European Renaissance nobility had clothing standards that made the Kardashians or your local pimp look like models of restrained elegance and tasteful understatement by comparison.
The Turin Shroud I, too, find very powerful. And you are right: early Christian art (of necessity of the RC persuasion, since no schisms happened for a long time) are very moving. That said, I am RC in essential belief but not in practice. I think the Church (though not just the Catholic Church) has a lot to answer for when it comes to the abuse, especially of children. I stopped going to Mass over the issue. I like to know where people's hands have been before they use them to offer me what, as a Catholic, I believe is the body of Christ when I receive Communion.
I’ve wondered about “Catholic kitsch” and there’s a certain garishness I’ve also seen at some fancy historical orthodox churches here in the cities where I live (Minnesota, USA). Where does it come from? And why does it work better amongst tree and field and glen (cause I would tend to agree it does)?
The plaster/plastic Jesus religious art has always made spaces feel less holy to me rather than more. To whatever extent it is sincerely offered by those who love it, I think it is somehow redeemed. It is probably that sincerity of offering in these wild places that gives it a certain beauty despite its cringeworthiness.
I just thought of Matthew 6:6: "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place." The people making these offerings clearly have no thought of whether anyone thinks they're cool or not; the eyes of the world are not involved. That probably has something to do with the redemption in sincerity.
And Psalm 51:17: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise." Maybe in the same vein.
Would God like it better if a man made an aesthetically gorgeous offering and then had a big parade thrown for him? Matthew 6:3: "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." I have no argument per se; this paradoxical pattern is just coming to mind.
The widow and the coins, as well (Luke 21:1-4)—it just keeps going.
I'd think that it comes from a basic lack of depth, or a confusion of sentimentality with spirit. It's sort of like the Protestant love songs to Jesus (need I say more?). But when people really are simple and express their hearts the best they can, there is always something moving about that, aesthetic considerations aside.
I live near the Cities, too, and I know what you're talking about!! I blame Peter the Great, who took a serious aesthetic left turn on behalf of Russian Orthodoxy, from which it is still recovering. Give me the old wooden churches of yesteryear, that's what I say...
It's kind of funny that Russian churches of the 19th century often have that oil-on-canvas, glossy Roman Catholic style iconography... while much newer parishes in the US, etc., often with a large contingent of converts, almost universally follow the much more traditional style of Byzantine and Rublevian iconography.
On the other hand I quite like the Kievan chant of my parish which is certainly much closer to a Western chorale classical style of music than the more exotic Byzantine chant.
Much of that was because Russia spent a great deal of time in the eighteenth and nineteenth century trying to make themselves more culturally European in order to be taken seriously on the world stage. We did a similar thing around the French Revolution. The Russians picked up a lot of artistic, musical, literary, and religious influence from the cultural centers of Central and Western Europe, where they sent their sons to be educated. And, of course, everybody married a Habsburg.
Collectors of folk songs, collectors of old blues and country music 78s, the people who relentlessly combed working class Southern hamlets in search of Grandma's Record Collection, of a Skip James disc only three copies known to exist, had to admit that their informants often had terrible taste.
At least as judged by the standards of the people who collect rare country and blues on 78.
Your commentary on the Catholic aesthetic is hilarious. I am Eastern Catholic presently, but I expect to jump ship to Orthodox in the event that I don't have access to such a parish, because I am also averse to lace and its adjuncts (including but not limited to the creepy priests—they really screwed up with that celibacy requirement).
I think that you would like the Rosary, though. I pray mine every morning. Probably the single best Catholic invention, I would say.
These stories of the wells are nourishing. I've been spending some time on a blog with a lot of traditionalist patrons, and the other day, folk were getting a little worked up about something that the pope did. And I reflected on how I never think of the pope at all, and feel completely indifferent to his existence. I guess that I'm not a very good Catholic. I would rather think about these wells.
I agree, the rosary, yes. The lace, not so much. I find reciting the rosary a calming exercise when modern life stresses me out. Also, the rosary is a physical object which connects me to my ancestors who also recited the rosary. That too, I find reassuring. Death comes to all of us at some point in time. Practices such as reciting the rosary continue into the future.
I love watching people pray the rosary. It's mostly old women you see doing that in the churches round here. But then old women are usually the backbone of all churches, as far as I can see. The Orthodox use a prayer rope, which is a little different, but the effect may be similar.
One of the key differences between Orthodox and Catholic, I would say, is that the Orthodox rarely think about their bishops. Plenty of us don't even know their names, which is probably as it should be. The job of a bishop is to safeguard the tradition. Once the bishop becomes a kingly figure, let alone declaring himself infallible, you have a very different situation, and it is not a healthy one, as we can currently see.
That's very interesting about your experience of the mental distance from bishops in the Orthodox church. Here in America in the OCA (Orthodox Church in America) the Bishop is commemorated more than once during the Liturgy and especially at the end dismissal. Plus he comes once a year and we have a Hierachical Divine Liturgy, which is awesome in its pageantry. So we are very familiar with who our bishops are here.
