ray hurts a sick eye and delights a sound one, and yet the sunshine remains unchanged in itself.' Augustine also touches on the same idea in the twelfth book of On the Trinity in the fourth chapter, where he says, 'Nam Deus non ad tempus videt, nee aliquid fit novi in eius visione, ' 'God does not see in temporal fashion, and no new vision arises in Him.' In the same sense Isidore speaks in his book On the Highest Good, saying, 'Many people ask, What did God do before He created heaven and earth, or whence came the new will in God that He made creatures?' and he answers, 'No new will ever arose in God, for although a creature did not exist in itself (as it is now), yet it was before all time in God and in His reason.' God did not create heaven and earth as we (perishable beings) might say, 'let that be so! ' for all creatures were spoken in the Eternal Word. To this we can add what our Lord said to Moses when Moses said, " Lord, if Pharaoh asks me who you are, how am I to answer him ? " and the Lord said, " Say, 'He who IS has sent me" (Exod. 3 : 1 3 -1 4 ) . That is as much as to say, He who is immutable in Himself has sent me.

 

But someone might say, 'Was Christ in unmoved detachment when he said: " My soul is sorrowful even unto death" (Matt. 26: 3 8; Mark 1 4 : 34), and Mary when she stood before the cross? How is all this compatible with unmoved detachment?' Concerning this, you should know what the masters say, that in every man there are two kinds of man.? The one is called the outer man, that is, the life of the senses: this man is served by the five senses, though the outer man functions by the power of the soul. The other is called the inner man, that is, man's inward nature. You should understand that a spiritual man, who loves God, makes use of the powers of the soul in the outer man only to the extent that the five outer senses need it: the inward nature is not concerned with the five senses except insofar as it is a guide or ruler of those senses, guarding them so that they do not yield to sense objects in a bestial fashion, as some folk do who live for carnal pleasures like beasts unendowed with reason; such people should be termed beasts rather than men. And whatever powers the soul has over and above what it gives to the five senses are all devoted to the inner man. And when such a man perceives a noble or elevated object, the soul draws into itself all the powers it has granted to the five senses, and then that man is said to be insensible or entranced, for his object is an intelligible image or something intelligible without an image. But you should know that God requires of every spiritual man to love Him with all the powers of the soul. He says, " Love your God with all your heart" (Deut. 6 : 5; Matt. 22 : 3 7; Mark 1 2 : 3 0; Luke 1 0 :27). Now some people use up all the powers of the soul in the outer man. These are people who turn all their senses and their reason toward perishable goods, knowing nothing of the inner man.

 

You should know that the outer man can be active while the inner man is completely free of this activity and unmoved. Now Christ too had an outer man and an inner man, and so did our Lady, and whatever Christ and our Lady ever said about external things, they did so according to the outer man, but the inner man remained in unmoved detachment. Thus it was when Christ said, " My soul is sorrowful unto death," and whatever lamentations our Lady made, or whatever else she said, inwardly she was in a state of unmoved detachment. Here is an analogy: a door swings open and shuts on its hinge. I would compare the outer woodwork of the door to the

outer man, and the hinge to the inner man. When the door opens and shuts, the boards move back and forth, but the hinge stays in the same place and is never moved thereby. It is the same in this case, if you understand it rightly. Now I ask, 'What is the object of pure detachment? ' My answer is that the object of pure detachment is neither this nor that. It rests on absolutely nothing, and I will tell you why: pure detachment rests on the highest, and he is at his highest, in whom God can work all His will. But God cannot work all His will in all hearts, for, although God is almighty, He can only work where He finds readiness or creates it. I say 'creates it' on account of St. Paul, because in him God found no readiness, but made him ready by infusion of grace. And so I say God works according as He finds us ready. His working is different in a man and in a stone. Here is an example from nature. If you heat a baker's oven and put in it dough of oats, barley, rye, and wheat, there is only one heat in the oven, but it does not have the same effect on the different kinds of dough, for one turns into fine bread, the second coarser, and the third coarser still. And that is not the fault of the heat, it is due to the materials which are unlike. In the same way God does not work alike in all our hearts: He works as He finds readiness and receptivity. Now in whatever heart there is this or that, there may be something in 'this' or 'that' which God cannot bring to the highest peak. And so, if the heart is to be ready to receive the highest, it must rest on absolutely nothing, and in that lies the greatest potentiality which can exist. For when the detached heart rests on the highest, that can only be on nothing, since that has the greatest receptivity. Let us take an example from nature: if I want to write on a wax tablet, then anything written on that tablet already, however wonderful it may be, will prevent me from writing there; and if I want to write I must erase or destroy whatever is on the tablet, and the tablet is never so suitable for me to write on as when there is nothing on it. Similarly, if God is to write the highest on my heart, then everything called 'this and that' must be expunged from my heart, and then my heart stands in detachment. Then God can work the highest according to His supreme will. Therefore the object of a detached heart is neither this nor that.

 

Again I ask, 'What is the prayer of a detached heart? ' My answer is that detachment and purity cannot pray, for whoever prays wants God to grant him something, or else wants God to take something from him. But a detached heart desires nothing at all, nor has it anything it wants to get rid of. Therefore it is free of all prayers, or its prayer consists of nothing but being uniform with God. That is all its prayer. In this sense we can take St. Dionysius's comment on the saying of St. Paul, "There are many who run, but only one gains the crown " ( 1 Cor. 9 : 25 ) . All the powers of the soul compete for the crown but the essence alone can win it. Dionysius says the race is nothing but a turning away from all creatures and a union with the uncreated. And when the soul has got so far, it loses its name and is drawn into God, so that in itself it becomes nothing, j ust as the sun draws the dawn into itself and annihilates it. To this state nothing brings a man but pure detachment. To this we may add a saying of St. Augustine, 'The soul has a secret entrance to the divine nature, when all things become nothing for it.' On earth, this entrance is nothing but pure detachment, and when the detachment reaches its climax, it becomes ignorant with knowing, loveless with loving, and dark with enlightenment. Thus we may understand the words of a master, that the poor in spirit are they who have abandoned all things to God, j ust as He possessed them when we did not exist. None can do this but a pure, detached heart.

 

That God would rather be in a detached heart than in all other hearts, appears if you ask me, 'What does God seek in all things ? ' to which I answer from the Book of Wisdom, where He says, " In all things I seek rest" (Sir. 24: 1 1 ). But nowhere is perfect rest to be found but in a detached heart. That is why God prefers to be there rather than in other virtues or in anything else. You should know, too, that the more a man strives to be receptive to divine influence, the more blessed he is; and whoever can gain the highest readiness in this is in the highest state of blessedness. But none can make himself receptive to divine influence but by uniformity with God, for insofar as a man is uniform with God, to that extent he is receptive to the divine influence. But uniformity comes from man's subjecting himself to God, and the more a man is subject to creatures, the less he is uniform with God. Now the pure detached heart stands free of all creatures. Therefore it is totally subject to God, and therefore it is in the highest degree of uniformity with God, and is also the most receptive to divine influence. This was what St. Paul meant when he said, " Put on Christ, " meaning unformity with Christ, for this putting on can only take place through uniformity with Christ. You should know that when Christ became man, he took on, not a man, but human nature. Therefore, go out of all things and then there will remain only what Christ took on, and thus you will have put on Christ.

 

Whoever would know the nobility and profit of perfect detachment, let him note Christ's saying concerning his humanity, when he said to his disciples, "It is expedient for you that I should go away from you, for if I do not go away, the Holy Spirit cannot come to you" (John 1 6 : 7). This is just as if he had said, 'You rejoice too much in my present form, and therefore the perfect joy of the Holy Ghost cannot be yours.' So, leave all images and unite with the formless essence, for God's spiritual comfort is delicate; therefore He will not offer Himself to any but to him who scorns physical comforts.

 

Now take note, all who are sensible! No man is happier than he who has the greatest detachment. There can be no fleshly and physical comfort without some spiritual harm, for "the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh" (cf. Gal. 5 : 1 7) . Therefore, whoever in the flesh sows disorderly love reaps death, and whoever in the spirit sows ordered love, reaps from the spirit eternal life. Therefore, the quicker a man flees from the created, the quicker the Creator runs toward him. So, take note, all sensible men! Since the joy we might have from the physical form of Christ hinders us in receiving the Holy Ghost, how much more of a hindrance to gaining God is our inordinate delight in evanescent comforts! That is why detachment is best, for it purifies the soul, purges the conscience, kindles the heart, awakens the spirit, quickens the desire, makes us know God and, cutting off creatures, unites us with God.

 

Now take note, all who have good sense! The swiftest steed to bear you to His perfection is suffering, for none will enjoy greater eternal bliss than those who stand with Christ in the greatest bitterness. Nothing is more gall-bitter than suffering, nothing more honey-sweet than having suffered. Nothing disfigures the body before men like suffering, and nothing beautifies the soul before God like having suffered. The finest foundation on which this perfection can rest is humility. For whatever man's nature creeps here below in the deepest lowliness, that man's spirit will soar aloft to the heights of the Godhead, for j oy brings sorrow and sorrow joy. And so, whoever would attain perfect detachment should strive for perfect humility, and thus he will come to the neighborhood of God. That this may be all our lot, so help us the highest detachment, which is God Himself. Amen."

 

Meister Eckhart

St. Hilda’s By The Sea is a small Anglican church in Sechelt. Set among the verdant green trees of the temperate rainforest, it is an eclectic mix of old and new: retired British pensioners polish the altar crystal and set out flowers for Sunday services, presided over by a gay Chinese-Canadian priest. Tai chi mixes with Celtic mysticism in a melange that is somehow stronger than its parts. And isn’t that what community is all about?

  

From the official website:

 

Walking the labyrinth is an ancient spiritual act that is being rediscovered during our time.

 

Usually constructed from circular patterns, labyrinths are based on principles of sacred geometry. Sometimes called “divine imprints”, they are found around the world as sacred patterns that have been passed down through the ages for at least 4,000 years. When a pattern of a certain size is constructed or placed on the ground, it can be used for walking meditations and rituals.

 

Labyrinths and their geometric cousins (spirals and mandalas) can be found in almost every religious tradition. For example, the Kabbala, or Tree of Life, is found in the Jewish mystical tradition. The Hopi Medicine Wheel, and the Man in the Maze are two forms from the Native American labyrinth traditions. The Cretan labyrinth, the remains of which can be found on the island of Crete, has seven path rings and is the oldest known labyrinth (4,000 or 5.000 years old).

 

In Europe, the Celts and later the early Christian Celtic Church revered labyrinths and frequently built them in natural settings. Sacred dances would be performed in them to celebrate solar and religious festivals. During the Middle Ages, labyrinths were created in churches and cathedrals throughout France and Northern Italy. These characteristically flat church or pavement labyrinths were inlaid into the floor of the nave of the church.

 

The Chartres Labyrinth

 

The labyrinth constructed at St. Hilda’s is an 11-circuit labyrinth. It is a replica of the one embedded in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. The design of this labyrinth, and many of the other church labyrinths in Europe, is a reworking of the ancient labyrinth design in which an equal-armed cross is emphasized and surrounded by a web of concentric circles. As with many Christian symbols, this was an adaptation of a symbol; that is known to have predated the Christian faith. This medieval variation is considered a breakthrough in design because it is less linear than the preceding, more formal, Roman design that developed from quadrant to quadrant. The medieval design made one path as long as possible, starting at the outer circumference and leading to the centre. Fraught with twists and turns, the path’s meanderings were considered symbolic representations of the Christian pilgrim’s journey to the Holy City of Jerusalem and of one’s own journey through life. This classical design is sometimes referred to as “the Chartres Labyrinth” due to the location of its best known example. The labyrinth was built at Chartres in the early 13th century (~ 1215 A.D.). No one knows the source of this classical 11-circuit labyrinth design, and much of its spiritual meaning and use has been lost.

 

The Chartres Labyrinth is located in the west end of the nave, the central body of the cathedral. When you walk in the main doors and look towards the high altar, you see the center of the labyrinth on the floor about 50 feet in front of you. It is approximately 42 feet in diameter and the path is 16 inches wide. At Chartres, the center of the Rose Window mirrors the center of the labyrinth. The cathedral is perfectly proportioned, so that if we put the west wall of the cathedral on hinges and folded it down on the labyrinth, the Rose Window would fit almost perfectly over the labyrinth.

 

Labyrinth or Maze?

 

The difference between a labyrinth used for meditation and mazes can be confusing. Mazes often have many entrances, dead-ends and cul-de-sacs that frequently confound the human mind. In contrast, meditation labyrinths offer only one path. By following the one path to the center, the seeker can use the labyrinth to quiet his or her mind and find peace and illumination at the center of his or her being. “As soon as one enters the labyrinth, one realizes that the path of the labyrinth serves as a metaphor for one’s spiritual journey. The walk, and all that happens on it, can be grasped through the intuitive, pattern-discerning faculty of the person walking it. The genius of this tool is that it reflects back to the seeker whatever he or she needs to discover from the perspective of a new level of conscious awareness.”

 

The Labyrinth is a Universal Meditation Tool

 

Anyone from any tradition or spiritual path can walk into the labyrinth and, through reflecting in the present moment, can benefit from it. A meditation labyrinth is one of many tools that can be used for spiritual practice. Like any tool, it is best used with a proper, good, intention. A church or temple can be used simply as a refuge from a rainstorm, but it can be so much more with a different intention. The same is true of the labyrinth. The seeker is only asked to put one foot in front of the other. By stepping into the labyrinth, we are choosing once again to walk the contemplative spiritual path. We are agreeing to let ourselves be open to see, to be free to hear, and to becoming real enough to respond. The labyrinth is a prayer path, a crucible of change, a meditation tool, a blueprint where psyche meets soul.

 

The best way to learn about the labyrinth is to walk a well-constructed one a few times, with an open heart and an open mind. Then allow your experience to guide you as to whether this will be a useful spiritual tool for you.

 

The Chartres Labyrinth and the Pilgrim’s Journey

 

Pilgrims are persons in motion – passing through territories not their own – seeking something we might call completion, or perhaps the word clarity will do as well, a goal to which only the spirit’s compass points the way.

Richard R. Niebuhr in Pilgrims and Pioneers

 

“The tradition of pilgrimage is as old as religion itself. Worshippers on pilgrimage traveled to holy festivals whether to solstice celebrations, to Mecca to gather around the Ka’aba for the high holy days of Islam, or to Easter festivals in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Pilgrimages were a mixture of religious duty and holiday relaxation for the peasant, the commoner and rich land owner alike. The journey was often embarked on in groups with designated places to stay at night. The pilgrims were restless to explore the mystical holy places, and many were in search of physical or spiritual healing.

 

The Christian story, which emphasized the humanity of Christ, fascinated the pilgrims. In the Middle Ages, most people did not read. As a result, they were much more oriented to the senses than we are today. They learned the story by traveling to Jerusalem to walk where Jesus walked, to pray where he prayed, and to experience, in a solemn moment, where he died. Unlike today, Pilgrims encountered the truth of the Christian mystery through an ongoing intimacy with all their senses.

 

When a person committed his or her life to Christ in the early Middle Ages, they sometimes made a vow to make a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem. However, by the 12th century when the Crusades swept across Europe and the ownership of Jerusalem was in tumultuous flux, travel became dangerous and expensive. In response to this situation, the Roman Church appointed seven pilgrimage cathedrals to become “Jerusalem” for pilgrims. Consequently, in the pilgrimage tradition, the path within the labyrinth was called the Chemin de Jerusalem and the center of the labyrinth was called “New Jerusalem”.

 

The walk into the labyrinth marked the end of the physical journey across the countryside and served as a symbolic entry-way into the spiritual realms of the Celestial City. The image of the Celestial City – taken straight out of the Book of Revelation to John – captivated the religious imagination of many during the Middle Ages. The wondrous Gothic cathedrals, with painted walls either in bright, even gaudy colours, or else white-washed, were designed to represent the Celestial City. The stained glass windows – when illuminated by the sun – created the sense of colourful, dancing jewels, allowing the pilgrim to experience the awesome mystery of the City of God.”

 

The Journey of Life

 

A fundamental approach to the labyrinth is to see it as a metaphor for life’s journey. The labyrinth reminds us that all of life, with its joys, sorrows, twists and turns, is a journey that comes from God (birth) and goes to God (death). It is a physical metaphor for the journey of healing, spiritual and emotional growth and transformation. Following the path is like any journey. Sometimes you feel you are at or nearing your destination, and at other times you may feel distant or even lost. Only by faithfully keeping to the path will you arrive at the physical center of the labyrinth, which signifies God, the center of our lives and souls.

 

Applying the Three Fold Mystical Tradition to the Labyrinth

 

In the Christian mystical tradition, the journey to God was articulated in the three stages. These stages have become recognized as being universal to meditation: to release and quiet; to open and receive; and to take what was gained back out into the world.

 

The Three Stages

 

The first part of the Three- Fold Mystical Path is Purgation. This archaic word is from the root word “to purge”, meaning to cleanse, to let go. Shedding is another way of describing the experience. The mystical word is empting or releasing. It is believed that monks journeyed the first part of the labyrinth Purgation on their knees as a penitential act. This was not done for reasons of punishment as we might think, but as a way to humble oneself before God.

 

The second stage of the Three-Fold Path, Illumination, is found in the center of the labyrinth. Usually it is a surprise to reach the center because the long winding path seems “illogical” and cannot be figured out by the linear mind. After quieting the mind in the first part of the walk, the center presents a new experience: a place of meditation and prayer. Often people at this stage in the walk find insight into their situation in life, or clarity about a certain problem, hence the label “illumination”. As one enters the

center, the instruction is simple: enter with an open heart and mind; receive what there is for you.

 

The third stage, Union, begins when you leave the center of the labyrinth and continues as you retrace the path that brought you in. In this stage the meditation takes on a grounded, energized feeling. Many people who have had an important experience in the center feel that this third stage of the labyrinth gives them a way of integrating the insights they received. Others feel that this stage stokes the creative fires within. It energizes insight. It empowers, invites, and even pushes us to be more authentic and confident and to take risks with our gifts in the world. Union means communing with God.

 

The Monastic Orders experienced a union with God through their community life by creating a fulfilling balance between the work that was assigned, sleep and the many hours of worship attended daily. Our times present a similar challenge: we struggle to find balance between work, sleep, family and friends, leisure and spiritual life. The lack of structured communities in which people share work responsibilities and the “every person for himself or herself” mentality (or every family for itself) prevalent in our highly individualistic society makes the task of finding balance even more difficult.

 

Monastic communities offered a mystical spirituality that spoke to highly intuitive and intensely introverted people and (paradoxically to some) at the same time provided an economic structure throughout Europe. Monasteries during the Middle Ages provided schools and hospitals managed by monks; yet, at the same time, cloistered life helped the monks stay inwardly directed. Today, without any reliable structure directing us, the way of union needs to be re-thought. Our times call for most of us to be outer-directed. We are called to action in every aspect of our society in order to meet the spiritual challenges that confront us in the 21st century. Gratefully, there are still people in religious orders holding the candle for deep contemplation, but the majority of people involved in the spiritual transformation are searching for a path that guides them to service in the world in an active, extroverted, compassionate way. The third stage of the labyrinth empowers the seeker to move back into the world replenished and directed – which makes the labyrinth a particularly powerful tool for transformation.

