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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...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Seated on an elaborate throne, the Madonna’s weighty majesty emphasizes her role as the Queen of Heaven as she gazes at her infant son. The child, in turn, stares at the viewer. To Christ’s...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This impressively carved and distinctively conceived Virgin and Child is, on stylistic grounds, probably by the hand of Gil de Siloé or a member of his important workshop. A sculptor of northern origin, Siloé was employed...
Details In the New Testament, the Sanhedrin trial of Jesus refers to the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin (a Jewish judicial body) following his arrest in Jerusalem and prior to the trial before Pontius Pilate. It is an incident reported by all three Synoptic Gospels of the New Testament,...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Fundamental to Christian belief, the Holy Trinity refers to the three divine persons in God—God the Father, here depicted wearing a papal tiara, God the Son, crucified on the cross, and the Holy Spirit, represented...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The chalice and paten—the most important liturgical vessels—are used at the altar by the priest for the consecration of the Eucharistic bread and wine during the celebration of the mass. This chalice survives with...
Details The Samaritan woman at the well is a figure from the Gospel of John, in John 4:4–26. In Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic traditions, she is venerated as a saint with the name Photine (Φωτεινή), meaning "luminous [one]". This episode takes place before the return...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The artist has set Christ's birth in a ruined stable, witnessed by shepherds and angels. The candle Joseph holds symbolizes the supremacy of Christ's divine radiance over earthly light. Beyond the overgrown...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! In this photo, Fraternity of Saint Peter priests at Saint Benedict Parish in Chesapeake, Virginia, USA are blessing a statue of Saint Benedict which is stationed in front of the parish. The Priestly Fraternity of St....
Details According to Syrian Christian tradition, Saint Thomas, while praying fervently, suffered his martyrdom by a blow from the lance of a pagan priest. This happened, according to the Roman Breviary, at Calamine, which is in fact Meliapour, for in the language of the people the word Calurmine means on...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The women's upturned, grasping palms beautifully convey their adoration of Christ, tenderly answered by Christ's gesture. Bartolomeo Rigossi used a brilliant yellow to describe the wispy grass and foliage as well as...
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 or wood, and is lockable and secured to its altar or adjacent wall to...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Anthelm of Chignin was born into a noble family of Savoy, France, in 1107. He chose the ecclesiastical state, became a priest and received important dignities. Later, on his brother’s advice, he asked for the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This initial B, introducing the first psalm, Beatus vir, represents King David who is shown here playing a psaltery, a stringed instrument consisting of a shallow box that is plucked, instead of his more traditional harp....
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a church, and will...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The main sources which directly attest the fact of Christ's Resurrection are the Four Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul. Easter morning is so rich in incident, and so crowded with interested persons,...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! In the central panel the Glorification of the cross by the Saints, the prophets and the angels is shown. On the right, are the 4 the patriarchs including Moses, Abraham and King David. Jonas is sitting...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! In Christian iconography, Christ Pantocrator is a specific depiction of Christ. Pantocrator or Pantokrator, usually translated as "Almighty" or "all-powerful", is derived from one of many names of God in Judaism. The...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The arrest of Jesus was a pivotal event in Christianity recorded in the canonical gospels. Jesus, a preacher whom Christians believe to be the Son of God, was arrested by the Temple guards of the Sanhedrin...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This miniature was taken from a choir book and shows two female figures. Their golden halos mark them as saints and the lily scepters as virgins. It is attributed to the Sienese painter Niccolò di ser...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! A tetrapod is a small, four-legged table ('Tetra", meaning four, and "Pod", for foot) directly in front of the iconostasis (a solid screen of stone, wood, or metal, usually separating the sanctuary...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Saint Lawrence or Laurence (31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome, Italy, under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians...
