Rhabanus

@Praxiteles wrote:

To returen to the tradition of dressing churches for festive occsions or for the liturgical seasons, here is a view of the High Altar of St Peter’s in Rome decorated for the today’s feast of Sts Peter and Paul.

Note the new pallium being worn by the Pope. A return to the western form of the vestment. I detect the hermeneutic of continuity once again.

@Praxiteles wrote:

Here is a good example of a Pavillion d’Etat used in the Coat of Arms of the Belgian Royal House.

The Maltese arrangement is exactly the same and conveys the same idea: namely the sovereign Kingship of Christ.

The Pavillion d’Etat is precisely the design of the backdrop to the high altar at the church of sant’Andrea at the Piazza s. Silvestro, Rome.

It also constituted the cover of a famous handbook of devotions for Forty Hours. It was a booklet famous in the ‘forties and ‘fifties.

@Praxiteles wrote:

Praxiteles has for quite a while been adverting to the fact that Cobh Cathedral lacks any form of INSTITUTIONAL maintenance. It is appalling that a major monument should not have an Institutional body to ensure its maintenance and repair. Unfortunately, the complications of such a task far outstrip the possibilities of any Cathedral administrator – as is perfectly clear from the patethic efforts w have seen recently which are more to be expected in the context of village parish hall.

The formation of an institutionaal body to supervise the fabric of Cobh Cathedal, to Praqxiteles’ mind, is smething that should be left to private individuals. Praxiteles does not share the opinions of some that the State is likely to be better or best when it come to the preservation or conservation of historic monuments. Indeed, there are plenty of examples to suggest the contrary: take for instance the idiotic carry-on of the Board of Worsk at Cormac’s Chapel which has been discussed on this forum. In the case of Cobh Cathedral, Praxiteles does not believe that anything better is to be expected. Let it not be forgotten that the State -as represented by the Department of the Environmment through Freddie O’Dwyer – put in an absolutely flaccid performance at the Midleton Oral Hearing. It was clear to those in Midelton that it had done little or no preparation. It was appalling that the State through the Dept. of the Envoronment represented by Freddie O’Dwyer should come to Midleton basically to discuss a compromise plan that was equally destructive of the Cathedral’s fabric. Given that sort of forma mentis Praxiteles thinks that it is better to have what the Americans call a division and separation of powers: if the State through the Dept of the Environment or one of its dependent bodies had control of the structure of Cobh Cathedral, what would there be to stop it from implementing its hair-brained scheme for the Cathedral interior?

Praxiteles believes that there is sufficient provision for the conservation of heritage buildings such as Cobh Cathedral in the Planning and Development Act 2000. The problem is that those provisions are not being sufficiently implemented or implemented in a very half-hearted manner. In this respect, Local Authorities are largely to blame. As we saw in teh case of Cobh Town Council, its original grant of planning permission was of such a craven obsequiousness to placate the Cathedral Trustees as to cause the most potent medieval ecclesiastical princes to blush. Moreover, Cobh Town Council has done little or nothing about the maintenance issues despite being asked regularly at their monthly meetings for up dates on the situation: the answers given are usually “NOTHING”. Praxiteles believes thatt the appreciation and maintenance of a building such asCobh Cathedral is quite beyond the capacities and abilities not only of the Cathedral Restoration Committee but also of Cobh Town Council. The performance of the latter bears this out beyond reasonable doubt.

What we might need is an independent body or board to ensure that Local Authorities discharge the obligations of law imposed on them by the Planning and Development Act and other relevant legislation.

Prax is correct regarding the ineptness of handing over St Colman’s Cathedral to the state as a secularised building. This would sentence that magnificent edifice to the fate of being a museum. Consider Russian churches in the days of communism. Or, closer to home, just look at the use to which some of the convents (e.g. Presentation Sisters) have been put in Ireland itself.