 

Walking the Labyrinth: The Process

 

The purpose of all spiritual disciplines – prayer, fasting, meditation – is to help create an open attentiveness that enables us to receive and renew our awareness of our grounding and wholeness in God.

 

The Experience of Walking Meditation

 

Many of us have trouble quieting our minds. The Buddhists call the distracted state of mind the “monkey mind”, which is an apt image of what the mind is frequently like: thoughts swinging like monkeys from branch to branch, chattering away without any rhyme or conscious reason. When the mind is quiet, we feel peaceful and open, aware of a silence that embraces the universe.

 

Complete quiet in the mind is not a realistic goal for most of us. Instead, the task is to dis-identify with the thoughts going through our minds. Don’t get hooked by the thoughts, let them go. Thomas Keating, a Cistercian monk who teaches Centering Prayer (meditation) in the Christian tradition, described the mind as a still lake. A thought is like a fish that swims through it. If you get involved with the fish (“Gee what an unusual fish, I wonder what it is called?”), then you are hooked. Many of us have discovered through learning meditation how difficult it is to quiet the mind; yet, the rewards are great.

 

In the labyrinth, the sheer act of walking a complicated, attention demanding path begins to focus the mind. Thoughts of daily tasks and experiences become less intrusive. A quiet mind does not happen automatically. You must gently guide the mind with the intention of letting go of extraneous thoughts. This is much easier to do when your whole body is moving – when you are walking. Movement takes away the excess charge of psychic energy that disturbs our efforts to quiet our thought processes.

 

Two Basic Approaches to the Walk

 

One way to walk the labyrinth is to choose to let all thought go and simply open yourself to your experience with gracious attention. Usually – though not always – quieting happens in the first stage of the walk. After the mind is quiet, you can choose to remain in the quiet. Or use the labyrinth as a prayer path. Simply begin to talk to God. This is an indication that you are ready to receive what is there for you, or you allow a sincere part of your being to find its voice.

 

A second approach to a labyrinth walk is to consider a question. Concentrate on the question as you walk in. Amplify your thoughts about it; let all else go but your question. When you walk into the center with an open heart and an open mind, you are opening yourself to receiving new information, new insights about yourself.

 

Guidelines for the Walk

 

Find your pace. In our chaotic world we are often pushed beyond a comfortable rhythm. In this state we lose the sense of our own needs. To make matters worse, we are often rushed and then forced to wait. Anyone who has hurried to the bank only to stand in line knows the feeling. Ironically, the same thing can happen with the labyrinth, but there is a difference. The labyrinth helps us find what our natural pace would be and draws our attention to it when we are not honouring it.

 

Along with finding your pace, support your movement through the labyrinth by becoming conscious of your breath. Let your breath flow smoothly in and out of your body. It can be coordinated with each step – as is done in the Buddhist walking meditation – if you choose. Let your experience be your guide.

 

Each experience in the labyrinth is different, even if you walk it often in a short period of time. The pace usually differs each time as well. It can change dramatically within the different stages of the walk. When the labyrinth has more than a comfortable number of seekers on it, you can “pass” people if you want to continue to honour the intuitive pace your inner process has set. If you are moving at a slower pace, you can allow people to pass you. At first people are uncomfortable with the idea of “passing” someone on the labyrinth. It looks competitive, especially since the walk is a spiritual exercise. Again, these kinds of thoughts and feelings, we hope, are greeted from a spacious place inside that smiles knowingly about the machinations of the human ego. On the spiritual path we meet every and all things. To find our pace, to allow spaciousness within, to be receptive to all experience, and to be aware of the habitual thoughts and issues that hamper our spiritual development is a road to self-knowledge.

 

Summary of How to Walk the Labyrinth

 

Pause at the entry way to allow yourself to be fully conscious of the act of stepping into the labyrinth. Allow about a minute, or several turns on the path, to create some space between yourself and the person in front of you. Some ritual act, such as a bow, may feel appropriate during the labyrinth walk. Do what comes naturally.

 

Follow your pace. Allow your body to determine the pace. If you allow a rapid pace and the person in front of you is moving slower, feel free to move around this person. This is easiest to do at the turns by turning earlier. If you are moving slowly, you can step onto the labyrs (wide spaces at the turns) to allow others to pass.

 

The narrow path is a two-way street. If you are going in and another person is going out, you will meet on the path. If you want to keep in an inward meditative state, simply do not make eye contact. If you meet someone you know, a touch of the hand or a hug may be an important acknowledgement of being on the path together.

 

Symbolism and Meanings Found in the Chartres Labyrinth

 

Circles and Spirals

 

The circle is the symbol of unity or union and it is the primary shape of all labyrinths. The circle in sacred geometry represents the incessant movement of the universe (uncomprehensible) as opposed to the square which represents comprehensible order. The labyrinth is a close cousin to the spiral and it, too, reflects the cyclical element of nature and is regarded as the symbol of eternal life.

 

The labyrinth functions like a spiral, creating a vortex in its center. Upon entering, the path winds in a clockwise pattern. Energy is being drawn out. Upon leaving the center the walker goes in a counter clockwise direction. The unwinding path integrates and empowers us on our walk back out. We are literally ushered back out into the world in a strengthened condition.

 

The Path

 

The path lies in 11 concentric circles with the 12th being the labyrinth center. The path meanders throughout the whole circle. There are 34 turns on the path going into the center. Six are semi-right turns and 28 are 180° turns. So the 12 rings that form the 11 pathways may symbolically represent, the 12 apostles, 12 tribes of Israel or 12 months of the year. Twelve is a mystical number in Christianity. In sacred geometry three represents heaven and four represents earth. Twelve is the product of 3 x 4 and, therefore, the path which flows through the whole is then representative of all creation.

 

The obvious metaphor for the path is the difficult path to salvation, with its many twists and turns. Since we cannot see a straight path to our destination, the labyrinth can be viewed as a metaphor for our lives. We learn to surrender to the path (Christ) and trust that he will lead us on our journey.

 

The path can also be viewed as grace or the Church guiding us through chaos.

 

The Cruciform and Labyrs

 

The labyrinth is divided equally into four quadrants that make an equal-armed cross or cruciform. The four arms represent in symbol what is thought to be the essential

 

structure of the universe for example, the four spatial directions, the four elements (earth, wind, water and fire), the four seasons and, most important, salvation through the cross. The four arms of the cross emerging from the center seem to give order to the would-be chaos of the meandering path around it.

 

The Chartres labyrinth cross or cruciform is delineated by the 10 labyrs (labyr means to turn and this is the root of the word labyrinth). The labyrs are double-ax shaped and visible at the turns and between turns. They are traditionally seen as a symbol of women’s power and creativity.

 

The Centre Rosette

 

In the Middle Ages, the rose was regarded as a symbol for the Virgin Mary. Because of its association with the myths of Percival and the Holy Grail at that time, it also was seen as a sign of beauty and love. The rose becomes symbolic of both human and divine love, of passionate love, but also love beyond passion. The single rose became a symbol of a simple acceptance of God’s love for the world.

 

Unlike a normal rose (which has five petals) the rosette has six petals and is steeped in mysticism. Although associated with the Rose of Sharon, which refers to Mary, it may also represent the Holy Spirit (wisdom and enlightenment). The six petals may have corresponded to the story of the six days of creation. In other mystical traditions, the petals can be viewed as the levels of evolution (mineral, plant, animal, humankind, angelic and divine).

 

The Lunations

 

The lunations are the outer ring of partial circles that complete the outside circle of the labyrinth. They are unique to the Chartres design.

 

Celtic Symbols on the St. Hilda’s Labyrinth

 

The Celtic peoples have given us seven enduring spiritual principles:

 

1. A deep respect of nature, regarding creation as the fifth Gospel.

 

2. Quiet care for all living things.

3. The love of learning.

4. A wonder-lust or migratory nature.

5. Love of silence and solitude.

6. Understanding of time as a sacred reality and an appreciation of ordinary life, worshipping God through everyday life, and with great joy.

7. The value of family and clan affiliation, and especially spiritual ties of soul friends.

To show our respect for such wisdom, two Celtic designs adorn the St. Hilda’s labyrinth.

 

To mark the entrance to the labyrinth is a Celtic zoomorphic design painted in red. Traditionally, Celtic monks used intricate knotwork and zoomorphic designs (odd animals intertwined in uncomfortable ways) as mere filler for their illuminated gospel texts. They had no discernible meaning.

 

However, because of their unique design components, zoomorphs are now associated with transformations.

 

Transformation, change, action, and passion are also associated with red, the colour of fire. Therefore, this entrance symbol may well be an appropriate sign for the journey ahead.

At the labyrinth’s centre is a Celtic triquetra. This interlocked knotwork design of three stylized fish (whales) is often interpreted as the Trinity knot. It is a perfect representation of the concept of "three in one" in Christian trinity beliefs. Having the design enclosed within the centre circle further emphasizes the unity theme.

 

The triquetra can also be considered to represent the triplicities of mind, body, and soul, as well as the three domains of earth- earth, sea, and sky.

 

Final Reflection: The Labyrinth as a “Thinning Place”

 

In Celtic Christianity, places where people felt most strongly connected with God’s presence were referred to as thin places. It was these places in nature (forest groves, hilltops and deep wells) that the seen and unseen worlds were most closely connected, and the inhabitants of both worlds could momentarily touch the other. Today our churches, temples and sacred sites are the new thin places to meet the Divine. Here, at St Hilda’s, we have opportunities to encounter many thinning places – whether it be during Eucharistic or Taize services, while singing or praying, or through the love of a welcoming inclusive community. The labyrinth is a welcome addition; and with the right intent can also become a new thinning place for the modern pilgrim/spiritual seeker.This outward journey is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. We can walk it. It can serve to frame the inward journey – a journey of repentance, forgiveness and rebirth, a journey that seeks a deeper faith, and greater holiness, a journey in search of God.

 

This High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 84 bracketed images with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, and touched up in Aperture.

 

Original size: 18160 × 9080 (164.9 MP; 194 MB).

 

Location: St. Hilda’s By The Sea Anglican Church, Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada

St. Hilda’s By The Sea is a small Anglican church in Sechelt. Set among the verdant green trees of the temperate rainforest, it is an eclectic mix of old and new: retired British pensioners polish the altar crystal and set out flowers for Sunday services, presided over by a gay Chinese-Canadian priest. Tai chi mixes with Celtic mysticism in a melange that is somehow stronger than its parts. And isn’t that what community is all about?

 

From the official website:

 

Walking the labyrinth is an ancient spiritual act that is being rediscovered during our time.

 

Usually constructed from circular patterns, labyrinths are based on principles of sacred geometry. Sometimes called “divine imprints”, they are found around the world as sacred patterns that have been passed down through the ages for at least 4,000 years. When a pattern of a certain size is constructed or placed on the ground, it can be used for walking meditations and rituals.

 

Labyrinths and their geometric cousins (spirals and mandalas) can be found in almost every religious tradition. For example, the Kabbala, or Tree of Life, is found in the Jewish mystical tradition. The Hopi Medicine Wheel, and the Man in the Maze are two forms from the Native American labyrinth traditions. The Cretan labyrinth, the remains of which can be found on the island of Crete, has seven path rings and is the oldest known labyrinth (4,000 or 5.000 years old).

 

In Europe, the Celts and later the early Christian Celtic Church revered labyrinths and frequently built them in natural settings. Sacred dances would be performed in them to celebrate solar and religious festivals. During the Middle Ages, labyrinths were created in churches and cathedrals throughout France and Northern Italy. These characteristically flat church or pavement labyrinths were inlaid into the floor of the nave of the church.

 

The Chartres Labyrinth

 

The labyrinth constructed at St. Hilda’s is an 11-circuit labyrinth. It is a replica of the one embedded in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. The design of this labyrinth, and many of the other church labyrinths in Europe, is a reworking of the ancient labyrinth design in which an equal-armed cross is emphasized and surrounded by a web of concentric circles. As with many Christian symbols, this was an adaptation of a symbol; that is known to have predated the Christian faith. This medieval variation is considered a breakthrough in design because it is less linear than the preceding, more formal, Roman design that developed from quadrant to quadrant. The medieval design made one path as long as possible, starting at the outer circumference and leading to the centre. Fraught with twists and turns, the path’s meanderings were considered symbolic representations of the Christian pilgrim’s journey to the Holy City of Jerusalem and of one’s own journey through life. This classical design is sometimes referred to as “the Chartres Labyrinth” due to the location of its best known example. The labyrinth was built at Chartres in the early 13th century (~ 1215 A.D.). No one knows the source of this classical 11-circuit labyrinth design, and much of its spiritual meaning and use has been lost.

 

The Chartres Labyrinth is located in the west end of the nave, the central body of the cathedral. When you walk in the main doors and look towards the high altar, you see the center of the labyrinth on the floor about 50 feet in front of you. It is approximately 42 feet in diameter and the path is 16 inches wide. At Chartres, the center of the Rose Window mirrors the center of the labyrinth. The cathedral is perfectly proportioned, so that if we put the west wall of the cathedral on hinges and folded it down on the labyrinth, the Rose Window would fit almost perfectly over the labyrinth.

 

Labyrinth or Maze?

 

The difference between a labyrinth used for meditation and mazes can be confusing. Mazes often have many entrances, dead-ends and cul-de-sacs that frequently confound the human mind. In contrast, meditation labyrinths offer only one path. By following the one path to the center, the seeker can use the labyrinth to quiet his or her mind and find peace and illumination at the center of his or her being. “As soon as one enters the labyrinth, one realizes that the path of the labyrinth serves as a metaphor for one’s spiritual journey. The walk, and all that happens on it, can be grasped through the intuitive, pattern-discerning faculty of the person walking it. The genius of this tool is that it reflects back to the seeker whatever he or she needs to discover from the perspective of a new level of conscious awareness.”

 

The Labyrinth is a Universal Meditation Tool

 

Anyone from any tradition or spiritual path can walk into the labyrinth and, through reflecting in the present moment, can benefit from it. A meditation labyrinth is one of many tools that can be used for spiritual practice. Like any tool, it is best used with a proper, good, intention. A church or temple can be used simply as a refuge from a rainstorm, but it can be so much more with a different intention. The same is true of the labyrinth. The seeker is only asked to put one foot in front of the other. By stepping into the labyrinth, we are choosing once again to walk the contemplative spiritual path. We are agreeing to let ourselves be open to see, to be free to hear, and to becoming real enough to respond. The labyrinth is a prayer path, a crucible of change, a meditation tool, a blueprint where psyche meets soul.

 

The best way to learn about the labyrinth is to walk a well-constructed one a few times, with an open heart and an open mind. Then allow your experience to guide you as to whether this will be a useful spiritual tool for you.

 

The Chartres Labyrinth and the Pilgrim’s Journey

 

Pilgrims are persons in motion – passing through territories not their own – seeking something we might call completion, or perhaps the word clarity will do as well, a goal to which only the spirit’s compass points the way.

Richard R. Niebuhr in Pilgrims and Pioneers

 

“The tradition of pilgrimage is as old as religion itself. Worshippers on pilgrimage traveled to holy festivals whether to solstice celebrations, to Mecca to gather around the Ka’aba for the high holy days of Islam, or to Easter festivals in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Pilgrimages were a mixture of religious duty and holiday relaxation for the peasant, the commoner and rich land owner alike. The journey was often embarked on in groups with designated places to stay at night. The pilgrims were restless to explore the mystical holy places, and many were in search of physical or spiritual healing.

 

The Christian story, which emphasized the humanity of Christ, fascinated the pilgrims. In the Middle Ages, most people did not read. As a result, they were much more oriented to the senses than we are today. They learned the story by traveling to Jerusalem to walk where Jesus walked, to pray where he prayed, and to experience, in a solemn moment, where he died. Unlike today, Pilgrims encountered the truth of the Christian mystery through an ongoing intimacy with all their senses.

 

When a person committed his or her life to Christ in the early Middle Ages, they sometimes made a vow to make a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem. However, by the 12th century when the Crusades swept across Europe and the ownership of Jerusalem was in tumultuous flux, travel became dangerous and expensive. In response to this situation, the Roman Church appointed seven pilgrimage cathedrals to become “Jerusalem” for pilgrims. Consequently, in the pilgrimage tradition, the path within the labyrinth was called the Chemin de Jerusalem and the center of the labyrinth was called “New Jerusalem”.

 

The walk into the labyrinth marked the end of the physical journey across the countryside and served as a symbolic entry-way into the spiritual realms of the Celestial City. The image of the Celestial City – taken straight out of the Book of Revelation to John – captivated the religious imagination of many during the Middle Ages. The wondrous Gothic cathedrals, with painted walls either in bright, even gaudy colours, or else white-washed, were designed to represent the Celestial City. The stained glass windows – when illuminated by the sun – created the sense of colourful, dancing jewels, allowing the pilgrim to experience the awesome mystery of the City of God.”

 

The Journey of Life

 

A fundamental approach to the labyrinth is to see it as a metaphor for life’s journey. The labyrinth reminds us that all of life, with its joys, sorrows, twists and turns, is a journey that comes from God (birth) and goes to God (death). It is a physical metaphor for the journey of healing, spiritual and emotional growth and transformation. Following the path is like any journey. Sometimes you feel you are at or nearing your destination, and at other times you may feel distant or even lost. Only by faithfully keeping to the path will you arrive at the physical center of the labyrinth, which signifies God, the center of our lives and souls.

 

Applying the Three Fold Mystical Tradition to the Labyrinth

 

In the Christian mystical tradition, the journey to God was articulated in the three stages. These stages have become recognized as being universal to meditation: to release and quiet; to open and receive; and to take what was gained back out into the world.

 

The Three Stages

 

The first part of the Three- Fold Mystical Path is Purgation. This archaic word is from the root word “to purge”, meaning to cleanse, to let go. Shedding is another way of describing the experience. The mystical word is empting or releasing. It is believed that monks journeyed the first part of the labyrinth Purgation on their knees as a penitential act. This was not done for reasons of punishment as we might think, but as a way to humble oneself before God.

 

The second stage of the Three-Fold Path, Illumination, is found in the center of the labyrinth. Usually it is a surprise to reach the center because the long winding path seems “illogical” and cannot be figured out by the linear mind. After quieting the mind in the first part of the walk, the center presents a new experience: a place of meditation and prayer. Often people at this stage in the walk find insight into their situation in life, or clarity about a certain problem, hence the label “illumination”. As one enters the

center, the instruction is simple: enter with an open heart and mind; receive what there is for you.

 

The third stage, Union, begins when you leave the center of the labyrinth and continues as you retrace the path that brought you in. In this stage the meditation takes on a grounded, energized feeling. Many people who have had an important experience in the center feel that this third stage of the labyrinth gives them a way of integrating the insights they received. Others feel that this stage stokes the creative fires within. It energizes insight. It empowers, invites, and even pushes us to be more authentic and confident and to take risks with our gifts in the world. Union means communing with God.

