Faith · Art · Museums · Mores · Ethnography
The week before Great Lent is maslenitsa with us, and carnival in Europe. The word carnival derives from the Italian carne, meat + vale, farewell, which accords with the Christian meaning of the festival preceding Great Lent. True, there is another etymology of the word carnival: some trace it to the
Faith · Society · People · Rome
The Vatican reports that the Bishop of Rome enters the twelfth year of his pontificate in a dark hour, when the fate of humanity lies in the hands of rulers unable to weigh the consequences of their decisions, who appear to be surrendering to the inevitability of war. We, for
NB! · Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Paris
Carpenters salute the completion of the roof structures of Notre-Dame. It is gratifying that the church is regaining its physical body. And it is especially pleasing to see such a close-knit company of masters of an ancient biblical trade, who have applied their skill and put their souls
Architecture · Faith · Observations
At school we were taught a song, "to get to heaven you need a ladder and one more thing", and I remembered its words at once when I saw the cathedral wall of the abbey in the English city of Bath, with Jacob's Ladder. A sculpted
Faith · Books
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. The Apostle Paul. Epistle to the Galatians 5:15
NB! · Faith · The East · Art · Museums
NB! · Faith · Observations · People
Pope Francis is unwell. Today he asked an aide to read his address in his stead. The Vatican reports that after last week's audience the Pope went to hospital for diagnostic tests. And what is there to test, at 87, after all?
Architecture · Faith · Observations · Society · Paris
What scoundrels they are, they are no longer ashamed of anything
Faith · Art · People
In Christian iconography, both Eastern and Western, the subject of a bishop with his bowels spilling out is not a rare one. Examples include a miniature from the Arsenal Bible, a fragment of the seventeenth-century Russian icon "The Creed" and a fresco in the Church of the
In the Press · Faith · Society
His Eminence Seraphim, Metropolitan of Kythira, has excommunicated the members of the Greek parliament who voted to legalise same-sex marriage and the adoption of children by same-sex couples in Greece. The ban on communion for these deputies is already in force in two Greek dioceses, the Metropolises of
Aristocracy · Faith · London · Monarchies
The Hon. Lady Ogilvy was in a wheelchair. With the years she looks ever more frail, yet she keeps her aristocratic bearing and grace, and is as beautiful as ever. At the ceremony Princess Alexandra was accompanied by her daughter Marina Ogilvy. Just look how alike they are. By reason
Faith · Monarchies · Museums · Saint Petersburg
The throne chair of the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, with an embroidered Maltese cross on its back, made for Paul I in 1799-1800 to a design by the architect Giacomo Quarenghi. Paul I was elected Grand Master of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem in