A white automatic dispenser with a cross and the words “Holy water” in four languages, bearing an image of Christ, in a church beside wooden pews.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Humour

Automatic holy water dispenser in the Church of Saint Catherine in Brussels

Church of Saint Catherine, Brussels. Witty, modern and, above all, effective. Amen

Faith · The East · Mores · Ethnography

The custom of sati among Indo-European peoples and its ban in India in 1829

The custom of burning wives after the death of their husbands existed among many Indo-European peoples; its most recent manifestation is the tradition of wives' self-immolation, which survived in India until the mid-nineteenth century. Sati was officially banned in 1829, but cases of widow self-immolation

Aristocracy · Archive · Faith · People

Byron family coffins in the family vault of St Mary Magdalene Church in Hucknall

Photograph from the Byron family vault in the Church of St Mary Magdalene at Hucknall. The poet's remains lie in a coffin bearing a small coronet. Beneath it stands the coffin of the previous lord, the Wicked or Sinful Byron, his great-uncle, which in turn rests on

Faith · Observations

The symbolism of the bishop's cappa magna in church tradition

The episcopal cappa magna is held to depict the blood-soaked path of Holy Mother Church. The moiré cloak cascading from the shoulders allegorically conveys the streams of blood that, as it were, stand behind the history of the church hierarchs. The need to have the cappa held up symbolises

Faith · Art · Observations · Society

The revival of the cappa magna vestment and the dispute over church aesthetics

It is hard to call today's conditions the greatest calamity in the history of a mankind that has seen real grief, poverty and hunger in its recent past. So the attacks on the outward manifestations of church tradition are rather an aesthetic dispute, of the kind that took

Faith · Observations · Heritage · Society

Church wealth and the charity of Catholic organisations in times of economic crisis

Is it right to connect the passage from the Gospel of Mark, in which Jesus speaks of the scribes in long robes and of the poor widow giving the temple her last mite, with the argument about the wealth of the Church against the backdrop of a world economic crisis?

Faith · Observations · Mores

Cardinal Franz Rode in cappa magna and the symbolism of the bishop's vesting ritual

Cardinal Franz Rode in cappa magna. This is not merely a mantle borne aloft by several attendants; it is a kind of embodiment of the splendour of the world and the might of Christian values. Having donned the great mantle, the priest then divests himself of it in public, appearing

Faith · Observations · Rome

Mostly rare photographs of the very few priests who have chosen to wear the long purple or scarlet train-bearing mantle, according to rank, known as the cappa magna, are accompanied by ironic, if not downright mocking, comments and…

One should not suppose that this archaic garment is worn only by the ultra-traditionalist Cardinal Burke, although remarks aimed at him on this score are quite characteristic of how the long cardinalatial cloak is perceived in general. "Burke wears this cloak to spite everyone", "Imagine what

Faith · Mores · Rome · Humour

Cardinal Raymond Burke in cappa magna and reactions to vestment discouraged since 1969

One of the most conservative bishops in the United States, Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, in the traditional sumptuous episcopal vestment, the cappa magna. Most people have seen such attire on Catholic bishops and cardinals only in photographs on the internet. Given the rarity of the moment (this sort of choir

Architecture · Faith · Art · Heritage

In Suzdal, the historic mosaic "Christ Enthroned" is promised restoration in 2021 on the façade of the Dmitry Pozharsky memorial chapel of 1885, built from public donations at the Monastery of Saint Euthymius and destroyed in 1933

In Suzdal, the historic mosaic "Christ Enthroned" is promised restoration in 2021 on the façade of the Dmitry Pozharsky memorial chapel of 1885, built from public donations at the Monastery of Saint Euthymius and destroyed in 1933. When the chapel was rebuilt in 2009, the image of the

Architecture · Faith · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Mores

Volokolamsk Kremlin with the 15th-century Ascension Cathedral and an unfriendly reception at the museum

Visited the town of Volokolamsk, one of the oldest in the Moscow Region, with its ancient kremlin on a 17-metre rise on the left bank of the little River Gorodnya, where the year of foundation (in fact, of first mention) is laid out on the slope: 1136. Inside the

NB! · Faith