 

The Monastic Orders experienced a union with God through their community life by creating a fulfilling balance between the work that was assigned, sleep and the many hours of worship attended daily. Our times present a similar challenge: we struggle to find balance between work, sleep, family and friends, leisure and spiritual life. The lack of structured communities in which people share work responsibilities and the “every person for himself or herself” mentality (or every family for itself) prevalent in our highly individualistic society makes the task of finding balance even more difficult.

 

Monastic communities offered a mystical spirituality that spoke to highly intuitive and intensely introverted people and (paradoxically to some) at the same time provided an economic structure throughout Europe. Monasteries during the Middle Ages provided schools and hospitals managed by monks; yet, at the same time, cloistered life helped the monks stay inwardly directed. Today, without any reliable structure directing us, the way of union needs to be re-thought. Our times call for most of us to be outer-directed. We are called to action in every aspect of our society in order to meet the spiritual challenges that confront us in the 21st century. Gratefully, there are still people in religious orders holding the candle for deep contemplation, but the majority of people involved in the spiritual transformation are searching for a path that guides them to service in the world in an active, extroverted, compassionate way. The third stage of the labyrinth empowers the seeker to move back into the world replenished and directed – which makes the labyrinth a particularly powerful tool for transformation.

 

Walking the Labyrinth: The Process

 

The purpose of all spiritual disciplines – prayer, fasting, meditation – is to help create an open attentiveness that enables us to receive and renew our awareness of our grounding and wholeness in God.

 

The Experience of Walking Meditation

 

Many of us have trouble quieting our minds. The Buddhists call the distracted state of mind the “monkey mind”, which is an apt image of what the mind is frequently like: thoughts swinging like monkeys from branch to branch, chattering away without any rhyme or conscious reason. When the mind is quiet, we feel peaceful and open, aware of a silence that embraces the universe.

 

Complete quiet in the mind is not a realistic goal for most of us. Instead, the task is to dis-identify with the thoughts going through our minds. Don’t get hooked by the thoughts, let them go. Thomas Keating, a Cistercian monk who teaches Centering Prayer (meditation) in the Christian tradition, described the mind as a still lake. A thought is like a fish that swims through it. If you get involved with the fish (“Gee what an unusual fish, I wonder what it is called?”), then you are hooked. Many of us have discovered through learning meditation how difficult it is to quiet the mind; yet, the rewards are great.

 

In the labyrinth, the sheer act of walking a complicated, attention demanding path begins to focus the mind. Thoughts of daily tasks and experiences become less intrusive. A quiet mind does not happen automatically. You must gently guide the mind with the intention of letting go of extraneous thoughts. This is much easier to do when your whole body is moving – when you are walking. Movement takes away the excess charge of psychic energy that disturbs our efforts to quiet our thought processes.

 

Two Basic Approaches to the Walk

 

One way to walk the labyrinth is to choose to let all thought go and simply open yourself to your experience with gracious attention. Usually – though not always – quieting happens in the first stage of the walk. After the mind is quiet, you can choose to remain in the quiet. Or use the labyrinth as a prayer path. Simply begin to talk to God. This is an indication that you are ready to receive what is there for you, or you allow a sincere part of your being to find its voice.

 

A second approach to a labyrinth walk is to consider a question. Concentrate on the question as you walk in. Amplify your thoughts about it; let all else go but your question. When you walk into the center with an open heart and an open mind, you are opening yourself to receiving new information, new insights about yourself.

 

Guidelines for the Walk

 

Find your pace. In our chaotic world we are often pushed beyond a comfortable rhythm. In this state we lose the sense of our own needs. To make matters worse, we are often rushed and then forced to wait. Anyone who has hurried to the bank only to stand in line knows the feeling. Ironically, the same thing can happen with the labyrinth, but there is a difference. The labyrinth helps us find what our natural pace would be and draws our attention to it when we are not honouring it.

 

Along with finding your pace, support your movement through the labyrinth by becoming conscious of your breath. Let your breath flow smoothly in and out of your body. It can be coordinated with each step – as is done in the Buddhist walking meditation – if you choose. Let your experience be your guide.

 

Each experience in the labyrinth is different, even if you walk it often in a short period of time. The pace usually differs each time as well. It can change dramatically within the different stages of the walk. When the labyrinth has more than a comfortable number of seekers on it, you can “pass” people if you want to continue to honour the intuitive pace your inner process has set. If you are moving at a slower pace, you can allow people to pass you. At first people are uncomfortable with the idea of “passing” someone on the labyrinth. It looks competitive, especially since the walk is a spiritual exercise. Again, these kinds of thoughts and feelings, we hope, are greeted from a spacious place inside that smiles knowingly about the machinations of the human ego. On the spiritual path we meet every and all things. To find our pace, to allow spaciousness within, to be receptive to all experience, and to be aware of the habitual thoughts and issues that hamper our spiritual development is a road to self-knowledge.

 

Summary of How to Walk the Labyrinth

 

Pause at the entry way to allow yourself to be fully conscious of the act of stepping into the labyrinth. Allow about a minute, or several turns on the path, to create some space between yourself and the person in front of you. Some ritual act, such as a bow, may feel appropriate during the labyrinth walk. Do what comes naturally.

 

Follow your pace. Allow your body to determine the pace. If you allow a rapid pace and the person in front of you is moving slower, feel free to move around this person. This is easiest to do at the turns by turning earlier. If you are moving slowly, you can step onto the labyrs (wide spaces at the turns) to allow others to pass.

 

The narrow path is a two-way street. If you are going in and another person is going out, you will meet on the path. If you want to keep in an inward meditative state, simply do not make eye contact. If you meet someone you know, a touch of the hand or a hug may be an important acknowledgement of being on the path together.

 

Symbolism and Meanings Found in the Chartres Labyrinth

 

Circles and Spirals

 

The circle is the symbol of unity or union and it is the primary shape of all labyrinths. The circle in sacred geometry represents the incessant movement of the universe (uncomprehensible) as opposed to the square which represents comprehensible order. The labyrinth is a close cousin to the spiral and it, too, reflects the cyclical element of nature and is regarded as the symbol of eternal life.

 

The labyrinth functions like a spiral, creating a vortex in its center. Upon entering, the path winds in a clockwise pattern. Energy is being drawn out. Upon leaving the center the walker goes in a counter clockwise direction. The unwinding path integrates and empowers us on our walk back out. We are literally ushered back out into the world in a strengthened condition.

 

The Path

 

The path lies in 11 concentric circles with the 12th being the labyrinth center. The path meanders throughout the whole circle. There are 34 turns on the path going into the center. Six are semi-right turns and 28 are 180° turns. So the 12 rings that form the 11 pathways may symbolically represent, the 12 apostles, 12 tribes of Israel or 12 months of the year. Twelve is a mystical number in Christianity. In sacred geometry three represents heaven and four represents earth. Twelve is the product of 3 x 4 and, therefore, the path which flows through the whole is then representative of all creation.

 

The obvious metaphor for the path is the difficult path to salvation, with its many twists and turns. Since we cannot see a straight path to our destination, the labyrinth can be viewed as a metaphor for our lives. We learn to surrender to the path (Christ) and trust that he will lead us on our journey.

 

The path can also be viewed as grace or the Church guiding us through chaos.

 

The Cruciform and Labyrs

 

The labyrinth is divided equally into four quadrants that make an equal-armed cross or cruciform. The four arms represent in symbol what is thought to be the essential

 

structure of the universe for example, the four spatial directions, the four elements (earth, wind, water and fire), the four seasons and, most important, salvation through the cross. The four arms of the cross emerging from the center seem to give order to the would-be chaos of the meandering path around it.

 

The Chartres labyrinth cross or cruciform is delineated by the 10 labyrs (labyr means to turn and this is the root of the word labyrinth). The labyrs are double-ax shaped and visible at the turns and between turns. They are traditionally seen as a symbol of women’s power and creativity.

 

The Centre Rosette

 

In the Middle Ages, the rose was regarded as a symbol for the Virgin Mary. Because of its association with the myths of Percival and the Holy Grail at that time, it also was seen as a sign of beauty and love. The rose becomes symbolic of both human and divine love, of passionate love, but also love beyond passion. The single rose became a symbol of a simple acceptance of God’s love for the world.

 

Unlike a normal rose (which has five petals) the rosette has six petals and is steeped in mysticism. Although associated with the Rose of Sharon, which refers to Mary, it may also represent the Holy Spirit (wisdom and enlightenment). The six petals may have corresponded to the story of the six days of creation. In other mystical traditions, the petals can be viewed as the levels of evolution (mineral, plant, animal, humankind, angelic and divine).

 

The Lunations

 

The lunations are the outer ring of partial circles that complete the outside circle of the labyrinth. They are unique to the Chartres design.

 

Celtic Symbols on the St. Hilda’s Labyrinth

 

The Celtic peoples have given us seven enduring spiritual principles:

 

1. A deep respect of nature, regarding creation as the fifth Gospel.

 

2. Quiet care for all living things.

3. The love of learning.

4. A wonder-lust or migratory nature.

5. Love of silence and solitude.

6. Understanding of time as a sacred reality and an appreciation of ordinary life, worshipping God through everyday life, and with great joy.

7. The value of family and clan affiliation, and especially spiritual ties of soul friends.

To show our respect for such wisdom, two Celtic designs adorn the St. Hilda’s labyrinth.

 

To mark the entrance to the labyrinth is a Celtic zoomorphic design painted in red. Traditionally, Celtic monks used intricate knotwork and zoomorphic designs (odd animals intertwined in uncomfortable ways) as mere filler for their illuminated gospel texts. They had no discernible meaning.

 

However, because of their unique design components, zoomorphs are now associated with transformations.

 

Transformation, change, action, and passion are also associated with red, the colour of fire. Therefore, this entrance symbol may well be an appropriate sign for the journey ahead.

At the labyrinth’s centre is a Celtic triquetra. This interlocked knotwork design of three stylized fish (whales) is often interpreted as the Trinity knot. It is a perfect representation of the concept of "three in one" in Christian trinity beliefs. Having the design enclosed within the centre circle further emphasizes the unity theme.

 

The triquetra can also be considered to represent the triplicities of mind, body, and soul, as well as the three domains of earth- earth, sea, and sky.

 

Final Reflection: The Labyrinth as a “Thinning Place”

 

In Celtic Christianity, places where people felt most strongly connected with God’s presence were referred to as thin places. It was these places in nature (forest groves, hilltops and deep wells) that the seen and unseen worlds were most closely connected, and the inhabitants of both worlds could momentarily touch the other. Today our churches, temples and sacred sites are the new thin places to meet the Divine. Here, at St Hilda’s, we have opportunities to encounter many thinning places – whether it be during Eucharistic or Taize services, while singing or praying, or through the love of a welcoming inclusive community. The labyrinth is a welcome addition; and with the right intent can also become a new thinning place for the modern pilgrim/spiritual seeker.This outward journey is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. We can walk it. It can serve to frame the inward journey – a journey of repentance, forgiveness and rebirth, a journey that seeks a deeper faith, and greater holiness, a journey in search of God.

 

This 360° High Dynamic Range panorama was stitched from 66 bracketed photographs images with PTGUI Pro, tone-mapped with Photomatix, processed with Color Efex, and touched up in Aperture.

 

Original size: 20000 × 10000 (200.0 MP; 1.04 GB).

 

Location: St. Hilda’s By The Sea Anglican Church, Sechelt, British Columbia, Canada

Here is a strange interpretation on why this building is cursed by the Unseen thousands and allowed to decay. Decay is contagious.

 

I am in NYC, I have to obvious physical connection to this Synagogue. However; I have been watching it for the last 3 Years as I found it through my bible studies. To Matthew Kopaid do not fret for this Historical Building is PROTECTED IN THE UNSEEN SPIRIT REALM. Blessings will follow for a qualified Minister of Gods Works and kept as a Religious Facility, this portion of land is given to the Isrealites,Jews, Gentile Ordained to Maintain it As Such Purposed For. The Reason for its current state and vacancy is that Curses have been imposed on the property and the land itself, for the thousands of past congregations that cannot be removed without Application of the Proper Legal Spirit Law which is found in..Yes; The Holy Bible . What most non-believers or the general public call ghosts. There are 1000's times 7 that inhabit dwell within every inch of this Historical Building.Whomever legally buys this land and demolishes this building will by the Legal Spirit Realm Law inherit a Legion that will become part of their own personal family residence. I would buy this building for $50,000 not because of any emotional attachment but only to spare the new owners or future tenants from the Doors that they are about to Open by Legally Purchasing this Synagogue and to keep the spirits within in their Eternal Rest. I would buy it to Spare the Writing on the Walls and to Keep the 1000 Voices from been heard. The Principality will Order every unqualified hands that takes away, diminishes or removes any article of this ordained parcel, or removes illegally the generations upon generations that are currently dormant in here or until awaken by any New Living Tenants to OPEN THE FLOOD GATES. Judgment is Here 2016 for either the Historical Building itself or the Company which purchased it, they will start to lose other Property Owned Tenants due to the New inherited transparent occupants that will through Legal Ground in the Unseen Realm Consume and Occupy all their other Properties. To Samoylovich I have no connection to Chicago or this Building but as a Silent Watchman whom is familiar with Territorial Demons On and Off for the last 10 years with much respect Wash Your Hands from this Property there is a reason why is in the Decaying Condition it is {is been disturbed}This Decay is Contagious. No one will be bold to say all of this but..I am not worry or fearful of the Dead; My interest is that the living will avoid such Blessings and Curses Signed Contracts Established more than Half a Century Ago. Only One Worthy to Break this Spirit Realm Contract can keep those asleep within Resting in Peace. PS I worked in Law Enforcement for several years, and am also a Veteran , this information is only to stop the battle in the spirit realm from coming against the living or those about to occupy their space. If it were a Cemetery Same Unseen Laws Applies.

The Bible says; "Chose Blessings or Curses" also "Above All Chose Life"

 

Queanbeyan Age (NSW : 1867 - 1904) | Thu 23 May 1872 | Page 2

 

Local and District News.

CEREMONY OF LAYING THE FOUNDATION STONE OF ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH QUEANBEYAN.

LAST Thursday the first practical effort, towards church building on the part of the Presbyterians of Queanbeyan was made and attended with great success. We refer to the interesting ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the church intended for the accommodation of Presbyterian worshippers. The hour fixed for the ceremony was noon of that day, but it was nearly one o'clock before everything was in readiness. The weather previously had been very unpropitious, and up to midnight of Wednesday it threatened anything but a pleasant day. Notwithstanding, Thursday proved all that could be desired for the season of the year; the day was bright. The site was rendered very attractive by a profusion of bunting flaunting over the suspended stone, which hung in readiness for its final disposition by the lady who was to be entrusted with the resposibility and honour of declaring the same well and truly laid. Near at hand was a spacious pavilion occupied by a long table and seats —the former crowded with substantial viands intended for the refreshment of those who would attend the ceremony.

 

All things being in readiness, the Rev. John Gibson, of Yass, moderator of the presbytery of Goulburn, commenced the proceedings by giving out the Old Hundreth Psalm, which was sung by those present—about a hundred persons.

 

The Rev. James Paterson, M.A., of Braidwood, read an appropriate psalm, and offered prayer.

 

Mr. John Gale then came forward and said, as honorary secretary to the building committee he had been requested to make a financial statement, read certain communications, and offer a few preliminary remarks. It was to him a matter of surprise that the Presbyterians of Queanbeyan were so late in undertaking the building of a church for their better accommodation when assembled for the purpose of worshipping the God of their fathers after the manner, which to them seems right and proper. They had long worshipped under disadvantages, and though for some time past they had enjoyed the comparative convenience of the Court-house, yet they felt it was not exactly the place—that they might and ought to assemble in a place of their own set apart exclusively to the use of public worship. Although they were now, for the first time, met to witness the laying of the foundation stone of their long projected church, it reflected unfavourably upon them as a body that they had not done this long ago. Something like ten years ago, he recollected they got the promise of about £400 for the purpose of building a church, but for want of proper combination and energy nothing was done for a long lapse of time—so long, that subscribers became morally and legally relieved from the obligations of their promises. A little while ago they renewed their exertions, with very good results. A building committee was appointed, and that committee felt themselves justified in commencing operations without delay, which they did by calling for and accepting tenders for the work. The sum already promised was about £400, of which at least £350 was good; and it was thought it was with such a list quite safe to undertake the erection of a church whose estimated cost would be from £500 to £550. Their esteemed. fellow-townsman, the Rev. A. D. Soares, had generously furnished them with a plan and specifications of the work, and thus all things were in readiness. Acting under the instructions of the committee he (Mr Gale) had sent circulars far and wide, and on the whole the result had been very encouraging. If some whom they had invited were not present, in a few instances they had sent satisfactory apologies, and something encouraging to represent them. He would proceed to read letters from some to whom circulars had been sent. The first was from the Rev. A. D. Soares, who had been unexpectedly called away on professional business, but sent his first year's subscription and best wishes for the success of the undertaking. Then there followed a letter from their friend the Rev. S. F. Mackenzie, of Goulburn, whose late return after a long absence from home, had rendered it impossible to give his attendance, but whose letter closed with these kind words :—"I trust you may have a very successful gathering, and that the divine blessing may rest on your undertaking." He also read a letter from Mr Slatterie, of Gundaroo, stating his inability to attend, promising a further subscription, and wishing them "a pleasant day and a pledge of good things to come." These letters were as good as so many speeches, and obviated the necessity of many more words from him, beyond exhorting those present to contribute liberally and cheerfully to the fund by laying their contributions on the stone as soon as it should be declared well and truly laid. He was pleased to be able to announce that a lady whom they all knew and respected, the excellent wife of a most worthy man, had consented to lay the stone. There, in that cavity underneath the stone hanging under the triangle, the bottle which he held in his hand was to be laid. That homely looking bottle contained what in course of time antiquarians might regard with much interest and curiosity—viz., several coins of the realmu of different value, copies of the Queanbeyan Age of that day, of the Presbyterian, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Evening News, and of the following document:—

 

"The foundation stone of this St. Stephen's Presbyterian Church was laid on Thursday, the 16th day of May, A.D., 1872, by Elizabeth, wife of Charles McKeahnie Esq., of Booroomba, county of Cowley, district of Queanbeyan, an elder of the Presbyterian congregation of the said district.

 

"His Excellency Sir Alfred Stephen, Knight, Chief Justice of the Colony of New South Wales, administering the Government thereof.

 

"The Reverend Archibald Constable Geekie, D.D., Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales.

 

"The Reverend John Gibson, Moderator of the Presbytery of Goulburn.

 

"Minister of the Presbyterlan Church, Queanbeyan—vacant.

 

"Elder—Charles McKeahnie, Esq.

 

"Building Commlttee—Andrew Morton, Esq:, JP Chairman, R. W. McKellar, Esq., Treasurer. Mr. John Gale, Secretary. Messrs. J. J. Wright,. W. Graham, and E. McDonald.

 

"Trustees—Andrew Morton, Esq., J.P., Andrew Cunningham; Esq., J,P., Alexander Ryrie, Esq., J.P., J. J. Wright, Esq., J.P.