No, secularisation of the church or of its administration is not the way to go. Henry VIII created a whole class of poor people by confiscating the monasteries and religious houses. Robbery under “law” as it were. Read William Cobbett, The Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland. Cobbett, himself a Protestant, exposed the political, social, and cultural disaster that ensued in the wake of the confiscation of the monasteries and the pensioning off of the higher-ranking priors and prioresses. (The rest of the monastics either returned to their families or went into exile. Of course still others simply abandoned the religious life altogether.)

Has any one explored the possibility of having St Colman’s declared a World Heritage Site? It is after all an international treasure, not just as an important example of the Gothic Revival in Ireland, but also as the last Irish monument seen by emigrants to North America, Australia, New Zealnd, and many other points beyond. With all the monuments now going up to commemorate Irish immigration in the nineteenth century (e.g. Toronto, 2007), it seems that the time is ripe to declare St Colman’s an international or World Heritage Site.

@Praxiteles wrote:

On baptismal fonts: someone has drawn my attention to the following and tells me that it is the baptismal font in Anchorage Cathedral!

It seems to have been made of poured plastic or fibreglass.

What the deuce is that supposed to represent? The Martyrdom of the Ugandan Martyrs? How did their cultus spread so far west and north?

Anyone seen the igloo church in the Northwest Territories? It certainly exceeds in beauty some of the strange “houses of worship” featured in various photos on this thread.

@Rhabanus wrote:

I admire the rich colours of the stained glass windows over the confessional. Do I recognise St Francis and St Dominic flanking a pope or bishop? Is it St Gregory the Great or perhaps St Augustine?

@Paul Clerkin wrote:

And when you open the doors, the gloom inside reveals this. And it can be a gloomy church inside. Most windows have stained glass by Meyer except for the transepts which have plain glass.

The plain walls, and magnificent columns contrast beautifully with the colour of the wood in the pews and the awesome hammerbeam roof.

Thanks, Paul, for the spectacular shots. Great play on light in both plain and coloured windows. Really magnificent!

The rich colour of the windows contrast with the now stark interior. Thank heaven the windows survived the vandalism of the wreckovators, their works, and pomps.

@Paul Clerkin wrote:

St Macartan’s Cathedral, Monaghan
The doors to the western facade are surprisingly small, leading into small pine porches with stained glass panels in their doors.

I admire the rich colours of the stained glass windows over the confessional. Do I recognise St Francis and St Dominic flanking a pope or bishop? Is it St Gregory the Great or perhaps St Augustine?

@shaun wrote:

Have any of you guys visited this church, St.Agathas , nearby Summerhill in Dublin ? The amazing thing about it is it’s excellent condition, inside and out. There is a very pleasant atmosphere inside, unlike any other church in the city. Great to have stumbled across a church I never even knew existed.

Thanks for the shots of St Agatha’s, Shaun! The exterior is impressive – too bad about the adverts hanging on either side. Just shows that the exterior of a church, too, can be vested. [For those interested in the official protocols for mourning and for vesting churhces, note that the colour of mourning on the death of a pope or bishop is red, not black.]

Regarding the interior photo of St Agatha’s, Dublin, it is a shame that the painting of the statues is so garish. It seems to Rhabanus that the statue of St Anne is far too small for that niche.
The retro-fitted heaters hanging from the walls just over the Stations of the Cross are most unfortunate.

Glad you found a church in good condition and with a pleasant atmosphere to raise the spirit heavenward!

Thanks again for the photos!

@samuel j wrote:

“There is nothing worth living for but Christian architecture and a boat.”
-Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin

Ha, ha , excellent ,…..:D

You are in great company, Samuel J! Full steam ahead!!;)

@Praxiteles wrote:

I am afraid I have somewhat lost the thread of the argument here. What have the vertically challenged to do with matters?

