Faith · Society · Rome
The famous photograph from last year's Palm Sunday service: Pope Francis holds a stylised palm branch, to which the history of the feast is tied. In 2021 all the Easter events in Rome have been altered on account of Covid restrictions. The number of guests at the traditional
Faith · Society · Rome
Palm Sunday was usually marked by Mass in Saint Peter's Square, but for the second year running the ceremony is taking place under strict coronavirus restrictions. In Italy the lockdown will last until Easter Sunday. In today's homily at the Altar of the Chair of Saint
NB! · Faith · People · Rome
Pope Francis at the Palm Sunday service. From tomorrow Holy Week begins for Catholics. This is already the second Easter under lockdown. For the Orthodox, Palm Sunday falls this year on 25 April
Faith · Monarchies · Mores
For the Orthodox, Lent begins tomorrow, but in the Church of England this year 14 March already falls in the middle of Lent, traditionally observed as Mothering Sunday. Mothering Sunday has been identified with the fourth Sunday of Lent in England since the seventeenth century; before that, the maternal feast
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith
A Greek Orthodox priest before the Parthenon in Athens. Photograph by the Dutch photographer Kees Scherer, mid-1960s
Faith · Observations · Ethnography · Humour
That's just the sort of people we are. Saint Peter reads on a slip of paper that the departed is a Russian, and at once admits him to heaven. A modern priest reports that a note bearing the so-called prayer of absolution is placed in the hands
Faith · Books · Society · People
Christine de Pizan's (1364-1430) book "The City of Ladies" (1405) opens with the writer's account of how she was ashamed to be a woman, since women make men's lives so unbearable. Christine confesses that she fell into despair and felt herself
Faith · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
I continue to collect stories of incredibly stubborn Russians. Take, for example, our dear priest Foma, who in 1495 took part in the wedding of Ivan III's daughter Elena to the Lithuanian prince Alexander Casimirovich. Ivan III had been particularly insistent that Prince Alexander should not compel the
NB! · Faith · The East · Observations
The Pope in Iraq. Sometimes a photograph alone is enough
NB! · Faith · Interviews · People · Rome
Pope Francis has said how he would like to die. Speaking of his health, past and present, Francis I answered the question “How do you imagine your death?”: “As Pope, either in office or as emeritus. And in Rome. I will not go back to Argentina.”
Architecture · Faith · Art · Observations · Heritage
At one time I was surprised by the large number of abandoned churches in the Czech Republic. One fourteenth-century church, 200 km from Prague, had stood empty since 1968, when its roof collapsed and people were injured. That lasted until a young artist from the capital, Jakub Hadrava, took
Aristocracy · Faith · Art · Mores · People
Sibylla of Saxe-Lauenburg (1675-1733), Margravine of Baden-Baden, in a masquerade costume as a sorceress. I do not know whether the outfit really came with fire-breathing asps; perhaps there were simply no fire salamanders to be had. In this portrait Sibylla has gathered together the various attributes