 

"Architect.—The Reverend A. D. Soares of Christ Church, Queanbeyan.

 

"Contractors.—Thomas Priest, for masonry; Thomas Jordan, for carpenter's work."

 

Nothing more remained for him to say than that the ceremony of laying the stone would now be proceeded with.

 

Rev. John Gibson then introduced Mrs McKeahnie, and having placed in her hand the bottle, that lady deposited it in the cavity prepared for its reception. The mortar having been spread, Mrs

McKeahnie smoothed it with a trowel, and the stone having been carefully lowered to its position, she struck it with a hammer, and in remarkably clear voice and pleasing manner said, "I declare this foundation stone of St. Stephen's Prebyterlaun church truly laid, and humbly dedicate the same in the name of the, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Amen."

 

The Rev. J. Gibson came forward and said, that having been suffering for some days with neuralgic pains, and fearing that he would be unable to address them, otherwise to-day, he would read an address. The rev. gentleman then read as follows:—My dear Christian friends,—we are assembled now at the interesting ceremonial of laying the foundation stone of a Presbyterian Church on this spot. The time is brief since this scene of busy life was an extensive sweep of undulating land occupied by the blackfellow and kangaroo; but now we behold it, as if by magic, converted into a busy and Important town. The presence of humanity, with relations temporal and eternal, has imparted to the place secular worth and religious Interest. From a benovolent solicitude for the spiritual and social welfare of this important town and neighbourhood, the Presbyterians are about erecting a house for the Triune God. If it be asked, For what purpose are you going to erect this temple? we answer, The highest conceivable one—the sanctuary is for the Most High who condescends to dwell with men on the earth—to promote his glory, to serve his cause, and promote the kingdom of his dear Son. No personal or selfish interests are to be promoted by its erection, but it is to stand as a free will offering and memorial to the God of heaven. This will invest it with a beauty far transcending any architectural merits which it may possess. This will give it a glory which will cause it to outvie many a more towering structure. What purpose Is this building to serve? It is to promote the spiritual interests of the members of the community in which it is placed. It will stand on the side of order, virtue, and social progress. It will stand Identified with the rights of Cæsar, with the rule of the magistrate, and with the free obedience of the citizen. It will stand associated with the honour and integrity of the tradesman, with the love of the domestic circle, and with the peace and progress of the individual mind—with its future perfection, glory, and immortality. If the design of its erection be accomplished, it will be another well sunk in the arid plains of man's existence. Here the pure waters of salvation are intended to flow. Here the ignorant are to be instructed, the wanderer brought in, the backslider invited back, the far off prodigal called home. This is to stand as a sister lighthouse, to intimate to the voyager to eternity that there are shoals, rocks, and breakers ahead, and to guide to the port of eternal life and glory. May the preachers and people here ever keep near the desired chart and infallible compass, and harmoniously voyage on to the eternal ocean of love and joy! Dear friends, unless this object be effected—that is, subserve the interests of vital godliness in the district, our labour will be in vain. Let our prayer be, "God be merciful to us, and bless us. Save now we beseech thee, and send prosperity." We would not forget that other denominations are operating here to advance the same momentous and vital interests, and we would bid them God speed, and we trust they will heartily reciprocate our good wishes for their prosperity and usefulness. We have, as Presbyterians, our peculiarities, and we attach to them considerable importance—we hold them firmly, because conscientiously, and take them from the New Testament as our sufficient directory and model. We say in reference to human authority in the church—

 

"Let Cæsar's dues be ever paid,

To Cæsar and his throne,

But consciences and souls were made

To be the Lord's alone.

 

In the Christian ministry, we believe one alone is the Master, and all ministers brethren. Christ the head, and all his people "members one of another." But whilst we hold our scriptural polity with the greatest tenacity, we hold in common with other denominations, principles and truths infinitely more piecious, and we trust our piety will ever be strong enough to sustain the pratical pre-eminence of these, and the due subordination of the other. Looking at man in his fallen condition—debased, polluted, condemned, involved in a ruin from which there is no extrication without the redemption by Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit, and holding tenaciously the proper divinity of the incarnate Redeemer, and to the consequent ineffable dignity and moral worth and power of his atoning death, and discarding with all vehemence the sacramental virtue of ordinances as the medium of the Spirit's regenerative action—a notion untenable in scripture, and philosopically absurd—for the sound old doctrine of the instrumentality of divine truth, which, permeated by the evangelical element, (our preaching and teaching take their inspiration from the cross)—proclaims Jesus Christ and him crucified as the only basis of a sinner's hope, and insists upon the apostolic testimony—repentence towards God and faith in Jesus Christ. May these precious soul-quickening truths be ever preached in the new edifice, and of many here, and others growing up may it be said, These were born in her and may the Highest establish her. Amen.

 

Dr. Andrew Morton, J.P., followed. He said, as one of the oldest Presbyterlans of the district, it was expected of him that he should say a few words. The Presbyterians were not the most numerous religious body in the district, and moreover they were for the greater part poor. To accomplish the task they had begun, it was necessary they should continue to exert themselves. Already they were encouraged by the presence and assistance of other religious bodies. But still they must depend mainly on themselves. They must put their shoulders to the wheel again and again, not in brief spasmodic efforts, but by unremitting perseverance, and then they would soon have the pleasure of seeing their undertaking finished in a manner creditable to all who took part in the same. He congratulated them that they were resolved to lie no longer under the reproach of being the only religious denomination in the town who had not a church of their own. It was true that God was not confined to buildings made by hands. Their ancestors, the grand old Covenanters, worshipped the Most High on the hill sides of their native land, owing to a persecuting government. But now the necessity for this no longer existed. Those who formerly persecuted were now found amongst the number who were assisting them in their noble work. While they were proud of the time when God was confessed under circumstances of persecution, he could not help thinking that these were better days, when all denominationse are found working side by side and mutually assisting each other in one grand object they had in view.

(Cheers,)

 

At the close of Dr. Morton's address contributions amounting to £22 10s were laid upon the stone, and upon the sum being announced, and the doxology sung, the company present adjourned to the pavilion to lunch.

 

THE LUNCHEON,

which was an ample spread, was provided by the generous oontributions. of town and country friends, and consisted of all the seasonable, dishes, with a liberal supply of wines. About one hundred sat down to the refreshments provided, but so abundant were the supplies, that not one-half of the provisions were consumed.

 

At the close of the meal, the Rev. J. Gibson called for three cheers for the Queen, which were loyally given, and the company dispersed for a short time.

 

THE TEA MEETING.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent by several active ladies and gentlemen in preparing for tea at the oddfellows' hall. At about seven, p.m., the hall was filled, and on the arrival of the clergymen, grace was sung, and tea served. The ladles presiding at, and who had provided the tables, were—Mrs Graham, Mrs Mackellar, and Mrs Gale: They were assisted in their pleasant but arduous task of serving by several other ladles. A very pleasant hour was spent over tea, and then the company adjourned to the open air, while the tables were being removed and preparations completed for

 

THE PUBLIC MEETING.

The chair was occupied by Dr. Morton, who called upon the Rev. J. Gibson to give out a hymn and offer prayer, after which

 

The Chairman, acknowledging the honour conferred upon him in calling him to preside over the meeting, and regretting that he was not better quailfied to fill the chair, said he felt gratified to find that after long years of delay, and procrastination, the Presbyterians of Queanbeyan at length had the prospect before them of seeing a church of their own erected. It was well known that as a religious community they were poor—few were poorer than they, but he felt confident that what had occurred that day was an earnest that they were able to remove the stigma which had too long rested upon them —that they were the only religious denomination in the town who were not in a position to possess a church of their own. There were no difficulties before them but such as they might overcome, especially when, as they saw today, members of other religious persuasions were so ready to come forward to their assistance. There was a time when the various religious bodies were antagonistic to each other; there was a time when the Presbyterians were the objects of persecution by those who were now so ready to encourage and support them. It was a hopeful sign of the times that they were all able and disposed to throw aside minor differences to carry on the great work of spreading the gospel. He trusted they would never more witness those painful dissentions and strifes which had so characterised the past. It was not needful for him to say more as there were present those who would do full justice to the occasion which had brought them together. Having congratulated, the Presbyterians of the district on witnessing the laying of the foundation stone of St. Stephen's Church, and expressed a hope that at no very distant day they would assemble to witness its opening, the Chairman concluded by calling upon the secretary for a statement and a few remarks.

 

Mr Gale rose and said, in obedience to the request of the chairman he would, for the information of those who were not present at the laying of the foundation stone, repeat in substance what he stated on that occasion. He then gave a brief statement of the means at the disposal of the building committee, the probable estimate of their undertaking, and the amount still necessary to be raised in order to liquidate the debt which the committee would incur. After a few words of congratulation on the success which had so far attended their efforts, and giving expression to his belief that their exertions would not be relaxed until they had brought their undertaking to a succeesful issue, he concluded by urging upon Presbyterians the duty of renewed consecration of themselves to the service of God and more unity of purpose and effort amongst themselves.

 

The Rev. J. Gibson, the next speaker, said he was glad, seeing what great preparations bad been made, that he had made an effort to be present, and regretted that others whom they, had expected were not there also. Since they last met he noticed there had been a divorce and a marriage, but fortunately no breach of promise case. Their late pastor was in one sense married to them, but he had chosen nevertheless to go and settle elsewhere. This was the divorce. The marriage he referred to—that of the Rev. S F. Mackenzie—doubtless had something to do with that gentleman's absence from the interesting ceremonies of the day. He was pleased to notice that notwithstanding the Presbyterians of Queanbeyan were deprived of their minister they had the pluck to commence the erection of a church. He had not seen the plan, but presumed the design would be chaste and appropriate. He emphatically denounced the miserable spirit which was content with erecting a mean building for the worship of the Most High. Their style of church architecture ought to be improved; they ought to launch out more—

 

Larger boats may venture more, While smaller boats keep close to shore.

 

He hoped the Queanbeyan church of St Stephen's would be a beautiful one, and that the press, the pulpit, and the ladies would use their best energies to secure that laudable object. He complimented Mrs McKeahnie on the graceful and efficient manner in which she had discharged her honourable duty that day, and well and truly laid the foundation stone. Such ceremonies were not new to him, and he professed to know something about them. Referring to his being present, during his last visit to England, when the Prince of Wales laid a foundation-stone, he said he was glad that Almighty God In his good providence had raised up his Royal Highness from the gates of death (loud cheers), and he hoped he was spared to become a better man. He referred also to his church-building experience in the West Indies, and related some interesting incidents connected therewith; and said he was proud to observe that morning so much money laid on the stone instead of being buried underneath it. If Queanbeyan could not finish unaided the noble work they had undertaken, he hoped they would send a deputation to Yass where he knew they would find help; and a noble church he hoped they would have. The Presbyterlans of Yass had lately improved their own church in a way that they had no reason to be ashamed of it, for he thought It would now compare favourably with any other church in Yass. He admitted there were many degenerate sons of the noble old Covenanters who had turned away from them and were giving the cold shoulder to the cause; but he exhorted all present nevertheless to cleave to the church of their fathers, and they would be sure to prosper in the work they had undertaken. Referring to the past, he blushed to think that the Presbyterians of Queanbeyan, had had over them men who were not fit to be ministers—of course their late pastor formed a honourable exceptian; but, though he did not approve of the Rev. W. Mackenzie leaving them he trusted God would overrule all for good, and send them a man after His own heart. He added —" Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might." Let it not be said "these men began to build and were not able to finish." Of this, he said, there was little fear while they had their McKeahnies and Mortons to stand by them; and his concluding words were, "Establish Thou the work of our hands upon us: yea, the work of, our hands establish Thou it."

 

Mr. W. G. O'Neill was then called upon, and rising expressed the pleasure it afforded him to coöperate with the Presbyterians in furthering the interests of their church. Some 14 or 15 years ago, when the late Rev. Mr Ross was conducting a meeting in the old court house over the river, an effort was put forth to build a Presbyterian Church, but through all these past years nothing had actually been done until to-day; and now they had got the steam up he trusted they would go ahead at the rate of 30 or 40 knots an hour. One gentleman had spoken of having beautiful churches. The realisation of this object lay with the ladies. If one-half of what they spent in personal adournment were appropriated to church-building there would be no difficulty in the way. Again, there were plenty of rich men who had the means, if they only had the will, to render miaterial assistance,and all should give according to their means, in which case they would have a church which would be a credit to. the Presbyterian body, and all would be able to say they had a few bricks in the structure. They were bound by the claims of Christian brotherhood to help one another, in accordance with the spirit of the well-known hymn beginning—

 

"Help us to help each other, Lord."

 

The Presbyterians of Queanbeyan were not very strong and they needed help, but as they had been liberally disposed towards others he knew that others would help them now, He hoped they would get on from this out. If he could solicit subscriptions for the new church he would be happy to do so, and thus return their favours. He concluded by wishing all success to the undertaking they had commenced that day.

 

The Rev. Charles Jones was next asked to address the meeting. He was glad to see such a number present, but felt disappointed In having to, speak before the senior ministers had addressed the meeting. He was glad to be associated with gatherings of the members of the church of the Redeemer. Such occasions called to mind the God on high who helps them in their undertakings for his glory, and was their Father and Friend, whom they had promised to obey, and whose laws they had taken as their guide through life. Their great desire was success in all sections of the church. If they had that day been successful in laying the foundation stone, what was to prevent their success in raising the superstructure of their chureh, and in paying their minister's stipend, and this would be matter for thankfulness. It was pleasant to see one of their fair ones come forth, as had been done that day, and lay the foundation stone of their new chiurch, and it was pleasant to see the various signs of prosperity which surrounded them, But it was possible to witness all this, and yet fall short of true success. Success of the best kind must be looked for in other things. It lay in the salvation of men, and not in the erection of a building or in attention to secular affairs. Their grand work lay in achieving the wonders of redeeming grace in the salvation of perishing men. Jesus's words to his disciples were " Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." The great work of the present day was to raise the fallen and spread scriptural holiness throughout the world, and thus anticipate the joys of everlasting life. In his humble opinion, when a church ceased to be a soul-saving church it mistook its mission ; if it was not successful in bringing souls to God, it was not successful at all. To be successful required nothing more than to follow the Lord Jesus, and be true to their principles and the truths of God. It was dillicult at all times to be faithful to God, but he instanced the case of Ahab and Elijah to show that courage and fidelity were necessary in reproving superiors. Something more than spasmodic effort was necessary to accomplish their object—their's was a life-plan work. And it would not do to break down their precepts by ill example. The present standard of Christian morals was lower than it ought to be—was enough to make them ashamed, and it was no wonder they were not more successful. The duty of the Christian church was to let its light shine, and if every Christian did but observe his duty in this respect there would be more conversions to God. He reminded them of the command given to the disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until endued with power from on high, and argued that in like manner all Christians were to look for the baptism of the Spirit in order to be enabled to adorn the gospel of God. He concluded by exhorting his hearers to trust in the promises of God and look forward to the time when Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God and heaven and earth should be filled with one song— Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth! He wished them every success, not only in their church building, but in winning souls, for thus should they shine as the brightness df the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever.

 

The Rev. James Paterson said, when their honorary secretary invited him to the laying of, the foundation stone of their new church, he did not tell him of the tea meeting which was to follow, or, like another reverend brother, he might have found an excuse for his absence; but having promised he was determined not to back out. After some remarks on the weather, and the bright day and pleasant ceremony they had enjoyed, he observed that he was disappointed at seeing so few present at the ceremony. Such an event did not occur every day, and more ought to have been present, though perhaps money considerations kept some away. Having passed censure, he would now bestow praise upon those who had so well furnished the tables both at luncheon and and tea. He felt very happy, and wished to thank those of other denominations for their promises of help, and to remind Presbyterians that they could not expect, others to labour for them unless they did their best for themselves. They should remember the old proverb—" God helps those who help them selves." He accorded all praise to the McKeahnies, and Mortons, and Grahams of their number, but it was necessary that all should put their shoulder to the wheel. He gave them an illustration from natural history of the power of combination. There was a variety of monkey, which when wishing to cross a river selected an overhanging tree and ascending it linked head and tail and thus formed a chain until it became long enough to reach by a process of oscillation a tree on the opposite bank of the river, which was grasped by the monkey at the extremity of the chain, and thusa bridge was formed over which they all passed in safety. It was wonderful what could be done by combined action. He urged them not to have a large debt upon their church; nothing could be more to their discredit or discouragement, and it was well known that people would not go into a debt-laden church for fear of being taxed for its liquidation, and moreover ministers were loth to accept a call in such cases. He exhorted them to cleave to each other and live on the best of terms with other denominations of Christians. He shoped that ere long they would have a minister sent amongst them, and he hoped they would encourage him by attending regularly on the ordinances. Referring to their own ecclesiastical system, he said be should like to see in it more pliancy. There were excellences in the Wesleyan and Church of England systems which they might copy with advantage. He referred to the employment of lay preachers, and of sending out catechists or candidates for the ministry to occupy stations for which they had no ordained ministers, and under the supervision of ministers of neighbouring districts, and to go up annually to pass an examination until they were fitted for ordination. Thus they could supplement the work of the college, and from Wollongong to Eden, and elsewhere, fields of labour existed which an agency of this sort could fill. He concluded by expreesiong a hope that the Presbyterians of Queanbeyan would date a new era from that day for great spiritual prosperity, and that amongst them many sons and daughters might be born to the Lord.

 

Mr R. W. Mackellar rose to propose a vote of thanks, and not to make a speech, for the subjects under consideration were exhausted. He moved that the thanks of the meeting be accorded to the ladies and others who had so liberally provided for their, wants that day.

 

Mr C. McKeahnie seconded the motion, which was carried by acclamation.

 

Mr Gale moved, and Mr O'Neill seconded, a vote of thanks to the chairman and clerical visitors, and this also being carried by acclamation, and duly acknowledged, the benediction was pronounced, and the meeting broke up.

 

We understand total proceeds for the day including remittances from absentees, amounted to over £85.

 

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Queanbeyan Age (NSW : 1867 - 1904) | Wed 11 Mar 1874 | Page 2

 

LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.

ST. STEPHEN'S CHURCH, QUEANBEYAN.

THE OPENING SERVICES

OF this, the first place of Presbyterian worship built in Queanbeyan, were conducted on Sunday last under very encouraging and auspicious circumstances.

 

The building was commenced about two years ago, the foundation being completed and the chief corner stone laid by Mrs Charles McKeahie, with the usual ceremonies, on the 16th May, 1872. Owing to oversight in not binding the various contractors to time the works have been carried on but tardily, and even now the church is in a very incomplete state, as stated in our last issue.

 

A description of the building may not be out of place here, before we notice more particularly the services of Sabbath last. The design is gothic, and the material of the walls is rubble stone, neatly jointed, the copings of the buttresses, the parapets, string courses, &c., being of Portland cement. The building. comprises the body of the church, which furnishes accomodation for about 150 hearers, a neat porch, and a "session room," or vestry, at the rear. A bell-turret, surmounted by a spire-which is covered with zinc, and from its paltry appearance is the only defect noticeable in the building to ordinary spectators—springs from the right angle of the front gable of the building. The corbels from which the arches of the doors and windows spring are chastely wrought flowers and human heads of Grecian features. There are ten narrow windows in the main building, two smaller ones in the porch, and one in the vestry. These, as well as a large quatre-foil window in the gable behind the pulpit, are to be of stained glass, and although the order for them was given some time ago they had not arrived in time for the opening.