I don't mean to suggest that Bishops aren't important. As you say, they're commemorated every Sunday, and the visit of a Bishop is a big event. There's a great deal of respect, and even reverence, for Bishops. But I would guess that on an everyday level, most people do not think about them very much, and many people have only a dim idea who their bishop is. There is certainly nothing like the near-worship that the Pope inspires.
Yes, it is also true in RC churches in the USA. I think it's probably true in all churches in the USA - a practice which I, as a first generation dual citizen of Italy and the USA - find very peculiar. Both in England and in Italy I have never known the name of my local bishop and, at present, I don't even know who the Head of the RC Church here in England is. Some of these things are very culturally dependent, it seems.
I wish we Catholics could afford to be less aware of our bishops, especially the one in Rome, but unfortunately we are subject to their opinions on many issues, including but not limited to the Latin Mass. There has never been an adequate church wide response to the abuse issues, such as a Pope making a penitential procession on his knees for the damage done and the abusers he continues to protect and promote. We are hostages to whether they are orthodox or not in belief and how obliged they feel to suck up to “Catholic” politicians who flout every moral law.
We are very fortunate for now that our local bishop is extremely supportive of traditional, orthodox ( with a small o) Catholicism, but situations like this can change radically under this pope. You would think the ever shrinking boomer church would’ve learned by now that requiring less and less of people doesn’t exactly fill the pews but they seem convinced that the answer is more of the same, more bending to the culture, more meeting people where they are without pointing to where they need to be. Boomer Catholicism is a totally horizontal religion without reference to a God with His own prerogatives, or His Son who said “go and sin no more.”
Even if a Bishop Of Rome, on paper all-powerful, infallible, even. wanted to impose a reform on the Church that the Bishops by and large did not want, he'd find his task impossible, stymied at every turn by lip service, malicious compliance, secret alliances, plausible deniability, missing files (that may or may not reappear at inconvenient moments), lawsuits, withheld donations, schisms, blackmail, poison pen letters, etc..
Certainly Benedict faced everything you describe here, but the current occupant of the chair of Peter has stacked quite a deck for himself. He was put into place by people who share his disdain for tradition and doctrine and is comfortable wielding power through these very systems .
It is a system worthy of the Medici and Borgias, but their preoccupations were less dangerous to the future of the church than those of Francis , the humble autocrat.
Re. the effeminate Jesus of Catholicism, some of the Russian icons of Christ would definitely compete. And if you want kitsch, you’ll find plenty of felt and jewels on display at my local Orthodox parish.
The difference between Catholic and Orthodox is the difference between kitsch and bling. The Orthodox do bling even better than the Catholics. There may well be some Orthodox kitsch around too, of course, but I think my distinction is defensible ...
I'm a Byzantine man myself. But I wonder if those Russian icons were fairly modern. Russia went through a period, I think after Peter the Great worked to Westernise the country, of openly copying Western religious styles. There was later a reaction against this, and today Russian icons look very ... Russian. I am no expert, but perhaps this is the reason for what you're writing about here.
Re the young people of Ireland: maybe, even when so-called non-believing, they are unconsciously connected to the traditional ways of their culture and therefore do not vandalise such places? Similar to the Italian tradition of having a small altar or two in almost every village, with representations of either Christ on the Cross or the Virgin Mary. Not only are they not vandalised, they are cared for, with fresh flowers regularly being donated. Religion, and how a people choose to practice it, are part of one's innermost identity, I think.
I love the comparison to “someone’s front room”! So many houses in my childhood looked just like that, with a collection of unrelated religious statures clustered on the tv and every other available surface, not to mention a picture of the pope on the refrigerator. I find it very comforting. It is hard for someone not raised in a Catholic community, even our public school was 90% Catholic, to have the same visceral reaction to these pictures, a combination of nostalgia and actual religious feeling, that they provoke.
My mother’s family, all Syrian Orthodox, often had Catholic religious art around as well. I think it was just much more widely available to them, working class people living in a large industrial city in Pennsylvania, than Orthodox icons.
Just wanted to give you encouragement to keep doing what you do Paul.
This is a wonderful tour. Your anecdotes / opinions wonderfully written. Thank-you for sharing with the world. The machine always exists, but your two cents worth, added to others with faith in Christ and nature as God created it, is a powerful shield in the troubles yet to come.
I wonder what Jesus thinks of the cross being the symbol of Christianity. I mean really? Its a powerful symbol for sure to us but to them a torture device. I remember seeing a simple fish design that was used as a marker for where Christian were meeting. I always liked that.
Early Christians used the fish or the chi-ro symbol, rather than the cross, perhaps because many were still living under Roman rule, and it was regarded as a humilation that God had died on one. Later the symbol was embraced as it was understood that the humiliation was part of the point. I still like both the fish and the chi-ro. They seem to be making a bit of a comeback.
