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Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! A reliquary (also referred to as a shrine) is a container for relics. Relics may be physical remains of saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or other religious figures....
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! There are many saints named Bernard, and unfortunately, there is not much information about this particular woodcut by Lucas Cranach the Elder available. There is no information about a saint Bernard who had a vision of...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! In this painting, the Archangel Gabriel proclaims the Virgin’s destiny as the mother of Christ. The setting is an ordinary house, but simple objects have symbolic meaning. The lilies represent the Virgin’s purity; the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The striking impression of this figure is the vivid representation of suffering. The sculpture captures the moment after Christ’s death: the drooping head on a frail neck is a mask of agony. The eyes are...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Andrew the Apostle, also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Saint Peter. He is referred to in the Orthodox tradition as the First-Called. According...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This central panel from an altarpiece shows the Madonna seated on a throne with the infant Christ, surrounded by kneeling angels and six-winged seraphim. Below is an image of the dead Christ flanked by the Virgin...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Within Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and in some traditions of Anglicanism and Lutheranism, the Tabernacle is a box-like or dome-like vessel for the exclusive reservation of the consecrated Eucharist. It is normally made from precious metals, stone...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Bartholomew was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is said to have been martyred for having converted Polymius, King of Armenia, to Christianity. Eastern Christianity honors him on June...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Jean de Beaumetz became the official court painter to the Burgundian duke, Philip the Bold, in 1376. Between 1389 and 1395 he created devotional paintings for the monks’ cells at the Chartreuse de Champmol, the monastery...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Joseph was a 1st-century man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the...
Details Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at the city of Patras (Patræ) in Achaea, in AD 60. Early texts, such as the Acts of Andrew known to Gregory of Tours, describe Andrew as bound, not nailed, to a Latin cross of the kind on which Jesus...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! It is likely this pair of enamel plaques depicting the apostles Simon with Thaddeus and Thomas with Matthew once formed part of the decoration of a portable altar, a reliquary triptych, or some other kind of...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This is a photo from an exposition of Treasures of the Church at Saint Benedict's Parish in Chesapeake, Virginia, USA. Treasures of the Church is a ministry of evangelization of the Catholic Church. Run...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! According to the hagiographies, Barbara, the daughter of a rich pagan named Dioscorus, was carefully guarded by her father who kept her locked up in a tower in order to preserve her from the outside world....
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Bernardino di Betto, called Pinturicchio, is said to have acquired his nickname ("little painter") because of his small stature, and used it to sign some of his paintings. Born in Perugia, the provincial capital...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! George Alencherry is the Major Archbishop (Head) of the Syro-Malabar Church and is also a cardinal of the Catholic Church. The title of Major Archbishop is essentially equivalent to that of a patriarch. He was elected...
Details According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the instruments of the Passion, employed by Jesus' captors both to cause him pain and to mock his claim...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! As a Dominican monk, Fra Angelico was not subject to the strict rules of the Florentine painters’ guild. He was thus free to develop a more personal style. This combined strong realism and solid forms with...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! A blessing cross is a hand cross held by a priest or bishop in Eastern Christianity when he gives a benediction. It is often made of precious metal and may be adorned with enamelwork, and precious...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Saint Barbara (d. c. 306 C.E.) was a Christian saint and martyr who died at Nicomedia in today's Turkey c. 306 C.E. Known in the Eastern Orthodox Church as Great Martyr Barbara,...
Welcome to another newsletter. I hope you had a blessed week! I know it has been a long time since the last newsletter. I was taking a break and trying to enjoy my summer. However, there are plenty of new images for you to check out. Make sure you check...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Bridget of Sweden (c. 1303 – 23 July 1373); born as Birgitta Birgersdotter, was a mystic and saint, and founder of the Bridgettines nuns and monks after the death of her husband of twenty years. Outside Sweden,...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Creating a book of hours was an arduous and costly process. These books were made from vellum, animal skins that were laboriously prepared in a multistep process. The texts were written with a quill pen and...
According to apocryphal Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha, of...
