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Vatican City, a city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy, is the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It's home to the Pope and a trove of iconic art and architecture. Its Vatican Museums house ancient Roman sculptures such as the famed “Laocoön and His Sons” as well as Renaissance...
Slender and weathered from preaching in the wilderness where he lived on locusts and wild honey, John the Baptist carries a bowl of water, symbolizing his role as the baptizer of Christ. In this print, Campagnola combined engraved lines with his innovative stipple technique, in which tiny dots softly shade...
Saint Catherine holds the sword with which she was martyred, and Saint Barbara holds both a book and a ring symbolizing her scholarly pursuits and union with God. According to legend, the leather thongs with which she was beaten were transformed into peacock plumes. These two paintings were originally the...
In Eastern and Western Christian liturgical practice, the elevation is a ritual raising of the consecrated elements of bread and wine during the celebration of the Eucharist. The term is applied especially to that by which, in the Roman Rite of Mass, the Host and the Chalice are each shown...
The blast of an angel's trumpet startles the old scholar. Jerome's own writings describe the sound as signaling the Last Judgment. This drawing, by Jusepe de Ribera, made full use of the Baroque repertoire to convey the saint's heightened state, evident in Jerome'...
Salome’s dancing so pleased her stepfather Herod that he offered her anything she wanted. Her mother advised Salome to demand John the Baptist’s head, which Salome presented to her family in an elaborate dish. Here, the head stands on its own, with a startlingly tangible presence. Despite its...
Solemn Mass (Latin: missa solemnis) is the full ceremonial form of the Tridentine Mass, celebrated by a priest with a deacon and a subdeacon, requiring most of the parts of the Mass to be sung, and the use of incense. It is also called High Mass or Solemn High Mass....
The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and Saint Joseph. Veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first bishop of New France, who founded a Confraternity. The Feast of the Holy Family is a liturgical...
Saint Nicolas of Bari, patron saint of children, sailors, and travelers, and the prototype of Father Christmas, was bishop of Myra (Lycia) in Asia Minor during the AD 300s. His remains were said to have been taken to Bari in Italy during the 11th century. The saint is shown vested...
In the Catholic liturgy , the Tridentine Mass is that form of the Eucharistic celebration of the Roman rite promulgated by Pope Pius V in 1570 at the request of the Council of Trent , up to the revision ordered by the Second Vatican Council . It was maintained, with minor modifications, in...
It is nearly impossible to imagine the history of European art without the genius of Annibale Carracci. In the late 16th century, he emerged as one of the leading artists in Italy, breaking away from the mannerist style that had predominated the last fifty years of art making. His novel...
Augustine of Hippo, also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian, philosopher, and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo] Saint Monica was an early African Christian saint and the mother of St. Augustine of Hippo. She is...
In Eastern and Western Christian liturgical practice, the elevation is a ritual raising of the consecrated elements of bread and wine during the celebration of the Eucharist. The term is applied especially to that by which, in the Roman Rite of Mass, the Host and the Chalice are each shown...
The Archangel Michael is the victorious defender and leader of God's armies, who battled against Satan the dragon and the rebellious angels to expel them from heaven (Revelation 12:7–9). From the narrative of this apocalyptic combat, Martin Schongauer isolates the figure of the Archangel Michael in...
A Madonna is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These images are central icons for both the Catholic and Orthodox churches. The word is from Italian ma donna 'my lady'. Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_(art)#:~:text=A%20Madonna%20(Italian%...
This photo was taken at the Third Annual Nellie Grey Mass sponsored by the Paulus Institute at St Mary Mother of God Church in Washington D.C. during the 2015 March for Life. The priests celebrating this mass are The Franciscans of the Immaculate. The order of priests was founded...
Martin Schongauer engraved several variations of the Crucifixion, often inspired by fifteenth-century Netherlandish paintings of the same subject. Here, the thin and emaciated body of Christ hangs at the top of a central cross. On the left, saint John the Evangelist supports the fainting Virgin Mary. On the right, the...
Saint Roch, born of noble French parents in the late 1200s, was the patron saint of the plague-stricken. Before he was twenty years of age, he disposed of his riches and henceforth devoted himself to nursing the sick. Saint Roch is frequently depicted with cockleshell, wallet, and staff in the...
This is a photo of a mass taken at the Third Annual Nellie Grey Mass sponsored by the Paulus Institute at St Mary Mother of God Church in Washington D.C. during the 2015 March for Life. Free Downloads Below Hi-Res [https://sdcason.com/content/images/2021/06/16403321365_8e1fcbc9fc_...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Martin Schonaguer's series of the Passion of Christ was his largest set of engravings, made around 1480, and extensively copied across Europe. It consists of twelve prints detailing the suffering of Christ in the...
A donor portrait or votive portrait is a portrait in a larger painting or other work showing the person who commissioned and paid for the image, or a member of his, or (much more rarely) her, family. Donor portrait usually refers to the portrait or portraits of donors alone, as...
Athanasius Schneider (born Anton Schneider on 7 April 1961) is a Kazakh Roman Catholic bishop, the auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan. He is a member of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross of Coimbra. He is known for championing the pre-Vatican II liturgical traditions and practices of the church...
In the Catholic Mass, the Word is “unsealed” for us through its preaching by the priest, or deacon, who wear a white garment because they are joined to the Lamb in a special way through Ordination. The Faithful then come before an altar superior to the first and sing “holy,...
Saint Jerome (about ad 347–420) translated biblical texts into Latin. Although he sometimes appears as a scholar in his study, Ribera represents him here as a penitent who withdrew to the desert, beating his chest with a stone to emulate Christ’s suffering and contemplating a skull symbolizing human...