I recognise the chi-ro symbol but had no idea it was called that (every day is a school day at the Abbey! :)
I prefer the fish because it’s doesn’t feel so ‘high church’). Just an ordinary symbol for ordinary people, but that may just be because I don’t know all of the meaning behind the chi-ro.
And of course, it is poetically very satisfying, what with Him multiplying fish, helping the apostles fish, calling the apostles fishers of men, cooking a fish after the Resurrection. Fish is sort of a theme.
Art historian Liz Lev says that the early Church did not depict the crucifixion because they still had a memory of crucifixions and it was too traumatic. Many people had actually seen crucifixions. Even for Romans (non- slaves), crucifixion was too horrible to contemplate. The earliest Christian art (carvings on sarcophagi) depicts scenes from Jonah (in the belly of the big fish for 3 days), then appearing again on dry land. Jonah is a representation of Jesus. You can view these at the Vatican Museums.
I'm aware that the cross has esoteric significance in terms of the fusion between the vertical and horizontal dimensions of reality: the kairos of God's time entering into the chronos of ours. But yes, I can surely see the charm of a simple fish.
The correlation of the trees is resonating with me.
It just seems very busy right there a lot of bells and whistles so to speak.
The offerings are wonderful but the fact that there's a little somewhat of a cafe...
If I was there and I retrieve some water from the spring of the well, I think I would take it into the woodsmore where there would be a bit of solitude and nature.
This is my own opinion .
I do not condone anybody's vision of what holiness is.
It's all being done for the same reason I believe.
Thanks Paul, this was very interesting and I've been looking forward to these each Sunday. I have mixed feelings on the lace point: I'm a fairly traditional RC, and so as a general rule I lament the entire absence of lace from nearly every Catholic parish I've ever been in; not because I find lace especially aesthetically pleasing in itself, or vital for a sense of the sacred, but because it usually instantly signifies a traditional liturgy, which goes hand in hand with preaching that is faithful to the magisterium, etc etc. At the same time, in my opinion there is admittedly something lamentably effeminate about some of the more flowery baroque style vestments favoured in many corners of traditional Catholicism, including long and very lacey albs - but that's just my opinion, and it may be influenced by the occasionally effeminate characters who are often attracted to this liturgy in the RC church, and have been called to the priesthood. This I have occasionally found an obstacle to my faith, until I recall that God presumably doesn't call men to the sacred priesthood - or choose the style of sacred vestments they wear - to fulfill my particular understanding of Christian masculinity, which is all too human and thus, admittedly, flawed. God have mercy on all of us, I suppose.
I won't add to the point made already in your piece (and some other comments) regarding the kitsch items being somehow not entirely out of place, other than to say that I agree it must have something to do with the purity of intention of those who put them there. For myself, the main struggle with 'terrible' pictures of our Lord or Our Lady have more to do with how to reverently dispose of them, rather than have them clutter up my home... paper can be burned, but somehow throwing plastic 'Catholic tat' in the bin with the kitchen refuse seems close to sacrilege - although at the same time I don't think Christ would really mind. I justify this paradox to myself with the thought that I wouldn't lightly toss a photo of my wife or my grandmother in the bin either - not because they would mind at all, but simply because I love them.
Anyway, thanks again. Looking forward to the next installment.
Very good points, Greg. If you look at photos of the preceding generations, you can see infant and small boys wearing "dresses" that are no longer considered appropriate. We have been becoming more puritan for quite some time now over these issues.
I have a hard time figuring out what to throw out these days. If I look, I could find a reason to keep everything, thereby handing the chore of picking and choosing over to the next generation, the way it was handed over to me, by the way...
I have a reproduction of a Raphaël madonna with child that I look at often, as it is beautiful and inspiring. I have had it since I was a child.
Thank you Debra, and yes I suffer from a similar difficulty re: what to throw out! I have a reproduction of the 'Madonna of the Streets' that I have had since I was a boy and I think I will have that until my deathbed. I hope so anyway. By the way, I wonder how much our appreciation or judgement of holy art has to do with other attachments than simply beauty? For example, as a boy I didn't much like my mother's copy of the 'Matka Boza Czestochowa' (Paul and other Orthodox readers here may like it! Very much an Eastern icon in style). But today I have a small version by my bed, that I bought in Krakow: the icon means a great deal more to me because my mum loves it. I wonder if I have grown into it? (Deepening faith and a trip to the shrine at Czestochowa almost certainly helped!)
I kept a clear plastic reproduction of the BVM which had holy water in it, given to me by one of my sisters, for some 15 years. I too felt it'd be sacrilegious to throw it away and that I couldn't throw it away because it would indeed a little like lightly tossing out a photo of my husband, mamma, papa, my children, etc.
Some of the garish kitsch is a refreshing antidote to the severe aesthetic of the Protestant church. You will find this sort of thing on the graves at Wounded Knee as well.. food,boxes of donuts, personal items of all sorts..offerings to the dead from those that are thinking of them.
Lace and decorative clothing on Jesus is to show a form of adoration...but clearly a folk christianity not from a well heeled modern sensibly ... Very much am enjoying all of your writings . Thank you!
