If you think that ornate, antique vestments can only be found in the sacristies of Europe you may want to think again. In point of fact, the new world colonies of Spain (and Portugal for that matter) provide a great deal in the way of liturgical art that one typically woul…
Sicilian baroque is perhaps one of the more interesting regional variations on the baroque. In the past we've shown you an example of this, the Church of the Gesù, located in Palermo, the capital of Sicily. Today we are going to show you another example, also located i…
Catholics who find themselves in Salzburg are encouraged to visit the parish church of St. Sebastian . Also known as the Sebastianskirche, this beautiful late Baroque church is connected to the Sebastian Cemetery, a wonderful place for a Sunday visit. The parish is known for…
This particular cope is of sixteenth century Venetian manufacture, presently on display in the Museo della Basilica di Gandino. Both the age of the cope and the Venetian influence are readily enough visible to anyone who has followed our various articles on LAJ in this rega…
The Daprato Statuary Company produced some of the finest marble altars in the United States. Their tag line was "first in quality of materials used, first in quality of execution, first in fidelity to design." Daprato altars were seen everywhere in new churches i…
The crosier -- sometimes written 'crozier' -- or "pastoral staff" is, alongside the mitre, one of the most recognizable and iconic symbols of prelacy in the Church. It is a liturgical ornament that is a sign of authority and jurisdiction and today we wish…
Pope Pius IX, or "Pio Nono," is perhaps one of the most well known of modern popes, having reigned as Roman pontiff from the years 1846 to 1878. It is no doubt the length of his tenure, which at 31.5 years is second only to St. Peter himself and a few years longer…
Many Catholic pilgrims who travel to Paris make a stop at Picpus Chapel to pray and visit the attached Cimetière de Picpus (Picpus Cemetery). This is a place of prayer where hundreds of martyrs are entombed and where a famous statue in the chapel draws the faithful to pray …
The church of Hosios Loukas (St. Luke) is a monastic church located near the small town of Distomo, Greece. The main church (which is referred to as a 'Katholikon') was built in circa A.D. 1011-1012 and is considered one of the very best preserved examples of Middle…
In the Primatial See of Lyon - Prima Sedes Galliarum - is one of France's grandest and most vibrant parishes and one of the flagship parishes of the FSSP. I wish every Catholic could visit here for Sunday High Mass. This community deserves recognition and should be know…
Cathedrals in Europe are often home to precious relics of Christendom that are enshrined and displayed with great solemnity. In the Cathedral of St. Stephen in Prato near Florence is kept a famous relic known as the belt of Our Lady. Each year the relic is shown 5 times per…
Let's imagine a scenario. You're building a parish perhaps, or perhaps renovating one; you want to build an altar, one that is both a linkage to the tradition as well as an expression of noble beauty and simplicity as historically expressed in the Roman tradition. …
The Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis ( Basilicae Sanctae Mariae Minneapolitanae ) has always been my favorite church in North America. Every time I visit this "modern" French Renaissance gem my heart is full. The incredible size and proportions, variety of marb…
Noble beauty and simplicity are oft spoken of concepts, but frequently also misunderstood . Some have taken to interpret and understand these principles in the light of minimalism and/or faux poverty (i.e. the use of more rustic materials and designs) and while such manifest…
One of the most magnificent FSSP apostolates is Saint-Bruno in the port city of Bordeaux. This community in southwestern France boasts one of the most beautiful Baroque altars in the country, an outstanding example of seventeenth century decoration - a triumph of the imagin…
Located near Rome in the town of Palombara Sabina is the abbey of San Giovanni in Argentella -- a city in which the antipope Innocent III was arrested in the year 1180. Construction on the abbey began in the sixth century, however a previous structure, possibly Byzantine i…
Recently the head chaplain of the St. John's Catholic Newman Center located at the University of Illinois reached out to LAJ to share a renovation project they undertook in collaboration with Daprato Rigali Studios of Chicago. The project involved a two million dollar…
A forgotten liturgical art related to bookbinding is the art of the ribbon. Over the years I have noticed a wide variety of ribbons used in altar missals the world over. My favorite are the ribbons of the immediate preconciliar period that came from Belgium. Following ar…
Perhaps one of the most well known cities of South America is that of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The name of the city itself takes its origins from a medieval Sardinian devotion to the "Madonna di Bonaira" -- which could be literally translated as &q…
Our "Before and After" series can range from projects which constitute small but impactful restorations/renovations to those which represent significant and substantial improvements to the fabric of the church. Today's instalment features the latter and comes …
Anyone who has attended liturgical rites of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) in places like England or Rome can appreciate the visuals, the high level of pageantry, and colorful symbolism particular to the Order. What many do not know is that the Order of Malta…
Hearty congratulations to Corpus Christi parish in South River, NJ on the occasion of their new altar reredos that is a true work of art designed by our good friends at Studio io . Many thanks to Michael Raia, the president and founder of Studio io, along with his entire tea…
The Benedictine Abbey of Abu Gosh , formally known as St. Mary of the Resurrection Abbey, is one of the best preserved Crusader remains in the Holy Land. I have a vivid memory of visiting here for the first time on a rainy day on the way to the Tel Aviv airport. It was pouri…
The Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta is an early fifteenth century basilica located within Gandino in the north of Italy. Within its treasury is an impressive cope -- called the Cope of San Ponziano -- which dates to the second half of the fifteenth century, thereby making…
The following is a curious set of hand illuminated altar cards made in the year 1900. What makes them rather curious is that they were made in Lyon for a Visitation Monastery in France and within their art are found the arms of the British and Russian empires. In point of f…
