Posts

181 Jerusalem, Holy Family Church

Image
I got to Jerusalem three years back, before the present phase of the genocidal war on Palestine. This small church is located inside the Austrian hospice, and seems to have had some link with the Hungarian royal family from way back when.  There is a representation of the finding of Jesus in the temple - that scene from Luke where Mary and Joseph lose Jesus in some shop and then find him in the temple busy teaching the old sages stuff. It is rare to see a watercolour calvary scene, and the one in this church is fine.

180 Paris, St Vincent de Paul : a pulpit you would kill to preach from

Image
  180 Paris, St Vincent de Paul : a pulpit you would kill to preach from Magnificent church, in particular with beautiful frescoes (Jesus getting baptized, the last supper, creation of Eve etc). Also highly imposing confessionals, and a pulpit you would kill to preach from (well, figuratively speaking). Gilded pillars and crucifixes and a royal blue background for the stations of the cross.  Named for St Vincent de Paul, 17th century holy man heavily into charity, and who worked hard for the men in the harshest prisons of the time, the church recently celebrated its two hundredth birthday, but I think it is the anniversary of the laying of the first stone. The parish was created by decree in the month of Messidor, in the year 12 (in the time when the French revolutionaries were thinking “the world is completely new now, so we need a new calendar and ten-hour clocks”). Twenty years or so later the church was started. Big chunks were inspired by Greek temple architecture. Top au...