Prax! Take a good look at the pictures of St Nicholas Church, Carrick on Suir, graciously provided by ake. I draw your attention to the monstrous attempt at a Lourdes grotto – or mini-putt golf course being passed off as a devotional corner. Count the number of figures. A plaster statue of Our Lady of Lourdes stands in the niche in the grotto. So far, so good, if you like plaster statues and papier mache rockery in your north transept – kept in place by a cord tied to the toe of a vastly superior marble statue of the Divine Infant in the arms of His Blessed Mother. [See accompanying picture – Note that the marble statue of the crowned Theotokos ensconced in a marble Gothic niche is being utterly eclipsed, and, worse, employed to hold in place the gimcrack “grotto”. O tempora! O mores!

Now, go back to the picture of the Lourdes grotto. Notice TWO statues of St Bernadette dressed in peasant garb and kneeling in the direction of Our Lady of Lourdes. Note also the disproportionate size of the “wee” Bernadette statues in relationship to the much larger statue of Our Lady of Lourdes. Why only TWO Bernadettes? Why not add five more “wee” Bernadettes and bring the number of “wee” Bernadettes (the name is already a diminutive!) up to 7 – a holy number, and one that corresponds to the “setti nanni” or “seven dwarves” – as in the fairy tale popularized in 1937 by the eponyomous cartoon by Walt Disney. The display in St Nicholas’s church is so bad that even the two Bernadettes do not match each other, far less correspond in size to Our Lady of Lourdes.

Now, do you notice a shepherd in the background? That piece is from a nativity scene completely unrelated to the Lourdes imagery, motif, and statuary. It has been positioned in relationship to what appears to be a cow from a nativity set – obviously having nothing to do with Bernadette, Lourdes, or the “Lady of the Grotto.” [Perhaps it is an allusion to Jupiter and Io or Europa] Note the sheep in the foreground. He looks as though he’s seen it all. And he likely has – from that vantage!

Perhaps the rural Irish have sufficient intelligence and self-respect never to clutter their lawns with kitschy ornaments. Not so North Americans. On the contrary, some home-owners in North America “decorate” their lawns or, more likely, their trailer parks [trailers are the American equivalents of caravans] with cement or plaster figures molded in deplorable taste and painted in garish, cartoonsih colours. The more exuberant but misguided lawn-decorators sometimes adorn their lawns with “gnomes” – many of them. They aspire to excess, and quite often succeed in making their erstwhile lawns candidates for admission to such journals as “Better Gnomes and Gardens,” and suchlike. Others, with a penchant for Walt Disney cartoons arrange to dot their lawns with statues of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Assorted squirrels, racoons, and the occasional Bambi – flanked perhaps by a buck and a doe! – call to the viewer’s mind many a scene from Walt Disney cartoons. View the recent film “Enchanted” (2007) for the full effect.
This emulation of the Disney cartoons on private lawns has become a theme typical of what is regarded in wider America as “trailer trash.”

Instead of ruminating over the vertically-challenged, Praxiteles ought to be considering ways to get to the bottom of this unholy mess in Carrick-on-Suir. Who is in charge of this menagery? When shall a skip be summoned to haul away the vinyl trees, faux rockery, sheep and kine, errant shepherds, and multiple “wee” Bernadettes? If the plaster statue of Our Lady of Lourdes is to remain in the church building, rather than being displayed in an outdoor grotto on the rectory grounds, then it ought to go into a position opposite the beautiful marble Marian altar on the facing side of the north transept, and not be left to compete with it. If someone insists on bypassing the tasteful marble side altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary is search of the subsidiary Lady of Lourdes, then they ought to be made to struggle in the attainment of their quest.

Who is in charge of St Nicholas, Carrick-On-Suir? Who is responsible for this unholy harlequinade? He would do well to take a leaf from Voltaire’s tome: Ecrasez l’infame!!

In the meantime, Rhabanus advises ake to keep taking plenty of photographs of these and other wretched abominations, assemble them into a huge collection, then publish a book in the vein of Michael Rose, author of Ugly as Sin. ake’s could be the catalyst for a complete sea-change for ecclesiastical architecture and decoration in Ireland and beyond!