Faith · Books · Observations · Society

In the Life of Andrew the Fool for Christ, known in Slavonic since the eleventh century

In the Life of Andrew the Fool for Christ, known in Slavonic since the 11th century and set in Byzantium in the 10th, we find these words: "In the last days the Lord God shall raise up a tsar from poverty.. he shall raise up the churches of the

NB! · Faith · Art

Christ, King of Glory, 14th Century

A tall Gothic altar screen with statues of saints and a crucifix, lit by projectors in green, pink and blue.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage

Projectors colour the altar screen of St Albans Cathedral to show how it may have looked before the Reformation

The altar screen of the Anglican cathedral of St Albans has been coloured by a system of projectors to show how it might have looked before the Reformation. Oddly enough, a robot dog has become part of the installation; if I have understood correctly, it is a tactical military robot

Monochrome image of angels hovering in the night sky above an amphitheatre arena where bodies lie and wild beasts roam.

NB! · Faith · Art

Gustave Doré's 1871 work on Christian martyrs in the arena

Christian Martyrs. Gustave Doré, 1871

Faith · The East · Observations · Society · Rome

The Pope on the culture of encounter, cooperation and religious art

Pope Francis receives a delegation of the Fo Guang Shan Humanistic Buddhism Association from Taiwan. It is curious to watch the Vatican persist in its attempts to take part in the international political agenda. The Pope, all the same, delivered a very measured speech on the importance of cooperation. "

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Faith · Rome

How the Circus of Caligula, 1st Century AD, Became the Modern Vatican

Faith · Interviews · People

“I fear that we are tempted to build a human church, in keeping with the times and with our own notions”

Cardinal Robert Sarah

Interior of a Gothic cathedral with white columns and ribbed vaults, with a group of people in period dress in the foreground.

Architecture · Faith · Art

A company strolling beneath cathedral vaults in an oil painting on panel

The artist Laurent Grasso reimagines the interior of the Church of St Bavo by the Dutch draughtsman Pieter Jansz Saenredam of 1631 in his painting of 2023. And the company strolling beneath the cathedral vaults elegantly turns, elegantly turns into a little cloud of mist. Studies of the Past, oil

Notre-Dame de Paris covered in scaffolding, with a yellow tower crane, behind the stone embankment of the Seine.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Paris

Reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris continues, seen from the Seine embankment

Work on the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris is in full swing. But, frankly, one dreads to imagine what it will look like inside

Marble statue of a bearded Christ with a bare torso and drapery at the hips, in a dark gallery with a red-lit wall.

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations

Jacopo Fantoni’s Marble Risen Christ of 1520 with Unusual Facial Features

What unexpected features and expression the Risen Christ of Jacopo Fantoni, 1520, possesses. And he looks far older than in the traditional iconography

Icon on a gold ground: a bearded man in a robe holding a chalice and spoon faces an emaciated barefoot figure, with a haloed figure in a blue segment above.

Faith · Art

Cretan artist Emmanuel Lambardos painted an icon in 1603

Saint Zosimas of Palestine Gives Saint Mary of Egypt Communion of the Holy Mysteries. An icon by the Cretan painter Emmanuel Lambardos, 1603.

A sheet with a quotation from Ambrose of Optina about talking in church, taped to a wooden door.

NB! · Faith · Moscow · Observations · Humour

Notice with Ambrose of Optina's instruction on silence in church on the door of a Moscow church

Nota bene on the doors of a Moscow church. Words of the saints, for the attention of those fond of a chat within the walls of the church