apelles

That’s quick off the mark Fearg. . .They were just uploaded yesterday & the same chap (Thanks Mr Hilo) has put up some recent ones of Monaghan as well.

Never seen the decorative border that runs below the clerestory windows before, or the one along the frieze for that matter. . .peculiar that they got left there. .they’re hardly recent are they. . . paint or mosaic. .or both? Any takers. . .

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or over 1500 hundred years Rome was without a church dedicated to St. Patrick. However, on the 1st of February 1888 this was rectified and the foundation stone of the present church was laid. The man with the dream was Fr. Patrick Glynn, an Augustinian from Limerick, who was based in the Augustinian Church of Sta. Maria in Posterula. However, it took another 23 years before the church was completed and opened on St. Patrick’s Day 1911.
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The architect was Aristide Leonori. The façade of the church is described as being close to the Pisan or Florentine style of the 13th century. Almost unseen is a beautiful mosaic of St. Patrick high up on the façade. Another mosaic over the main door depicts St. Patrick receiving a Blessing from Pope Celestine 1. Simplicity is the overall interior effect, which is heightened by the alternating column-pillar arrangement. The ceiling is a simple coffered timber in monochrome. A subdued lighting results from the Celtic design cathedral windows. The floor is an attractive marble design, while that of the sanctuary features mosaics of St. Patrick, St. Brigid and St. Colmcille, now partly concealed by the new altar arrangement. The pillars are of alabaster and marble while the columns are of pink granite. The grey-green curtain marble behind the high-altar was meant to highlight the altar itself and be a foil to the apse mosaic.

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The mosaic which dominates the sanctuary and the church, is the work of Rodolfo Villani (1929) depicting St. Patrick converting the High King Laoghaire at Tara, using the shamrock to explain the Trinity. The banner UT CHRISTIANI ITA ET ROMANI SITIS (“Be ye Christians as those of the Roman Church”) — is a quote taken from the writings of St. Patrick.

On the left hand side is the Sacred Heart altar, with a beautiful mosaic of the Last Supper by Galimberti (1942). On the right hand side is Our Lady’s altar, with the painting of Our Lady of Grace. This painting is from the 14th century and is painted on slate. In 1955, layers of paint from previous restorations were removed to reveal the original. This painting has been a focus of devotion for Augustinians for more than 2 centuries, having come to us from the church of San Biagio in Tinta which was just round the corner from our old church of Santa Maria in Posterula.

Above the High altar on the arch are two interesting frescos of St. Brigid and St. Colmcille. There are two shrines at the back of the church, dedicated to St. Brigid and St. Oliver Plunkett with painting by Leona Rosa. (1938)
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The Stations of the Cross are outstanding and are considered the “capolavoro” of the artist Alceo Dossena (1931). They are carved in white Carrara marble, and the high relief, freestanding figures and immense detail makes each panel a delight. They were commissioned by Genevieve Brady, and were displayed in her residence. She later married the Irish minister to the Holy See, William McCauley,. After Genevieve’s death in 1938, her husband presented the Stations to St. Patrick’s Church in her memory.

We know very little of the Pieta, which is just inside the front door of the church on the left. It is a high relief, with six figures. It is a beautiful piece of work, with an intense expression of the act of laying the body of Jesus in the tomb. The body bears a fair resemblance to that of Michaelangelo’s Pieta. It is finely executed with great detail.

Someones been getting something off their chest. . . from http://www.mccamley.org/index/the-church-will-do-us-for-our-day-

The Church will do us for our day.
Posted by Christopher Mc on Thursday, March 25, 2010 Under: Church

The lasting legacy of Bishop Josephy Duffy

I’ve just been upstairs cleaning up my four year old’s vomit – I wonder was she reading the Irish Catholic.

Sometimes you think you can’t be any more shocked by the scandals and then you get a little more.

Front page of tomorrow’s Irish Catholic has headline “Irish Church is crying out for reform – Bishop”.

Oh, says I to myself, I wonder who this can be.

@Praxiteles wrote:

The Stations of the Cross in the older photographs appear to be of type produced by Mayer of Munich.

Praxiteles. .When they were supplying Stations of the Cross, did Mayer of Munich generally manufacture the 3D, relief type made from painted moulded plaster, as the ones in Monaghan appear to be, or did they also supply the painted canvas ones which are still prevalent in many of the Church’s across the country?. . .

Here’s lots of Copyright Free symbols that can be imported for use into cad programs as editable vector artwork. Save the downloaded file onto your computer, then you can import into Autocad (or whichever cad program you happen to use) from that location.:cool:

CROSSES PDF DOCUMENT.
http://www.christiansymbols.net/downloads/cross_download.pdf

MONOGRAMS PDF DOCUMENT.
http://www.christiansymbols.net/downloads/monograms_download.pdf

What an utter mess they made of the convent chapel in Clonakilty :eek:. . No wonder they abandoned it. . .When was it wrecked & by whom?

