Saturday, August 25, 2007

Gothic in Russia: the splendid lives...


Emanation...such an aura! It's a little different from the traditional Gothic without the usual "FINIAL" look of Notre Dame, but isn't it great!?

Many thanks to the talented and dutiful junior architect, Matthew Alderman, from the Shrine (http://www.holywhapping.blogspot.com/) for his stellar talent, valuable time and thorough wisdom which he benevolently gave pro bono toward this effort in Vladivostok, Russia.

The burgeoning Catholic community in the Far East of Russia will enjoy this sanctuary for many generations. The typical mission parish is all too aware of its own crudities, but here we see it proven that even on the other side of the world we can have a nice, faithful church renovation project carried to completion with a Catholic ethos.

The chief architect, Matthew, through a sustained and methodical study of the exterior of this late Polish neo-Gothic, Latin rite parish church (which survived the Revolution in Russia) and which was constructed in 1908 was then able to so design in an appropriate manner the new interior look. Thus he, the American pastor and the Russians together so ventured and proved it could be done. Please support this cause and be generous today: http://www.vladmission.org/.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautiful is this the church in Vladivostok Russia?

John Paul Sonnen said...

Yes, thanks, it's in V-stok (i'll change the post to let everyone know)!

Anonymous said...

Is the reredos separate or strucurally part of the altar & are those windows or pipes? Where was this made? Do tell.

Anonymous said...

Not to rain on the gothic parade, of which I approve, but , according to the mind and Magisterium of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church, should Russia not be missionized by Russian-Rite or at least bi-ritual clergy?

John Paul Sonnen said...

Well, the nice thing about the Roman rite is that it is a "universal" rite. This is because it is the rite of the Roman Pontiff who alone enjoys supreme and universal jurisdiction. So it's for the world, including Sarmatia (Russia).

In a perfect world, we'd have loads of bi-ritual missioners unbidden in Russia but none have stepped forward. If we could we just have many like Walter Ciszek, S.J....

John Paul Sonnen said...

The reredos is seperate from altar in this design. In the rear what one sees in the illustration are organ pipes. The pipes and tabernacle and madonna statue are from America. The cross is European and the rest, all wood, was made there in Russia by artisans mostly from China.