 

Exteriorly the church is, with the, defect already mentioned, a very handsome structure, and reflects great credit on the architect who designed it and when the grounds around it are properly laid out, and the gates and ornamental fence erected, the Presbyterian Church of St. Stephen's will be one of the handsomest public buildings in Queanbeyan ; and facing, as it does, the public recreation reserve, will always have the advantage of being a conspicuous object in, the foreground.

 

The interior of the church is beautiful, and in thorough keeping with the exterior. Ascending three broad steps the porch is gained, and thence, passing through folding doors, the church is entered. The first object which strikes the attention of the observer is a very handsome rostrum, rising from a low platform, and surmounted by a bookboard. This is lighted by two chaste lamps. We may mention that this necessary piece of church furniture is the workmanship, as well as the gift, of Mr John Kealman, who has the contracts for the seats—a portion of which only are as yet completed—and the gates and palisading fence enclosing the allotment. Two elaborate four-burner lamps, of the same pattern as those on the pulpit or desk mentioned above, depend from the ceiling and light the body of the church. The lamps were selected by Mr J. J. Wright on his recent visit to Sydney. The inner roof or ceiling is somewhat peculiar, and in our opinion the interior would have had a better effect to the eye if the ordinary open roof had been substituted for the present arrangement. Though, perhaps, for acoustic purposes the plan adopted is preferable. The ceiling springs from the wallplates erect for a foot or eighteen inches, and then by two or three slight angles, or "covings" rises archlike to the centre. It is lined with tongued-and-grooved pine, coloured and varnished in harmony with the oak graining of the doors and window frames.

 

Mr Thos. Priest was the contractor for the masonry Mr T. Jordon, for the carpenters' work; Mr J. Evitts, for the plastering ; Mr F. A. Helmund, for the painters' work; and Mr John Kealman, for the interior fittings, the windows, and the gates and fencing. The belfry is fitted with a bell, the gift of Mr Holdsworth, of Sydney.

 

The cost of the building is not exactly estimated ; but will probably exceed £500.

 

Although the seats for the Church were not completed in readiness for the opening services, through the courtesy of the Rev. C. Jones, who lent the spare seats of the Wesleyan Church, and Colonel Russell, P.M., who gave permission for the use of the Court-house forms ; ample accomodation, it was believed, had been provided for those who would attend the services of Sabbath last. Indeed, considering that the seats used were not made for the building, they were capable of very convenient arrangement and provided nearly as much sitting accommodation as the church can afford. But, nevertheless, long before the hour of morning service it was evident that the church would be crowded. And by eleven o'clock, all the available sitting and standing room, including the porch its-self, was occupied—the congregation crowding to the very feet of the minister, and a large number, who had been unable to gain admittance, were obliged to go away. There could not have been less than two hundred persons crowded into the church and porch during the morning service, many of whom had come from the country—some as far as twenty-five or thirty miles distant.

 

The Rev. R. Steel, M.A., Ph. D., of St. Stephen's Church, Sydney, conducted the opening services. The morning service began by singing the Old Hundredth Psalm, and a dedicatory prayer, appropriate chapters from the Bible, and other devotional exercises, the reverend docter announced his text from the Book of Genesis, 28th chap. v. 22—" And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house." The preacher introduced his subject by reminding his hearers of the object which had brought them together that day—to dedicate that building to the worship of Almighty God.

 

"The sound of the church-going bell,"

 

had that morning called to mind a multitude of reminiscences—Bible scenes—associations of their youth, and of other lands. He dwelt upon these in a descriptive manner, which arrested the breathless attention of the congregation, and awoke the tenderest emotions of their hearts. Churches were places of prayer, praise, and instruction. He expatiated on these points of discourse at large, showing the duty and advantages of public worship, and concluded an eloquent and powerful sermon, which occupied about an hour in delivery, by expressing his earnest wish that the place wherein they were assembled might become the birthplace of many souls.

 

The Sacrament of Baptism was then administered to two infants, and the service was brought to a close by prayer, singing, and the Apostolic Benediction.

 

The collection at morning service amounted to £7 14s 8d.

 

The evening service was begun at 7 o'clock ; and many who were disappointed of a seat in the morning, were there betimes in order to secure accommodation. As in the morning the church was crowded, the porch also, and many persons stood around the building wherever they could hear the sermon. The evening text was Ephesians v. 1.—"Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children." The discourse founded upon these words was very fine. The love which God bears for mankind was dwelt upon and illustrated in a variety of ways which could not have failed to carry conviction to the hearts of those who heard the preacher's fervent words ; and the manner in which God's children are to imitate Him in His communicable attribites was ably set forth.

 

The collection at the close of the evening service amounted to £2 19s 8d.

Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

  

The Battle of Alexander at Issus (German: Alexanderschlacht) is a 1529 oil painting by the German artist Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538), a pioneer of landscape art and a founding member of the Danube school.

 

It portrays the 333 BC Battle of Issus, in which Alexander the Great secured a decisive victory over Darius III of Persia and gained crucial leverage in his campaign against the Persian Empire.

 

The painting is widely regarded as Altdorfer's masterpiece, and is one of the most famous examples of the type of Renaissance landscape painting known as the world landscape, which here reaches an unprecedented grandeur.

 

Duke William IV of Bavaria commissioned The Battle of Alexander at Issus in 1528 as part of a set of historical pieces that was to hang in his Munich residence.

 

Modern commentators suggest that the painting, through its abundant use of anachronism, was intended to liken Alexander's heroic victory at Issus to the contemporary European conflict with the Ottoman Empire. In particular, the defeat of Suleiman the Magnificent at the Siege of Vienna may have been an inspiration for Altdorfer.

 

A religious undercurrent is detectable, especially in the extraordinary sky; this was probably inspired by the prophecies of Daniel and contemporary concern within the Church about an impending apocalypse.

 

The Battle of Alexander at Issus and four others that were part of William's initial set are in the Alte Pinakothek art museum in Munich.

Contents

 

Albrecht Altdorfer is regarded as one of the founders of Western landscape art.[29] He was a painter, etcher, architect, and engraver, and the leader of the Danube school of German art.

 

As evidenced by such paintings as Saint George and the Dragon (1510) and Allegory (1531), much of Altdorfer's work is characterised by an attachment to sprawling landscapes that dwarf the figures within them;[30]

 

The Battle of Alexander at Issus epitomises this facet of his style. With reference to St George and the Dragon in particular, art historian Mark W. Roskill comments that "The accessory material of landscape [in Altdorfer's work] is played with and ornamentally elaborated so that it reverberates with the sense of a sequestered and inhospitable environment".[31] Inspired by his travels around the Austrian Alps and the Danube River,[32]

 

Altdorfer painted a number of landscapes that contain no figures at all, including Landscape with a Footbridge (c. 1516) and Danube Landscape near Regensburg (c. 1522–25). These were the first "pure" landscapes since antiquity.[33]

 

Most of Altdorfer's landscapes were made with a vertical format, in contrast with the modern conception of the genre. The horizontal landscape was an innovation of Altdorfer's Flemish contemporary Joachim Patinir and his followers.[34]

 

Altdorfer also produced a great deal of religious artwork, in reflection of his devout Catholicism. His most frequent subjects were the Virgin Mary and the life and crucifixion of Christ.

 

As in The Battle of Alexander at Issus, these paintings often feature settings of great majesty and use the sky to convey symbolic meaning.

 

This meaning is not uniform throughout Altdorfer's corpus – for example, the visage of the setting sun connotes loss and tragedy in Agony in the Garden, but serves as "the emblem of power and glory" in The Battle of Alexander at Issus.[35]

 

Larry Silver of The Art Bulletin explains that The Battle of Alexander at Issus is both similar to and in direct contrast with Altdorfer's previous work: "Instead of the peaceful landscape of retreat for Christian events or holy figures, this panel offers just the opposite: a battleground for one of ancient history's principal epoch-making encounters ... Yet despite its global or cosmic dimensions, the Battle of Issus still looks like Altdorfer's earlier, contemplative liminal landscapes of retreat, complete with craggy peaks, bodies of water, and distant castles."[36]

 

Although the Battle of Alexander is atypical of Altdorfer in its size and in that it depicts war, his Triumphal Procession – a 1512–16 illuminated manuscript commissioned by Maximilian I of the Holy Roman Empire – has been described as a conceptual antecedent.[37]

 

The Procession was produced in parallel with the Triumph of Maximilian, a series of 137 woodcuts collaboratively executed by Altdorfer, Hans Springinklee, Albrecht Dürer, Leonhard Beck and Hans Schäufelein.[38]

 

Altdorfer's most significant contemporary influence was Matthias Grünewald (c. 1470–1528).

 

Art historian Horst W. Janson remarked that their paintings "show the same 'unruly' imagination".[39] Elements of The Battle of Alexander at Issus – particularly the sky – have been compared to Grünewald's Heavenly Host above the Virgin and Child, which forms part of his masterpiece, the Isenheim Altarpiece. Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553), also associated with the Danube school, was another important influence for Altdorfer.

 

According to Roskill, works by Cranach from about 1500 "give a prominent role to landscape settings, using them as mood-enhancing backgrounds for portraits, and for images of hermits and visionary saints", and seem to play a "preparatory role" for the onset of pure landscape.[40]

 

Altdorfer owed much of his style, particularly in his religious artwork, to Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528);[41] Larry Silver writes that Altdorfer's "use of convincing German landscapes in combination with celestial phenomena for his religious narrative" is "firmly tied" to a tradition "modeled by Albrecht Dürer."[42]

 

William IV, Duke of Bavaria commissioned The Battle of Alexander at Issus in 1528.[43] Altdorfer was approximately 50 at the time, and was living in the Free Imperial City of Regensburg.[44]

 

As a result of over a decade of involvement with the Regensburg city council, Altdorfer was offered the position of Burgomaster on 18 September 1528.

 

He declined; the council annals reported his reasoning as such: "He much desires to execute a special work in Bavaria for my Serene Highness and gracious Lord, Duke [William]."[44] William probably wanted the painting for his newly built summer Lusthaus ("pleasure house") in the grounds of his palace in Munich, approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of Regensburg.[43][44][45]

 

There, it was to hang alongside seven other paintings with a similar format and subject matter, including Ludwig Refinger's The Matyrdom of Marcus Curtius, Melchior Feselen's The Siege of Alesia by Caesar, and the painting of Battle of Cannae by Hans Burgkmair (1473–1531).[46][47]

 

Another eight, each portraying a famous woman from history, were later added to the set, probably at the behest of the Duke's wife, Jacobaea of Baden.[47] Altdorfer's Susanna and the Elders (1526) was among these.[48]

 

The Battle of Alexander at Issus is painted on a limewood panel measuring 158.4 cm × 120.3 cm (62.4 in × 47.4 in),[56] and portrays the moment of Alexander the Great's victory. The vertical format was dictated by the space available in the room for which the painting was commissioned – each in William's set of eight was made to be the same size.

 

At an unknown date, the panel was cut down on all sides, particularly at the top, so the sky was originally larger and the moon further from the corner of the scene.[57] The scene is approached from an impossible viewpoint – at first only feet from the fray, the perspective gradually ascends to encompass the seas and continents in the background and eventually the curvature of the Earth itself.[58][59]

 

Thousands of horse and foot soldiers immersed in a sea of spears and lances populate the foreground. The two armies are distinguished by their dress, anachronistic though it is: whereas Alexander's men clad themselves and their horses in full suits of heavy armour, many of Darius' wear turbans and ride naked mounts.[60]

 

The bodies of the many fallen soldiers lie underfoot. A front of Macedonian warriors in the centre pushes against the crumbling enemy force, who flee the battlefield on the far left.

 

The Persian king joins his army on his chariot of three horses, and is narrowly pursued by Alexander and his uniformly attired Companion cavalry.[47] The tract of soldiers continues down the gently sloped battlefield to the campsite and cityscape by the water, gravitating toward the mountainous rise at the scene's centre.

 

Beyond is the Mediterranean Sea and the island of Cyprus.[61] Here, a transition in hue is made, from the browns that prevail in the lower half of the painting to the aquas that saturate the upper half.

 

The Nile River meanders in the far distance, emptying its seven arms into the Mediterranean at the Nile Delta.[61] South of Cyprus is the Sinai Peninsula, which forms a land bridge between Africa and Southwest Asia. The Red Sea lies beyond,[61] eventually merging – as the mountain ranges to its left and right do – with the curved horizon.

 

A fierce sky caught in the dichotomy between the setting sun and the crescent moon dominates more than a third of the painting.[57] The rain-heavy clouds swirling ominously around each celestial entity are separated by a gulf of calmness, intensifying the contrast and infusing the heavens with an unearthly glow.[62]

 

Light from the sky spills onto the landscape: while the western continent and the Nile are bathed in the sun's light, the east and the Tower of Babel are cloaked in shadow.

 

The painting's subject is explained in the tablet suspended from the heavens. The wording, probably supplied by William's court historian Johannes Aventinus,[63] was originally in German but was later replaced by a Latin inscription.

 

It translates:

 

"Alexander the Great defeating the last Darius, after 100,000 infantry and more than 10,000 cavalrymen had been killed amongst the ranks of the Persians. Whilst King Darius was able to flee with no more than 1,000 horsemen, his mother, wife, and children were taken prisoner."

 

No date is provided for the battle alongside these casualty figures. The lower left-hand corner features Altdorfer's monogram – an 'A' within an 'A' – and the lower edge of the tablet is inscribed with "ALBRECHT ALTORFER ZU REGENSPVRG FECIT" ("Albrecht Altdorfer from Regensburg made [this]").

 

Tiny inscriptions on their chariot and harness identify Darius and Alexander, respectively.[64] Each army bears a banner that reports both its total strength and its future casualties.[43][60]

Analysis and interpretation

Detail of soldiers from both armies. Reinhart Koselleck comments that the Persians resemble the 16th-century Turks "from their feet to their turbans."

 

Anachronism is a major component of The Battle of Alexander at Issus. By dressing Alexander's men in 16th-century steel armour and Darius' men in Turkish battle dress, Altdorfer draws deliberate parallels between the Macedonian campaign and the contemporary European–Ottoman conflict.[44][59][64]

 

In 1529 – the year of the painting's commissioning – the Ottoman forces under Suleiman the Magnificent laid siege to the Austrian city of Vienna[64], then also the capital of the Holy Roman Empire and called 'the golden apple' by the Sultans. Although far inferior in number, the Austrian, German, Czech, and Spanish soldiers marshalled to defend Vienna were able to force the enemy into a retreat and stall the Ottoman advance on central Europe.

 

It is probable the painting's underlying allegory was inspired by the siege of Vienna, given its similarities to Alexander's victory at Issus. Some critics go further, suggesting that the inclusion of anachronism may have been an element of Altdorfer's commission.[47][59]

 

Featured alongside the anachronism in The Battle of Alexander at Issus is a genuine lack of historicity. Altdorfer demonstrates minimal hesitance in neglecting the painting's historical integrity for the sake of its heroic style, in spite of the pains he took to research the battle.

 

That the Persian army was up to twice the size of the Macedonian army is not clear, and the relative positioning of the soldiers as reported by ancient sources has been disregarded.

 

According to art critic Rose-Marie Hagen, "The artist was faithful to the historical truth only when it suited him, when historical facts were compatible with the demands of his composition."[60] Hagen also notes the placement of women on the battlefield, attributing it to Altdorfer's "passion for invention",[60] since the wife of Darius, his mother and his daughters were waiting for Darius back at the camp, not in the thick of battle.[66] True to form, however, Altdorfer made the aristocratic ladies "look like German courtly ladies, dressed for a hunting party" in their feathered toques:[60]

 

Altdorfer's primary point of reference in his research was probably Hartmann Schedel's Nuremberg Chronicle (Schedelsche Weltchronik), an illustrated world history published in Nuremberg in 1493. Schedel was a physician, humanist, historian and cartographer, and his Chronicle was one of the first books produced on the printing press. With a heavy reliance on the Bible, it recounts the seven ages of human history,[67] from Creation to the birth of Christ and ending with the Apocalypse.[68] Altdorfer's statistics for the battle of Issus mirror those of Schedel.

 

Furthermore, the errors in Schedel's maps of the Mediterranean and Northern Africa are also present in The Battle of Alexander at Issus: the island of Cyprus is noticeably oversized, and both the mountain rise in the painting's centre and the range adjacent to the Nile do not exist.[61]

 

Since the Chronicle describes Alexander's victory over the Persians in terms of its proximity to Tarsus and omits mention of Issus, it is likely that the cityscape by the sea is intended to be the former city rather than the latter. Issus in the 16th century was minor and relatively unknown, whereas Tarsus was renowned for its having been a major centre of learning and philosophy in Roman times. Tarsus was also said to be the birthplace of the Apostle Paul, which may explain the presence of the church towers in Altdorfer's portrayal.[61] Another source may have been the writings of Quintus Curtius Rufus, a 1st-century Roman historian who presents inflated figures for the number of killed and taken prisoner and the sizes of the armies.[60]

 

The sky bears overt metaphorical significance and is the centrepiece of the painting's symbolism. Alexander, identified by the Egyptians and others as a god of the sun, finds his victory in the sun's rays; and the Persians are routed into the darkness beneath the crescent moon, a symbol of the Near East.[69]

 

Considered in terms of the painting's contemporary context, the sun's triumph over the moon represents Christendom's victory over the Islamism of the Ottomans.[35] Eschatological meaning, probably inspired by prophecies in the Book of Daniel, is imbued in the heavenly setting. In particular, Daniel 7 predicts the rise and fall of four kingdoms before the Second Coming; these were thought to be Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome at the time of the painting's creation. Altdorfer saw the Battle of Issus as a principal indicator of the transition of power from Persia to Greece, and thus as an event of cosmic significance.[35][57]

 

The battle also marked a progression toward the end of the world – an important theological concern in the 16th century, given that the last traces of Rome were diminishing with the papacy. As a member of the Regensburg council and a practising Catholic, Altdorfer frequently interacted with the Church and was surely aware of this trend of eschatological thought. Schedel, too, had calculated that the final age of the seven he identified was nigh.[67] It may therefore be inferred that the sky's expression of the momentous event at Issus was intended to be of contemporary relevance as well.[57]

 

The Battle of Alexander at Issus remained part of the royal collection of the Dukes of Bavaria for centuries. By the late 18th century, it was regularly featured in public galleries at the Schleissheim Palace.

 

The painting was one of 72 taken to Paris in 1800 by the invading armies of Napoleon I (1769–1821),[70] who was a noted admirer of Alexander the Great.[60][71]

 

The Louvre held it until 1804, when Napoleon declared himself Emperor of France and took it for his own use.