Ouch…Hope I don’t lose me nads over this one either. .but i wont endanger me little lovely’s by commenting myself & putting them in mortal danger manu militari, I will however at the end, post some of the conflicting views & commentary that accompanied this blog because I found them humorous & relevant.

Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas Architects have completed a church in Foligno, Italy.

The project was won in 2001 after a national competition organized by the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana for the construction of new churches, the jury gave the following reasons for choosing, “as a sign of innovation that meets the latest international research, becoming a symbol of rebirth for the city after the earthquake. ”

The new parish designed by Fuksas Architects, is a monolith of pure geometry, absolute, in a tin box. There are two main architectural elements that are identified with the functions of the religious center, the first element, the Church building, consists of two rectangules inserted into one another, the second element, also rectangular shape but long and low, is home to the Sacristy, the Pastoral Ministry of Local and Casa Canonica. A third an architectural element, smaller, combining the latter two. Spirituality and meditation joined together in a play of natural light entering horizontally and vertically, drawing a dialogue with the sky.

Eric Says:
As a building, I completely respect the design principles at work here. As a church, I feel this austere movement is not due to preference, rather we have somehow lost the talent and artisans capable of making truly beautiful churches. It is much easier casting square concrete than hand carving wood. God must feel a sense of loss at churches like this. Tell me this inspires you closer to God than than the older cathedrals.

James Says:
actually Eric…. have you ever cast concrete? its quite hard. that’s not to say its harder or less harder then wood (haha no pun). but a lot more goes into casting concrete than simply forming. you have to have the right mixture, color, board form, pouring alone is an art unless you want air bubbles, the list can go on…
also I don’t believe god cares where you pray. but so much that your praying. that would be like saying if you pray in a cardboard box god looks down on you.
whether a person feels like their in “gods house” i don’t know i think that can only be experience in person. It does have a clean and refreshed feeling sure beats mega churches…

fromageplus Says:
James,

The question is not about “praying god”. This is a catholic church, this is not just “a place to pray”. A catholic church is a place of worship, there’s an altar, on which is celebrated the sacrifice of Christ. One of the big things in catholicism is about Incarnation. And modern churches like this one are des-incarnated places, they’re abstract spaces, they’re empty, they erase all representation of Jesus, of the Saints, any figuration is bannished,… Come on, this is not a protestant place or a deist temple ! This is not a zen house ! What do we believe in ? That God is minimalist ?
Architecturally speaking it can be really beautiful, I admit some modern churches have a really beautiful design, but that’s because I have an architectural education. Well, actually I never found any spirituality in those places. I never met the Mystery of the Incarnation. I never found any love for life.
I only saw photogenic constructions.

king Says:
Great entry Fromageplus ! The best comment on contemporary Church Design i`ve read in a long time. Places like the one by Fuksas rather remind me of sex cabins for architects to wank off, than spiritual places for the public ! And James stop making things more complicated than they actually are, of course you can gather with some swiss dudes and look at the beauty of a concrete wall for 3 hours, philosophying about the amount of bubbles per sqm . But i`d rather look at a beatiful female, or a boroque church for that matter, and admire god for creating them.

Blue-Lotus Says:
Well, if churches were always built in concrete, say from the 8-9th centuries onwards, worshippers wouldn’t have ever looked for stained glass, baroque, gothic or other architectural elements in it – they would have simply appropriated the blank, clean and “minimalist” space as a place to commune with God and exulted in the beauty of the “concrete” church. So, given enough time, children and youngsters of this generation who are used to seeing all glass and steel structures, but still want to have a place to “talk to God”, will feel much more at home in a realistic, down to earth concrete-building like structure, such as this church – rather than a soaring to the sky, heavily-adorned decorative church.
What I am a bit curious to know is if the guys at deMassimiliano e Doriana Fuksas are a religious lot or otherwise? Did spirituality inspire them towards austerity or was it a post-modern sensibility at work?
Talking about soaring spires, how about this Rem Koolhaas structure, bang in the jungle of corporatehood?
And finally
arjun Says:
im not sure if this church has anything to do with italys religious heritage. i think its more about the architects personal proclivity and thats definitely food for thought. i love contemporary japanese churches because they tie in so beautifully with their spiritual and austere beliefs, but italy is all about the roman catholic church with soaring volumes and ornamentation so it would have been nice to see some sense of contemporary translation there. otherwise, its quite a beautiful space, and im sure webs of rhetoric can be spun around the brutal exterior.
ultimately it boils down to ones personal interpretation of spirituality.

