Praxiteles
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@Fearg wrote:
I’m sure its possible, but the impact would be terrible – something like what happened to the parish church in Dingle, except on a much larger scale. This must not happen! whatever else they do to St Mels, the restoration of the pillars and ceiling are the most essential elements of any restoration.
Can anyone suggest a decent architect the Bishop could work with?
If anything were to be changed.. possibly, the apse could be redesigned to include windows, always thought the place would look so much better if that were the case. Apparently, the original design was a compromise due to the bishop’s ambitious plans for a grandiose residence behind the apse (which was never used for anything other than choir rooms and the museum). In some ways that block at the east end may have been the cathedral’s achille’s heel. Think about any other Irish cathedral, if the sacristy went on fire, the structure is usually so separate from the main body of the church, that the complete devastation we have witnessed in Longford would probably be much less likely..
The most obvious choice of architect for the restoration of St Mel’s is Duncan Stroik of the school of Archicture at Notre Dame Uniersity, South Bend, Indiana. Praxiteles will be glad to supply a telephone number.
The design on the sanctuary floor mosaic is quite similar to that on the sanctuary floor in Cobh Cathedral. Was it designed by Ashlin?
In the wedding photograph, on the right, notice the pulpit the designs for which were recently published on this thread.
@johnglas wrote:
This is truly a shocking image of desolation; although it looks terrible, we need to remember that great buildings have been restored from war damage, often in a time of straitened economic conditions. So, the answer is: don’t hang back hoping for better times, get on with it. Agree with apelles about the old high altar and pulpit; the amount of ‘pressure’ may not be as great as you might imagine. The climate (and fashion) is changing. However, Mr Carroll or his stylistic confreres should be allowed nowhere near it.
Does anyone yet know how the fire started?Agreed!
If any effort of worthwhile restoration is to be undertaken then question of the existence and state of the Cathedral archive immediately arises. And in raising the question, can we hope that it was not stored in the sacristy or in the museum behind the Cathedral?
Adoration of the Magi by Stephan Lochner, Cologne Cathedral (1440)
Latin text
O magnum mysterium,
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
jacentem in praesepio!
Beata Virgo, cujus viscera
meruerunt portare
Dominum Christum.
Alleluia.
English translation
O great mystery,
and wonderful sacrament,
that animals should see the new-born Lord,
lying in a manger!
Blessed is the Virgin whose womb
was worthy to bear
Christ the Lord.
Alleluia!Whatever else, it is quite magnificent and the commentary here serves to illustrate many of the points of ecclesiastical decoration Praxiteles has been trying to make here – above all, nothing is left to chance, everything has a reason.
And here is a very interesng clip on the restoration of the Cosmati floor in Westminster Abbey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNABnsL_3tg&feature=player_embedded
@apelles wrote:
Glad you said that Prax..Personally I wouldn’t go to Church anymore if they got rid of the obligatory limbo dancing.
Materially, Praxiteles would of course agree that much of what we see in here is just plain nuts and, to use a fashionable expression, simply inexcusable. It is doubtful that any middle of the road punter would want to promote the sheer indignity and baseness of much of what is presented as modern excess.
Where we have to part ways, howver, arrives with the theological interpretation or formal presentation of this material. It is not acceptable, for instance, to posit the thesis that Vat II was, unlike previous Councils, not the object fo teh Holy Spirit’s Guidance of that somehow a legittimately caonvoked and celebrated Oecumenical Council is somehow or other defetable or defective or that its documents are contrary to catholic teaching or that surpeme authority in the Church is somehow or other not functioning for the goof of the Church – all this might easily be seen within the optic of Joachimism and its intellectual progeny in the West.
Likewise, the thesis cannot be theologically posited that there is an opposition bewteen the text of the Council and the spirit of the Concil. That there is a dichotomy between the will of Christ and the the inspiration of the Holy Spirit – as many of those who did the wrecking of churches hold. They forget, however, that theologically the Holy Spirit cannot operate separate from,and much less against, Christ.
Both extremes in this controversy are equally condemnable as far as the Second Vatican Council is concerned. the real way forward to an intelelctual regeneration of Catholicism is to read the texts of the of the Council and set them within their dogmatic and liturgical context. This, although a standard principle of interpretation in canon law, appears only to have been recently discovered and has been dubbed the “hermenutic of continuity” – which in itself says something of those who practice the hermenutic of continuity!
@apelles wrote:
Had to put these up as they explain the history of Vatican 2, Its effects on Church Architecture & many of the other issues & concerns Prax has talked about on this thread with regard to reordering of Church’s & Cathedrals.
Theologically these would be a bit OTT !