Symbolically, the stations of the cross actually depict the soul's journey towards transformation. As a 5 yr. old I used to go into the church regularly and make the stations of the cross, as they say. Except I made them up from some deep holy well inside my own soul. Although only 5, a mystical part of me understood them and used words much deeper than a five yr. old knew to speak about such things as falling on the path and needing help to carry my cross!!!!
In reading these recent pieces about the wells, I keep thinking about something Evelyn Waugh said that I think explains about 98 percent of our current madness: "When the water-holes were dry people sought to drink at the mirage."
Valentin Tomberg writes about the zone of the false Holy Ghost, the land of mirages. A mirage is particularly dangerous because it isn't quite a lie; rather, it is a spectral image of a true thing, within unreal dimensional parameters. Very seductive.
The aesthetic of Catholic folk devotion is not to my taste-,I saw the same in Coptic lands.
But what I like is how earthy it somehow is. It arises honestly in hearts of honest folk. Who then honestly use the media they have at hand: kitch. Plastic. Extravagance. Poor paint jobs. Factory statuary. Etc.
Once again I see in this honesty not a failing of the Folk heart but a judgement on the culture creators of consumerism, for giving such awful tools to such blessedly simply pious hands.
There is a tension in orthodox iconography too between the high Byzantine tradition(s) and then the folk iconography of say a village in Romania.
But- except to be honest where the west has crept in- these folk icons do not bear the same kind of tasteless kitch ugly as, well, other folk pieties. (I think fondly of Aturo’s intellectual defence of his native Mexican r Catholic piety in fluorescent kitch).
Folk orthodox iconography is… lower. Simpler. Less precise.
Not a fine suit, but a cozy homespun sweater.
It’s this I think, that redeems that, pictured here.
Thank you again for writing about these. We don't have sacred places in America to make pilgrimages to, sadly. Founded by puritans who limited their Christianity to the mental space is sadly the cause I think.
You might feel differently if you get a chance to visit the chapel of Chimayo, in New Mexico. Not a holy well, but still a place of offerings, beside a stream. There is a small pit in a side room, where pilgrims scoop up the blessed earth to take away; the walls are hung with crutches and crude ornaments of eyes, legs, hands, either asking for cures or thanking the Holy Child for them.
At least, we do have an increasing number of Orthodox monasteries in the U.S., to which we can make pilgrimage. I consider those to be sacred spaces, for all the prayers that rise from them.
I don't know, Maria, there are shrines here in America that are absolutely powerful and beautiful. And, other places as well, that are more particular to certain neighborhoods/cities. Not as obvious as in Ireland, which is almost entirely made up of thin places! but still they exist.
There are, but they're rarer, less well known, and vary greatly between the overly built up (and a bit too "official") or the incredibly obscure. If you're Catholic or Orthodox then you're more likely to spot them or hear about them. St. Herman's island, Spruce Island near Kodiak in Alaska is one such, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation, in NW Ohio, is another.
There is the shrine of The North American Martyrs in Auriesville, NY. Granted it is not small but until recently had become neglected and rundown. Also ... while not a shrine per se... St Peter's Church in lower Manhattan has a painting of the Crucifixion which St Elizabeth Seton meditated upon during her conversion years. Then there is the crypt at St Patrick's Cathedral where the remains of Pierre Toussaint are entombed. Northern Manhattan has the Mother Cabrini shrine. The mosaics behind the altar give a visual biography of her. None of these are like the holy wells but if you're ever in NY they are intriguing places to visit. So is Old St Patrick's Church on Mott Street. It is surrounded by a brick wall that remains from the days of nativist attacks upon the Church.
European Renaissance nobility had clothing standards that made the Kardashians or your local pimp look like models of restrained elegance and tasteful understatement by comparison.
The Turin Shroud I, too, find very powerful. And you are right: early Christian art (of necessity of the RC persuasion, since no schisms happened for a long time) are very moving. That said, I am RC in essential belief but not in practice. I think the Church (though not just the Catholic Church) has a lot to answer for when it comes to the abuse, especially of children. I stopped going to Mass over the issue. I like to know where people's hands have been before they use them to offer me what, as a Catholic, I believe is the body of Christ when I receive Communion.
I’ve wondered about “Catholic kitsch” and there’s a certain garishness I’ve also seen at some fancy historical orthodox churches here in the cities where I live (Minnesota, USA). Where does it come from? And why does it work better amongst tree and field and glen (cause I would tend to agree it does)?
The plaster/plastic Jesus religious art has always made spaces feel less holy to me rather than more. To whatever extent it is sincerely offered by those who love it, I think it is somehow redeemed. It is probably that sincerity of offering in these wild places that gives it a certain beauty despite its cringeworthiness.
I just thought of Matthew 6:6: "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place." The people making these offerings clearly have no thought of whether anyone thinks they're cool or not; the eyes of the world are not involved. That probably has something to do with the redemption in sincerity.
And Psalm 51:17: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise." Maybe in the same vein.