Jubilee Church in Rome
I think this is a fairly good example of an impressive building yet modern for Church design.. There’s plenty of thought gone into it anyway & I believe it illustrates that there’s lots of scope for good contemporary Church architecture.

Designed by Richard Meier, the Jubilee Church located in Rome and serving more than 8,000 residents. As a church and community center, the Jubilee was
designed with modern formalism in mind but still adopts historical integrity in order to revitalize the decaying residential fabric.

The perceptual volume of the church is directly influenced by natural light since the zenith light and the glazed skylights between the successive shells are continually responsive to the changing pattern of light and shadow as the sun moves across its trajectory. According to the season, the weather, and the time of day, light is variously graduated down the inner surface of the shells thereby imparting to the church, the chapel and the baptismal fount a particular character.

| <a a="" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=oliverz3d&url=http://artect.net/?p=516&title=Jubilee%20Church%20Visualized&quot; onclick="window.open('http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?pub=&url=&title=&#039;, 'addthis', 'scrollbars=yes,menubar=no,width=620,height=600,resizable=yes,toolbar=no,location=no,status=no'); return false;" title="Bookmark & Share" target="

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As part of his thesis at Sapienza Università Di Roma, Roberto De Angelis highlights the Jubilee Church via extensive 3D animation. Captured from every conceivable angle with beautiful timelapses and dynamic breakaway animation.

@pandaz7 wrote:

:confused:

Why write it in a language you know or suspect that most people will not ever understand?? What really is the purpose of this decoration and for whose benefit is it being written? The (very) few elite latin scholars that might wander in? Go with what Jesus would have done and write in a language that people understand.

Hey there Pandaz. . .How’s she cutting?. . This might help make things a bit clearer for you.

Response by FReeper Romulus to the following statement:

“Latin is a dead language”.

Which is why it’s so well-suited for liturgy. The words don’t change. Meanings don’t change. Ministers won’t muck it about.

The Church is our mother too, and Latin is her language.

In most cultures and at most times in history, the norm has been that people have had at least a nodding acquaintance with more than one language. Till quite recently, the English-speaking world has been a curious exception. Perhaps because of the enormous land mass of North America and the island nature of Britain, New Zealand, and Australia, we haven’t had the experience of regular dealings with other languages and dialects. Maybe this has made us a bit selfish and forgetful of what’s normal to the rest of the world. Whatever the reason, much of the rest of the world has at least a basic competence in more than one language. Till forty or so years ago, so did American Catholics. No, we weren’t all classics scholars, but we could say our prayers. At Mass we could sing some hymns and give the responses assigned to us. What we once had can be recovered more quickly than most of us realize.

One concrete way we make our home in the midst of divine mystery is through the use of sacred language – speech set aside for the worship of God. Liturgical language, chiefly Latin in the Catholic Church, is well-suited to sacred liturgy for a great many reasons:

• Latin doesn’t change. Unlike vernacular tongues, Latin doesn’t evolve over time, so it imparts stability to liturgy that guarantees the durability and integrity of the Faith as it’s handed from one generation to the next.

• Latin is traditional. In other words, Latin’s not just a comfortable habit Catholics are used to; it’s the tongue of our ecclesial heritage. Latin puts us in touch with the writing and worship of the Church from her earliest centuries; Latin allows us to enter the times and minds of our ecclesial ancestors and know them unfiltered and unmediated.

• Latin is supra-national. It doesn’t belong to any country or ethnic group; it’s something that is available to all without giving preference to any. Latin makes the stranger at home wherever he finds himself. It’s a mark of catholicity, of universality, in the Church whose mission territory is the whole world.

• Latin is a sign of communion. Latin is one more way for Catholics to live out their unity, not only across international boundaries, but across the centuries. The use of living prayers that were ancient in the mouths of saints a thousand years ago strengthens our bonds with them and strengthens our understanding of the timelessness of God. It’s a witness to the world about the true meaning of the “communion of saints ”.

• Latin is holy. This isn’t to say the language is sacred by its very nature, but it’s holy in the sense that it has no daily use except the worship of God. It’s set aside for worship, honoring a human impulse that transcends time and cultures, that establishes numerous liturgical languages including Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Old Church Slavonic, and Sanskrit.

• Latin ensures authenticity. Vernacular liturgies tempt some priests to experiment with novelties, to inject their own creativity and personality. Latin makes that all but impossible, ensuring that the people receive the authentic liturgy that’s their right and protecting the priest from the temptation to grandstand.

