Faith · Heritage · Ethnography
Darkened with age, brought back from the Crusades, they belong to a tradition of black female deities more than 4,000 years old in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Asia Minor. In general, no single theory exists to explain how the iconography of the dark-skinned Madonna and Child spread across Europe.
Architecture · Faith · Heritage
The Institute of Breton Culture is opening a fundraising appeal for the restoration of the seventeenth-century organ of Nantes Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, almost entirely destroyed in the fire of 18 July. The instrument survived the years of the Revolution, but was badly damaged in the
Faith · Art · People
Anna Katharina Emmerich, Catholic Blessed. Portrait by Gabriel von Max. On the strength of the Blessed Anna Katharina's records of her visions, a site was found where the house of the Mother of God is believed to have stood. Raised in a poor family, from childhood Anna Katharina
Faith · Monarchies · People
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has left the Vatican with a small retinue, his secretary and several medical staff to visit his elder brother Georg, aged 96, in Germany, where the latter's health has begun to decline. Benedict commented briefly on this rare absence from his permanent Vatican residence,
Architecture · In the Press · Faith · Heritage
The BBC shows how Wells Cathedral looked in the 1400s. Most Gothic buildings, in Britain at least, were once brightly painted, like many of the structures and monuments of the ancient world, which we too are more accustomed to seeing in monochrome, their many colours lost over the years. Besides
NB! · Faith · Observations · People · Humour
Well, well: Nikita Mikhalkov has moved to the Spas television channel. He tells us how the Emperor Constantine hamstrung his own horses(!), and how the Emperor Diocletian grew cabbages. For which, much thanks
NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Rome
Another ancient door of Rome, more than 1,500 years old. The wooden doors of the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine have preserved 18 of their original carved panels; the only thing that has changed is the doorway in which they are set.
Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Rome
I confess I became curious as to which doors in Rome might be called the oldest. Among the contenders are the doors of the Curia Julia, made in the 1st century BC and preserved even though the curia itself was destroyed. These doors now stand in the treasury of the
NB! · Faith · Art · Museums · New York
Rosary pendant with a crystal skull in a crown. 16th century. Probably connected with the Mexican cult of the dead. Metropolitan Museum
Faith · Art · People
Saint Gregory, Gregory the Great or Gregory the Dialogist, is usually depicted with a dove hovering at the level of his ear, symbolising the Holy Spirit. Gregory was elected Pope in 590, at the height of an epidemic of plague, which is believed to have ceased when he entered the
Archive · Faith · Science · People
Father Georges Lemaître explains the Big Bang theory to Pope Pius XII. The Belgian priest Georges Lemaître was an astronomer and mathematician, a doctor of sciences, a professor of astrophysics, who worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became the author of the theory of the expanding Universe and made
Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Society
I watch with interest as my French colleagues argue over a church in Bordeaux that has been turned into a garage. The arguments touch on the sacredness of religious buildings, on the preservation of heritage and memory, and on respect for the labour of architects and artists. In short, it