Would God like it better if a man made an aesthetically gorgeous offering and then had a big parade thrown for him? Matthew 6:3: "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." I have no argument per se; this paradoxical pattern is just coming to mind.
The widow and the coins, as well (Luke 21:1-4)—it just keeps going.
I'd think that it comes from a basic lack of depth, or a confusion of sentimentality with spirit. It's sort of like the Protestant love songs to Jesus (need I say more?). But when people really are simple and express their hearts the best they can, there is always something moving about that, aesthetic considerations aside.
I love that comparison. I’ll be thinking on that.
I live near the Cities, too, and I know what you're talking about!! I blame Peter the Great, who took a serious aesthetic left turn on behalf of Russian Orthodoxy, from which it is still recovering. Give me the old wooden churches of yesteryear, that's what I say...
It's kind of funny that Russian churches of the 19th century often have that oil-on-canvas, glossy Roman Catholic style iconography... while much newer parishes in the US, etc., often with a large contingent of converts, almost universally follow the much more traditional style of Byzantine and Rublevian iconography.
On the other hand I quite like the Kievan chant of my parish which is certainly much closer to a Western chorale classical style of music than the more exotic Byzantine chant.
Much of that was because Russia spent a great deal of time in the eighteenth and nineteenth century trying to make themselves more culturally European in order to be taken seriously on the world stage. We did a similar thing around the French Revolution. The Russians picked up a lot of artistic, musical, literary, and religious influence from the cultural centers of Central and Western Europe, where they sent their sons to be educated. And, of course, everybody married a Habsburg.
Collectors of folk songs, collectors of old blues and country music 78s, the people who relentlessly combed working class Southern hamlets in search of Grandma's Record Collection, of a Skip James disc only three copies known to exist, had to admit that their informants often had terrible taste.
At least as judged by the standards of the people who collect rare country and blues on 78.
Your commentary on the Catholic aesthetic is hilarious. I am Eastern Catholic presently, but I expect to jump ship to Orthodox in the event that I don't have access to such a parish, because I am also averse to lace and its adjuncts (including but not limited to the creepy priests—they really screwed up with that celibacy requirement).
I think that you would like the Rosary, though. I pray mine every morning. Probably the single best Catholic invention, I would say.
These stories of the wells are nourishing. I've been spending some time on a blog with a lot of traditionalist patrons, and the other day, folk were getting a little worked up about something that the pope did. And I reflected on how I never think of the pope at all, and feel completely indifferent to his existence. I guess that I'm not a very good Catholic. I would rather think about these wells.
I agree, the rosary, yes. The lace, not so much. I find reciting the rosary a calming exercise when modern life stresses me out. Also, the rosary is a physical object which connects me to my ancestors who also recited the rosary. That too, I find reassuring. Death comes to all of us at some point in time. Practices such as reciting the rosary continue into the future.
I love watching people pray the rosary. It's mostly old women you see doing that in the churches round here. But then old women are usually the backbone of all churches, as far as I can see. The Orthodox use a prayer rope, which is a little different, but the effect may be similar.
One of the key differences between Orthodox and Catholic, I would say, is that the Orthodox rarely think about their bishops. Plenty of us don't even know their names, which is probably as it should be. The job of a bishop is to safeguard the tradition. Once the bishop becomes a kingly figure, let alone declaring himself infallible, you have a very different situation, and it is not a healthy one, as we can currently see.
That's very interesting about your experience of the mental distance from bishops in the Orthodox church. Here in America in the OCA (Orthodox Church in America) the Bishop is commemorated more than once during the Liturgy and especially at the end dismissal. Plus he comes once a year and we have a Hierachical Divine Liturgy, which is awesome in its pageantry. So we are very familiar with who our bishops are here.
I don't mean to suggest that Bishops aren't important. As you say, they're commemorated every Sunday, and the visit of a Bishop is a big event. There's a great deal of respect, and even reverence, for Bishops. But I would guess that on an everyday level, most people do not think about them very much, and many people have only a dim idea who their bishop is. There is certainly nothing like the near-worship that the Pope inspires.
When I hear "bishop", my first thought is typically, "Worth about the same as a knight but less than a rook." . . . Sorry, joking.
Yes, it is also true in RC churches in the USA. I think it's probably true in all churches in the USA - a practice which I, as a first generation dual citizen of Italy and the USA - find very peculiar. Both in England and in Italy I have never known the name of my local bishop and, at present, I don't even know who the Head of the RC Church here in England is. Some of these things are very culturally dependent, it seems.
Growing up in the Philippines, i never knew who was the bishop and no one else did either.
I wish we Catholics could afford to be less aware of our bishops, especially the one in Rome, but unfortunately we are subject to their opinions on many issues, including but not limited to the Latin Mass. There has never been an adequate church wide response to the abuse issues, such as a Pope making a penitential procession on his knees for the damage done and the abusers he continues to protect and promote. We are hostages to whether they are orthodox or not in belief and how obliged they feel to suck up to “Catholic” politicians who flout every moral law.