Seen this way, the use of Latin in the Mass is about far more than just being old-fashioned or perversely obscure or exclusive and elitist. The Second Vatican Council ordered that “the use of Latin is to be preserved in the Latin rites” and that “steps are to be taken to ensure that the faithful are able to say and sing together, also in Latin, those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass that pertain to them”. The Council ordered this not for shallow reasons of atmospherics or antiquarianism but because it understood that the universal Church needs a universal language. Most Catholics are still waiting for their schools, priests, and bishops to comply with this Council directive, a delay that has gravely disrupted their ability to live fully Catholic lives.

If Catholics had retained the regular use of the language the Council promised them, and if the two generations born since the Council had enjoyed the education and regular intended for them, Latin would not be seen today as something alien and exotic and slightly scary. The Holy Father’s motu proprio derestricting the older form of the Mass is not a nostalgic old man’s dreamy bid to put the clock back to the “good old days”, it’s a program for renewal and the future. The Traditional Latin Mass is the real Youth Mass.

16 posted on Wed 19 Aug 2009 11:09:14 AM PST by Romulus (“Ira enim viri iustitiam Dei non operatur”)

Church decoration in The Holy Trinity -Allen http://www.allenparish.ie/churches

Does anyone know anything more or have pictures of the interior of this church in Co. Kildare. . The superbly stenciled decoration looks like it might be the work of the Hodgkinsons of limerick.

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Church of the Holy Trinity – Allen[/align:1b3x2bmk]

The church still contains a complete decorative scheme in the sanctuary area and, according to Mary McGrath, conservator of fine art, Rosetown Lodge, Newbridge, this is the original decorative scheme dating back to 1868-1870, when the church was built. Intact, original decoration is now quite rare as a result of redecoration over the past 150 years and the changes in the liturgy after Vatican II. This painted decoration is, consequently, significant in a historical context. It is of a very high quality, detailed, complex and carefully designed to enhance the architectural features of the sanctuary, chancel arch and side altars.
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The figure of the Holy Trinity, wearing a three-crown mitre[/align:1b3x2bmk]

Decorative schemes were individually tailored for a specific churches, although some design motifs were employed over and over again. The church in Allen has a polygonal apse which required a considerable amount of planning to decorate.
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A highly-worked stencil decoration of St Brigid, in the sanctuary[/align:1b3x2bmk]

Stencil decoration was much favoured in the 19th and early 20th century for church decoration. Augustus Welby Pugin (1812-52), an outstanding architect and a convert to Catholicism, formulated a series of designs and colours considered appropriate for church interiors.

Furthermore, a book called the Grammar of Ornament, published in 1856 by Owen Jones, formally outlined what parts of a church should be decorated, and how and why. The basic rule is that decoration should not be used for itself alone – its function is to enhance architectural features.

It can be assumed that the land for the Church of the Holy Trinity in Allen was donated by Sir Gerald George Aylmer succeeded his father as 8th Baron of Donadea in 1816.

The church was designed by J. S. Butler in 1866. This was just a short time after the Great Famine in Ireland when the country was still recovering from that overwhelming natural disaster.

When the Rev. Eugene O’Reilly decided to build a new church in Allen, he appointed John Sterling Butler as architect. Butler was one of the foremost ecclesiastical architects of his time and the catalogue of his works is most impressive – churches, convents, great houses etc. all over Ireland. He was elected Dublin City Architect on 1st October 1866. His works in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin include:

*
St Bridget’s Church, Clogherinkoe 1861,
*
Broadford Church 1862,
*
Church of St Fintan, Mountrath, Co. Laois 1861,
*
Church of St Paul, Emo, Co. Laois 1861-1866,
*
Courtwood Church, Co. Laois 1877,
*
Raheen Church, Co. Laois 1859,
*
Mountmellick Convent, Co. Laois 1860,
*
Parochial house, Portlaoise 1861,
*
Additions to Clongowes Wood College, Clane 1873.

The cut stone, Gothic Revival church in Allen was put out to tender in June 1866, with the closing date for acceptance of tenders as 12th October 1866. Construction work began in early 1867.

First Mass
The church is built of dressed limestone and has an octagonal spire atop a square tower. It was completed in 1869 at a cost of £4,000 and the first Mass was celebrated in the new church on Easter Sunday 1872.

The cross on the steeple was made locally by Michael Dempsey, blacksmith, the grandfather of Sheila Dooley, Skew Bridge, Allenwood South.

The bell was cast in James’s St Foundry, Dublin, and placed in the Belfry in 1891.

The church was renovated in the 1920s (during the pastorate of Rev. John Kane) with money bequeathed for this purpose by Rev Edward Lawlor. Some minor repair work was carried out on the roof of the church in the early 1960s.