 

When the Prussians captured the Château de Saint-Cloud in 1814 as part of the War of the Sixth Coalition, they supposedly found the painting hanging in Napoleon's bathroom.[72]

 

The Battle of Alexander at Issus and 26 others taken in the 1800 invasion were subsequently restored to the

 

King of Bavaria in 1815.[70] Five of the paintings in William IV's original set of eight – including The Battle of Alexander at Issus – later passed from the royal collection to the Alte Pinakothek art museum in Munich, Germany, where they remain; the other three are in the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm, having been looted by the Swedish army in the Thirty Years War of 1618–1648.[73] Susannah and the Elders is the only other work by Altdorfer in the Alte Pinakothek.

Horatius Cocles Stopping King Porsenna's Army outside Rome, by Ludwig Refinger. From the same historical cycle that The Battle of Alexander at Issus originally belonged to.

 

Contextually, the painting forms part of the Northern Renaissance, a resurgence of classical humanism and culture in northern Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries.

 

The Renaissance induced a new kind of social individualism which Altdorfer expressed through the heroic emphasis on Alexander and Darius, and which is reflected in the specifics of the painting's commission and by the subjects of its companion pieces: "During the Renaissance people no longer saw themselves solely as members of a social group, as the citizens of a town, or as sinners before God in whose eyes all were equal. They had become aware of the unique qualities that distinguished one person from another.

 

Unlike the Middle Ages, the Renaissance celebrated the individual. Altdorfer may have painted row after row of apparently identical warriors, but the spectators themselves would identify with Alexander and Darius, figures who had names, whose significance was indicated by the cord which hung down from the tablet above them."[47]

 

Altdorfer was not only a pioneer of landscape, but also a practitioner of early incarnations of the Romanticism and expressionism which impacted the arts so greatly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

 

Kenneth Clark writes of Altdorfer and contemporaries Grünewald and Bosch, "They are what we now call 'expressionist' artists, a term which is not as worthless as it sounds, because, in fact, the symbols of expressionism are remarkably consistent, and we find in the work of these early 16th-century landscape painters not only the same spirit but the same shapes and iconographical motives which recur in the work of such recent expressionists as van Gogh, Max Ernst, Graham Sutherland and Walt Disney."[74]

 

According to art critic Pia F. Cuneo, "Altdorfer's construction of landscape on a cosmic scale" in the Battle of Alexander at Issus, and his "spiritual and aesthetic affinities with Romanticism and Modern art (in particular, German Expressionism)", "have been especially singled out for praise".[75]

 

The Battle of Alexander at Issus is typically considered to be Altdorfer's masterpiece. Cuneo states that the painting is usually "considered in splendid isolation from its fifteen other companion pieces, based on the assumption that it either metonymically stands in for the entire cycle, or that its perceived aesthetic predominance merits exclusive focus."[75] German writer Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829) was one of many who saw the painting in the Louvre and marvelled, calling it a "small painted Iliad".[72] Reinhart Koselleck comments that Altdorfer's depiction of the thousands of soldiers was executed with "a mastery previously unknown",[65] and Kathleen Davis describes the painting as "epochal in every sense".[65]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Alexander_at_Issus

Saturday, and hey, hey it's the weekend.

 

I felt as though the weather had kept me trapped in the house pretty much all week, so I wanted to go out.

 

Jools came back from work evening, saying that her old boss had visited Rochester Cathedral and said there is a fantastic art display of thousands of paper doves, and a huge table made from reclaimed 5,000 tree trunk found in a fen in Norfolk.

 

Yes, we would like some of that action, and as it has been three years since we were last there, seemed like a good idea.

 

In fact, at the beginning of March 2020, it was the first trip we took in the new Audi, and of course, two weeks later there was lockdown and deaths.

 

So, a trip back, at Easter, for a rebirth and to see some art and a huge table.

 

But first, shopping.

 

And being the start of the month, we get much more than usual, including wine to make sloe port and stuff for washing and cleaning.

 

Back home to put it all away and have breakfast and second coffee before heading out. Though because of Brexit-related delays in the port, we did have to leave through Guston and Pineham to get to the A2 as traffic through Whitfield was at a standstill.

 

Up the A2 to Faversham, then along the Motorway until we turned off just after the Medway bridge. It was later than we had hoped, but thought nothing of it, really.

 

But there was a food festival on near the caste, and all parking was full, we drove along the river thinking we would just give up, then following the sat nav back into town we find a tiny car park with spaces, and just a few minutes walk from the cathedral and castle.

 

Perfect.

 

As we drove past the parish church in Strood, I saw thatt he door was open: oh good.

 

On the way to the cathedral, we called into a café for breakfast. Second breakfast. Elevenses. I had a bacon butty and Jools had a panini, which hit the spot, meaning we were ready to go and mingle with people.

 

By the time we emerged, and walked along the High Street to the church, it was closed. So I took some shots of the outside, and then we headed for the bridge over the Medway, and before the Cathedral, there was the Bridge Chapel.

 

I had discovered from a fr

 

iend that the Bridge over the Medway at Rochester was owned, repaired and funded by a charity/trust, and had been this was pretty much from the 14th century.

 

Only the other shell of the Chantry Chapel of the Bridge now remains, but a new roof has been put on, and the chapel now used for meetings, and has a large wooden table filling most of the Chancel. I record the details, say thanks to the two friendly guides, and we finally walk to the Cathedral.

 

The food festival needed tickets to go in, it smelled good, and a band was playing poor Britpop numbers to entertain the thin crowds.

 

We entered the cathedral, and hit by the sight of over 10,000 paper doves, all lit with pink light, having over the Nave.

 

It was impressive.

 

As was the table, pushed to one side but half the length of the Nave, and made of two and three thick planks.

 

I went round taking shots of the stained glass with the big lens, whilst Jools sat and looked after the camera bag.

 

Despite it being a cool day, with my fleece on I was hot, so needed a drink, and along the old High Street was The George, and they showed us to the "garden", which was a huge tent filled with people, one party were loudly celebrating someone's 40th birthday.

 

But our drinks were brought quickly, and being in the corner we could people watch, of course.

 

It was two, and time to go home. The traffic jams of earlier had melted away, so we walked to the car, turned out onto the main road out of town, to the motorway and home.

 

On the radio Citeh put 4 (four) past Liverpool, then all was about preparations for the main group of games.

 

We arrived back home at three, time for a brew and two hot cross buns each, and for me, listen to the footy on the radio, and hopeful that City's late push to the play-offs would start today.

  

It didn't.

 

A 1-0 loss to Sheffield Utd, just one shot on goal, and the season is deader than flares.

 

I watched the evening game, Chelsea losing to Villa, whilst Craig returned on the radio and spun some funk and soul.

 

Perfect.

 

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Rochester Cathedral has been transformed by ‘Peace Doves’ an artwork by Peter Walker Sculptor

 

Bringing a message of peace and hope, the Peace Doves artwork has been created from around fifteen thousand individually hand made paper doves, together they collectively form this beautiful artwork which as a whole reflects joining together in unity, peace and hope moving forward.

 

Peace Doves is an artwork that has been re-curated for different spaces as it tours the UK, adaptations have been seen in Liverpool, Lichfield, Derby, Sheffield and now at Rochester.

 

The Peace Doves project has incorporated educational engagement with many schools and community groups in the local area and each person has written individual messages of peace and hope onto each dove.

 

Throughout history the dove has been viewed as a symbol of peace in many different cultures. For example in Greek mythology the dove is a symbol of the renewal of life, and liturgically within the Bible the dove appears at the Baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan and in the teachings of Noah and the Ark as a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

 

www.rochestercathedral.org/peacedoves

 

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The church is the cathedral of the Diocese of Rochester in the Church of England and the seat (cathedra) of the Bishop of Rochester, the second oldest bishopric in England after that of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The edifice is a Grade I listed building (number 1086423)

 

The Rochester diocese was founded by Justus, one of the missionaries who accompanied Augustine of Canterbury to convert the pagan southern English to Christianity in the early 7th century. As the first Bishop of Rochester, Justus was granted permission by King Æthelberht of Kent to establish a church dedicated to Andrew the Apostle (like the monastery at Rome where Augustine and Justus had set out for England) on the site of the present cathedral, which was made the seat of a bishopric. The cathedral was to be served by a college of secular priests and was endowed with land near the city called Priestfields.[3][a][b]

 

Under the Roman system, a bishop was required to establish a school for the training of priests.[4] To provide the upper parts for music in the services a choir school was required.[5] Together these formed the genesis of the cathedral school which today is represented by the King's School, Rochester. The quality of chorister training was praised by Bede.

 

The original cathedral was 42 feet (13 m) high and 28 feet (8.5 m) wide. The apse is marked in the current cathedral on the floor and setts outside show the line of the walls. Credit for the construction of the building goes to King Æthelberht rather than St Justus. Bede describes St Paulinus' burial as "in the sanctuary of the Blessed Apostle Andrew which Æthelberht founded likewise he built the city of Rochester."[c][7]

 

Æthelberht died in 617 and his successor, Eadbald of Kent, was not a Christian. Justus fled to Francia and remained there for a year before he was recalled by the king.[8]

 

In 644 Ithamar, the first English-born bishop, was consecrated at the cathedral.[d] Ithamar consecrated Deusdedit as the first Saxon Archbishop of Canterbury on 26 March 655.[9]

 

The cathedral suffered much from the ravaging of Kent by King Æthelred of Mercia in 676. So great was the damage that Putta retired from the diocese and his appointed successor, Cwichelm, gave up the see "because of its poverty".[10]

 

In 762, the local overlord, Sigerd, granted land to the bishop, as did his successor Egbert.[e][11] The charter is notable as it is confirmed by Offa of Mercia as overlord of the local kingdom.

 

Following the invasion of 1066, William the Conqueror granted the cathedral and its estates to his half-brother, Odo of Bayeux. Odo misappropriated the resources and reduced the cathedral to near-destitution. The building itself was ancient and decayed. During the episcopate of Siward (1058–1075) it was served by four or five canons "living in squalor and poverty".[12] One of the canons became vicar of Chatham and raised sufficient money to make a gift to the cathedral for the soul and burial of his

 

Gundulf's church

 

Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, amongst others, brought Odo to account at the trial of Penenden Heath c. 1072. Following Odo's final fall, Gundulf was appointed as the first Norman bishop of Rochester in 1077. The cathedral and its lands were restored to the bishop.

 

Gundulf's first undertaking in the construction of the new cathedral seems to have been the construction of the tower which today bears his name. In about 1080 he began construction of a new cathedral to replace Justus' church. He was a talented architect who probably played a major part in the design or the works he commissioned. The original cathedral had a presbytery of six bays with aisles of the same length. The four easternmost bays stood over an undercroft which forms part of the present crypt. To the east was a small projection, probably for the silver shrine of Paulinus which was translated there from the old cathedral.[f] The transepts were 120 feet long, but only 14 feet wide. With such narrow transepts it is thought that the eastern arches of the nave abuted the quire arch.[14] To the south another tower (of which nothing visible remains) was built. There was no crossing tower.[15] The nave was not completed at first. Apparently designed to be nine bays long, most of the south side but only five bays to the north were completed by Gundulf. The quire was required by the priory and the south wall formed part of its buildings. It has been speculated that Gundulf simply left the citizens to complete the parochial part of the building.[16] Gundulf did not stop with the fabric, he also replaced the secular chaplains with Benedictine monks, obtained several royal grants of land and proved a great benefactor to his cathedral city.

 

In 1078 Gudulf founded St Bartholomew's Hospital just outside the city of Rochester. The Priory of St Andrew contributed daily and weekly provisions to the hospital which also received the offerings from the two altars of St James and of St Giles.[17]

 

During the episcopates of Ernulf (1115–1124) and John (I) (1125–1137) the cathedral was completed. The quire was rearranged, the nave partly rebuilt, Gundulf's nave piers were cased and the west end built. Ernulf is also credited with building the refectory, dormitory and chapter house, only portions of which remain. Finally John translated the body of Ithamar from the old Saxon cathedral to the new Norman one, the whole being dedicated in 1130 (or possibly 1133) by the Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by 13 bishops in the presence of Henry I, but the occasion was marred by a great fire which nearly destroyed the whole city and damaged the new cathedral. It was badly damaged by fires again in 1137 and 1179. One or other of these fires was sufficiently severe to badly damage or destroy the eastern arm and the transepts. Ernulf's monastic buildings were also damaged.

 

Probably from about 1190, Gilbert de Glanville (bishop 1185–1214) commenced the rebuilding of the east end and the replacement on the monastic buildings. The north quire transept may have been sufficiently advanced to allow the burial of St William of Perth in 1201, alternatively the coffin may have lain in the north quire aisle until the transept was ready. It was then looted in 1215 by the forces of King John during siege of Rochester Castle. Edmund de Hadenham recounts that there was not a pyx left "in which the body of the Lord might rest upon the altar".[14] However, by 1227, the quire was again in use when the monks made their solemn entry into it. The cathedral was rededicated in 1240 by Richard Wendene (also known as Richard de Wendover) who had been translated from Bangor.[14][18]

 

The shrines of Ss Paulinus and William of Perth, along with the relics of St Ithamar, drew pilgrims to the cathedral. Their offerings were so great that both the work mentioned above and the ensuing work could be funded.

 

Unlike the abbeys of the period (which were led by an abbot) the monastic cathedrals were priories ruled over by a prior with further support from the bishop.[19] Rochester and Carlisle (the other impoverished see) were unusual in securing the promotion of a number of monks to be bishop. Seven bishops of Rochester were originally regular monks between 1215 and the Dissolution.[20] A consequence of the monastic attachment was a lack of patronage at the bishop's disposal. By the early 16th century only 4% of the bishop's patronage came from non-parochial sources.[21] The bishop was therefore chronically limited in funds to spend on the non-monastic part of the cathedral.

 

The next phase of the development was begun by Richard de Eastgate, the sacrist. The two eastern bays of the nave were cleared and the four large piers to support the tower were built. The north nave transept was then constructed. The work was nearly completed by Thomas de Mepeham who became sacrist in 1255. Not long after the south transept was completed and the two bays of the nave nearest the crossing rebuilt to their current form. The intention seems to have been to rebuild the whole nave, but probably lack of funds saved the late Norman work.

 

The cathedral was desecrated in 1264 by the troops of Simon de Montfort, during sieges of the city and castle. It is recorded that armed knights rode into the church and dragged away some refugees. Gold and silver were stolen and documents destroyed. Some of the monastic buildings were turned into stables.[22] Just over a year later De Montfort fell at the Battle of Evesham to the forces of Edward I. Later, in 1300, Edward passed through Rochester on his way to Canterbury and is recorded as having given seven shillings (35p) at the shrine of St William, and the same again the following day. During his return he again visited the cathedral and gave a further seven shillings at each of the shrines of Ss Paulinus and Ithamar.

 

The new century saw the completion of the new Decorated work with the original Norman architecture. The rebuilding of the nave being finally abandoned. Around 1320 the south transept was altered to accommodate the altar of the Virgin Mary.

 

There appears to have been a rood screen thrown between the two western piers of the crossing. A rood loft may have surmounted it.[23] Against this screen was placed the altar of St Nicholas, the parochial altar of the city. The citizens demanded the right of entrance by day or night to what was after all their altar. There were also crowds of strangers passing through the city. The friction broke out as a riot in 1327 after which the strong stone screens and doors which wall off the eastern end of the church from the nave were built.[24] The priory itself was walled off from the town at this period. An oratory was established in angulo navis ("in the corner of the nave") for the reserved sacrament; it is not clear which corner was being referred to, but Dr Palmer[25] argues that the buttress against the north-west tower pier is the most likely setting. He notes the arch filled in with rubble on the aisle side; and on nave side there is a scar line with lower quality stonework below. The buttress is about 4 feet (1.2 m) thick, enough for an oratory. Palmer notes that provision for reservation of consecrated hosts was often made to the north of the altar which would be the case here.

 

The central tower was at last raised by Hamo de Hythe in 1343, thus essentially completing the cathedral. Bells were placed in the central tower (see Bells section below). The chapter room doorway was constructed at around this time. The Black Death struck England in 1347–49. From then on there were probably considerably more than twenty monks in the priory.

 

The modern paintwork of the quire walls is modelled on artwork from the Middle Ages. Gilbert Scott found remains of painting behind the wooden stalls during his restoration work in the 1870s. The painting is therefore part original and part authentic. The alternate lions and fleurs-de-lis reflect Edward III's victories, and assumed sovereignty over the French. In 1356 the Black Prince had defeated John II of France at Poitiers and took him prisoner. On 2 July 1360 John passed through Rochester on his way home and made an offering of 60 crowns (£15) at the Church of St Andrew.[27]

 

The Oratory provided for the citizens of Rochester did not settle the differences between the monks and the city. The eventual solution was the construction of St Nicholas' Church by the north side of the cathedral. A doorway was knocked through the western end of the north aisle (since walled up) to allow processions to pass along the north aisle of the cathedral before leaving by the west door.[27][28]

 

In the mid-15th century the clerestory and vaulting of the north quire aisle was completed and new Perpendicular Period windows inserted into the nave aisles. Possible preparatory work for this is indicated in 1410–11 by the Bridge Wardens of Rochester who recorded a gift of lead from the Lord Prior. The lead was sold on for 41 shillings.[g][29] In 1470 the great west window at the cathedral was completed and finally, in around 1490, what is now the Lady Chapel was built.[27] Rochester Cathedral, although one of England's smaller cathedrals, thus demonstrates all styles of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.[30]

 

In 1504 John Fisher was appointed Bishop of Rochester. Although Rochester was by then an impoverished see, Fisher elected to remain as bishop for the remainder of his life. He had been tutor to the young Prince Henry and on the prince's accession as Henry VIII, Fisher remained his staunch supporter and mentor. He figured in the anti-Lutheran policies of Henry right up until the divorce issue and split from Rome in the early 1530s. Fisher remained true to Rome and for his defence of the Pope was elevated as a cardinal in May 1535. Henry was angered by these moves and, on 22 June 1535, Cardinal Fisher was beheaded on Tower Green.

 

Henry VIII visited Rochester on 1 January 1540 when he met Ann of Cleves for the first time and was "greatly disappointed".[31] Whether connected or not, the old Priory of St Andrew was dissolved by royal command later in the year, one of the last monasteries to be dissolved.

 

The west front is dominated by the central perpendicular great west window. Above the window the dripstone terminates in a small carved head at each side. The line of the nave roof is delineated by a string course above which rises the crenelated parapet. Below the window is a blind arcade interrupted by the top of the Great West Door. Some of the niches in the arcade are filled with statuary. Below the arcade the door is flanked with Norman recesses. The door itself is of Norman work with concentric patterned arches. The semicircular tympanum depicts Christ sitting in glory in the centre, with Saints Justus and Ethelbert flanking him on either side of the doorway. Supporting the saints are angels and surrounding them are the symbols of the Four Evangelists: Ss Matthew (a winged man), Mark (a lion), Luke (an ox) and John (an eagle).[52] On the lintel below are the Twelve Apostles and on the shafts supporting it King Soloman and the Queen of Sheba.[53] Within the Great West Door there is a glass porch which allows the doors themselves to be kept open throughout the day.