Awhile ago we gave a more general view of the treasury museums of the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Spain, including its significant and impressive collection of sacred vestments and other liturgical textiles. Today I wanted to dive into the details of a c…
One of the most peaceful places you will ever visit is the Monastery of St. Benedict on the Mountain in Norcia, Italy. I wish everyone could visit here. Personally, I was blessed to visit before the devastating earthquake of 2016 -- I had the privilege of serving Low Mass i…
The following cope is presently in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum and originates in late medieval Spain dated to approximately the year 1438. Prior to being in the possession of the Met, it was in the Treasury of the Cathedral of Burgos. To my mind it well repre…
While there are many things in our time that we might understandably lament, one of those things surely isn't the absence of parish beautification projects. Today's project, executed by Conrad Schmitt Studios , comes within the context of the church of St. Mary of th…
The Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Guadalupe in Spain is a treasure trove of liturgical art. Previously we had shared some of their collection of sacred vestments and today we turn our attention to their impressive collection of manuscripts and liturgical books. Some of…
Generally we haven't given a great deal of attention to vestments of the twentieth century, and in great part this is due to a general decline that was seen with the rise of industrialization that led to lower quality materials. What's more, many of the vestments of…
St. Lawrence is one of the most popular saints in the Roman church -- and when I say "Roman church" I mean not only the Roman and Latin rites, I mean specifically also the local church in Rome. This is testified to the fact that St. Lawrence has not only one churc…
The Duomo of Fiesole is situated in Tuscany and anyone who has been to Tuscany will certainly recognize this right from the outset by simply looking at its external architecture, most especially its distinctly Tuscan style tower. The foundation of the cathedral dates to the…
To date we arguably haven't given enough focus to vestments coming from within the French school and when one thinks of the French school what you are invariably referring to are the styles and approaches that were popularized in the nineteenth century in particular. V…
The recently restored Victorian Gothic steeple of St. Joseph Shrine looms above the city of Detroit. The tower, with its decorative oxidized copper cross, and the church with its towering vaults, is a vestige of a bygone era built by craftsmen with lost skills intended to s…
Above the scurry and tumult of a port city with early American roots, there is a majestic downtown space known as the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption . Its herculean procession of Ionic columns gracing its front façade makes it a recognizable city landmark,…
Generally if you ask people about traditional ecclesiastical architecture they think of gothic and baroque, but another major category is the Romanesque. Romanesque architecture is not as lofty as later medieval gothic forms, nor as playful as the baroque / rococo, but it h…
On August 2nd, 2018, the mortal remains of St. Katharine Drexel were moved—“translated” in ecclesiastical terminology—from their former resting place at the Motherhouse of the Shrine of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Bensalem, PA to a new shrine at the Cathedral Ba…
One of our readers, Pieter-Jan van Giersbergen, who is one of the curators at the Our Lord in the Attic Museum has sent in the following article to LAJ at our request. Many readers of LAJ will, of course, be familiar with the English recusants, "priest holes" and …
Romanesque churches are always a favourite topic of mine for in general they tend to combine the strength of paleochristian features with later medieval ones and two such examples exist in Tuscania, both of which are located in sight of one another on the Colle di San Pietr…
The following set of vestments are dated to the Renaissance period, specifically to the years 1500-1520, and are found within Perugia. This particular set, unlike so many that include embroidered panel orphreys, is not an instance of an earlier medieval embroidery that has …
It has been a little while since we've stopped to take a look at some new architectural projects that might be on the horizon and today we wished to turn your attention to the Carmelite Monastery of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Joseph in Pleasant Mount, Pennsylvania…
We have done a more general post on the Basilica of Ss. Cosmas e Damiano in the past, but the details of the splendid apsidal mosaic of the basilica is well worth pausing to stop and take a look at for its own sake. As part of their series on the Station Churches of Rome, …
It has been a little while since we've done a 'before and after' so I thought we would today briefly explore a work pursued by way of Conrad Schmitt Studios at St. Helen's Catholic Church in Vero Beach, Florida. The church was founded in the 1950's, and …
St. Joseph's church in Columbia, South Carolina is very fortunate to have one of the most beautiful hand-carved crucifixes in the nation. Thirty years ago I had the privilege of visiting here for the first time and it was a thrill to return this year to see its holy ro…
There has always been something I've found particularly striking about simple but beautiful apsidal mosaics. Italy has a few such examples (most notably that of the basilica of Torcello, Santa Maria Assunta) and another one that recently came to my attention is that of …
While Venice is a city of gothic, Byzantine and Middle Eastern influences, the counter-reformation and baroque are certainly also to be found in that city, and it is likely no surprise that if we want to see one of the best examples of that, we need only turn to the church …
If you look at antique Christian mosaics enough, you are bound to notice some trends. In many instances the saints are shown wearing white robes, which of course comes with reference to the Book of Revelation which speaks to the saints as being "they [who] shall walk w…
Dated to circa 1640, the Peasecod chasuble of Helen of Wintour was originally part of a larger set that included an antependium. The chasuble is made of white satin and embroidered with pearls. The chasuble also features South American passion flowers - so called because it…