We are very fortunate for now that our local bishop is extremely supportive of traditional, orthodox ( with a small o) Catholicism, but situations like this can change radically under this pope. You would think the ever shrinking boomer church would’ve learned by now that requiring less and less of people doesn’t exactly fill the pews but they seem convinced that the answer is more of the same, more bending to the culture, more meeting people where they are without pointing to where they need to be. Boomer Catholicism is a totally horizontal religion without reference to a God with His own prerogatives, or His Son who said “go and sin no more.”
Even if a Bishop Of Rome, on paper all-powerful, infallible, even. wanted to impose a reform on the Church that the Bishops by and large did not want, he'd find his task impossible, stymied at every turn by lip service, malicious compliance, secret alliances, plausible deniability, missing files (that may or may not reappear at inconvenient moments), lawsuits, withheld donations, schisms, blackmail, poison pen letters, etc..
Certainly Benedict faced everything you describe here, but the current occupant of the chair of Peter has stacked quite a deck for himself. He was put into place by people who share his disdain for tradition and doctrine and is comfortable wielding power through these very systems .
It is a system worthy of the Medici and Borgias, but their preoccupations were less dangerous to the future of the church than those of Francis , the humble autocrat.
Not arguing any of that, one way or the other.
Re. the effeminate Jesus of Catholicism, some of the Russian icons of Christ would definitely compete. And if you want kitsch, you’ll find plenty of felt and jewels on display at my local Orthodox parish.
The difference between Catholic and Orthodox is the difference between kitsch and bling. The Orthodox do bling even better than the Catholics. There may well be some Orthodox kitsch around too, of course, but I think my distinction is defensible ...
Haha, fair play
Some of the Russian icons are distinctly Italianate, and, I would agree with Christian, pretty ghastly.
I'm a Byzantine man myself. But I wonder if those Russian icons were fairly modern. Russia went through a period, I think after Peter the Great worked to Westernise the country, of openly copying Western religious styles. There was later a reaction against this, and today Russian icons look very ... Russian. I am no expert, but perhaps this is the reason for what you're writing about here.
I think that is the explanation.
Well that’s very different to last week’s well isn’t it? Nothing wild about that - looks like someone’s front room!
I guess the good thing about that is it will get more visitors.
What I’m amazed by though is all the ‘stuff’!
More to the point, that it all remains there, intact, not vandalised, stolen, or just generally messed around with.
The young people of Ireland must be better behaved than elsewhere in the world!
Re the young people of Ireland: maybe, even when so-called non-believing, they are unconsciously connected to the traditional ways of their culture and therefore do not vandalise such places? Similar to the Italian tradition of having a small altar or two in almost every village, with representations of either Christ on the Cross or the Virgin Mary. Not only are they not vandalised, they are cared for, with fresh flowers regularly being donated. Religion, and how a people choose to practice it, are part of one's innermost identity, I think.
I love the comparison to “someone’s front room”! So many houses in my childhood looked just like that, with a collection of unrelated religious statures clustered on the tv and every other available surface, not to mention a picture of the pope on the refrigerator. I find it very comforting. It is hard for someone not raised in a Catholic community, even our public school was 90% Catholic, to have the same visceral reaction to these pictures, a combination of nostalgia and actual religious feeling, that they provoke.
My mother’s family, all Syrian Orthodox, often had Catholic religious art around as well. I think it was just much more widely available to them, working class people living in a large industrial city in Pennsylvania, than Orthodox icons.
Just wanted to give you encouragement to keep doing what you do Paul.
This is a wonderful tour. Your anecdotes / opinions wonderfully written. Thank-you for sharing with the world. The machine always exists, but your two cents worth, added to others with faith in Christ and nature as God created it, is a powerful shield in the troubles yet to come.
Cheers.
I wonder what Jesus thinks of the cross being the symbol of Christianity. I mean really? Its a powerful symbol for sure to us but to them a torture device. I remember seeing a simple fish design that was used as a marker for where Christian were meeting. I always liked that.
Early Christians used the fish or the chi-ro symbol, rather than the cross, perhaps because many were still living under Roman rule, and it was regarded as a humilation that God had died on one. Later the symbol was embraced as it was understood that the humiliation was part of the point. I still like both the fish and the chi-ro. They seem to be making a bit of a comeback.
I recognise the chi-ro symbol but had no idea it was called that (every day is a school day at the Abbey! :)
I prefer the fish because it’s doesn’t feel so ‘high church’). Just an ordinary symbol for ordinary people, but that may just be because I don’t know all of the meaning behind the chi-ro.
In Greek the words, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior,"* have the following initial letters: ΙΧΘΥΣ, which as a word means "fish."
*Ιησούς Χριστός, Θεού Υιός, Σωτήρ => ΙΧΘΥΣ => "fish"
The word "ichthyology" is derived from the word ιχθύς.
And of course, it is poetically very satisfying, what with Him multiplying fish, helping the apostles fish, calling the apostles fishers of men, cooking a fish after the Resurrection. Fish is sort of a theme.