 

Either side of the nave end rises a tower which forms the junction of the front and the nave walls. The towers are decorated with blind arcading and are carried up a further two stories above the roof and surmounted with pyramidal spires. The aisle ends are Norman. Each has a large round headed arch containing a window and in the northern recess is a small door. Above each arch is plain wall surmounted by a blind arcade, string course at the roof line and plain parapet. The flanking towers are Norman in the lower part with the style being maintained in the later work. Above the plain bases there are four stories of blind arcading topped with an octagonal spire.[54]

 

The outside of the nave and its aisles is undistinguished, apart from the walled up north-west door which allowed access from the cathedral to the adjacent St Nicholas' Church.[28] The north transept is reached from the High Street via Black Boy Alley, a medieval pilgrimage route. The decoration is Early English, but reworked by Gilbert Scott. Scott rebuilt the gable ends to the original high pitch from the lower one adopted at the start of the 19th century. The gable itself is set back from the main wall behind a parapet with walkway. He also restored the pilgrim entrance and opened up the blind arcade in the northern end of the west wall.[55]

 

To the east of the north transept is the Sextry Gate. It dates from Edward III's reign and has wooden domestic premises above. The area beyond was originally enclosed, but is now open to the High Street through the memorial garden and gates. Beyond the Sextry Gate is the entrance to Gundulf's Tower, used as a private back door to the cathedral.

 

The north quire transept and east end are all executed in Early English style, the lower windows light the crypt which is earlier. Adjoining the east end of the cathedral is the east end of the Chapter Room which is in the same style. The exact form of the east end is more modern than it appears, being largely due to the work of Scott in the 19th century. Scott raised the gable ends to the original high pitch, but for lack of funds the roofs have not been raised; writing in 1897 Palmer noted: "they still require roofs of corresponding pitch, a need both great and conspicuous".[56]

 

On the south side of the cathedral the nave reaches the main transept and beyond a modern porch. The aisle between the transepts is itself a buttress to the older wall behind and supported by a flying buttress. The unusual position of this wall is best explained when considering the interior, below. The southern wall of the presbytery is hidden by the chapter room, an 18th-century structure.

 

he western part of the nave is substantially as Gundulf designed it. According to George H. Palmer (who substantially follows St John Hope) "Rochester and Peterborough possess probably the best examples of the Norman nave in the country".[60] The main arcade is topped by a string course below a triforium. The triforium is Norman with a further string course above. The clerestory above is of perpendicular style. From the capitals pilasters rise to the first string course but appear to have been removed from the triforium stage. Originally they might have supported the roof timbers, or even been the springing of a vault.[61]

 

The easternmost bay of the triforium appears to be Norman, but is the work of 14th-century masons. The final bay of the nave is Decorated in style and leads to the tower piers. Of note is the north pier which possibly contains the Oratory Chapel mentioned above.[62]

 

The aisles are plain with flat pilasters. The eastern two bays are Decorated with springing for vaulting. Whether the vault was ever constructed is unknown, the present wooden roof extends the full length of the aisles.

 

The crossing is bounded to the east by the quire screen with the organ above. This is of 19th-century work and shows figures associated with the early cathedral. Above the crossing is the central tower, housing the bells and above that the spire. The ceiling of the crossing is notable for the four Green Men carved on the bosses. Visible from the ground is the outline of the trapdoor through which bells can be raised and lowered when required. The floor is stepped up to the pulpitum and gives access to the quire through the organ screen.

 

The north transept is from 1235 in Early English style. The Victorian insertion of windows has been mentioned above in the external description. Dominating the transept is the baptistery fresco. The fresco by Russian artist Sergei Fyodorov is displayed on the eastern wall. It is located within an arched recess. The recess may have been a former site of the altar of St Nicholas from the time of its construction in 1235 until it was moved to the screen before the pulpitum in 1322. A will suggests that "an altar of Jesu" also stood here at some point, an altar of some sort must have existed as evidenced by the piscina to the right of the recess.[64] The vaulting is unusual in being octpartite, a development of the more common sexpartite. The Pilgrim Door is now the main visitor entrance and is level for disabled access.

 

he original Lady Chapel was formed in the south transept by screening it off from the crossing. The altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary was housed in the eastern arch of the transept. There are traces of painting both on the east wall and under the arch. The painting delineates the location of the mediaeval north screen of the Lady Chapel. Around 1490 this chapel was extended westwards by piercing the western wall with a large arch and building the chapel's nave against the existing south aisle of cathedral. From within the Lady Chapel the upper parts of two smaller clerestory windows may be seen above the chapel's chancel arch. Subsequently, a screen was placed under the arch and the modern Lady Chapel formed in the 1490 extension.

 

The south transept is of early Decorated style. The eastern wall of it is a single wide arch at the arcade level. There are two doorways in the arch, neither of which is used, the northern one being hidden by the memorial to Dr William Franklin. The south wall starts plain but part way up is a notable monument to Richard Watts, a "coloured bust, with long gray beard".[65] According to Palmer there used to be a brass plaque to Charles Dickens below this but only the outline exists, the plaque having been moved to the east wall of the quire transept.[66] The west wall is filled by the large arch mentioned above with the screen below dividing it from the present Lady Chapel.

 

The Lady Chapel as it now exists is of Decorated style with three lights along southern wall and two in the west wall. The style is a light and airy counterpart to the stolid Norman work of the nave. The altar has been placed against the southern wall resulting in a chapel where the congregation wraps around the altar. The window stained glass is modern and tells the gospel story.

 

The first, easternmost, window has the Annunciation in the upper light: Gabriel speaking to Mary (both crowned) with the Holy Spirit as a dove descending. The lower light shows the Nativity with the Holy Family, three angels and shepherds. The next window shows St Elizabeth in the upper light surrounded by stars and the sun in splendour device. The lower light shows the Adoration of the Magi with Mary enthroned with the Infant. The final window of the south wall has St Mary Magdelene with her ointment surrounded by Tudor roses and fleurs-de-lis in the upper light with the lower light showing the Presentation in the Temple. The west wall continues with St. Margaret of Scotland in the upper light surrounded by fouled anchor and thistle roundels. The reference is to the original dedication of the cathedral as the Priory of St Andrew. The lower light shows the Crucifixion with Mary and St Peter. The final window is unusual, the upper light is divided in three and shows King Arthur with the royal arms flanked by St George on the left and St Michael on the right. The lower light shows the Ascension: two disciples to the left, three women with unguents to the right and three bare crosses top right.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Cathedral

 

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The priory and cathedral church

ABOUT THE YEAR 600, Ethelbert, king of Kent, at the instance of St. Augustine, began to build a CHURCH at Rochester, in honour of St. Andrew, and a MONASTERY adjoining to it, of which church St. Augustine in 604, appointed Justus to be bishop, and placed secular priests in the monastery; for the maintenance of whom the king gave a portion of land to the south of the city, called Prestefelde; to be possessed by them for ever, and he added other parcels of land, both within and without the walls of the city. (fn. 1) And notwithstanding in after times the gifts to this church were many and extensive, yet by the troubles which followed in the Danish wars, it was stripped of almost all of them, and at the time of the conquest it was in such a state of poverty, that divine worship was entirely neglected in it, and there remained in it only five secular priests, who had not sufficient for their maintenance.

 

Many of the possessions belonging to the church of Rochester had come into the hands of the conqueror at his accession to the crown, most of which he gave to his half-brother, Odo, bishop of Baieux, from whom archbishop Lanfranc recovered them, amongother lands belonging to his own church, in the solemn assembly of the whole county, held by the king's command at Pinnenden-heath, in the year 1076.

 

Soon after this, Gundulf was elected bishop of Rochester, to whom and to this church, archbishop Lanfranc immediately restored all those lands which he had recovered, formerly belonging to it.

 

Bishop Gundulf displaced the secular canons which he found here, and with the advice and assistance of archbishop Lanfranc, placed Benedictine monks in their room, the number of which, before his death, amounted to sixty. Besides which, the bishop continuing his unwearied zeal in promoting the interest of his church, recovered and purchased back again many other lands and manors, which had been formerly given to it by several kings, and other pious persons, and had been at different times wrested from it. He followed the example of archbishop Lanfranc, and separated his revenues from those of his monks; for before the bishop and his monks lived in common as one family. He rebuilt the church and enlarged the priory; and though he did not live to complete the great improvements he had undertaken, yet he certainly laid the foundation of the future prosperity of both. (fn. 2) The most material occurrences which happened to the church and priory, from the above time to the dissolution of the latter, will be found in the subsequent account of the several priors and bishops of this church.

 

From the conquest to the reign of Henry VIII. almost every king granted some liberties and privileges, as well to the bishop of Rochester as to the prior of the convent; each confirmed likewise those granted by his predecessors. The succeeding bishops and archbishops confirmed the possessions of the priory to the monks of it, as did many of the popes. The Registrum Roffense is full of these grants in almost every page and as the most material of them are mentioned under the respective places they relate to in the course of this history, the reader will, it is hoped, the more readily excuse the omission of them in this place.

 

A list of the Priors of Rochester.

Ordowinus was appointed the first prior, and was witness to the charter of foundation, dated Sept. 20, 1089. He afterwards resigned. (fn. 3)

 

Arnulph, originally a monk of Christ church, was constituted in his room, and continued here till he was elected prior of Canterbury, in 1096, from whence he was preferred to the abbot of Peterborough, and in 1115, to the see of Rochester. He was a good benefactor to this priory, and built the dormitory, chapter house, and refectory.

 

Ralph succeeded him; he had been a monk at Caen, and came over into England with Lanfranc, in 1107. On his being chosen abbot of Battle, in Sussex, he resigned this office. On the death of bishop Gundulf, the monks of Rochester desired him for their bishop, but in vain.

 

Ordowinus was again restored in 1107. He is said to have held this office under bishop Ernulph, therefore he was living in 1115.

 

Letard presided here under the same bishop.

 

Brian presided in 1145; and died on Decemb. 5, 1146.

 

Reginald, who in the year 1154, obtained from pope Adrian IV. a confirmation of the privliges of the church of Rochester. He is said to have died on April 29, in the obituary of St. Augustine's, Canterbury, but the year is not mentioned, nor that of the election of

 

Ernulf II. who was prior in the time of bishop Walter. The next I find is

 

William de Borstalle, who was preferred to the priorship from being cellarer to this monastery.

 

Silvester, who was his successor, from being cellarer was likewise made prior. In his time, anno 1177, the church and the offices, as well within as without the walls were burnt. He rebuilt the refectory and dormitory, and three windows in the chapter house, towards the east. His successor was

 

Richard, who in 1182, resigned this office on being chosen abbot of Burton, in Staffordshire.

 

Alfred succeeded him as prior, and quitted it on being made abbot of Abingdon by king Henry II. between the years 1185 and 1189. (fn. 4)

 

Osbert de Scapella, from being sacrist was chosen prior. He wrote several books, and made the window of St. Peter's altar, and did many other works; he was a great benefactor to the buildings of this church.

 

Ralph de Ros, who presided in 1199, was the next prior, and whilst he was sacrist built the brewhouse, and the prior's great and lesser chamber, the stone houses in the church yard, the hostiary, stable, and the barn in the vineyard, and caused the church to be covered and most of it leaded.

 

Helias seems to have succeeded him. He finished the covering of the church with lead, and built with stone a stable for himself and his successors. He also leaded that part of the cloisters next the dormitory, and made the laundry and door of the refectory.

 

William is said after him to have enjoyed this office in 1222.

 

Richard de Derente was elected prior of Rochester in 1225; he, among others, in the year 1227, signified to the archbishop the election of Henry de Sandford to the see of Rochester, and he is said to have presided in the year 1238, and to have been succeeded by

 

William de Hoo, sacrist of this church, who was chosen prior in 1239. He built the whole choir of this church, from the north and south wings, out of the oblations made at the shrine of St. William; and after having governed here for two years, because he would not consent to the sale of some lands belonging to his convent, he was much persecuted, and resigning this office, became a monk at Wooburn, and there died. In his time, in 1240, the altar in the infirmary chapel was dedicated to St. Mary; and on the nones of November that year the cathedral church itself being finished, was dedicated by the bishop, assisted by the bishops of Bangor and St. Andrew. (fn. 5)

 

Alexander de Glanville succeeded him, who dying suddenly of grief, in 1252, was succeeded by

 

John de Renham or Rensham. In his time the church and monastery were plundered, and many ornaments and charters taken away. He is said by some to have resigned in Dec. 1283; but in reality he was then deposed by John, archbishop of Canterbury, visiting this church as metropolitan.

 

Thomas de Woldham, alias Suthflete, was elected bishop of Rochesler, and refused it; but being elected a second time, was consecrated in the parish of Chartham, in Kent, the 6th of January, 1291. (fn. 6)

 

Simon de Clyve, sacrist of this church, who growing infirm, resigned this office of prior in 1622, and was the same year succeeded by

 

John de Renham or Rensham who, was again chosen prior, in 1292. He died in 1294, and

 

Thomas de Shuldeford succeeded him, who being infirm, resigned in 1301, and was succeeded by

 

John de Greenstreet in February the same year, on whose resignation, in 1314.

 

Hamo de Hethe was elected to this office that year, as he was to the see of Rochester in 1317, though he was not consecrated till two years afterwards; during the time he governed this church as prior and bishop he was a great benefactor to it.

 

John de Westerham succeeded him, in 1320, and died in 1321, and was succeeded by

 

John de Speldhurst, cellarer of this convent, who was chosen by the monks, and confirmed by the bishop; he resigned in 1333. His successor was

 

John de Shepey, S. T. P. In 1336, he built the new refectory, and received towards the expence of it one hundred marcs. In his time also, in 1344, the shrines of St. Michael, St. Paulinus, and St. Ythamar, were now made with marble and alabaster, which cost two hundred marcs; and the year before he caused the tower to be raised higher with wood and stone, and covered it with lead, and placed four new bells there, calling them Dunstan, Paulin, Ythamar, and Lanfranc. On December 27, 1352, he was elected bishop of Rochester by papal bull. (fn. 7)

 

Robert de Suthflete, warden of Filchestowe cell succeeded on his predecessor's preferment to the bishop. ric in 1352, he died in 1361.

 

John de Hertlepe or Hertley, warden of the same cell, was chosen to succeed him that year; he resigned in 1380, and was succeeded by

 

John de Shepey, S. T. P. the subprior, who was elected the same year; he governed the priory thirtynine years, and died in 1419.

 

William de Tunbrigg was the next prior, who having been elected by the monks, was confirmed by the archbishop of Canterbury (the see of Rochester being vacant) the same year; he presided in 1444, and was soon succeeded by John Clyfe, in 1447. After him,

 

John Cardone was prior, in 1448.

 

William Wode was prior in the reign of king Edward IV. and he was succeeded by

 

Thomas Bourne, who was prior in 1480, to whom

 

William Bishop probably succeeded; he occurs prior in 1496, and seems to have been succeeded by

 

William Frysell, who was elected to this office in 1509. His successor in it was probably

 

Laurence. Mereworth, who occurs prior in 1533 and 1534, when he, with eighteen monks, subscribed to the king's supremacy.

 

Walter Boxley was the next, and last prior of this monastery; for king Henry VIII. in the 31st year of his reign, granted a commission to the archbishop of Canterbury, George lord Cobham, and others, to receive the surrendry of this priory; and accordingly, the above mentioned prior and convent, by their instrument, under their common seal, dated April 8, that year (1540) with their unanimous assent and consent, deliberately, and of their own certain knowledge and mere motion, from certain just and reasonable causes, especially moving their minds and consciences, of their own free good will, gave and granted all that their monastery, and the scite thereof, with all their churches, yard, debts, and moveable goods, together with all their manors, demesnes, messuages, &c. to king Henry. VIII. with a general warrantry against all persons whatsoever. This deed was executed in the presence of a master in chancery, and was afterwards inrolled in the court of augmentation.

 

The prior above mentioned, after the dissolution of this monastery, again took on him his original family and lay name of Phillips; for when any person took upon him the monastic habit, he immediately assumed the name of the place of his dwelling or birth, that by having so done, he might be divested and alienated from all former family connections and relationship, and consider himself entirely as the son of the church, and as having no other relations than those who were his brethren in the monastery.

 

The priory of Rochester was valued at 486l. 11s. 5d. yearly income; (fn. 8) the whole of which came into the king's hands, as above mentioned; who, though he was empowered by parliament to erect new sees, and ecclesiastical corporate bodies out of the estates belonging to these suppressed monasteries, yet more than two years passed before there was any new establishment founded by him here.

 

AFTER the dissolution of the priory of Rochester, king Henry VIII. by his charter under his privy seal, dated June 18, in his 33d year, founded within the precincts of the late monastery here, to the glory and honour of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, a CATHEDRAL CHURCH of one dean and six prebendaries, who were to be priests, together with other ministers necessary for the performing of divine service, in future to be called, The Cathedral church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary of Rochester, and to be the episcopal seat of the bishop of Rochestet and his successors; and he granted the same episcopal seat within the precincts of the late monastery, to him and his successors for ever; and he appointed Walter Philippes, late prior there, the first dean of this church, and Hugh Aprice, John Wildbore, Robert Johnson, John Symkins, Robert Salisbury, and Richard Engest, the six prebendaries of it; and he incorporated them by the name of the dean and chapter of it, and granted that they should have perpetual succession, and be the chapter of the bishopric of Rochester, to plead and be impleaded by that name, and have a common seal; and he granted to the dean and chapter and their successors, the scite and precincts of the late monastery, the church there, and all things whatsoever within it, excepting and reserving to the king the particular buildings and parts of it therein mentioned; which premises, or at least the greatest part of them, seem to have been afterwards granted to the dean and chapter; and also excepting always to the bishop of Rochester and his successors, the great messuage, called the Bishop's palace, with all other his lands and tenements, in right of his bishopric, to hold the said scite, precincts, church, and appurtenances, to the dean and chapter and their successors for ever in pure and perpetual alms; and he granted them full power of making and admitting the inferior officers of the church, and afterwards of correcting and displacing them as they thought fit; saving to the king the full power of nominating the dean and six prebendaries, and also six almsmen, by his letters patent, as often as they should become vacant; and lastly, he granted, that they should have these his letters patent made and sealed in the accustomed manner, under his great seal. These letters patent were sealed with the great seal, June 20th following.