Wasn't the fish/chi-ro symbol also used because of the threat of persecution faced by early Christians?
Yes, especially the fish, which was a kind of secret code ...
Art historian Liz Lev says that the early Church did not depict the crucifixion because they still had a memory of crucifixions and it was too traumatic. Many people had actually seen crucifixions. Even for Romans (non- slaves), crucifixion was too horrible to contemplate. The earliest Christian art (carvings on sarcophagi) depicts scenes from Jonah (in the belly of the big fish for 3 days), then appearing again on dry land. Jonah is a representation of Jesus. You can view these at the Vatican Museums.
I'm aware that the cross has esoteric significance in terms of the fusion between the vertical and horizontal dimensions of reality: the kairos of God's time entering into the chronos of ours. But yes, I can surely see the charm of a simple fish.
That BVM behind glass is quite something. Reminded me of both a sort of tropical bird-house as well as a Cornell box (https://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/joseph-cornell-2006).
Also, I suspect the development of a healthy immunity to losing faith over kitsch devotional art is a key Christian survival skill:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/the-obscure-world-of-kitschy-christian-vinyl--659355201666624548/
The history of these wells is fascinating.
The correlation of the trees is resonating with me.
It just seems very busy right there a lot of bells and whistles so to speak.
The offerings are wonderful but the fact that there's a little somewhat of a cafe...
If I was there and I retrieve some water from the spring of the well, I think I would take it into the woodsmore where there would be a bit of solitude and nature.
This is my own opinion .
I do not condone anybody's vision of what holiness is.
It's all being done for the same reason I believe.
Thanks Paul, this was very interesting and I've been looking forward to these each Sunday. I have mixed feelings on the lace point: I'm a fairly traditional RC, and so as a general rule I lament the entire absence of lace from nearly every Catholic parish I've ever been in; not because I find lace especially aesthetically pleasing in itself, or vital for a sense of the sacred, but because it usually instantly signifies a traditional liturgy, which goes hand in hand with preaching that is faithful to the magisterium, etc etc. At the same time, in my opinion there is admittedly something lamentably effeminate about some of the more flowery baroque style vestments favoured in many corners of traditional Catholicism, including long and very lacey albs - but that's just my opinion, and it may be influenced by the occasionally effeminate characters who are often attracted to this liturgy in the RC church, and have been called to the priesthood. This I have occasionally found an obstacle to my faith, until I recall that God presumably doesn't call men to the sacred priesthood - or choose the style of sacred vestments they wear - to fulfill my particular understanding of Christian masculinity, which is all too human and thus, admittedly, flawed. God have mercy on all of us, I suppose.
I won't add to the point made already in your piece (and some other comments) regarding the kitsch items being somehow not entirely out of place, other than to say that I agree it must have something to do with the purity of intention of those who put them there. For myself, the main struggle with 'terrible' pictures of our Lord or Our Lady have more to do with how to reverently dispose of them, rather than have them clutter up my home... paper can be burned, but somehow throwing plastic 'Catholic tat' in the bin with the kitchen refuse seems close to sacrilege - although at the same time I don't think Christ would really mind. I justify this paradox to myself with the thought that I wouldn't lightly toss a photo of my wife or my grandmother in the bin either - not because they would mind at all, but simply because I love them.
Anyway, thanks again. Looking forward to the next installment.
Very good points, Greg. If you look at photos of the preceding generations, you can see infant and small boys wearing "dresses" that are no longer considered appropriate. We have been becoming more puritan for quite some time now over these issues.
I have a hard time figuring out what to throw out these days. If I look, I could find a reason to keep everything, thereby handing the chore of picking and choosing over to the next generation, the way it was handed over to me, by the way...
I have a reproduction of a Raphaël madonna with child that I look at often, as it is beautiful and inspiring. I have had it since I was a child.
And yes, Paul, thank you for showing these wells to us, with or without the kitsch.
Thank you Debra, and yes I suffer from a similar difficulty re: what to throw out! I have a reproduction of the 'Madonna of the Streets' that I have had since I was a boy and I think I will have that until my deathbed. I hope so anyway. By the way, I wonder how much our appreciation or judgement of holy art has to do with other attachments than simply beauty? For example, as a boy I didn't much like my mother's copy of the 'Matka Boza Czestochowa' (Paul and other Orthodox readers here may like it! Very much an Eastern icon in style). But today I have a small version by my bed, that I bought in Krakow: the icon means a great deal more to me because my mum loves it. I wonder if I have grown into it? (Deepening faith and a trip to the shrine at Czestochowa almost certainly helped!)
I kept a clear plastic reproduction of the BVM which had holy water in it, given to me by one of my sisters, for some 15 years. I too felt it'd be sacrilegious to throw it away and that I couldn't throw it away because it would indeed a little like lightly tossing out a photo of my husband, mamma, papa, my children, etc.
Some of the garish kitsch is a refreshing antidote to the severe aesthetic of the Protestant church. You will find this sort of thing on the graves at Wounded Knee as well.. food,boxes of donuts, personal items of all sorts..offerings to the dead from those that are thinking of them.
Lace and decorative clothing on Jesus is to show a form of adoration...but clearly a folk christianity not from a well heeled modern sensibly ... Very much am enjoying all of your writings . Thank you!
Symbolically, the stations of the cross actually depict the soul's journey towards transformation. As a 5 yr. old I used to go into the church regularly and make the stations of the cross, as they say. Except I made them up from some deep holy well inside my own soul. Although only 5, a mystical part of me understood them and used words much deeper than a five yr. old knew to speak about such things as falling on the path and needing help to carry my cross!!!!
In reading these recent pieces about the wells, I keep thinking about something Evelyn Waugh said that I think explains about 98 percent of our current madness: "When the water-holes were dry people sought to drink at the mirage."
Valentin Tomberg writes about the zone of the false Holy Ghost, the land of mirages. A mirage is particularly dangerous because it isn't quite a lie; rather, it is a spectral image of a true thing, within unreal dimensional parameters. Very seductive.
That's great.
The aesthetic of Catholic folk devotion is not to my taste-,I saw the same in Coptic lands.
But what I like is how earthy it somehow is. It arises honestly in hearts of honest folk. Who then honestly use the media they have at hand: kitch. Plastic. Extravagance. Poor paint jobs. Factory statuary. Etc.
Once again I see in this honesty not a failing of the Folk heart but a judgement on the culture creators of consumerism, for giving such awful tools to such blessedly simply pious hands.
There is a tension in orthodox iconography too between the high Byzantine tradition(s) and then the folk iconography of say a village in Romania.
But- except to be honest where the west has crept in- these folk icons do not bear the same kind of tasteless kitch ugly as, well, other folk pieties. (I think fondly of Aturo’s intellectual defence of his native Mexican r Catholic piety in fluorescent kitch).
Folk orthodox iconography is… lower. Simpler. Less precise.
Not a fine suit, but a cozy homespun sweater.
It’s this I think, that redeems that, pictured here.
Thank you Paul for sharing
*Arturo.
Sorry, man.
Thank you again for writing about these. We don't have sacred places in America to make pilgrimages to, sadly. Founded by puritans who limited their Christianity to the mental space is sadly the cause I think.
It's never too late though. Perhaps in fact you are only at the beginning ...
I think we sure are. But I forgot to mention Alaska. The miracle working Our Lady of Sitka is something to experience.
One might rather say "spiritual space." Regardless one's accouterments, Jesus seeks those who worship in "spirit and truth."
Blessings.
You might feel differently if you get a chance to visit the chapel of Chimayo, in New Mexico. Not a holy well, but still a place of offerings, beside a stream. There is a small pit in a side room, where pilgrims scoop up the blessed earth to take away; the walls are hung with crutches and crude ornaments of eyes, legs, hands, either asking for cures or thanking the Holy Child for them.
I didn't know about that place! Thanks for letting me know.
At least, we do have an increasing number of Orthodox monasteries in the U.S., to which we can make pilgrimage. I consider those to be sacred spaces, for all the prayers that rise from them.
True. True.
And I'd argue that places like the tombs of St. John of San Francisco and Blessed Seraphim (Rose) of Platina certainly qualify as sacred spaces.
I don't know, Maria, there are shrines here in America that are absolutely powerful and beautiful. And, other places as well, that are more particular to certain neighborhoods/cities. Not as obvious as in Ireland, which is almost entirely made up of thin places! but still they exist.
There are, but they're rarer, less well known, and vary greatly between the overly built up (and a bit too "official") or the incredibly obscure. If you're Catholic or Orthodox then you're more likely to spot them or hear about them. St. Herman's island, Spruce Island near Kodiak in Alaska is one such, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation, in NW Ohio, is another.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_and_National_Shrine_of_Our_Lady_of_Consolation
https://www.oca.org/history-archives/saint-herman-pilgrimage-alaska-tradition
One can also make pilgrimages to monasteries and convents, both Orthodox and Catholic, or to saints' graves.
I *just* learned of Bp. Dimitri of Dallas.
A native American! (well, colonial; you know what I mean). From the south.
This man, my heart tells me, is the real deal. And a key in the salvation of America and Americans.
-mb
There is the shrine of The North American Martyrs in Auriesville, NY. Granted it is not small but until recently had become neglected and rundown. Also ... while not a shrine per se... St Peter's Church in lower Manhattan has a painting of the Crucifixion which St Elizabeth Seton meditated upon during her conversion years. Then there is the crypt at St Patrick's Cathedral where the remains of Pierre Toussaint are entombed. Northern Manhattan has the Mother Cabrini shrine. The mosaics behind the altar give a visual biography of her. None of these are like the holy wells but if you're ever in NY they are intriguing places to visit. So is Old St Patrick's Church on Mott Street. It is surrounded by a brick wall that remains from the days of nativist attacks upon the Church.