 

The dotation charter, under the king's privy seal, is dated the same day; by which he granted to the dean and chapter, and their successors, sundry premises, manors, lands, tenements, rents, advowsons and appropriations, part of the possessions of the late priory of Rochester, of the late priory of Ledys, of the hospital of Stroud and of the priory of Boxley, in the counties of Kent, Buckingham, Surry, and in the city of London, to hold in pure and perpetual alms, and he granted them, and each of them to be exempt and discharged from all payments of first fruits and tenths, reserving to him and his successors, in lieu thereof, the yearly sum of one hundred and fifteen pounds, (which rent has been since increased to 124l 6s. for reasons as has been already mentioned under Southfleet and Shorne in the former volumes of this history) and lastly, that they should have these his letters patent made and sealed with his great seal, &c. On the 4th of July following, the king granted a commission to George, lord Cobham, and others, reciting, that whereas he had lately founded and erected the said cathedral church in the scite and place of the late priory at Rochester, and in the same one dean, six prebendaries, six minor canons, one deacon and subdeacon, six lay clerks, one master of the choristers, eight choristers, one teacher of the boys in grammar, to consist of twenty scholars, two subsacrists, and six poor men, he gave power and authority to them, or any two of them, to repair to the scite of the late priory, and there, according as they thought fit, to allot the whole of it, and to assign to the dean and canons separate and fit stalls in the choir, and separate places in the chapter there, and to allot to the dean the new lodging, containing two parlours, a kitchen, four bedchambers, the gallery, the study over the gate, with all other buildings leading to the house of John Symkins, one of the residentiaries, together with the garden adjoining, on the north side of the king's lodging. The hay, barn in the woodyard of the dean under the vestry, a stable for the dean adjoining the gate of the tower, and the pidgeon-house on the wall adjoining the ponds; and also to the prebendaries and minor canons and other ministers, and persons above-mentioned, and to each of them, according to their degree, convenient houses, and places about the church to be divided and assigned to each of them, as far as the buildings and ground of the scite would allow, so that the said dean and canons might have separate houses for their convenient habitation, and that the rest of the ministers and persons, that is, minor canons, deacon and subdeacon, scholars, choiristers, and upper and under master, should have smaller houses, in which they and their families should inhabit, and further, that they should put the dean, canons and other ministers in possession of the houses and premises so assigned as asoresaid, provided always, that the said minor canons, and other ministers (except the dean and prebendaries) should eat at one common table, according to the statutes to be prescribed to them, and that they should certify under their seals to the chancellor and court of augmentation what they had done in it.

 

About three years afterwards, a body of statutes for the government of this church was delivered to it by three commissioners appointed by the king for that purpose, but like many others, they were neither under the great seal nor indented, so that their validity continued in dispute till the reign of queen Anne, in the sixth year of whose reign, an act passed to make them good and valid in law, so far as they were not inconsistent with the constitution of the church, or the laws of the land.

 

In these statutes, besides the members already mentioned, there is named a porter, who was likewise to be a barber, a butler, a cook and an under-cook; all the members still subsist in this church, except the deacon and subdeacon, the butler, cook and under-cook; the two first have been disused ever since the reformation, or at least very soon afterwards, and the other three are not necessary, as there is not. any common table kept, nor indeed does there appear to have been one kept as directed by the statutes, for the several members of this church, excepting the dean and prebendaries, and the six almsmen. There were also by the statutes yearly exhibitions of five pounds to be paid to four scholars, two at each university. By the statutes they were to be more than fifteen, and under twenty years of age, to be chosen from this school in preference, and if none such were here, then from any other, so that there were neither fellow or scholar in either university; the pension of five pounds to continue till they commenced bachelor, and that within the space of four years; after which they were to enjoy the same for three years; when commencing master of arts they were to be allowed six pounds per annum, and after that 6l. 13s. 4d. The college to be at the option of the dean, or vice-dean, and chapter, who nominate the scholars, and forty pounds was directed to be laid out yearly in charity, and the repairing of highways and bridges.

 

By the charter of foundation, king Henry VIII. reserved to himself and his successors the right of nominating and appointing, by his letters patent, the dean and prebendaries, and by the statutes the dean must be a doctor of divinity, a batchelor, or doctor of law, and each of the prebendaries the same, or master of arts, or batchelor of laws, and to be appointed by the king's letters patent under his great seal, and presented to the bishop. The dean continues to be nominated by the king, four of the prebends are in the gift of the lordkeeper of the great seal, one is annexed by letters patent, and confirmed by act of parliament, anno 12 queen Anne, to the provostship of Oriel college, in Oxford, and confirmed by parliament the same year, and another was by letters patent, anno 13 king Charles I. annexed to the archdeaconry of Rochester. The crown likewise nominates the six poor bedesmen, who are admitted by warrant under the sign manual; these are in general old and maimed sailors, who are pensioners of the chest at Chatham.

 

Walter Phillips, the last prior, on the surrendry of this monastery into the king's hands, was, by the foundation charter of the dean and chapter, dated June 18, anno 33 Henry VIII. appointed the first dean. He died in 1570. (fn. 9)

 

Edmund Freake, S. T. P. was installed in 1570, and was consecrated bishop of Rochester in 1571.

 

Thomas Willoughby, S. T. P. and prebendary of Canterbury, in 1574, he died in 1585.

 

John Coldwell, M. D. of St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1585, and was consecrated bishop of Salisbury in 1591.

 

Thomas Blague, S. T. P. master of Clare-hall, and rector of Bangor, in 1591, and died in 1611.

 

Richard Milbourne, A. M. rector of Cheam, in Surry, and vicar of Sevenoke, in 1611, and was consecrated bishop of St. David's in 1615. (fn. 10)

 

Robert Scott, S. T. P. and master of Clare-hall, in 1615. He died in 1620.

 

Godfrey Goodman, a native of Essex, and fellow of Trinity college, then master of Clare-hall, Cambridge, afterwards prebendary of Westminster, rector of Kemmerton, in Gloucestershire, and West Isley, in Berkshire, and S. T. P. in 1620, and was consecrated bishop of Gloucester in 1624.

 

Walter Balcanquall, a native of Scotland, and S. T. P. in 1624. He was first fellow of Pembroke-hall, Cambridge, then master of the Savoy. (fn. 11) He resigned this deanry for that of Durham in 1638. (fn. 12)

 

Henry King, S. T. P. of Christ-church, Oxford, archdeacon of Colchester, residentiary of St. Paul's, and canon of Christ-church, (fn. 13) in 1638, and was consecrated bishop of Chichester in 1641.

 

Thomas Turner, S. T. P. canon residentiary of St. Paul's, London, rector of St. Olave's, Southwark, and of Fetcham, in Surry, in 1641, and was made dean of Canterbury in 1643.

 

Benjamin Laney, S. T. P. master of Pembroke-hall, vicar of Soham, in Cambridgeshire, rector of Buriton, in Hampshire, and prebendary of Westminster and Winchester, in 1660, and was consecrated bishop of Peterborough, at the latter end of that year. (fn. 14)

 

Nathaniel Hardy S. T. P. rector of St. Dionis Backchurch, archdeacon of Lewes, and rector of Henley upon Thames, in 1660. He died at Croydon in 1670, and was buried in the church of St. Martin's in the Fields, of which church he was vicar, having been by his will a good benefactor to the members of this cathedral, and their successors, as well as to the parishes of this city.

 

Peter Mew, S. T. P. succeeded in 1670. He had been canon of Windsor, archdeacon of Berks, and pre sident of St. John's college, Oxford. He was consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells at the end of the year 1672. (fn. 15)

 

Thomas Lamplugh, S. T. P. in 1672. He was first fellow of queen's college, Oxford, then principal of Alban-hall, and vicar of St. Martin's in the Fields. He was consecrated bishop of Exeter in 1676. (fn. 16)

 

John Castilion, S. T. P. prebendary of Canterbury, and vicar of Minster, in Thanet, in 1676. He died in 1688, and was buried in Canterbury cathedral.

 

On the death of Dr. Castilion, Simon Lowth, A. M. was nominated that year by king James II. to succeed him; but not being qualified as to his degree according to the statutes, his admittance and installation was refused, and the revolution quickly after following, he was set aside, and Dr. Ullock was nominated in his itead.

 

Henry Ullock, S. T. P. succeeded in 1689, at that time prebendary of this church, and rector of Leyborne. He died in 1706, and was buried there.

 

Samuel Pratt, S. T. P. clerk of the closet, succeeded in 1706. (fn. 17) He was canon of Windsor, vicar of Twickenham, and chaplain of the Savoy chapel. He died in 1723.

 

Nicholas Claggett, S. T. P. rector of Brington, in Northamptonshire, and of Overton sinecure, in Hampshire, and archdeacon of Buckingham in 1724. He was promoted to the bishopric of St. David's in 1731.

 

Thomas Herring, S. T. P. was first of Jesus college, Cambridge, and afterwards fellow of Bennet college. After a variety of parochial preferments he was advanced to this deanry in 1731, which he held in commendam from 1737, when he was promoted to the bi shopric of Bangor till his translation to the archbishopric of York in 1743. (fn. 18)

 

William Bernard, S. T. P. prebendary of Westminster, (fn. 19) succeeded in 1743, but next year was promoted to the see of Raphoe, in Ireland. (fn. 20)

 

John Newcome, S. T. P. lady Margaret's lecturer of divinity, and master of St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1744. He had supplied the divinity chair at Cambridge with great reputation, during the latter part of Dr. Bentley's life, then regius professor, who for several years before his death had retired from all public business. He died in 1765.

 

William Markham, LL. D. and prebendary of Durham, in 1765. He was a great benefactor to the deanry-house, the two wings of which were erected by him, but were not finished before his quitting this preferment for the deanry of Christ-church, Oxford, which he did in 1767. (fn. 21)

 

Benjamin Newcombe, S. T. P. and rector of St. Mildred's, in the Poultry, in 1767. He was afterwards vicar of Lamberhurst, and died at Rochester in 1775.

 

Thomas Thurlow, D. D. and master of the Temple, in 1775, was in 1779 made bishop of Lincoln. (fn. 22)

 

Richard Cust, S. T. P. canon of Christ-church, in Oxford, which he resigned on this promotion. He was a younger brother of the late Sir John Cust, bart. of Lincolnshire, speaker of the house of commons, and uncle to lord Brownlow. He resigned this deanry in 1781, on being made dean of Lincoln, and residentiary of that cathedral.

 

Thomas Dampier, son of Thomas Dampier, dean of Durham, was educated at Eton, and was afterwards fellow of King's college, in Cambridge, vicar of Boxley, prebendary of Durham, and master of Sherborne hospital. In 1780 he was created by royal mandate S. T. P. and in March 1782, succeeded to this deanry, with which he holds, excepting the fellowship, the several preferments before-mentioned.

 

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ROCHESTER is situated at a small distance from the south side of the middle of the High-street, within the antient gate of the priory.

 

This church was rebuilt by bishop Gundulph in the year 1080, and some part of this building still remains. The whole bears venerable marks of its antiquity, but time has so far impaired the strength of the materials with which it is built, that in all likelihood the care and attention of the present chapter towards the support of it will not be sufficient to prevent the fall of great part of it at no great distance of time.

 

The cathedral consists of a body and two isles, the length of it from the west door to the steps of the choir is fifty yards; at the entrance of the choir is the lower or great cross isle, the length of which is one hundred and twenty-two feet; from the steps of the choir to the east end of the church is fifty-two yards; at the upper end of the choir is another cross isle of the length of ninety feet. In the middle of the western cross isle, at the entrance of the choir, stands the steeple, which is a spire covered with lead, being one hundred and fifty-six feet in height, in which hang six bells. Between the two cross isles, on the north side without the church, stands an old ruined tower, no higher than the roof of the church. This is generally allowed to have been erected by bishop Gundulph, and there is a tradition of its having been called the bell tower, and of its having had five bells hanging in it; yet the better conjecture is, that it was first intended as a place of strength and security, either as a treasury or a repository for records. The walls of it are six feet thick, and the area on the inside twenty-four feet square. On the opposite side, at the west end of the south isle, is a chapel of a later date than the isle, wherein the bishop's consistory court is held, and where early prayers were used to be read till within these few years. The roof of the nave or body of the church, from the west end to the first cross isle, is flat at the top like a parish church, as it is likewise under the great steeple; but all the other parts, viz. the four cross isles, the choir, and those on each side of it, except the lower south isle, which was never finished, are handsomely vaulted with stone groins.

 

The choir is upwards of five hundred and seventy years old, being first used at the consecration of Henry de Sandford in 1227. It is ornamented, as well as other parts of the church, with small pillars of Petworth marble, which however, as well as many of those in a neighbouring cathedral, have been injudiciously covered with whitewash, and several of them with thick coats of plaister. The choir was repaired, as to new wainscot, stalls, pews, &c. at a large expence, in 1743, and very handsomely new paved; at which time the bishop's throne was rebuilt at the charge of bishop Wilcocks.

 

The organ is over the entrance into the choir. The late one was erected early in the last century, and was but a very indifferent instrument. In the room of which a new one, built by Green, was erected in in 1791, which is esteemed an exceeding good instrument.

 

At the north end of the upper cross isle, near the pulpit, is a chapel, called St. Williams's chapel, a saint whose repute brought such considerable profit to this priory, as to raise it from a state of poverty to affluence and riches. A large stone chest, much defaced, is all that remains of his shrine.

 

At the south-east corner of the opposite cross isle is an arched door-way, richly carved and ornamented with a variety of figures, which formerly led to the chapter-house of the priory, in the room of which there is erected a small mean room, which is made use of as a chapter-house and library; for the increase of this library, the same as was intended at Canterbury; every new dean and prebendary gives a certain sum of money at their admission towards the increase of books in it, instead of making an entertainment, as was formerly the custom. In this library is that well known and curious MSS. called the Textus Roffensis, compiled chiefly by bishop Ernulfus in the 12th century, which was published by Thomas Hearne, from a copy in the Surrenden library. During the troubles in the last century this MSS. was conveyed into private hands, nor could the dean and chapter after the restoration, for two years, discover where it was; and at last they were obliged to solicit the court of chancery for a decree to recover it again. Since which they have been once more in great danger of being deprived of it; for Dr. Harris, having borrowed it for the use of his intended history of this county, sent it up to London by water, and the vessel being by the badness of the weather overset, this MSS. lay for some hours under water before it was discovered, which has somewhat damaged it.

 

There is also another antient MSS. here, entitled Custumale Roffense, thought by some to be more antient than the other. Great part of this MSS. has been published by Mr. Thorpe in a volume under that title.

 

Near the west end, in the same isle, is a square chapel, called St. Edmund's chapel; hence you descend into the undercroft, which is very spacious and vaulted with stone. There seems to have been part of it well ornamented with paintings of figures and history, but the whole is so obliterated, that nothing can be made out what it was intended for.

 

The body of this church, the greatest part of which is the same as was erected by bishop Gundulph, is built with circular arches on large massy pillars, with plain capitals; the smaller arches above them being decorated with zigzag ornaments. The roof of the nave seems to have been raised since, and all the windows made new and enlarged at different times, particularly the large one in the west front; though the roof is now flat, by the feet of the groins still remaining, it appears as if this part of the church had been, or at least was intended to be vaulted. The breadth of it, with the side isles, is twenty-two yards. The west front extends eighty-one feet in breadth; the arch of the great door is certainly the same which bishop Gundulph built, and is a most curious piece of workmanship; every stone has been engraved with some device, and it must have been very magnificent in its original state. It is supported the depth of the wall, on each side the door, by several small columns, two of which are carved into statues representing Gundulph's royal patrons, Henry I. and his queen Matilda. The capitals of these columns, as well as the whole arch, are cut into the figures of various animals and flowers The key-stone of the arch seems to have been designed to represent our Saviour in a niche with an angel on each side, but the head is broken off; under this figure are twelve others, representing the apostles, few of which are entire.

 

In this front were four towers, one on each side the great door, and the others at the two extremes; three of these terminated in a turret, and the other in an octangular tower, above the roof. That tower at the north corner being in danger of falling, was taken down a few years ago, in order to be rebuilt. Dean Newcombe left one hundred pounds towards the finishing of it. Against the lower part of this tower was the figure of bishop Gundulph, with his crozier in his hand; on the rebuilding of which it was replaced, but the tower remains unfinished, at not half the height it was before, to the great disfigurement of the front of this church. Since which the tower at the opposite, or south-west corner, being ruinous, has likewise been taken down even with the roof of the church.

 

The royal grammar school of this foundation, besides the exhibitions before-mentioned, has had a later benefactor in Robert Gunsley, clerk, rector of Titsey, in Surry, who by his will in 1618, gave to the master and fellows of University college, Oxford, sixty pounds per annum, for the maintenance of four scholars to be chosen by them from the free school of Maidstone, and from this grammar school, such as are natives of the county of Kent only, of whom those of his name and kindred to have the preference, who are to be allowed chambers, and fifteen pounds per annum.

 

To conclude the account of this priory and cathedral, it should be observed that the precincts of it, after the dissolution, seem to have been a scene of devastation and confusion: the buildings were huge, irregular and ruinous, and little calculated to be turned into separate dwellings for small private families. Even a century afterwards, in the great rebellion in 1647, they were reported to be in a ruinous and woeful condition; at which time the church itself does not seem to have been much better; for archbishop Laud, in his return of the state of this diocese to Charles I. in 1633, says, that the cathedral suffered much for want of glass in the church windows, that the church-yard lay very indecently, and that the gates were down; about nine years afterwards this church suffered much from the fury of the rebel soldiers under colonel Sandys, who having plundered it, and broken to pieces what they could, made use of it as a tipling house, (fn. 23) and the body of the church was used as a carpenter's shop and yard, several sawpits being dug, and frames for houses made by the city joiners in it.

 

After the restoration dean Hardy took great pains to repair the whole of it, which was effected by means of the benefactions of the gentry of the county, and 7000l. added by the dean and chapter; notwithstanding which, time has so corroded and weakened every part of this building, that its future existence for any length of time has been much feared, but this church has lately had every endeavour used, and great repairs have been made which it is hoped will secure it from the fatal ruin which has threatened it, the inside has been beautified, and being kept exceeding clean, it makes at this time a very pleasing appearance.

 

In this cathedral, among other monuments, inscriptions, &c. are the following:— In the choir, within the altar rails on the south wall, under three small arches, are pictures of three bishops with their mitres and crosiers, now almost defaced, on the outside these arms, first, the see of Rochester; second, the priory of Canterbury; third, a cross quartier pierced azure; within the rails, under the north and south windows, are several stone coffins and other remains of bishops monuments, but no inscriptions or arms; on the north side the choir a large altar monument for bishop Lowe, on the south side of it, these arms on a bend, three wolves

Canticle: Wisdom 9:1-6, 9-11

Lord, give me wisdom

 

I will inspire you with wisdom which your adversaries will be unable to resist (Luke 21:15).

 

God of my fathers, Lord of mercy, *

you who have made all things by your word

and in your wisdom have established man *

to rule the creatures produced by you,

to govern the world in holiness and justice, *

and to render judgment in integrity of heart:

 

Give me Wisdom, the attendant at your throne, *

and reject me not from among your children;

for I am your servant, the son of your handmaid, †

a man weak and short-lived *

and lacking in comprehension of judgment and of laws.

 

Indeed, though one be perfect among the sons of men, †

if Wisdom, who comes from you, be not with him, *

he shall be held in no esteem.

 

Now with you is Wisdom, who knows your works *

and was present when you made the world;

who understands what is pleasing in your eyes *

and what is conformable with your commands.

 

Send her forth from your holy heavens *

and from your glorious throne dispatch her

that she may be with me and work with me, *

that I may know what is your pleasure.

 

For she knows and understands all things, †

and will guide me discreetly in my affairs *

and safeguard me by her glory.

 

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, *

and to the Holy Spirit:

as it was in the beginning, is now, *

and will be for ever. Amen.

 

Ant. Wisdom of God, be with me, always at work in me.